Behrend Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes

Monday December 16, 2024, 3:00–4:00 p.m., 114 Reed
 

  1. Call to Order - Jason Bennett, Faculty Senate Chair
  2. Approval of the minutes from October 7, 2024
    1. Motion:
      1. Luciana Aronne
      2. Second: Adam Simpson
  3. Remarks from Greg Filbeck (in place of Chancellor Ford)
    1. Budget Update
      1. University has assigned Behrend a budget that includes $10 million subvention. In summary, the budget represents a 2-3% reduction in operational budget (~$1 million). While not great, it was better than they feared. Campuses around commonwealth had different experiences. Some remained flat while some have deeper cuts.
      2. The University administration notices Behrend’s enrollment is going up.
      3. Behrend administration must demonstrate plan for balanced budget. This will result in a small number of non-renewals spread across the college, including some fixed-term faculty (NTLs) members who are up for contract renewal.
      4. Fixed-term faculty members will be notified in January on their contract renewal status.
      5. Discussion – Lots of discussion/questions followed. This included the following:
        1. How was budget calculated, and which NTLs are at risk? Greg indicated that the budget was based on the University model that is designed more for a R-I university and not a state system. He commented that improvements are being made for the FY27 budget, but there is nothing that can be done for this current budget. The administration will not cut any NTL faculty members who are not up for renewal. Additionally, Greg noted that School Directors made recommendations to the upper administration.
        2. How will evaluation be made? Greg assured that it was not a simple question of number of majors and recognizes that many NTLs teach much of the non-major courses within a major, including those taken by all students (e.g., ENGL, CAS, etc.) He is working with Amy Yang to examine in-depth the different metrics used to determine who will have contract renewed.
        3. One point was made that when the NTL promotion committee was formed, several faculty were encouraged to apply for the next level of promotion to help populate the committee. As it ends up, all of these faculty members are part of the group that are up for renewal this year. This raised concerns about cutting the quality instructors that have contributed a lot to the college but may be more expensive.
  4. Committee and Senate Updates
  5. Constitution Revision Committee Updates (Dave Dieteman)
    1. New proposed constitution has been given to the faculty as well as posted on the Faculty Senate Canvas site under the 24-25 module. A summary document has also been created.
      1. New constitution includes Bylaws and Standing Rules to make it easier to change various items.
      2. Proposed new representative model that is aligned with what other campuses are doing. It will include 12 senators from each school, whom will also populate the 6 committees.
      3. Faculty will be given time over break to review the new constitution. There will be an opportunity to bring questions/concerns forward.
      4. Voting on the new constitution is scheduled to begin the week of January 6. In order to pass, a majority of the electorate must vote in favor of approving it.
  6. University Senate Update (Matt Swinarski)
    1. Due to time, there were not a lot of necessary updates. The updated items for each committee will be posted on the Behrend Faculty Senate Canvas site for anyone interested.