Oakland University Senate
Thursday, 21 September 1989
First Meeting
MINUTES
Senators Present: Abiko, Allen, Appleton, Arshagouni, Bertocci, Bricker, Briggs-Bunting, Cass, champagne, Chipman, Coffey, Cowlishaw, Dahlgren, Eckart, Eberwein, Fish, Frankie, Garcia, Gerulaitis, Grossman, Hamilton, Hartman, Herman, Hormozi, Kazarian, Kleckner, Kulig, Larabell, Lindell, Mili, Meehan, Murphy Olson, Pettengill, Pine, Reddy, Salomon, Schieber, Schimmelman, Sherman, Stamps, Theisen, Tracy, Urice, Wedekind, Weng, Witt, Zenas.
Senators Absent: Beehler, Braunstein, Berven, Cardimen, Dillon, Eliezer, Horwitz, Hovanesian, Liboff, Miller, Rosen, Schwartz, Tripp, Williamson, Winkler.
Mr. Kleckner called the meeting to order at 3:15 p.m. After welcoming the faculty to the first meeting of the academic year, he introduced President Champagne who began his remarks to the Senate by thanking those most responsible for the success of the reaccreditation effort: Mr. Sheldon Appleton, the self-study committee, and all those faculty and staff members who participated in the reaccreditation process. The results, Champagne added, attest to the strength of the university.
According to Mr. Champagne, the work of the APPC will be central to the university's concerns this year. Mr. Champagne charged the committee with leading the effort to establish university goals and strategies that will take Oakland to the year 2000. While Mr. Champagne anticipates some new educational initiatives from the State legislature, he expects the number to be few and the need to work within limited resources to continue. By the end of the year, Mr. Champagne expects to submit recommendations to the Board of Trustees based on the work of the APPC.
After thanking Ms. Suzanne Frankie for her leadership during the library expansion, Mr. Champagne indicated that library enrichment is our next legislative priority for special funding. He will ask the legislature for additional library appropriations to provide some of the necessary resources. Also, he will use the occasion of the library dedication to publicize a program intended to enhance the funding of the library.
President Champagne also announced Board approval for the reorganization of key offices in the university. The Provost will focus on academic affairs while the Vice President for Student Affairs office will report directly to the President, thereby enabling the President to become more involved in student concerns. In addition, the Division of Extension and Public Service has been created to consolidate extension programs and the various Meadow Brook enterprises into one unit. Mr. Frank Cardimen will head this new division. The President also announced the formation of a Cabinet Council on University Programs that will meet regularly to discuss key policies. Cabinet members include the President, the Provost, the Vice President for Student Affairs, and the Vice President for Extension and Public Service. To facilitate communications in other areas the President and the deans will continue to hold biweekly meetings this year.
In a further reorganization move, the President announced that the Office of Equal Opportunity will now report directly to him, placing this office at the policy level. He also announced that the search for a new director of that office has, so far, been unsuccessful, but Ms. Catherine Rush has agreed to serve as the interim head until a replacement is found. The President summarized his remarks by saying that this year will be dedicated to planning and looking ahead to the year 2000, intensifying legislative relations, resolving computing challenges, and bringing the new science building closer to reality., In addition, Mr. Champagne expects to develop and refine external ties this year and to develop new fund-raising strategies as well.
President Champagne, having concluded his remarks, yielded the chair to Mr. Kleckner who first called for approval of the minutes of the meetings of April 13 and 20, 1989 (Moved: L. Stamps; seconded: L. Gerulaitis) and then introduced Messrs. Arnold and Doane of the Senate Elections Committee for the purpose of conducting an election of six Steering Committee members.
Nominations from the floor were: Richard Pettengill - Library, Anne Tripp - History, Penny Cass - Nursing , Joseph Der Hovanesian - Mechanical Engineering, Daniel Braunstein - Management and Marketing, Lisa Stamps - Student.
At this point nominations were closed. (Moved: W. Garcia; Seconded: A. Lindell) and the slate declared elected.
Good and Welfare
Mr. Bertocci, concerned about the "vast puddle of water" in front of the library, queried the Provost about the origin and future of said puddle; the Provost averred that said puddle, aka "Lake Frankie, was not intended to be a permanent feature of the OU landscape.
Ms. Garcia offered further commendation to Mr. Appleton for his masterful work on the accreditation self-study.
Mr. Murphy asked what proposal we have for trees soon to be bulldozed to accommodate a wider Squirrel Road. Mr. Kleckner responded that the trees near Walton will be saved if possible but that those along Squirrel south of the university's main entrance will be impossible to save. Road work on Squirrel should begin next spring or summer.
Information Items
Mr. Kleckner announced that the dedication of the library will occur on November 5.
Regarding OU's next construction project, he said that funds have been released for the first stage of architectural planning for the proposed science building. Harley, Ellington, Pierce, Yee Associates are the general architects and Earl Walls Associates will be laboratory design consultants. If support continues from Lansing, groundbreaking could occur as early as fall, 1991. In addition to these projects, Oakland has petitioned the legislature to begin planning for another classroom-office building.
Regarding budgetary matters, Mr. Kleckner noted that seventeen faculty positions and fourteen staff positions have not been refilled in this year's budget; he added that academic operating budgets will show some inflationary increases however. Enrollment is a major factor in budget building and our current effort, he said, is not reducing enrollment, but holding our own.
Oakland is carefully considering shifts in enrollment patterns, in particular the twenty eight percent decline in enrollment of new students from Macomb County, along with a smaller decline in the rate of transfers from Macomb Community College. According to Mr. Kleckner, the reasons for the decline are not immediately clear, but Macomb's effort to become a broker for higher education gained some solid support when Macomb County voters approved a 1/3 mill tax to construct a building for use by educational institutions willing to offer the last two years of college at MCC. According to Mr. Kleckner, MCC wants complete four-year programs at its site, but OU has not before made such a commitment off our campus. He added that if OU does not respond to this situation our enrollments may erode. He also questioned whether we can deal with the politics of the situation if we do not participate in some fashion. MCC has already made such arrangements with Wayne State, Walsh College, and other institutions, but the new facility has not yet been built. Nevertheless, Mr. Kleckner speculated, some students may be starting at MCC, intending to finish there in a few years. He added that Macomb County students, who in past years might have started at OU, may also have been attracted to Western or Eastern Michigan Universities because these schools mounted aggressive recruiting efforts this year.
To help determine whether the decline in students from Macomb County is an anomaly or a trend, Mr. Kleckner announced the creation of an investigatory committee, headed by Sheldon Appleton, that will offer an analysis by November 1.
Mr. Bricker asked if OU has evaluated how cutbacks in faculty have affected educational quality at OU. Mr. Kleckner responded that, although it is hard to argue they are without consequence, if the cuts are small the results are not significant. He noted that we are returning to a somewhat higher student-faculty ratio, a situation that is not "desirable" but still not so bad as was the case a decade ago.
With the agenda completed, the meeting was adjourned at 4:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara Hamilton
Secretary Pro Tem of the University Senate