College of Arts and Letters

FACULTY COUNCIL Meeting Minutes, January 25, 2022

2021-2022 College of Arts and Letters - Faculty Council Meeting Minutes

January 25, 2022, Webex

Call to Order 4:00 PM

1. Roll Call
   Present: Alam, Alamina, Baltus, Benton, Black, Branson, Caceres, Carpenter, Case, Christman, Compora, Crookston, Dunn, Feldmeier, Ferris, Foss, Hey, Keith, Kistner, McBane, Mezo, Monteleone, Montpetit, Nemeth, Miner, Rouillard, Sakowski, Sapci, Semaan, Smith, Stover, Taylor, Thompson-Casado, Whittaker, Xianlin, Yaklin, Yamazaki (37)
   Absent: Allred, Beatty, Cook, Dudley, Grazzini, Heberle, Stauch (7)
   Vacancies: 1
   Guests: Gilbert, Hammel, Hintz, Gregory, Sullivan (5)
   
   
2. Approval of Agenda & Minutes
   Meeting agenda submitted for approval; Motion to approve with date correction; Second; Vote: Agenda Approved.
   Minutes from December 14, 2021, meeting submitted for approval; Motion to approve; Second; Vote: Minutes Approved.
   
   
3. Executive Committee Report: Jetsa Caceres
   The Executive Committee met on January 21. David Black from Economics will replace Bill Ayres, who has left the University, on the Curriculum Committee as a Social Sciences representative.
   
   
4. Faculty Senate Report: Suzanne Smith
   The Executive Committee met with the three members of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Postel, and Diane Miller regarding Constitution Article 2 (g), which concerns evaluation of senior administrators. The change requested by the Board of Trustees arose from a misunderstanding of the evaluation process. President Bigioni reiterated that regular and consistent input from faculty is important. The evaluation of the University President was removed from the article. The Committee also heard that the state of Ohio wants to approve an auto-adoption textbook policy. Textbooks should be chosen by the time students register; otherwise, a default selection will be put in place. Angela Paprocki will draft a University response and bring it to Senate for feedback. 1/18/2022; Subject to updates
   
   Current COVID CDC guidelines were discussed: a student with a positive test can return to class after 5 days if there is no fever and the student is “improving in symptoms.” A negative test is not required. Provost Thompson prefers the language used by BGSU: that the student must be “heavily recovered” before returning to class. The University has ordered 100,000 surgical masks; Colleges can order their own supply as well.
   
   The HLC has awarded the University accreditation based on its recent campus visit. The next visit is in 2031-2032.
   
   The College has a new Health Humanities minor resulting from NEH funding.
   
   The University has joined the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity. Faculty can sign up for a free membership. Information is on the Provost’s website.
   
   Undergraduate summer research applications are due February 15.
   
   Strategic Planning Town Halls will take place, both virtual and in-person. The Provost encourages faculty to attend and share opinions. Implementation is planned for July 2023.
   
   Dean Merrick of the College of Health and Human Services gave an overview of the emergency, internal reorganization of the College. The reorganization converted the College from four schools to three departments, and department Chairs were selected by the Dean with faculty input and new unit names were chosen with input by the Dean.
   
   A second vote of the Faculty Senate Constitution took place, and eleven articles were unanimously approved. A separate vote on the Bylaws was also unanimous. A third vote on the rules of Senate were also approved. The Elections Committee will hold a ratification vote for faculty and there will be two virtual forums in late spring for all voting faculty. After ratification, the Constitution goes to the Board of Trustees for their summer meeting.
   
   University Libraries announced a new 3-year deal between OhioLink and Cambridge University Press, which expands journals accessible to faculty and students by 400. This agreement includes a waiver of article publishing charges to authors.
   
   
5. Dean's Report: Charlene Gilbert
   The IBB (formerly called RCM) budget process with the College Budget Advisory Committee is underway; first meeting was in December. However, Colleges were asked to redo their budgets and so the Committee is meeting again in early February and hopes to have more information about the expectations for the budget. New projected numbers show stronger revenue numbers for the College, but our share of University expenses are higher than projected. Expenses are based on head count and apply to HR, facilities, etc. A challenge will be the fact that many things in the model will not change for 3-4 years, which will be challenging for our College. 1/18/2022; Subject to updates
   
   Request for funding for Summer I teaching has been sent to the Provost.
   
   The College has a gift of about $740,000 that is about to be closed, which brings the College close to our $1 million goal. This will allow the College to make sure every student enrolled next fall will be able to get a passport if they choose, and a strong Study Abroad experience for about 20 students.
   
   Lab fees will be under College oversight in the new budget model.
   
   A discussion that it is important to resist efforts to suggest that faculty cost too much money, and that the headcount method artificially inflates our expenses. The Dean is hoping for faculty to be counted based on FTE rather than headcount. Much of what we teach contributes to the entire University because of our large number of core courses. Unfortunately, we do not receive a lot of externally funded research, which works against us in the current budget model.
   
   
6. Graduate Council: Dan Hammel
   Graduate students express concern over parking and housing – UT does not have graduate housing currently.
   
   The University reported 177 positive COVID cases last week; while this is our highest, it is low compared to some of our peers (for example, Ohio University reported over 1000 cases).
   
   Graduate enrollments are down but improving compared to earlier in the registration process (graduate students often don’t register as timely as other students).
   
   A graduate student success center is being created and two PhD level students have been hired as Success Coaches for graduate students.
   
   All Colleges had their TA funding cut; the College has a $2 Million Reinvestment Proposal in for review by the Reinvestment subcommittee, which would then need approval by President Postel and the CFO.
   
   The Midwest Graduate Symposium will be fully remote and is scheduled for April 9.
   
   Future webinars by the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity will be recorded.
   
   SLATE, the new admission system for graduate students, is going into effect February 2.
7. Elections Report: Trish Case
   Please forward nominations for Council by February 18; the election will take place after Spring Break. Openings for Council membership in the upcoming election are:
   At large Art (2)
   Art lecturer (1)
   At large Humanities (1)
   At large lecturers (2) 1/18/2022; Subject to updates
   At large social science (1)
   Social science lecturers (2)
   For departments:
   Art (1)
   Disability Studies (1)
   Geography and Planning (1)
   Music (1)
   Political Science (1)
   Psychology (1)
   Theatre & Film (2)
   World Languages & Cultures (2)
   
   
8. Announcements:
   The Department of Art Faculty Exhibit is in the Gallery. The opening is February 4th, 6-8 PM.
   
   
9. Adjournment
   Motion to Adjourn; Second; Motion Approved; Meeting Adjourned

Return to Faculty Council Homepage