Guests: James Smoliga, Lloyd Lyter, Nathaniel Parker

Senate Minutes

March 26, 2010

Lynett Board Room 3:00p.m.-5:00 p.m.

Senators Present: Laurie Cassidy, Kathleen Ruthkosky, Sr. Margaret Gannon, Ed O’Brien, Peter Hoffer, Sam Olfano, Christine Kessen, Shamshad Ahmed, Patricia Arter, Michelle Sitko, Craig Johnson, Ellen Burkhouse, Bill Conlogue, Annette Fisher, Linda Partridge, Carl Persing, Diane Haleem, Matthew Mindrup

Guests: James Smoliga, Lloyd Lyter, Nathaniel Parker,

Minutes by Melissa Matsumura

Topic Discussion Action

Approval of the Minutes Peter Hoffer motioned to accept the minutes. Shamshad Ahmed No action seconded. Unanimously in favor. None opposed.

Q and A with Sr. Anne No Q and A held due to Sr. Anne Munley being in Atlanta and Dr. Cimbolic Munley and Dr. Cimbolic devoted to a previous engagement.

Announcements The Big Brothers Big Sisters bowling fundraiser is 3/27/10 at 1:15 P.M. at Southside Bowl in Scranton.

Currently, the last Senate meeting is scheduled for April 30, 2010. The meeting may be moved to April 16th instead. Instructional Effectiveness The last policy meeting discussed the possibility of eliminating the Craig offered to invite volunteers to Committee Instructional Effectiveness Committee had disappeared. It was attempt to get the committee started. mentioned that this committee had been very helpful to new faculty in He also offered to chair it this Fall. the past and that it used to plan the annual Faculty Development Day. There was a suggestion to include the committee as an “Ad Hoc Committee.” Discussion ensued on the need for a small budget of compensation for speakers, brown bag lunches, etc. One senator mentioned that an excellent place to find a speaker for the FDD would be at the Teaching Professor Conference scheduled for May in Massachusetts.

Grade Inflation Task Force Ed O’Brien stated that there were no current updates, rather a follow-up. Further updates to follow. Currently, there is an awareness of the issues on campus and that the progress of previous recommendations are being evaluated. An inquiry was made to determine whether the senate or anyone else would be interested in assisting with evaluating the success of recommendations made.

Kathy Ruthkosky mentioned that merit is being tied to an average performance and questioned if GPA class averages are rising.

Carl Persing suggested the utilization of a faculty survey to identify the perceptions of grade inflation and what is done when it is recognized. Craig Johnson agreed that a survey would be useful.

Both Kathy and Craig recommended that a survey should be done.

One senator mentioned that numerical scores could be given instead of grades; however, no normative data is provided to compare it with.

Sam Olfano stated that he utilizes spreadsheets which grades projects from certain criteria for 6 different projects. A summary is located at the conclusion to display the technique used for grading. Rank and Tenure Update Bill Conlogue mentioned that the Rank and Tenure Committee met on Monday. Department standards for all but 1 department are in the process of being reviewed. A timeline for a response is undetermined due to the departmental standards documents ranging from 1 to 25 pages.

Craig stated that Dr. Cimbolic wanted him to mention that his intention was for departments to identify what activities define scholarship in their department. The departments have created a wide variety of interpretations of this directive.

One senator mentioned that they heard there were Junior faculty who felt they were not involved in the process. There were individuals that felt they could not speak up against Senior faculty. There are concerns that younger faculty are being held to different standards that others in the department.

Another senator mentioned that an awareness of the talented Junior faculty needs to be present. They should be held to “reasonable” standards and should feel comfortable to speak up.

Bill Conlogue mentioned that there is a fear of some departments creating unreasonable standards.

Kathy Ruthkosky pointed out that faculty on the Rank and Tenure committee are unaware of the typical standards for departments due to their unfamiliarity with the discipline and the variety of journals. Consequently, we do not want to scare off talented Junior faculty. She further mentioned that she is glad to see a checks and balance system.

Ed O'Brien questioned if expectations are being built up from what people were evaluated on since they first came to the university. He suggested that it is possible that people are being asked to do additional things that were not on the table when they first came to the university.

It was stated that the scholarship was ratcheted up after the college was changed to a university; however, nothing was in writing then. The current idea is to put what has been practiced into writing.

The external review would be initiated by sending out requests to people outside Marywood inviting them to evaluate the scholarship of a candidate. The proposal framing the external review process will be discussed next meeting. A list of institutions that cites their external review procedures will be provided.

Negotiations Committee The committee has met twice and there is another meeting scheduled for Tuesday March 30, 2010. A three-tiered system was used last year. The contract stated that if gross tuition and fees were to fall 2% below projections, everyone’s initial across-the-board raise would decrease by 0.5%, and if they increased by 2% the raise would increase by 0.5%. Last year, the initial raise was not altered. The details concerning the current possible system cannot yet be discussed.

Merit Committee The committee has been meeting every other week. Brooke Cannon volunteered to put together an outline for making the appeals process more defined. The FAR is currently the mechanism used for merit. It is assumed that it will be used as the tool next year.

Craig would like to see a different numbering system used for scoring. He stated that they have discussed a 100 point scale with a possible distribution of 30-30-40 across the three main categories. The exact distribution would result from a discussion of the faculty member with the dean prior to the year of evaluation. The dean would make the final decision.

It was mentioned that the new Vice President next fall may have a different idea about Merit and not agree with what has been put into practice in the past 3 years.

Hiring Faculty It was discussed at the meeting held Wednesday, that enrollment is increasing and that the new faculty being hired to meet these demands are primarily instructors. Craig looked at the FTE number of students since 2002 and the FTE number of instructors. Ten new lines for tenure positions were approved over the last 3 years; however, there are searches which have failed and the number of instructors has increased. These positions are covered by instructors until the lines can be filled.

Every department has different needs and workloads can vary depending Craig will check with Ellen Boylan to on the department. This can further have an effect on the quality of determine the percent of sections that education. There was concern regarding the number of part-timers are taught by Part-time instructors. needing to be hired in relation to how it affects quality.

Craig suggested that senators go back to their chairs to identify the percentage of sections taught by part-timers over the past 5 years.

Other Business At the past Athletic Advisory Board meeting, Craig reported that a discussion ensued regarding the ongoing issue with student athletics. As the number and quality of athletic teams increases, there are more issues with scheduling. There are few solutions to this problem at a smaller institution. This could be mitigated with more communication of students with teachers.

Craig asked if Mary Jo Gunning could come as a liaison at the faculty senate meetings. This would help to identify any student concerns. He suggested that maybe she should attend once or twice a semester. One senator asked if she could develop a matrix of scheduling. Another questioned whether the athletic department looked into having practices scheduled in the morning to alleviate any interference with scheduling after 4 P.M.

Laurie Cassidy mentioned that there are difficulties with departments receiving publicity in special events, activities, or achievements. This has an effect on how the community views the university. The university should make it a culture to celebrate achievements. This is an issue that senators would like to see on the next agenda.

Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 5:00 p.m.