Faculty Senate Minutes of March 4, 2014
The meeting was called to order by the Chair Delano Gray with the following Senators and visitors present:
College of Architecture & The Arts
Jaime Canaves
Steven Schoen
Kathleen Wilson
Absent
Patrick Schmidt
College of Arts & Sciences
Dawn Addy-Alternate
Gerardo Aladro
Astrid Arraras
Alan Gummerson
Krish Jayachandran
Fenfei Leng
John Makemson
Assefa Melesse
Oren Maxwell
Rene Price
Jean Rahier
Joerg Reinhold
Misak Sargsian
Laurie Shrage
Renee Silverman
Ronn Silverstein
Louis Tebou
Enrique Villamor
Hassan Zahedi
Ping Zhu
Absent
Laurel Collins
Piero Gardinali
Marifeli Perez-Stable
Victor Uribe
College of Business Administration
Krishnan Dandapani
Delano Gray
Cliff Perry
Absent
Shahid Hamid
Clark Wheatley
College of Education
Leonard Bliss
Martha Pelaez
Charles Bleiker
College of Engineering
Malek Adjouadi
Albert Gan
Osama Mohammed
Ibrahim Tansel
Absent
Arindam Chowdhury
Anthony McGoron
Gang Quang
School of Hospitality
Pablo Simon
David Talty
School of Journalism
Maria Elena Villar
Absent
Juliet Pinto
College of Law
Jan Oseitutu
David Walter
Library
Valerie Boulous
Lauren Christos
Absent
Patricia Pereira-Pujol
College of Medicine
Dietrich Lorke
Absent
Sheldon Cherry
Juan Lozano
Alan Wells
College of Nursing & Health Sciences
Lucie Dlugasch
Jennifer Doherty-Restrepo
Florence Keane
College of Public Health & Social Work
Fatma (Rose) Huffman
Ray Thomlison
Absent
Marianna Baum
Guest:
Mohamad Alkady
Karen Baer
Joann Brown
Rhandi Elliott
Stephen Fain
Katy Pitzpatrick
Puerto Goodell
Robert Grillo
June Hawkins
Ken Johnson
Rich Klein
Dave Park
Brian Peterson
Raul Reis
Douglas Robertson
Geoffrey Smith
Carlos Suris
Paul Warren
Mark Weiss
Charles Young
FACULTY SENATE AGENDA
TUESDAY MARCH 4TH, 2014 – 1:00 PM
WERTHEIM CONSERVATORY 130 – MODESTO MAIDIQUE CAMPUS
ACADEMIC CENTER 1 319 – BISCAYNE BAY CAMPUS
I.
II.
III.
IV.
Approval of the Agenda (as amended). Moved and approved.
Approval of the Minutes of the February 18th, 2014 meeting. Moved and approved.
Chairperson’s Report.
FIU Day with State Representatives in Tallahassee.
Each year during the legislative session, a delegation of FIU students, alumni, faculty and administrators,
including the President and Board of Trustees, descend upon Tallahassee in an effort to promote FIU’s
legislative agenda and secure state funding. The decade old tradition was started to give students and the
University community a way to engage with lawmakers and voice their concerns about the issues that
affect FIU.
The 11th Annual FIU Day will be held on Wednesday, March 12, 2013 in Tallahassee.
BOT
The Board of Trustees Personnel Committee at its meeting February 28, 2014 approved additional
performance metrics for the President as part of his Incentive goals. This is in addition to the performance
goals set by the Board of Governors.
The Board of Trustees Athletics Committee received at its meeting February 28, 2014 updates on athletics
Compliance and a presentation by Dr. Douglas Robertson on the Student Athlete Academic Center. We
were also introduced to Mr. Hank Harrawood, the new Compliance Officer.
Governor’s Budget Recommendations.
The Governors E&G Budget for the year 2014-2015 does not include any tuition increases for the year
2014-2015. It includes $80m for performance funding of which $40m will be new funds and $700 th for
funding of the FIU and UCF Medical schools.
The Legislature.
The joint plan for the Senate and the House includes no tuition increases and a reduction of the tuition
differential. The Senate Education Committee has introduced SB 7036 which would delete from the law the
automatic rate of increase for inflation.
BOG
The Board of Governors has approved a 15.7m grant as proposed by the Access and Attainment
Committee. FIU along with UCF and USF (the Urban Coalition) will receive 3.8m as grants accounting
research and 5.1m for IT. These numbers may be revised.
FIU
There will be a Town Hall meeting on March 7, 2014 from 10:30 AM to 12:00 Noon in the Graham Center
Ballroom to have a discussion on the iReal initiative. Please plan to attend.
There was a ground breaking ceremony in Miramar on February 25, 2014 for the new joint location of FIU
and Broward College. This project is expected to open for classes in the Fall of this year.
Thanks for your kind cooperation.
V.
Action Items:
A. Curriculum Bulletin 4 Motions
i. Curriculum Committee Motions – Shahid Hamid, Chair
Motion: The Faculty Senate approves the New Graduate Degree: Master of Science in
Cyber security, in the School of Computing and Information Sciences, in the College of
Engineering and Computing. Modification: In collaboration with the Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering and Computing. (Joint
proposal of 2 units). Moved and approved.
Motion: The Faculty Senate approves the New Graduate Degree: Online Master of Science
in Computer Engineering, in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
College of Engineering and Computing. Moved and approved.
Motion: The Faculty Senate approves the New Graduate Degree: Online Master of Science
in Engineering Management, in the College of Engineering and Computing. Moved and
approved.
Motion: The Faculty Senate approves the New Graduate Track in Master of Science in Mass
Communication: Online Global Strategic Communication, in the Department of Advertising
and Public Relations, College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Moved and
approved.
Motion: The Faculty Senate approves the Unit-Specific Graduate Admission Standards for
Master of Public Administration, in the Department of Public Administration, College of Arts
and Sciences. Moved and approved.
Motion: The Faculty Senate approves the Unit-Specific Graduate Admission Standards for
Executive Master of Public Administration, in the Department of Public Administration,
College of Arts and Sciences. Moved and approved.
Motion: The Faculty Senate approves Curriculum Bulletin 4. Moved and approved.
VI.
Reports:
A.
Provost’s Report—Provost Wartzok.
Gap funding: The BOG just announced the results of the competition for $15 million to close the
gap between the number of degrees the SUS produces and the number of graduates in those
disciplines needed in Florida. Recall that they identified three areas in which such gaps exist:
accounting, information technology, and middle school teachers (gap is not created by SUS
production but rather by school districts inability to retain). The BOG approved four consortium
proposals for a total request of $15.7 million. FIU was a partner on two of the winning consortia.
The FIU, USF, UCF consortium received $3.8 million for accounting and $5.1 million for information
technology. These awards will be trimmed a bit in order to get the total for the four awarded down
to $15 million. The state funding will cover program expansion expenses for the first two years with
the expectation that improvements on performing metrics will add support for years three through
five.
In relation to performance funding, the BOT has approved seven additional indicators to add to the
existing ten. Our Board, in contrast to the BOG, believes it oversees a research university. Nine of
the ten performance indicators selected by the BOG are perfectly appropriate for the college
system in Florida. The Deans and Vice Presidents confirmed at the recent off-site meeting on Feb.
19th that FIU was committed to reach the top Carnegie research classification (Very High Research
Activity University) by 2020. The BOT also wanted some performance indicators aligned to our
unique mission. Hence our internal additional performance indicators include: 1) the number of
research doctorates generated; 2) the amount of external R&D; 3) relationships to
entrepreneurship, e.g., the number of spinout companies in which the university has a major hand
(We are still in the process of working out the metrics. The BOG indicator limits their measure to
startups using intellectual property generated by the university; 4) the growth of endowment
funding; 5) engagement initiatives such as increasing internships; 6) the percentage of firstgeneration students in graduating classes; and 7) success with major university initiatives like
another access route to the BBC campus.
Faculty Assessment of Administrators: The Faculty Assessment of Administrators will go live on
Friday. The following possible responses were added to the survey: the respondent doesn't know
enough about administrator; the respondent doesn't wish to comment on the administrator; or the
respondent doesn't have confidence that the survey/system will protect the anonymity of the
participants . The survey was also changed to allow for comments about how the administrator
could be doing a better job.
iREAL Open House: The Open House will take place on Friday from 10:30 a.m. to noon. The White
paper from the iREAL commission has been uploaded and made public.
Off-site discussion of budget: We think we have identified sufficient carry forward and excess
benefit pool funds so that we do not need to make the anticipated 2% cut in 2014-2015. However
this simply provides time for us to address a basic structural budget deficit. Of our overall $1.2
billion budget, E&G to run the university amounts to $400 million. With low inflation of only 2% this
means we need an additional $8 million each year to simply to continue to do what we are
currently doing. The higher education price index is typically greater than overall inflation so in
reality we need $12-$15 million additional each year to continue doing what we are doing now. FIU
will receive a bit more than $7 million if the Legislature funds the BOG’s performance funding
request of $50 million. It will be only 80% of this amount if the Legislature funds the Governor’s $40
million request. The Governor’s State-of-the-State address proposed $0.5 billion in tax cuts, the
removal of differential tuition and no tuition increases. If we do math, even considering the
possibility of $40-$50 million per year in performance funding, with minimal inflation we are
looking by 2020 at an annual gap approaching $30 million. We have 1 year to rethink our basic
structure. The question becomes: How can we do business differently given where we are—in
Florida where the per FTE funding (combination of state funding and tuition) has decreased by over
25% in the last 5 years. This is the greatest decrease in the nation.
Even with the reduced funding, the state still provides about $2,200 per headcount student. If we
add additional students, we obtain the additional revenue from their tuition, but we receive no
additional state funding. Hence we come out ahead with additional students only to the extent we
can figure out ways to educate them with little or no additional expense. There are a variety of
ways this might be approached through revised pedagogy, through larger classes with “coaches”
interacting with the students, or through simply increasing class sizes with no additional faculty. If
we took our student:faculty ratio up to that of UCF, we could probably accommodate an additional
7,000 students. The advantage of having a year to figure out a path forward means that we can
have broad-based discussions on these and other options.
At the off-site meeting, participants were asked to predict one way in which the university would be
significantly different in 2020 (they were asked not to simply extend trend-lines; e.g., more online
offerings). The only really different suggestion was made by one of the participants (Deans/VPs),
who said that all academic programs would disappear from BBC and be replaced by public-private
focusing on business and residential development. The proceeds from these initiatives would be
used to support enhanced programming including engineering at MMC, expanded through the
acquisition of the youth fair property.
B.
Gen-Ed Report Follow-up – Dr. Joann Brown.
Dr. Brown spoke at the Faculty Senate meeting two weeks ago to discuss the new General
Education requirements that the UCC-OC is putting forward. That same day, Senate members
received the relevant documents that same day, which they have had 2 weeks to read, so as to
formulate questions. Dr. Brown takes questions dealing with the following topics: 1) There was a
request for confirmation of the fact the rest of the core’s conforming to the 5-category system (the
same 5 categories as Tier 1) was a choice. The answer was yes. 2) Confirmation was sought that the
final document will be sent to Senate members before April 8. The answer was yes. 3) Dr. Brown
confirmed that the multiple documents provided to Senate Members were sent as a single
document. The answer was yes. The Dr. Brown Solicited questions on the Gordon Rule: 1) If a
course is currently Gordon Rule, will it stay that way? The answer was yes. She added that no
Faculty Senate committee is charged to look at the Gordon rule. She will send a motion to the
Senate (for the March. 25 meeting) proposing that the UCC-OC take on the responsibility to oversee
Gordon Rule issues. There would be Gordon Rule-designated courses just as there are Global
Learning-designated courses. Petitions could be made to make courses Gordon Rule; any
department could make a petition to have a course designated as such (2nd Gordon Rule).
C.
IT Security Report - Robert Grillo, Vice-President of IT and Chief Information Officer. Just as local
industries such as retail, government, financial services, have been impacted by IT security issues,
such issues are an ongoing challenge for FIU. In 2012 we launched our security road maps, including
a comprehensive list of security initiatives, and plans for security training. For example, we have
worked on encrypting and managing all desktops. If the hard drive is encrypted then if it is lost, it
will be hard to decipher. Work is also being done on host intrusion protection. Where is all the data
in transit? We are piloting another technology which could flag user-sensitive data; the flagging
system would prompt users on how sensitive data can be protected. Dr. Grillo asks for faculty
support and for faculty to take FIU’s IT security awareness training program (launched in 2012). He
further discusses internet security in relation to social engineering (i.e., how to mange phishing).
For example, over the last 6 months, 207 million e-mails were received by FIU, but only 10% got
through. Dr. Grillo introduces Charles Young, FIU’s new Security Officer, who comes to us from
Tufts.
D. Ignite Campaign Report – Stephen Fain, Chair.
This year’s Ignite Campaign was launched on Feb 15. This third year of the program has been much
more successful than anticipated. In 2012, $2.2 million was raised and 31% of full-time faculty and
staff participated. In 2013, $1.2. million was raised and 27% of full-time faculty and staff
participated. This is a donor-directed campaign. The goal of the campaign is to increase a sense of
community and communicate that philanthropy is an appropriate part of this university spirit.
E.
UFF Report—Teresa Lucas, UFF-FIU President.
There are 3 upcoming events: 1) The UFF, in cooperation with the university administration will
hold the annual T&P workshop this Thurs. from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in GL 220; 2) On April 4, a similar
workshop for instructor and lecturer promotion will take place; 3) there will be a forum on online
teaching March 20, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Labor Center 301.
F.
SGA Report— Lianne Sippin, SGA-MMC President.
VII.
Unfinished Business. No.
VIII.
New Business. No.
Announcements
The next Faculty Senate meeting is on Tuesday March 25th, 2014 at 1:00 PM in WC 130 in MMC. Go to
facultysenate.fiu.edu for regularly updated information on the Faculty Senate.