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Faculty Senate

Motions Passed

Motions passed December 18, 2002

Motion on Homeless Faculty

Motion:

Effective immediately, all regular, tenure-track faculty appointments must be made in an existing academic department or school.  In the case of the College of Education and Human Development where there are no departments, appointments are made in the College.  Further, the standard procedures for formulating a peer committee, as addressed in departmental promotion and tenure criteria and, if appropriate, criteria for joint appointment, need to be followed for all faculty appointments.  The department, or a designated committee must approve the appointment by a majority vote.

The Executive Vice President/Provost will begin discussions immediately with the appropriate deans to secure regular departmental affiliations for all tenure-track faculty currently holding interdisciplinary appointments. The department, or a designated committee must approve the appointment by a majority vote.

Motion on Peer Committees for Joint Appointments

Motion:

For tenure and promotion of faculty with joint appointments, peer committees consisting of peers from the department(s) and/or unit(s) in which the faculty member holds the appointment must be appointed by the home academic department chair in consultation with the other department chair(s) or center director(s).  The Peer Committee selects its chair annually from among the committee membership.  For the purposes of this policy, the College of Education and Human Development, the Cooperative Extension, and all Schools are equivalent to an academic unit/department.  Except as noted below¹, equal number of faculty members from each unit participating in the joint appointment shall be selected to form the joint peer committee, but tenure resides only in academic departments.  The peer committee makes its recommendation to the chair of the home academic department and the chair(s) or director(s) of the other department or center.  The chair of the academic department and/or center forwards her/his recommendation to the appropriate dean(s).  Research center directors forward recommendations to the Dean(s) and Associate Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School who send their recommendations to the Executive Vice President and Provost.  After review and discussion by the Administrative Promotion and Tenure Review Committee, the Executive Vice President and Provost forwards his/her recommendation to the President for action.

¹For joint appointments between the College of Natural Sciences , Forestry, and Agriculture and the University of Maine Cooperative Extension , join peer committee membership will continue to be proportional to the percentage appointment in the two units.

Motion to amend the Constitution of the Faculty Senate regarding the composition of the Committee on Committees.

Preamble:  It is difficult to find ten faculty members to take an active part in the Committee on Committees.  As a result, the Committee on Committees frequently operates without a full complement of members.  The purpose of this motion is to bring the constitution into alignment with current practice.   

 Motion:

To amend Article VII. Section 2 of the Constitution of the Faculty Senate as shown below:

Section 2. The Committee on Committees. Except for the Committee on Committee, in consultation with the appointed Chair, the Senate President will appoint the members of each standing committee. In appointing members, the Senate President will consider the need to balance membership continuity with new members in a given year. Committee membership is for one year, with the possibility of reappointment. The Committee on Committees, elected by the Senate, will consist of ten   one faculty Senate member from each college, one faculty Senate member from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and the Graduate Student Association Representative to the faculty Senate. The faculty members shall reflect the proportional representation to each college on the Senate, with provision that each participating college and CES shall have at least one member. It shall be the responsibility of the President, Vice President/President-elect, and the Secretary to determine the number of positions to be allocated to each college. The Committee on Committees shall, at the request of the University President or designee, recommend faculty members to standing and ad hoc administrative committees or shall provide a list to the President or designee of faculty members who have agreed to serve on a specific committee.

NOTE:  Suggested changes to the text are shown in bold for reference. Existing wording, shown as a redaction, are for reference only. 

Motion on Graduate Students’ Child Care Subsidies

Preface:

The Department of Human Services (DHS) provides money to the University of Maine Children ’s Center for childcare subsidies, which they make available to all undergraduate students, faculty, and employees of the University – everyone, except graduate students.[1]  The DHS rule allows people to get multiple baccalaureate degrees and still remain eligible for the DHS subsidies; however, upon entry into the graduate level, eligibility ceases.  Furthermore, employees of the University of Maine who would otherwise be eligible for these subsidies, but whose spouse or partner are Graduate Students are ineligible.[2]

Mr. Newell Augur from DHS left an explanation of the DHS rule on a graduate student’s voice mail on 21 November 2002 .  The transcribed explanation states: “there are many people who need the subsidy that have not had the privilege of obtaining a GED, much less a Bachelor or Masters Degree.”  Mr. Auger went on to say: “People fortunate enough to obtain a college education should be out in the work force taking advantage of their earning potential.”  It appears Mr. Auger, as representative of the DHS, is unaware of the economic contribution that graduate work, through Research and Development, has to the State of Maine .

The Association of Graduate Students (AGS) is outraged by this unfair rule that singles out and discriminates against one segment of the population.  The AGS has passed a resolution asking that the rule be changed.  Eligibility should be distributed based on financial need rather than some arbitrary definition of “privilege”.

Motion:

The Faculty Senate of the University of Maine , in support of the Association of Graduate Students, requests that President Hoff write a letter to the appropriate State Legislative officials, to request that the Department of Human Services change its rules, to make graduate students and their partners eligible to apply for childcare subsidies.

Motion On Faculty Input Into The Budgeting Process

Preamble

The budget is a primary document of planning and accountability for the University of Maine .   Input into the budgeting process by affected stakeholders allows for more effective budgeting, and better buy-in.  While faculty do not have direct budgetary responsibility, they are directly and significantly impacted by decisions that are reflected in the budget.  In addition, in the spirit of shared governance, faculty have a responsibility to monitor institutional progress toward stated goals.

Motion:

Faculty at the University of Maine will be given the opportunity to review the budget before it becomes final to state concerns, ask questions and make suggestions.  This will be accomplished by the following process
 

•       A copy of the proposed budget will be made available to faculty on the Faculty Conference in FirstClass at least one month prior to the time it is due at the system. 

•   In the week following the week in which the proposed budget became available, at least one meeting will be scheduled so interested faculty will have the opportunity to discuss the budget with the Vice President for Administration.

• The time and place of the meeting will be widely announced at least five days prior to the meeting.  At a minimum an announcement will be posted on the Faculty Conference in FirstClass  and the President of the Faculty Senate will be notified.  It will be the President's responsibility to further notify faculty via e-mail and/or an announcement in Faculty Senate.

•  The budget in its finalized form will also be made available to faculty on the Faculty Conference in FirstClass.

Motion on Workload Evaluation

Preamble:

The Faculty Senate welcomes the Administration’s attention to Workload Evaluation, but has serious concerns about how it has taken form, and also how the metric looks only at teaching hours without any consideration of the total mission of the University and its faculty, in particular, in research and service.  The composition of the formula itself raises many questions of oversights in recognizing teaching loads, and of how it weighs courses with no attention to the specific needs of disciplines in structuring them.  The numbers run on this metric have raised concerns themselves, for they do not match those run by several departments and other academic units.  Linked issues, such as the new permission forms for teaching overload courses have likewise caused distrust of the faculty towards this implementation.

 

Motion:

The Faculty Senate requests that the Administration work with the Faculty to discuss the following issues before taking any further actions on Workload Evaluation.

 1.)  The need for clearly stated, mission based goals driving Workload Evaluation.

 2.)  The need for clarification of how Workload formulations will coordinate within current budgets, changes ensuing from the Incentivized Budget, and the objectives of the Strategic Plan.

 3.)  The need to ensure that Workload formulations will support disciplines in defining and effectively implementing their curricula.

 4.)  The need for Workload formulations to match the criteria of faculty member evaluation by his or her Peer Committee.

 5.)  The need to ensure that teaching Workloads truly complement research and service components.

6.)  The need for open, public records of faculty Workload assignments.

7.)  The need to identify how the University will assess the outcomes of its Workload Evaluations, particularly in relation to the expected outcomes of the University.

8.)  The need to scrutinize University commitments outside of academic programs for the contribution to the University mission, since the academic programs constitute only one-quarter of the University’s budget, yet generate most tuition and significant research, which comprise the principal reason for the state's funding of the University.

9.)  The need for other means of Workload evaluation, such as accreditation recommendations and comparisons to the effectiveness of like academic units at other universities, to assess performance and reallocate resources.

Return to Motions Passed
 

Faculty Senate
The University of Maine
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Phone: (207) 581-1167
E-mail: ellen.woodhead@umit.maine.edu