Planning and Budget Committee – Report to the Faculty Senate

April 26, 2010

Committee Members:

Deborah Soles, President of Faculty Senate, Chair

Frederick Hemans, President-Elect of the Faculty Senate

Larry Spurgeon, Past President of the Faculty Senate

Jo Bennett, Education

Terence Decker, Business

Will Klunder, Humanities

Annette LeZotte, Fine Arts

Ken Miller, Math/Natural Sciences

Peer Moore-Jansen, Social Sciences

Nan Myers, Library

Julie Scherz, Health Professions

Mehmet Yildirim, Engineering

Meeting Schedule for 2009-2010:

The Planning and Budget Committee met approximately twelve times during the fall semester, and approximately twelve times during the spring semester (Friday afternoons from 2:00 - 3:30 or 4:00 pm). 

Committee Activities:

The Planning and Budget Committee is charged with a number of tasks, including:

• Identifying and defining the most appropriate avenues for faculty participation in the planning and budget processes
• Advising the President of the Faculty Senate and the Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs and Research on faculty concerns and priorities to budget policies
• Reviewing all matters pertaining to university planning and budgets, and expenditures, including budget policies and assumptions
• Developing the faculty perspective on strategic issues and the direction of the University, through direct participation with the Provost and other constituencies
• Review the revision/reallocation process that occurs after the legislature determines the actual budget allocations to the University.

This year, the committee continued its role as an advisory group to the Provost with respect to budgeting and planning issues.  It concentrated on the University’s Reshaping and Rebuilding initiative.  Since this initiative has impact on more than just faculty, the committee invited the presidents of the Unclassified Senate and the Classified Senate to attend our meetings, which they did.  Activities during the fall semester centered on the approximately one hundred suggestions submitted in response to the Reshaping document. Some, such as increasing on-line courses, were already under consideration or implementation.  Other suggestions, beyond the purview of Academic Affairs, were forwarded to the appropriate university division.  Additionally, we met with all the Deans of the Colleges, the Library, and the Graduate School.  We received an enormous amount of information about the ways in which college budgets work, the impact of the budget cuts, and the colleges’ responses.  The Deans were extremely open and generous with information.  During the spring, we continued with our examination of suggestions and the concerns that prompted them. We met with a number of other individuals, including Eric Sexton, Director of Athletics, David McDonald in his capacity as Associate Provost for Research, Andrew Schlapp, Executive Director of Government Relations, and Keith Pickus, Associate Provost.  We had frank, open and lengthy discussions about advising, retention, the Office of Research Administration, the Foundations of Excellence report, and general education.

As a result of these meetings, the committee:

·         Endorsed the proposal that an Office for Faculty Development and Student Success be created.

• Endorsed the Adult Learning Program which is now being instituted at the West Campus.  It also recommended that this program be reviewed after a year of operations.
• Asked the Social Science Research Lab to conduct a survey about perceptions of the operations of ORA.  Results of this survey will be available via the Faculty Senate webpage.

In addition, the committee:

• Recommends that faculty-driven discussions be held between the Elliott School of Communications (LAS) and the School of Art and Design (FA) to consider whether some sort of merger might be a good idea.

• Recommends that colleges make efforts to increase meaningful faculty participation in students’ academic planning and to foster retention.
• Recommends that students be required to declare a major (or pre-major) as part of their admissions application process.
• Recommends, as a way of encouraging academic progress, that students after the first few weeks be required to have faculty approval before dropping a course.
• Recommends that the Faculty Senate appoint an ad hoc committee to examine the University’s general education requirements and to make appropriate recommendations to the Senate.