Faculty Senate Agenda – September 20, 2016
• Call Meeting to Order – 5:59
o A quorum is present
o Senators in Attendance: Rachna Prakash, Kris Belden-Adams, Patrick Curtis, Brice Noonan, Zia Shariat-Madar, Esteban Urena-Benavides, Randy Wadkins, Chris Mullen, Tossi Ikuta, Feng Wang, Mark Van Boening, Lei Cao, Mary Hayes, Katie McKee, Peter Reed, Mark Walker, Andrew O’Reilly, Paul Loprinzi, Zachary Kagan Guthrie, Vivian Ibrahim, Jarod Roll, Alysia Burton Steele, Stacey Lantagne, Dennis Bunch, Eric Lambert, Michelle Emanuel, Debra Riley-Huff, Christina Torbert, Lifeng Yang, Sandra Spiroff, Tejas Pendya, Amy Hsieh, Sara Wellman, Thomas Peattie, Mary Roseman, Chalet Tan, Meagen Rosenthal, Travis King, James Bos, Breese Quinn, Ben Jones, Marilyn Mendolia, Chrisitan Sellar, Javier Boyas, Marcos Mendoza, Minjoo Oh, Roy Thurston, Rosemarry Oliphant-Ingham, William Sumrall, Rory Ledbetter, Michael Barnett
o Senators Absent: Patrick Alexander, Aileen Ajootian, Debora Wenger, Antonia Eliason, Sumali Conlon
• September 6, 2016 meeting minutes approved without comment by Faculty Senate
• Ron Rychlak, Faculty Athletics Representative: Discuss recent recently received report from SEC Working Group on Compliance, Enforcement and Governance
o Annual report
 His background and experiences: Faculty athletics representative, and chair of two standing committees (Institutional Compliance and Intercollegiate Athletics), involved in SEC – focus on student athlete wellbeing and academics, current focus on academic honesty issues
 NCAA notice of allegations online (https://athleticsworking.wp2.olemiss.edu/response-to-notice-of-allegations/)
 Accommodations by professors for students – students should bring a letter to the professor at the beginning of the semester letting them know which days they will miss, however sometimes the dates change. Students shouldn’t be missing any more than 20% of classes.
 His office will facilitate online or remote class access for students if needed
 Outside of travel student athletes should be held to the same standards as all students
• He will occasionally contact professors if there are grade changes for student athletes. This is to make sure that professors are not feeling pressured to make the changes.
 NCAA
• Guidelines – students must be held to the same standards as all students re: academic dishonesty because they could be perceived as benefiting from being an athlete (always in support of faculty)
• Time limits to make sure that students are not overworked (must get 8hrs off every night and one day per week without practice/game, 1 week after the season, and 2 weeks over the course of the year as vacation)
 Chancellor asked for an independent committee to investigate compliance
• Report not yet final, but overall very positive
• Two things we need to know
o Report suggests that we should integrate a second faculty member into Athletics
 Another faculty member to chair of the Institutional Compliance committee
 Restructure the committee to look at housing, books, registrar etc. to help students
o Make current Athletics’ Director a Vice Chancellor
 There is precedence for this at other universities (e.g. Vanderbilt, Tennessee, LSU have done this)
 The idea being to put the Athletics’ Director in the room with the Chancellor and Provost
• Chancellor has said that Ross Bjork already does this, and it would not be an automatic position for any future athletic directors
 Chancellor supports this move
 Any/all funds associated with this additional title would come from Athletics.
• Academic issues
o Two student athletes removed from a class for disruptions this semester.
o Dealing with some special accommodations
 There already exists a process for students to obtain accommodations through Student Disability Services (http://sds.olemiss.edu), however this process can take some time. This may be especially problematic for students with breaks and sprains. Students should be encouraged to start the approval process, but faculty were encouraged to use their best judgement in allowing accommodations under such circumstances prior to formal approval of request.
o Junior college transfers
 Next year students transferring from junior colleges will be subject to review by the 9A committee. This committee previously looked for eligibility and compliance to NCAA rules for incoming high school students (ex. taking courses out of sequence, or taking three years of math courses in one semester) and will now expand to review JC transfers as well.
 Questions/Comments
• Question – At a time when we are facing budget cuts, changes in enrollment, raises low, will any University money be allocated to the new Vice Chancellor position?
o Answer – No university funds go towards Athletics’ Director salary; this new title is part of the negotiation process to keep him with UM.
• Question – Will this new position entail added responsibilities?
o Answer – He already sits in the room now, he will be more fully integrated into academics going forward, but there is no news right now regarding new charges.
• Question – What would be the benefit of more fully integrating athletics into academics?
o Answer – When we see problems at other campuses, where athletics is getting out of control, it is frequently a situation where academics are trying to help, but in fact hurt the athletic program and impact re-accreditation. Athletics and
academics should work together to more fully understand both sides of the equation.
 When there is a noteworthy achievement within the departments (i.e. winning an award) let Rychlak know and they can be announced during a game (this could be at any of the games – basketball softball etc…)
• Q – What would we [the Senate] be asked to approve re: Athletics’ Director?
o A – If you wanted to make a motion to endorse the move you could. You don’t have to endorse the move. We just wanted you to know what was happening. Chancellor would probably like to say that the appointment was endorsed by the UM community.
• Q – Is this done on a case-by-case basis at other institutions?
o A – Probably, and sometimes people may be hired into the position
• Q – Is it a relatively small number of other schools where this has happened?
o A – Four others currently within the SEC, however there are others.
• Q – Is the Athletics’ Director able to reiterate the flag ban?
o A – There is currently an outright ban on flags or anything that would impede the view of others. Not sure that would be productive at this time.
o R – A couple of years ago he issued a statement that the flag was not in line with the Universities mission, could he do that again?
o A – I will pass this comment along to Ross Bjork.
•
• Chancellor to attend to next meeting
• Provost Morris Stocks (2016 State of the University Address (9th)
o Search committees:
 Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Community Engagement
• Four candidates have visited the campus
• Search committee will meet Thursday to decide if applicants are acceptable
 Associate Provost
• Four candidates visiting campus in the next two weeks
• Presentations to be held in Yerby Auditorium with receptions to follow
 Dean of Law
• Dean Allen (School of Pharmacy) to chair search
 Search for a Vice Chancellor for Research and Sponsored Programs to start after Chancellor for Diversity and Community Engagement
 Dean of Graduate School (or Associate Provost for Graduate Studies)
• We are currently trying to determine how to proceed
• Interim Dean – Christy M. Wyandt
o Mid-year budget reduction coming
 Anticipated to be 5%
• We had to cut permanent money the last time
• State law states that the governor can cut 5% in certain units without cutting any others – but this is only a one-time deal
o Fair Labor Standards act
 Increase in minimum salary for exempt status employees
• New exempt employees must make base of $47,476
• HR is working with the Deans to make this happen
o Decision being made about whether or not these employees should continue to be exempt or transferred to hourly
 Ex. post-docs
• Questions:
o Q – What type of people fall into this category?
 A – post-docs, admissions councilors, support staff
o Q – How will this impact benefits?
 A – All half time employees already receive benefits,
benefits will not be affected by this transition.
o Q – Will this affect adjunct faculty?
 A – All faculty are exempt
o Faculty excellence task force update
 Spousal hires, counter offers
• UM 2020 call for a definition of faculty excellence and initiatives to foster it
 Noel Wilken to chair this committee
o Investiture of Chancellor Vitter to take place Nov 10 @ 3, Ford Center
o Quadrennial reviews being circulated
o Tenure and promotion cycle is about to begin again
o Enrollment trends:
 Enrollment continues to increase since 2009 – only 2.3% this year
• Undergraduate students are primary driver
• Graduate student enrollment continues to be relatively flat
o Generally, these reports only talk about UM, but don’t include UMMC
 21% of students are graduate students
• Continue to be more non-resident admissions at UM
• Most students enrolled in Liberal Arts, followed by Business, Applied Sciences
• Nursing, Accountancy, Journalism all have grown a lot
• Education, Liberal Arts, Health related professions, Pharmacy decreased
• UM is still a small university compared to other SEC schools (total enrollment = 24,250) – the median student enrollment in Fall 2015 was 30,618, we were at 23,212
• School of Education grad student enrollment is highest
• Grad enrollment has largely fallen (Applied Sciences, Law, Non-degree decreased most)
• Professional programs largely increasing (Law and Dentistry falling)
• Online courses: steadily increasing, more than doubled in last three years
• Freshmen class:
o Continues to improve
o Slight dip in number of applications – b/c to be automatically admitted as a non-resident ACT scores and GPAs have increased (22 and 2.75 respective)
 13718 non-residents applied – 3614 asked for supplemental review – didn’t meet the threshold for automatic enrollment
• 12 faculty members and 12 staff members review these applicants – which must write essays and provide references
o 2501 went through the process – 1121 waitlisted – 1113 didn’t fill out supplement – 2234 didn’t get admitted (but we lose out on $120 million in potential income by not admitting these students)
o Admitted more students in this freshman class than ever
 Brightest and biggest class ever admitted
• ACT score went up 0.5 in last year 25.5, 25.2, 24.8
• GPA also increasing overall
o Social climate continues to be tops for why students come – according to freshmen
 Transfers rank academics higher
o 26% of students report a family connection to UM
o Goal 50% of freshman class with a 26 or higher ACT
 Currently 45% of class have met this criterion
• Expanding the score to 25 or above, 54% of the class have met this criterion
• Retention dropped by a percentage point this year
o This means that roughly 40 freshmen won’t graduate
• 4400 degrees granted 2015-2016 (up over 40% since 2005)
• Diversity – record number of minority students – 5544 – this year
o 10% decrease in African American student enrollment
 But increase in number of students reporting a Hispanic background and students of two or more races
o Resident students tend to be more diverse and non-resident students
• Faculty numbers continue to increase (851 – full time faculty)
o 559 tenure track
 Consistent tenure to non-tenure track ratio
o No salary info for this year
 However, there has been an increase over time
• Have increased salary every year except one in the last 10 years
 Central administration supports, to the extent possible, faculty and staff
• That we don’t have more faculty and staff is related to the fact that we have given raises to staff and faculty
o Results in slightly larger class sizes
 18:1 student faculty ratio
• Hope that the ability to increase salaries continues, because we continue to be underpaid in comparison to other schools
• Overall budget
o Total budget $800 million/yr.
 46% tuition – We are a tuition driven institution
 14.6% state appropriations – 3rd on the list
o Most of the budget goes to salary
o Question:
 Q – What makes up the 16% of “other” expenses?
 A – Equipment? Repairs and maintenance, travel? I will ask Larry Sparks to get more information
o 57% of auxiliary revenues come from athletics
o 19.7% student housing
• Construction
o New STEM buildings to be done 2019
o Question:
 Q – Is the STEM building on hold awaiting budget money from state?
 A – No, we have asked for state bond money from 2019, 2020
o The Union building will be done in about 2 years
o New parking garage (+1000 stalls) going in behind new residence halls – probably be dedicated to students to free up parking spots in the central part of campus
o Whirlpool property to become recreation and transportation hub
 Will come with a pedestrian walkway to connect the main campus over highway 6 – looking to the Department of Transportation for assistance with funding
o Questions:
 Q – If our expenditure is mostly on people and the scholarship program how can we afford construction?
• A – Construction is mostly funded by the state and gifts
 Q – Do we have a contingency plan if enrollment changes?
• A – There would be a slowdown of construction. We are a fiscally sound institution; we have very high bond ratings based on cash reserves. Not worried about financial situation. I believe that we can continue to grow if we want, can raise tuition – most of our out of state students don’t even bat an eye. We have a wonderful scholarship program for those who can’t afford tuition in Mississippi.
 Q – Enrollment growth has slowed down this year, is it intentional?
• A – Yes for freshman class (out of state admission standards raised). Had hoped transfer and graduate students would increase more, but they didn’t.
 Q – On the slides with lists of reasons for coming here, there were a few at the bottom that dealt with recruitment, does that mean time and resources in recruiting are not well spent?
• A – About half felt that recruitment material and personal recruitment was useful, but most said it was unimportant. Campus tour ranks very high, if we can get them here, we have a better chance of getting the student to come here.
 Q – What are plans for tuition rate hikes?
• A – Non-resident tuition always goes up faster than resident. Increases of 6% for non-resident, 4% for resident. IHL doesn’t want to approve hikes during election years. IHL commissioner would like us and MS State to increase tuition so that we don’t compete with regional schools.
 Q – How confident are we that non-resident applications went down due to requirements?
• A – We believe that is the case…(Provost Stocks went back to the slides to reinforce this idea)
 Q – If we are seeing a decrease in applications, given that we are so dependent on tuition, should we be concerned?
• A – We could accept those students with lower ACT scores, but that is not the direction that the University would like to go. Those students with high GPAs and low ACTs are generally retained. We could
consider admitting those students in the future.
 Remember that our 5% budget cut comes out of the 14.6% of state appropriations
• Questions:
o Q – Private gifts don’t seem to want to fund education, is that the case?
 A – The small slice of the pie chart labeled “Private gifts” represents earnings off of private gifts (not gifts themselves) and that is a small fraction of the budget, yes
o Q – What is the outlook for faculty replacement hires? Is there a pause? What’s the likelihood that the pause will become a freeze?
 A – There is a hold on faculty hires until we know exactly with the cut is going to be. Within a week or two we will tell units on campus that they need to cut 1.25% of their budgets. In the college of liberal arts that would translate to $500,000, or five open positions that won’t be filled. The Dean will decide how those will be allocated.
• It’s his personal opinion that cuts wont go any deeper than that this year.
o Q – Where is the administration on the updated sabbatical leave policy language?
 A – the sabbatical review committee members developed a panel, but that panel disbanded and needs to be taken up again
• Representation on SACS Quality Enhancement Plan committee
o Identify topic this Fall for improvement
o Then form committees to work over next 2 yrs. to develop plan
o Michelle Emanuel will be faculty senate representative until QEP target is identified
• Old Business
o Update on HR leave policy information – Update of website to make matters of leave more transparent and comprehensible
 HR is in the midst of dealing with the new Fair labor standards guidelines and will take this up again in the spring
o Update on GradeBuddy – The Provost’s office is continuing to work on suggested language for syllabi regarding this online note distribution system
 Some language developed that can be put into syllabi, and should be available for next semester
 Question
• Question/Comment – Senate member surveyed his classes and about 90% of student posts are in violation. Is there something we can do about that?
o A – There is not currently anything set up to deal with that, and it might be based on a case-by-case situation. Will ask the UM attorneys about what can be done.
• New Business
o Encourage senators to think about things we can do to improve the UM work environment.
• Adjournment – 8:02