The University of Oklahoma (Norman campus)
Regular session – November 8, 2010 – 3:30 p.m. – Jacobson Faculty Hall 102
office: Jacobson Faculty Hall 206
phone: 325-6789
e-mail: facsen@ou.edu web site:
http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/
The Faculty Senate was called
to order by Professor LeRoy Blank, Chair.
PRESENT: Adams,
Asojo, Ayres, Baer, Bergey, Blank, Bradshaw, Chang, Chiodo, Deacon, Dial,
Gramoll, Hahn, Jean-Marie, Kimball, Kosmopoulou, Lauer-Flores, Leseney,
Marsh-Matthews, McPherson, Morvant, Moses, Moxley, Muraleetharan, Natale,
O’Neill, Palmer, Remling, Sadler, Sandel, Stock, Strauss, Tabb, Vehik, Verma,
Weaver, Williams, Wyckoff, Xiao, Yi
Provost's office representative: Mergler
ISA representatives: Cook, Hough
ABSENT: Atiquzzaman,
Chapple, Cox-Fuenzalida, Devegowda, Gibson, Minter, Morrissey, Park, Ransom,
Taylor
________________________________________________________________________________
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Announcements:
Academic Integrity Policy
Blood drive
Art museum exhibit
Faculty death
State of the University address by President Boren
Senate Chair’s Report:
Benefits: retirement fund record keeper, benefits
enrollment
Activities of Budget Council,
Faculty Welfare Comm., Faculty Compensation Comm.
(OTRS credit/sabbatical), Information Technology
Council (security scans)
Withdrawal policies
Student Congress proposal to revitalize test files
Academic integrity oversight committee
Research awards
Start-up funds
Retirement fund record keeper
________________________________________________________________________________
The Faculty Senate Journal
for the regular session of October 11, 2010 was approved.
Responding to the Faculty
Senate’s action on the academic integrity policy (see 10/10 Senate Journal),
President Boren wrote, “I welcome and encourage discussion on this important
issue.” The President is waiting for
action from the Graduate Student Senate.
The Oklahoma Blood Institute
has partnered with OU and OU Sooner Sports Properties to hold a Bedlam Blood
Drive November 15-19 at the Armory. The
faculty is invited to give blood 11 am–6 pm Monday-Thursday and 10 am–5 pm on
Friday. There will be food, fun and
prizes. Help OU win the Bedlam Blood
Battle trophy by donating blood and encouraging your students and staff to give
blood. You can schedule an appointment
by clicking https://obi.membersforlife.org/obi/mobilesch/sc.php?act=search&sponsor_code=sooners1. All donors
will receive a “Feel like a Champion” t-shirt, food, and a mini-physical, and
will be entered in a drawing to win autographed footballs and a pair of tickets
to the OU-OSU Bedlam football game in Stillwater.
A student-curated exhibition
at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, Stare
Stare Stereo, opens on Friday, November 5,
with a free, public reception at 7 pm, preceded by a lecture
at 6 pm. See http://www.ou.edu/content/fjjma/home/main/exhibitions/upcoming_exhibitions/Stare_Stare_Stereo.html for more information.
The Faculty Senate is sad to
report the death on October 30 of retired faculty member David B. Kitts
(History of Science and Geology & Geophysics).
President Boren started by saying
in many ways this is the best of times and in many ways this is the most
challenging of times. He handed out a
press release announcing that Wick Cary, an OU graduate in geology, recently
passed away and left an $11 million gift to OU.
It will go to athletics, primarily for scholarships, geology, laboratory
upgrades in the Energy Center, and positions in International & Area
Studies. Additional gifts are coming
in. Some will be used to provide
scholarships.
Referring to charts he
distributed at the meeting (available from the Faculty Senate office), President Boren said they showed where we have been and
where we are going. During the last 12
months, we have had a 20 percent increase in the number of students studying
abroad. Approximately 900 students study
abroad each year. Our goal is to have 50
percent of our students studying abroad at some point during their college
careers. About 20 percent of our
students now study abroad (we were at five percent a decade ago). Students learn from the experience and come
back stimulated in all areas of learning.
We are continuing to make
progress across the board at the university in spite of tough budgetary
years. The credit must go to the faculty
for causing this to happen. In 1994 our
graduation rate was 42 percent. Now we
are at 64.4 percent. Our goal is to be
above 70 percent. The average ACT of
freshmen in fall of 1987 was 22; now we are at 26. Students in the Honors College are involving
themselves with non-credit book clubs, which is another sign of the
intellectual vitality on campus. The
demand for honors classes has gone up 40 percent over the past five years. The students want intellectual challenges. The university had not changed its
reimbursement to departments for offering honors classes for quite some time,
so the reimbursement was increased from $1500 to $5000 per course this
year. We will have 10-14 more honors
sections offered in the spring and even more in the fall. President Boren wants to make it possible for
units to be able to offer more honors sections and for faculty members to have
a chance to teach an honors section and interact with
students who are highly motivated to learn.
We have gone from 116 endowed
chairs and professors in 1995 to 561, including 63 President’s Professors. The legislature put a moratorium on the
matching program for endowed chairs, so we have approximately $150 million in
endowed chairs remaining to be matched.
This past year, a bond issue enabled us to take care of about $46
million, but we still have a backlog of $150 million. The chancellor of the state regents will be
unveiling the higher education budget requests this week; it is likely to call
for another bond issue for the endowed chairs.
The endowed positions make a big difference in terms of faculty
compensation, retention, and recruitment.
We plan to continue that program and encourage it.
Ten years ago, we were eighth
in the Big 12 in total library volumes.
Kansas was our benchmark. We have
had ten straight years of increases for the library, so we have been able to
move up. We passed Kansas and are number
two in the Big 12 (number one in volumes per student).
In 1995-96 we were ninth in
the Big 12 in average faculty compensation (salaries and benefits, adjusted for
cost of living) and almost $2000 below OSU.
For 2009-10, we were in third place.
The President wants us to stay firmly in the top three in compensation
to be able to compete in recruiting and retaining faculty. Texas A&M has
fallen from first to sixth during that period.
Private giving for the
university this last year, in spite of the tough year, was one of the five best
years in our history, and so far, private giving is running ahead of last year.
Applications for admission are about 50 percent higher than last year. We are over the $100 million mark in
research, going up $29 million from last year.
The regents have approved two new private research partnership buildings
on the research campus. These
partnerships have generated over 350 private sector jobs, 95 percent of which
are held by our graduates. The Chronicle of Higher Education
recently had an article about OU that noted we were in the top of all
universities in Fulbright scholars (25 in the last decade), National Science
Foundation Career Awards (22), American Association for the Advancement of
Science Fellowships (5), and National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships
(5). It is a remarkable record of
achievement.
The freshman class includes
223 National Merit Scholars this year; our previous record was 196. Students are continuing to win in every kind
of area, from the Governor’s Cup Business Team to the Entrepreneurship Program
to the Petrol Bowl Championship. The
Debate Team has won three national championships in the last four years, and
our Drama School won over half the awards in a national competition. The Honors College is emerging as a catalyst
outwardly and inwardly and is seeking to be involved in all the disciplines
across the campus.
In the area of challenges,
President Boren remarked that it was mixed news that State Question 744 did not
pass. We want excellence in K-12
education so we have students coming to OU fully prepared. It is disgraceful that Oklahoma teachers make
less than those in surrounding states. However,
had SQ 744 passed without any tax increase, higher education would have been
cut $260 million over the period; the OU-Norman campus alone would have been
cut $33 million over three years. Very
little Stimulus money and Rainy Day money remain, which would have meant an
annual budget shortfall above $20 million for three years in a row for OU. We could have been facing tuition and fee
increases of 15-17 percent for three years running and still be facing very
deep cuts in the University. President
Boren hopes to form an education coalition that will find a way to better
finance public schools in the state.
The state regents are
expected to make a budget increase request in excess of $100 million. Without the Stimulus funding, the increase
would be slightly over five percent and would leave the OU-Norman campus $2
million below where it was in FY 2008.
It is remarkable what the faculty has contributed and the sacrifices it
has made in compensation and hiring freezes.
The administration is doing everything it can to find savings without
cutting into the core academic mission.
We have not had to have layoffs or furloughs. The last two years in a row we have had cuts,
even with the Stimulus funding. Over
that two-year period, we had only a 5.5 percent tuition and fee increase, which
brought in about $6 million net.
However, we had $40 million in cuts.
We are facing probable additional cuts this year unless the economy rejuvenates
or the legislature finds new revenue sources.
The legislature will look at ways to raise revenues without impacting
economic growth. We must prepare,
though, for another year or two of tough budgetary situations. President Boren said it is remarkable how we
have continued to move forward, and he thanked the faculty members for what
they have contributed to the well-being of the university. We may be dealing with future reductions to
the university. Health care costs over
the last ten years have more than doubled.
We cannot control many of our other fixed costs, so we have to prepare for another possible five percent reallocation in the next budget
year. Going into the third year
of reallocations is a daunting challenge.
A letter will go out to faculty and staff tomorrow that will give a
brief update on the process for planning for another five percent
reallocation. The vice presidents and
president are voluntarily taking compensation reductions in the range of 2-6
percent until compensation increases can be given to the general faculty and
staff. As we look to the next year, the
first goal remains to start back on a compensation program for faculty and
staff. The freezes in compensation
cannot continue indefinitely. The
administration will be monitoring on a case-by-case basis exceptions that may
need to be made to maintain the integrity of academic programs. Startup funds must be available for some
people who have been recruited to replace faculty, primarily faculty who have
retired. Situations that require startup
funds are forwarded to the President and Provost, and they do their best to
find money for really important strategic reasons. A salary plan remains the top priority. Another priority is salary compression. New people very often are brought in at the
market salary rate. We have had three
different compression programs since the President has been here. The longer we go with a compensation freeze,
the more likely we will have problems with compression. It is a serious problem that has to be
analyzed department by department and college by college. He has asked the provost to work with the
deans to bring forward the more egregious cases, and the administration will
try to address those.
President Boren introduced
Brian Ellis, the new director of Facilities Management (formerly called
Physical Plant). Mr. Ellis is trying to
make things more cost effective in that area.
A number of people in his area and in Housing & Food Services were
at minimum wage. Those employees will be
brought up to $9/hour. The
administration also addressed a similar situation at the Health Sciences Center
and will be working, as he said, on the compression problem.
It will be another year,
perhaps two more years, before economic growth comes back enough to put us
above the 2008 funding level. The
administration hopes to work closely with the Budget Council, Benefits
Committee, and other special groups to make budget decisions in partnership
with each other. The President will have
ongoing discussions with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee. The most important thing for us to do is do
as little harm as possible while keeping our eye focused on our goals. We need to have a plan in our back pocket if
we have to have a 3-5 percent cut.
President Boren continues to believe that the glass is more than half
full when he thinks about our faculty recognition, research expenditures, and
private donor support. The Princeton Review put us in the Top 10
public universities in terms of our academic quality and affordability. Many other indexes continue to recognize the
improvement we are making.
President Boren thanked
everyone and all they represent for the university. We have a lot to be proud of and to be
thankful for, and we need to continue to build on our strengths. There is not another situation in the U.S.
that he knows of where the Faculty Senate and President and executive officers
work so closely together. He asks for
advice and shares the most sensitive problems, and it is enormously helpful to
the university to pool together the whole talent of the university to find the
best answers. He said faculty could
email questions, comments, or advice to him.
He thanked the faculty for everything it does and said it was nice to
come to work with people who are his friends.
Prof. Blank reinforced what
the President said, that the Faculty Senate Executive Committee has open
communication with President Boren on a regular basis. Senators are welcome to send issues to the
Executive Committee to bring up in meetings with the President.
The Retirement Plans
Management Committee (RPMC) has spent a lot of time trying to educate everyone
about the forthcoming changes in the defined contribution plans. The RPMC indicated recently that it will
postpone a recommendation to the regents from November until March so people
will have more time to understand the proposal and have input. Prof. Blank encouraged the senators to spend
some time reading the proposal. It is an
enormously complex issue and is overwhelming.
The committee is responding in a prompt and efficient manner to the
requests made by the Faculty Senate.
Enrollment in the 2011 health
plan is scheduled for November 4-12. No
action is required unless an employee wishes to make changes to current
coverage or establish or continue a flexible spending account. For next year most over-the-counter drugs
will not be eligible for FSA reimbursement without a prescription. The rates for the BlueCross Blue Shield HMO
are increasing 11.1 percent.
The Budget Council has been
looking for new sources of revenue.
Ideas may be sent to Prof. Blank.
The Budget Council also expects to be involved in any decisions about
cuts. The Faculty Welfare Committee
recently reviewed the RPMC proposals and made the recommendation to postpone
the presentation to the regents. The
Faculty Compensation Committee is looking into mechanism for salary
enhancements. The committee also will be
clarifying some language in the Faculty
Handbook that pertains to OTRS credit when someone is on a full sabbatical. The Information Technology Council was asked
to look into the scanning of computers for personally-identifiable
information.
The Graduation task force
talked with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee about possibly altering some
of the withdrawal policies to enhance our graduation rate. The Executive Committee referred the proposal
to the Academic Regulations Committee and asked the committee to bring any
recommendation back to the Faculty Senate to consider if appropriate.
Prof. Blank met with some
Student Congress representatives to discuss their interest in revitalizing the
test files. Prof. Blank said he would
try to get faculty support and help them re-establish the test files. The students also had some concerns about the
withdrawal proposal. Prof. Morvant asked
whether the students had mentioned where and how they would get the test files
and how they would give access to students.
Prof. Blank said they were just beginning the process and were hoping
for some cooperation and help from the faculty.
As reported in the
Announcements, it is likely that the academic integrity recommendation will
come about. If it does, five faculty
members will need to be appointed to serve on an oversight committee. Prof. Blank asked the senators to forward
names of people who are particularly interested in academic integrity and would
be willing to serve on the committee.
The Vice President for
Research Kelvin Droegemeier is proposing some new research awards and is also
looking at the possibility of enhancing the regents’ awards for teaching,
research, and service. The problem of
start-up funds remains an issue and is affecting some of our recruiting.
Prof. Baer asked whether the
postponement of regents’ consideration of the retirement management would cause
the whole timeline to be pushed back, that is, will the enrollment period be
later than the July 1 date that was originally proposed? Prof. Blank said he could not answer
that. He thanked everyone who had
submitted comments to the RPMC or Faculty Senate Executive Committee, because
it made a case for postponement. Some
members of the RPMC and Executive Committee met before this meeting to discuss
questions that had been raised, and the RPMC opted to postpone their
presentation to the Faculty Senate until they had more answers. The main questions are why the proposal is
being recommended and what the cost savings are. Prof. Blank asked the senators to send him
any other questions. Prof. Remling said
his department was concerned about the lack of transparency and would like to
have the actual data on which this decision was based. Prof. Blank said the RPMC now understands the
concern about the lack of details and wants to maintain transparency.
The meeting adjourned at 4:30
p.m. The next regular session of the
Faculty Senate will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, December 13, 2010, in
Jacobson Faculty Hall 102.
____________________________________
Sonya Fallgatter, Administrative Coordinator
____________________________________
Amy Bradshaw, Faculty Secretary