Present: Abell, Abbott, Adera, Anderson, Andrews, Beardsley, Bogacki, Briceland, G. Brophy , Brookman (Leszczyszyn as alternate), Carpenter, Certosimo, Cooper , Corey, Cramer, Cummins, Dent, Dewey, Donnell, Ghosh, Guidarelli, Hague, Harvie, Holmes, Jeter, Johnson, Kester, Kinney, Korzun, Kuemmerle, Lamb, Lewis, Mays, McCain, McCreary, McDonnough, McMahon, McVoy,  Moon, Munoz, Murphy-Judy, Nicholson, Olds, Pitts, Poynor , Putman, Pyles, Ream, Salandro, Sarkozi  (Alder as alternate), Seago (Ingroff as alternate), Sholley, Simons, Sutherland, Taylor, Thoma, Turman, Welleford, Wynne

Absent: Adyemi , Boothby (excused), Chessin,  Dery, Heller, Hutchinson,  Ingersoll, Iuorno, Tait, Thompson.

1. The minutes of the October 7th meeting were approved without revision.

2. President Lewis reported on the Research Data Ownership Policy discussions with Vice-President for Research Marsha Torr and Dr. Franzen.

Franzen and Lewis will co-chair a committee of four Academic Campus and four Medical Campus faculty to review and revise this policy document . Their first meeting will be in December and they hope to be able to submit their finished work to the Board of Visitors at the May, 2004 meeting. An education session on this topic featuring an outside speaker on data ownership will be open to all faculty.

Lewis and Senate Secretary Dan Ream will serve their second year on this committee with Philip Olds (Business) and Dianne Simons (Allied Health) also representing the Faculty Senate on this committee. The first meeting will be on November 21st.

The School of Education proposal to move from three divisions to nine departments was approved by the Council, as was Radiation Oncology’s move from departments to divisions. The meaning of the terms “department” and “division” in these units was discussed as well. Also going forward to the Board of Visitors from Council will be new B.S., M.S., and M.Bioinf. degree programs in BioInformatics. Lewis discussed her concerns regarding “terminal” degree programs, such as the M.BioInf., and future career mobility.
Faculty Sick Leave and Faculty Bonus plan proposals already reviewed by the Faculty Senate and University Council will be sent to the Board of Visitors for Approval at their November meeting.

5. Sheldon Retchin, Vice-President for Health Sciences, briefly addressed the Senate about strategic planning for the health system and the medical center.

He sees his role as being an advocate for the five health science schools and for the faculty in general. He also discussed the recent change of plans for the School of Nursing to move to the old West Hospital Building and instead to a new building north of Leigh Street. This is not a “done deal” though planning is underway. There will be a retreat on November 21st with the new CEO of the MCV Hospital to develop a new capital plan. Retchin also discussed the nomenclature issue and the renaming to the VCU Medical Center, which he describes as conventional, used also by Wake Forest, Duke, University of Virginia, and the University of North Carolina.

He also addressed a question concerning the likelihood of a new school of Public Health being formed, which Retchin says he is interested in, as are state and federal organizations, such as the Virginia Department of Health. Retchin would appreciate feedback on faculty interest in forming such a school here. A suggestion was made that MCV campus faculty could benefit from a shared, non-public space for meeting and conversation, such as a lounge or dining room. Retchin says this has been discussed recently and he will pursue the idea further. In closing he encouraged faculty to call <828-9770> or e-mail him  <retchin@mcvh-vcu.edu> with questions or concerns.

6. Donna Brodd, Vice-Provost for Academic Affairs, and Jon Ackley, director of University Accreditation, spoke about the SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools) compliance certification process and 13 specific comments the SACS review team made in their review of VCU.

Specifically, SACS requested more information on these topics: how we evaluate the President; how we evaluate and supervise graduate teaching assistants in labs; the narrow focus of some general education/core course requirements; coverage of ethics in the School of Arts curriculum; more background on assessment efforts at VCU over the past three years and how budget cutbacks are impacting course offerings. SACS also expressed concern about insufficient funding support of the VCU Libraries. SACS will be sending and on-site team of ten in March, including a librarian.

Jon Wergin also addressed the QEP (Quality Enhancement Program) that SACS now requires. They are studying results of  the “Survey of Student Engagement” research. The survey looks at active learning, diversity, and institutional support. Compared to other urban universities, VCU looks “mediocre at best”, scoring “below average” in “institutional support” and “academic challenge” The QEP will require that we report progress to SACS in five years.  Questions may be addressed to Jon at jfwergin@yahoo.com.

7. Michael Katz of the Office of Industry Partnership briefly spoke to the Senate about the Conflict of Interest Policy and how it will be changed to reflect that we have a “Vice-president for Research” rather than a “vice-provost” as the existing document suggests. President Judy Lewis noted that the Senate will be looking at this policy more comprehensively later this year.
 

8. Dianne Simons, Chair of the Faculty Senate Credentials and Rules Committee led a discussion of changes in the Bylaws of the Faculty.

Currently, the Bylaws exclude Administrative & Professional Faculty from the Faculty Senate, with the exception of the University Libraries faculty. School of Medicine administrative faculty, who are not in administrative positions, are already serving as senators. Simons opened the floor for discussion regarding who should be allowed to be members of the Faculty Senate. Various speakers debated whether Senate membership should be cut off at the department chair or dean level. Senators finally voted on Option A—that department chairs and above would be excluded from Senate membership; or Option B- that deans and above would be excluded from Senate membership. By a show-of-hands vote, Option A was supported by the Senate and will be proposed as a Bylaws change for full faculty vote. The voting process will be done via the web. Simons is working with Jimmy Ghaphery of the library to design a web form for voting on Bylaws changes.

9. Bob Andrews reported that the Faculty Senate of Virginia would be meeting this coming Saturday, November 15th. He distributed a Legislative Issues handout. This year’s major issues are:

(1)     proposing that there be legislation to assure faculty representation on the Board of Visitors at public institutions,
(2)     endorsement of the legislature’s base adequacy recommendations for colleges and universities,
(3)     endorsement of the SCHEV recommendations to finance faculty salaries at the 60th percentile of our national peer groups,
(4)     relief from the increases in out-of-pocket costs for state employees for prescription drugs and co-payments.

10. Pat Cummins, Co-chair of the VCU Faculty Senate State Legislative and Statewide Relations Committee distributed a committee activity report. Cummins also announced that January 15th would be a Legislative Day at the Virginia General Assembly. Faculty participation in this event was encouraged.

Adjournment

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Dan Ream, Secretary