Oakland University Senate
First Meeting
September 20, 2001
Minutes
Members present: Abiko, Alber, Aubry, Bazaz, Bertocci, D. Berven, K. Berven, Bhatt, Binkert, Clark, Coppin, Didier, Downing, Eberly, Eberwein, Goldberg, Graves, Grossman, Haddad, Hansen-Smith, Henke, Hildebrand, Khapoya, Klemanski, LeMarbe, Lipman, Mabee, Mann, Machmut-Jhasi, Moudgil, Mukherji, Oden, Olson, Osthaus, Polis, Russell, Schmidt, Schott-Baer, Schweitzer, Sethi, Shablin, Sieloff, Smith, Stiller, Willoughby
Members absent: Blanks, Emrich, Haskell, Jarski, Long, Otto, Peacock, Schwartz, Sevilla, Surrey, Wedekind, Zingo.
Summary of actions:
1. Appointments of Parliamentarian, Secretary, Senate Elections Committee.
2. Budget Report -Mr. Russi
3. Steering Committee Election - Senate Elections Committee
4. Appointments to Senate committees. (Ms. Sieloff, Ms. Eberwein) Approved.
The Provost called the meeting to order and welcomed the senators to the new 2001-2003 Senate. As the first item of official business, he announced the appointments of Jerry Grossman as parliamentarian, Linda Hildebrand as secretary and Joel Russell, Vince Khapoya and Mike Polis as the Senate Election Committee. He then welcomed President Russi who presented a brief report on the university's budget.
Budget report
Mr. Russi thanked Mr. Moudgil for the opportunity to speak to the Senate. He indicated that he had a two-part presentation planned; the first part would look at the elements of support for Academic Affairs and the second part would detail the allocations to Academic Affairs and the rest of the University. Using a Powerpoint presentation Mr. Russi began by reviewing activities that were undertaken to help decide the future of Oakland. These included:
- an historical look back at the Meadowbrook Seminars;
- the approval of the "Strategic Plan" with its core theme of advancing academic endeavors at OU;
-the "Creating the Future" document, in which outside groups were consulted for input to help realize the various recommendations of the Strategic Plan. The booklet, Transformation, that was distributed to the Senate, attempts to document some but not all of the steps that have been taken to implement the Strategic Plan. Now, he continued, as we look to the future, we need to think about the core values of the University. Last year, discussions about defining some distinguishing characteristic of Oakland, such as performing arts or automotive technology, led to the conclusion that this concept was not a good idea. What did come out of the discussions was a strong commitment to undergraduate education, the desire to become a university of distinction and to do that through the undergraduate educational experience. Mr. Russi then presented various charts using Powerpoint and commented on them.
Following the general overview, Mr. Russi then referred to information in a binder detailing the monies allocated to Academic Affairs and other units. He called attention to the list of the reductions that were made this year and pointed out that the Academic Affairs budget was not reduced. He noted that state funding decreased considerably this year and attempts were made to keep tuition as low as possible (8.4% increase) After reviewing and commenting on the various allocations, he called attention to the additional funding for the Strategic Plan implementation, adding that he hopes to begin some conversations on how to use this fund to move the university toward the 2010 vision. He stated that allocations are made through a letter to each Vice President showing the total allocation and certain line items. Except for these line items, the Vice Presidents decide how the money will be spent. Referring to the final item in the binder, a list of the faculty positions that have been approved for 2003, Mr. Russi acknowledged the fine work of the Provost in moving the decisions regarding faculty positions forward and added that the first commitment in the new 2003 budget is new faculty.
Having completed his presentation, Mr. Russi asked if there were any questions. Mr. Russell noted that the presentation included only the general fund monies and asked about the other funds and accounts. Mr. Russi replied that he had presented a picture of where the money resides, that the deans and departments have discretionary accounts to support the academic enterprise. New programs have specially designated funds allocated to support them and indirect cost recovery and off campus incentives reside in separate budget accounts. Mr. Polis asked Mr. Russi if he had matched faculty contributions as he had promised and if he planned on doing so again. Mr. Russi replied yes, he'd matched 50% of those contributions and that he planned on doing it again this year.
With thanks to Mr. Russi, Mr. Moudgil remarked that he hoped this would start a tradition of beginning each year with a presentation from the president on the university's budget.
Mr. Moudgil then called the Senate's attention back to the agenda. Following the roll call, the minutes of the April 12, 2001 meeting were approved (moved by Ms. Eberwein, second by Mr. Grossman).
Steering Committee Election
Mr. Russell, chair of the Senate Elections Committee, then took the floor and conducted the election for a new Steering Committee for the 2001-2003 term. Upon the opening the floor for nominations, the following individuals were nominated:
Robert Schwartz (School of Education and Human Services)
Addington Coppin (School of Business Administration)
Judette Haddad (Office of Research and Graduate Study)
Vince Khapoya (Dept. of Political Science)
Nivedita Mukherji (School of Business Administration)
Paul Graves (Dept. of Philosophy)
With no further nominations forthcoming, someone moved that nominations be closed, a second was heard, the Senate approved the motion and Mr. Russell proposed that the slate approved by acclamation, a proposal the Senate also approved.
Committee appointments
Mr. Moudgil then called on Ms. Sieloff who moved that the individuals listed in the agenda be appointed as chairs of or as members of the Senate committees specified; she added a late nomination for Mr. Esposito to replace Mr. Sudol on the Assessment Committee. [This nomination of Mr. Esposito was later found to be erroneous since the membership specification for the Assessment Committee require that Mr. Sudol be replaced from someone from the College] Mr. Grossman provided the second and the motion was approved.
Good and welfare
Mr. Moudgil indicated that there were a lot of issues that still need to be discussed by the Senate but asked the Senate's patience as he familiarizes himself with them before he brings them to the Senate.
Mr. Shepherd reported on the progress of the Academic Affairs Review Committee. The Committee, formed by a vote of 106 faculty, has 11 members, 9 faculty, 1 student and 1 trustee. The committee was charged to investigate:
1. The process that led to the dismissal of the provost, Mr. Esposito;
2. The university budget and allocation processes;
3. The pattern of instability in academic affairs.
The committee was also charged to assemble a dossier of documents and present a report to the Senate, the faculty and the Board of Trustees. The committee is just completing the information gathering phase and hopes to compete the report as soon as possible. Copies of the report will be widely available and open hearings will be held to discuss the report. So far, the committee has held 13 meetings with many additional subcommittee meetings. They have reviewed approx. 2000 pages of materials, consulted 12 interviews with administrators with more interviews planned. Mr. Shepherd reported they have been busy, have taken their charge seriously and many individuals have been helpful to the committee as it endeavors to complete its task.
Ms. Didier thanked the members of the Senate for their support for the motion last April recommending increased funding for the library. The Senate Library Committee worked hard last year to educate the community with respect to lack of funding to the library, and specifically, the lack of any increase to the library base budget since 1994. She added also that representatives from the Student Congress also were helpful in increasing the awareness of the library needs. As a result of this, the library this fall received its first increase in the base budget since 1994. We are appreciative of this, she noted, but it is not all that we need by any means because the arrearages are so large and serials inflation is so great. So all is not rosy, but it would be much more critical without this. The Library Committee did a great job in comparing us with peer institutions last year and the numbers were daunting. She also introduced the Associate Dean of the Library, Julie Voleck, formerly of Central Michigan University. Mr. Moudgil asked if it was true that the library had not had a new library position in over 30 years. Ms. Didier responded that it was over 20 years, that our library staff is one third the size it was when the university was one half the size it is.
With no further items, the meeting was adjourned.
Submitted by
Linda Hildebrand
Secretary to the University Senate
11/13/01