Faculty Council Minutes - Mar. 22, 2022

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

March 22, 2022, Webex

Call to Order 4:00 PM

I. Roll Call

Present: Alam, Alamina, Allred, Baltus, Beatty, Benton, Black, Caceres, Case, Christman, Compora, Cook, Crookston, Dunn, Foss, Grazzini, Hey, Keith, Kistner, McBane, Mezo, Monteleone, Montpetit, Nemeth, Miner, Rouillard, Sakowski, Sapci, Semaan, Smith, Stover, Thompson-Casado, Xianlin, Yaklin, Yamazaki (35)
Absent: Branson, Carpenter, Dudley, Feldmeier, Ferris, Stauch, Taylor, Whittaker (8)
Vacancies: 2
Guests: Hammel, Hintz, Gregory, Padilla (4)

II. Approval of Agenda & Minutes

Meeting agenda submitted for approval; Motion to approve with date correction; Second; Vote: Agenda Approved.
Minutes from February 22, 2022, meeting submitted for approval; Motion to approve; Second; Vote: Minutes Approved.

III. Executive Committee Report: Jetsa Caceres

The Executive Committee met Friday, February 18, and discussed elections and the upcoming Council, which will be discussed during Announcements.

IV. Faculty Senate Report: Suzanne Smith

The Faculty Senate Executive Committee met with President Postel on March 15 and inquired (again) on the lack of access to historical data for comparison to the IBB model. Matt Schroeder (CFO) has been invited to speak at the March 29 Faculty Senate meeting. President Postel stated that there is an $18 million budget shortfall, which includes $12 million losses in tuition and fees.
Informational sessions on the new Faculty Senate Constitution are being held.
Provost Bjorkman thanked faculty for their participation in Starfish reporting and said that 10,600 students were impacted by those reports. She also stated that the financial cuts to Colleges are data-driven according to student credit hours, and that the cuts include support services as well cuts in the Provost’s office.
The Faculty Affairs Committee is reviewing several policies, including the textbook auto-adoption policy. Faculty Senate has been asked to review this policy and provide a recommendation to the Board of Trustees for their June meeting. Faculty Affairs said they would be making two recommendations: 1, that the Provost’s Office should review the multiple semester registration initiative, and 2, that tentative texts could be listed and instructors would be allowed to finalize texts 45 days before class starts. UT needs to be cautious, as some aspects of the textbook policy are state and federal law.

V. Graduate Council: Dan Hammel

President Postel visited Graduate Council and repeated much of what was said at Faculty Senate. There is a budget gap of about $12 million with an additional $6 million due to raises and inflation; this $18 million is about 2% of the overall $1 billion budget. These cuts will come from multiple places, such as central items like building maintenance and renegotiation of insurance policies, and the other half will come from the academic side. Postel is more concerned with getting long-term enrollment and creating a reserve of finances so that cuts don’t have to be made every year.
Postel suggested that marketing has been uncoordinated and not well planned, and that future marketing should be more targeted. His goal is to construct infrastructure (staff, software, and systems) that will yield enrollment.
Postel is deeply disappointed and irritated with the parking situation and parking company.
The University is planning to create an in-house option for graduate insurance.
The discussion then focused on external research funding. While our external funding is not as robust as Natural Sciences & Math, Medicine, or Engineering, on an average year we have about the same as Pharmacy and Education and way more than Business and Nursing.

VI. Curriculum Report: Linda Rouillard

Course modifications: COMM 2500 – Social Media I: Introduction to Social Media; COMM 3500 – Social Media II: Social Media Communication Strategies; COMM 3720 – Introduction to Public Relations; COMM 3750 – Cultural Diversity in Communication; COMM 3800 – Social Media III: Social Media Campaigns; ECON 3270 – Natural Resource Economics. Vote: All approved.
Program modifications: BA in Communication Studies: Digital Communication Concentration; BA in Communication Studies: Interpersonal Concentration; BA in Communication Studies: Organizational and Strategic Communication Concentration; History PhD. Vote: All approved.

VII. Elections Report: Sheri Benton and Kelly McBane

Council elections will be held the first week of April. There are two open seats on Grad Council and eligible faculty members will be contacted for nominations.

VIII. Dean's Report: Mel Gregory

Leadership updates: Mel Gregory is Interim Dean; Kristen Keith has been offered Associate Dean and will begin when start date is finalized; Associate Dean Dan Hammel plans to transition back to faculty on July 1, and a new Interim Associate Dean will begin around July 1.
Admits are up not only at UToledo but also nationwide; engagement with prospective students will be important so that we can be their school of choice. Departments and programs with outreach and “swag” ideas welcome to let the Dean’s office know so that efforts are not duplicated.
We are in the process of rehiring the Arts & Letters Marketing, Communications, and Recruitment Specialist.
Student Services will be emailing undergraduate CAL students who have two or more midterm grades of C- or below with an encouraging message and an invitation to connect with Student Services for support. First-year students with two or more midterm grades of C- or below will receive a phone call.
On March 7, each College received a memo from the Provost’s Office with requested cuts to the IBB model. The College of Arts & Letters requested cut was $1.2 million. In addition, COGS funding was moved into College budgets, though we will get money from COGS and it will be part of our budget moving forward. Expect some reduced summer funding.

IX. Announcements

The first Council meeting of the 2022-2023 Council will be May 3 and nominations for Executive Council will be needed in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities divisions, and for vice-chair and secretary. Anyone who is interested in being appointed to a Standing Council Committee (Elections, Curriculum, and Constitution) please contact Jetsa.
The final live production of the Department of Theatre and Film’s season The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is April 7- April 24.
The Department of World Languages and Cultures will be hosting the 27th Annual Conference of the International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies online June 27 – July 1.

X. Adjournment

Motion to Adjourn; Second; Motion Approved; Meeting Adjourned