Meeting, February 2003

Agenda


1.  Approve January Minutes
2.  Opening Remarks - Bob Andrews
3.  Reapportionment Report - Dianne Simons
4.  Proposed P&T Revisions Document  --to be voted on in March
5.  Faculty Sick Leave Reporting Policy Document --to be voted on in March
6.  Dr. Trani


 

Minutes of the Faculty Senate

February 4, 2003 
Grace Street Theatre
Academic Campus


Present: Abbott, Adera (Alt. Buzzard), Adyemi, Alder, Andrews, Beardsley,
Bigbee, Bilyeu (Alt. Walter), Briceland, Byles, Cash, Certosimo, Chessin, Corey, Cramer, Crouch (Alt. Delafuente), Cummins, Davey, Dery, Dewey, Diegelmann (Alt. Cornelissen), Donnell, Fuller-Seeley, Guidarelli, Hague, Harvie, Heuman, Hodges, Holmes, Hutchinson, Jeter, Johnson, Karchmer, Lamb, Lewis, Mays, McCay, McCreary, McKelvey, McMahon, Moon, Olds, Poynor, Pyles, Ream, Sarkozi, Sawin, Schmeelk, Sholley, Simons, Tepper, Thoma, Turman, Turner, Walsh, Ward, Weaver, Welleford, Whitehead, Wood

Absent: Boothby, Costanzo, Kennamer, Kuemmerle, Lloyd, Nicholson, Rife, Seago

President Bob Andrews called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m.

The January minutes were approved.

Bob reminded senators they would be asked to vote at the March meeting on the two documents attached to their February agenda e-mail message:  the Proposed Promotion and Tenure Revisions and the Faculty Sick Leave Reporting Policy.

Bob mentioned the handout on the Rebuilding Together project, a volunteer-based program designed to repair homes for the elderly or disabled who have incomes under $25,000 and are unable to maintain their homes; the project is scheduled for Saturday, April 26, 2003, and will take place in the Carver neighborhood adjacent to the Academic Campus.

Credentials and Rules Committee

Dianne Simons distributed the February 2003 Report from the Committee on Credentials and Rules.  Alan Briceland moved to adopt this reapportionment report; Judy Lewis moved to amend the motion by correcting one of the column heading dates.  The report was adopted as corrected.
 

University Report

President Eugene Trani made a detailed, comprehensive “state of the University” presentation tailored to address questions faculty sent to Bob Andrews.  Dr. Trani also responded to questions from the audience.  His presentation is posted on the VCU Web site:  http://www.vcu.edu/president/reports/index.html.
 

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 5:10 p.m.

_____________________
Iris W. Johnson, Secretary


 

February 2003 Report from the Committee on Credentials and Rules

Section 5 of the Bylaws of the Faculty states:
Elected Senators must be voting members of the Faculty as defined in Article III. (As defined in Article III, the headcount of faculty includes all full-time continuing instructional/research faculty with appointments as instructor, assistant professor, associate professor and professor. For ULS only, full-time continuing appointments as administrative/professional faculty are counted.) They shall be apportioned among the Schools so that, in so far as possible, each Elected Senator shall represent an equal number of the faculty members eligible for Faculty Senate membership--subject to the constraints that each School be represented by at least two elected Senators and no School shall be represented by a number of Senators that exceeds one third of the total of Elected Senators for the University. Prior to the February Senate meeting, the Committee on Credentials shall adjust annually the number of faculty members represented by a Senator so that the number of Elected Senators does not exceed 62 members. The College of Humanities and Sciences and University Library Services shall be considered "Schools." (Note: ULS will be changed to VCU Libraries in the revisions to the bylaws this spring.)
Reapportionment of Senate seats are recalculated each year using data supplied by Office of Institutional Research and Evaluation. For next year the designated number of seats will remain constant for all schools with the exceptions of the College of Humanities and Sciences and the School of the Arts. The College of Humanities and Sciences will lose a seat reducing their number of Senate seats from 12 to 11 and the School of the Arts will gain a seat to raise the number of Senate seats from 5 to 6.

The table below indicates the number of seats allocated to each school for the current year (2002-2003) and for the upcoming year (2003-2004.)

                                                    2002-2003                        2003-2004
                                       Faculty     Senators  Ratio    Faculty     Senators   Ratio  Change
Arts 130 5 26.00 135 6 22.50 +1    
Humanities&Sciences 297 12 25.82 277 11 25.18 -1
Business 106 4 26.50 99 4 24.75
Education 114 4 23.20 107 4 26.75
Engineering 33 2 16.00 35 2 17.50
Social Work 54 2 28.00 49 2 24.50
Libraries 31 2 16.00 33 2 16.50
Allied Health  65 3 22.00 62 3 20.67
Dentistry 64 3 21.33 63 3 21.00
Medicine 679 20 34.20 665 20 33.25
Nursing 28 2 12.50 25 2 12.50
Pharmacy 61 3 20.00 58 3 19.30
Total 1662        62         26.69 1608        62       

The Deans of these Schools will be notified of the reapportionment changes. The School of the Arts will need to elect 4 Senators by June 1st as 3 Senators will be completing their 3 year terms and a fourth Elected Senator will need to be added. The College of Humanities and Sciences will need to elect only one Senator for the class of 2006 as 2 Senators will conclude their terms on August 15th.
Respectfully submitted,
Dianne F. Simons, Ph.D., OTR/L, Chair, Committee on Credential and Rules

 

Posted by Neil W. Henry
February 28, 2003