Behrend Faculty Council Meeting Minutes

Monday, December 5, 2022
4:30 p.m. via Zoom

  1. Call to Order – Lisa Jo Elliott, Faculty Senate Chair
  2. Approval of minutes from October Faculty Council Meeting:
    1. Adam Simpson; Linda Hajec
  3. Ralph Ford, Chancellor
    1. Chancellor Ralph Ford: Commencement is scheduled for December 16. It is important to participate.
    2. The Council for Diversity Equity Inclusion is operative. We had a meeting today. Dipo Onipede, Lindsey Hopkins, one faculty member, one staff member, are leading the committee We are working with Hanover (the company that helps us with strategy); Hanover has been looking at program evaluation. Hanover will also facilitate the DEI workshop, probably in February. We are starting with three points:
      1. We are looking at the University-wide community survey conducted in 2020 (publicly available). There are some good things about the culture at Behrend and things we need to improve.
      2. We want to understand what is happening on campus. We have many active groups, especially student groups, on campus.
      3. Best practice identification. We want to understand what other universities are doing to help us develop new initiatives.
    3. We have two Associate Dean searches looming at some points in the future. Alicyn Rhoades has been serving as interim as Associate Dean for research; she will step down at the end of the year.
      1. This idea of Associate Dean is familiar in the PSU system. However, we would like to change some of the titles. We would like to change and use “Deans” for School Directors.
      2. Dr. Ford collaborated with John Mason, Chancellor at Harrisburg. They proposed changes to President Bendapudi who approved those changes. Once we have School “Deans”, we will be able to change the title of our Associate Deans to Vice-Chancellor and Associate Dean.
      3. The word Chancellor carries more weight in the external word. This change will allow us to attract a better candidate pool. These are the sort of changes Neeli Bendapudi is bringing. Searches will start in the next few weeks.
    4. Erie Hall is reasonably on schedule. It will be completed in January. We will be able to use it early next semester.
    5. Budget model update: There is a budget deficit. It can be fixed over several years. The problem is largely at UP, 80% of the deficit has been accumulated at UP. In the town hall on Wednesday, Bendapudi will explain the framework for the new model.
      1. Dr. Ford does not anticipate significant change for campuses for next year.
      2. What is important for Behrend is the strength of our research mission. We are working to ensure that research is adequately funded. When it comes to research, the problem is that Behrend does not obtain the same level of support that other units receive. And yet, publications are constantly growing.
  4. Update from Senators - pressing initiatives at UP
    1. Last senate meeting at UP was very important. 
      Are there comments from senators? Updates?
    2. Matthew Swinarski:
      1. The President talked about combining Penn State’s Law Schools.
      2. Matt Melvin gave a presentation on enrollment management.
      3. Sara Thorndike, Vice-President of Finance and Business, talked about our net financial assets and the new budget model; they created a budget model that is mission and vision-driven, financially sustainable, as transparent as possible. It was explained how the model prioritizes for student success, allows for autonomy but also interdependency among various units, and supports Penn State’s interdisciplinary mission. In the presentation, it was explained how decisions were made.
    3. The Senate voted on some legislative and positional reports.
      1. Pass/fail grading: There are adjustments to that policy 132-20. New stipulations allow programs to restrict what courses use pass/fail. Critical courses cannot be taken with pass/fail option.
      2. Positional report: Suggestion for oversight for student organization and campus activity. The Senate provided recommendations on oversight for these activities.
      3. Informational report: Test optional entrance to Penn State (SAT and ACT testing). Penn State will continue the test-optional until more data is collected to see if we are better off with or without testing.
      4. Interesting work is being completed by Senate committees:
        1. Policy on classroom visits (high school students visits). UP has high school students sit in classes for whole semesters. This practice needs to be regulated.
        2. It was discussed how Senate Presidents can incorporate late responses to questions asked to presenters during meetings into the minutes. Responses sent after the meetings should be added to the minutes.
        3. Curricular affairs is working on a way to allow students to find suggested courses more easily. They are also working on expedite review processes for certain proposals. If a program is canceled, courses no longer available; it will be easier to remove them.
        4. Another point discussed was integrating assessment data on Canvas using Nuventive, a software that helps with assessment.
    4. Faculty affairs discussed the AC70 Dismissal policy and procedure.
      1. They are working on a report for sabbaticals for teaching-line faculty to see if it’s a feasible option.
    5. The joint task force on teaching effectiveness is looking for feedback on their implementation framework. There was a presentation on the elements of effective teaching. The committee asked for comments on the framework for elements of effective teaching by Jan 20th. The question is how to evaluate teachers going forward. Faculty can access the document
    6. Faculty benefits: Salaries dashboard: Course releases and supplementary income could be included in the dashboard.
    7. Global Engagement is looking to engage more with India. They are looking to bring more people to the commonwealth campus (40K for students to attend at UP, 28K average at Commonwealth campuses).
    8. Penn State is closing out its 2025 initiative; the goal is to continue to address inequalities across locations.
    9. Outreach: Ways of evaluating faculty outreach.
    10. Scholarship is preparing a report on the impact of Covid.
    11. University planning is preparing a report on how to reduce carbon footprint in the various campuses.
  5. New York Times article on how athletics programs are aligning with Sportsbook/Caesar Gambling.
    1. Over the Thanksgiving holiday the New York Times published an article on sports betting; some of these deals between the organization and the University’s sports departments are done without faculty knowledge. This is a concerning development.
    2. Is this a concern that we need to discuss?
      Adam Simpson: Behrend will not be impacted, but UP might be.
    3. Matt Swinarski can ask questions to Terry Blakney co-chair of inter-collegiate committee at the Senate. The sports budget is distributed in unique ways. Football generates money; all the other sports receive funding from Football.
  6. Possible creation of an organization and operations committee for constitutional changes, bylaws, and the creation of committee charges.
    1. Lisa Jo Elliott attended a national faculty senate chair-person meeting: The chair-people discussed different types of committees they had.
    2. One committee was the Organization and Operations committee at George Mason; this committee helped to develop bylaws and suggest constitutional changes. Is this committee a good idea, or is this just adding more workload to our faculty?
    3. Matt Swinarski: At the University senate there is a committee on rules. It’s responsible for policy changes and bylaws. It’s already set up at the University level. A lot of our committees mimic committees created at the University level. We would need a constitutional change, then vote on it.
    4. Behrend Senate is advisory to the Chancellor. University senate has domain over Academics. At the University level, there is constant work on policy and regulation. At the Behrend level, there might be less of a need.
    5. Establishing such a committee would be a multi-year process. Lisa Jo Elliott will wait until January to collect faculty council ideas on the creation of this committee.
  7. New Business and comments for the good of the order.
    1. A reminder: We will be voting on the first-year seminar report to support the report created last year at the Faculty Senate meeting tomorrow. This is not a curricular change and the report is not binding. We are just supporting the recommendations in this report.
  8. Adjournment:
    1. Matt Swinarski; Adam Simpson