USF System Faculty Council Minutes

Draft

USF System Faculty Council Minutes

Thursday, November 15, 2012 9:00 am – noon

C 306 USF Sarasota-Manatee

Present: Susan Allen, Christopher Davis, Patricia Hunsader, Steve Lang, Jody McBrien, Scott Perry, Patricia Pettijohn, Christine Probes, Arthur Shapiro, Barbara Spector, Gregory Teague, Phil Levy (by telephone)

Guests: Kathleen Moore, AVP for USF System Strategic Initiatives, John Cochran, Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs for the College of Arts & Sciences, John Daly, Director of Public Administration, Karla Davis-Salazar, Chair and Janet Moore Gen. Ed. USF Tampa, Erin Martin, Chair Gen. Ed. USFSM, , Adrian O’Connor standing in for Kathryn Arthur, chair of the USFSP Gen. Ed.

Recorder: Judy Buffa

System Faculty Council (SFC) President Christopher Davis called the meeting to order at 9:35 am. Dr. Arthur Guilford, Regional Chancellor of USF Sarasota-Manatee (USFSM) welcomed the group and President Davis thanked him for his hospitality.

Steve Lang moved and Susan Allen seconded a motion to approve the Revised Nov 13th Agenda with one new item the Patel College proposal: all were in favor.

A motion was made by Jody McBrien and seconded by Trish Hunsader to approve the minutes of October 19th meeting as submitted: all were in favor.

Introductions were made of guests and members.

President’s Report

The State University System of Florida Board of Governors met in Sarasota at New College on November 7-8, 2012. The separation of Polytechnic and the USF System was finalized. Funds may now be released to support the USF Lakeland campus. The new Florida Polytechnic University was not able to receive funds until they established a bank account which took time to establish. Governor Scott was in attendance and made a presentation emphasizing his policies, including a multiple choice test he administered to the attendees. The changes mandated by the state legislature regarding general education requirements were discussed at the board meeting which will be addressed under new business.

New Business

General Education Update (Drs. Erin Martin, Karla Davis-Salazar, Janet Moore, Adrian O’Connor)

Adrian O’Connor presented USFSP concerns regarding the new state legislature changes (See appendix A). 1a. The legislation reduces Gen. Ed. from 36 to 30 hours and requires15 of the 30 hours to be in specific courses coupled with 6 hours for math and science courses normally required will leave students with only 9 hours of discretionary general education courses. Providing a well-rounded education to students will be impacted because student will have limited opportunities to be exposed to an array of disciplines, subjects, ideas, and analytic methods.

1b. Our system now charges more for courses after a student takes the minimum 120 hours. Students may be penalized for changing majors, delaying their graduation because they are being given limited exposure initially to fields they might want to pursue. It has been noted that the average college student changes his/her major 3 times.

2. The law requires each institution to teach the state-mandated 15 courses and that each institution will accept those courses as transfer credits. This violates the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) requirement 3.4.10 which places primary responsibility for “content, quality, and effectiveness of the curriculum with [each institution’s] faculty.”

3. The long term consequences may be the out-sourcing of Gen. Ed. courses to online courses or to be taught by adjuncts who often have to deal with teaching large numbers of students. The prestige of a university could be diminished by requiring a ‘job’ focused approach to education when faculty and curriculum autonomy are reduced.

It was noted that the Florida College System is more heavily represented on the state level gen. ed. committees then the State University System (SUS), making their agendas a priority.

Other concerns expressed: USFSM and USFSP are not represented on any statewide Gen. Ed. committee, the problem of how the smaller universities should address the problem of teaching the core courses is not being addressed. The state only recognizes the USF system as one institution. There is no USF System representative on the steering committee, only Dr. Bob Sullins as an alternate. Four out of the 5 discipline committees have USF Tampa representatives. It’s important for the SFC to work together so all the institutions in the USF system have their concerns represented at the state level committees as much as possible. The focus does not seem to be on developing courses by looking at what outcomes and competencies are desired rather determining what courses are already being taught and how to fit those into the new requirements. The fear is that once the courses are set high schools will offer these as APC courses allowing students to ‘skip’ their freshman year at the college/university level. The legislature seems to be moving toward a policy of accountability in the form of testing following the K-12 Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) program.

USF SFC Bylaws (Dr. Davis) See Appendix B Revisions to the USF System Faculty Council Bylaws are needed since there is no longer a USF Polytechnic. The Purpose and Membership sections have been revised to adjust the number of members from USF Tampa from 10 to 7. USFSP has 4 and USFSM 3 making the total 14, maintaining the balance of representation between the larger and smaller institutions in the USF System consistent with the founding intentions of the Council. Trish Hundsader will work on further revision to the wording to address future membership increases or decreases between the institutions.

Patel School of Global Sustainability (PSGS) (Dr. Gregory Teague)

Greg Teague provided an overview of the proposals submitted by the PSGS to the Tampa Faculty Senate to become a college. The senate determined that the policy of consulting with the local faculty was followed in developing the proposal for a new college. The process is being reviewed not the actual proposals. The situation is unique and it was not clear who should be consulted and when. The Tampa Faculty Senate was satisfied with the extensive consultation that took place although rushed did address many concerns. The Tampa Faculty Senate passed a motion stating: Whereas the process of development of the proposals has included sufficient consultation for what has been proposed with positive implications for the university therefore the proposals should move forward. It was noted that the SFC was not included at the beginning of the consultation process. The SFC is now requesting the Faculty Senate Presidents of USFSM and USFSP to solicit comments from their faculties to pursue the potential of system wide collaborations with the new college being developed.

Scott Perry moved and Susan Allen seconded the Motion: The SFC is satisfied that the faculty consultation has been adequate and recommends the proposals move forward. The dialog within the SFC will continue to contribute to articulation of opportunities that this initiative presents to the USF system. All approved.

Review of New USF System Policies and Regulations (Chris Davis)

The following new policies and regulations are codifications for the USF System of existing Board of Governors policies and regulations. There are no immediate concerns with these policies or regulations. Members were asked to share with their faculty and send comments/observations on any of these policies or regulations to President Davis. It was noted that each university may develop their own policies and regulations if they feel the need. Some are specific to a campus.

USF Policy 10-062 Academic Program Review and Specialized Accreditation

USF Policy 10-063 Institutes and Centers

USF Regulation 4-0107 Fees, Fines and Penalties

USF Regulation 6-018 Use of USF Riverfront Park maybe

USF Regulation 13-002 Direct Support Organizations and Health Services support Organizations

Update on USF Policy 0-912 USF Health Distance Learning Student Verification Policy: The SFC expressed concern that a system-wide policy for online student verification was needed rather than one specific to an academic unit. USF Health responded “it has undertaken the initiative with input from its faculty and the College of Medicine Faculty Council to promulgate this Policy which, if adopted, should have no direct effect on any policy with USF Tampa or the USF System wish to adopt and which they can use as a model, if desired.”

Creation of a School of Public Affairs (Dr. John Cochran, Dr. John Daly)

Two small programs, Public Administration and Urban Regional Planning are being brought together, the existing staff and faculty along with 2 Polytechnic faculty will be under the new school making the proposal budget neutral. The School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs will be a department within the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS). It’s being called a school because each of the programs are separately accredited. Copies of the proposal went to the faculty in each of the two programs and worked its way through all of the College of Arts and Sciences faculty and now to the SFC. Feedback provided helped to refine the proposal. The Tampa Faculty Senate unanimously approved noting the process of development of the proposals included sufficient consultation with positive implications for the university therefore the proposals should move forward. The SFC will report to Dr. Genshaft that there were no concerns about the proposed creation of a School of Public Affairs.

Distinguished University Professor Program (Patricia Pettijohn)

Dr. Genshaft requested more participation from USF System faculty in the Distinguished University Professor Program. Dr. Pettijohn is the point person for SFC and reported no further changes in the program since the guidelines were revised September 2012.

Issues from the floor

Student evaluation of instruction will be 100% online by Spring 2013. Committees were formed to facilitate the process. If USFSM or USFSP do not want to use this system they could develop another or keep the paper form but would need to pay for it. The current questions will be used but are being reviewed with the possibility of adding questions.

Canvas will be replacing the Blackboard system by Fall 2013. Each institution is responsible for training its faculty and students on the new system. Piloting Canvas now is available for Spring or Summer although there are still some operational problems that need to be worked on.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:55am