- Call to Order
The meeting was called to order at 3:30 p.m.
- Minutes
The minutes of the May 24, 2001 meeting were approved as distributed.
- Report on the Faculty Senate, Robert Faaborg, Chair of the University Faculty
Because there are only two Faculty Senate meetings between the Spring and Fall All-University meetings there was little to report.
There were two faculty forums last year, but despite their apparent success, it was decided not to have any forums or retreats this year. The budgetary constraints would have made such activities difficult.
At the June Faculty Senate meeting, the Senate recommended the creation of a centralized University Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning. This developed out of the excellent, detailed report by the Senate Planning Committee chaired by Rick Karp and planning that has been going on within the General Education Committee for several years. At present, the Center is in the initial stages of planning.
At the October meeting of the Faculty Senate, the Senate passed a motion formalizing the composition of the General Education Committee and providing for regular elections for its faculty representatives. The General Education committee will be an on-going committee and it is likely that at the next All-University meeting it will be proposed that the General Education Committee be made a standing committee of the Faculty Senate.
Two important issues were raised at the June meeting of the Faculty Senate. These issues were tabled until the relative committees had time to consider the issues and report back to the Senate. The two issues were: 1) proportional compensation for part-time faculty and 2) consensual relations between faculty and students.
The Senate also decided to postpone its discussion of the recommendation that class lists include electronic photographs of the students who appear on the class roster. The discussion will continue after the Student Senate has had time to consider and endorse the idea.. Both Provosts have already endorsed the recommendation.
Provost Perzigian has established a committee to consider all of the issues surrounding the relationships among the University College, College of Evening and Continuing Education, and McMicken College of Arts and Sciences. Rick Karp, the Chair-elect and Bob Faaborg, Chair of the Faculty, are the faculty representatives to this committee.
Chair Faaborg committed himself to looking into establishing a faculty-based, long-term campaign to convince Ohio State Legislature that Ohio must be more supportive of higher education. He believes that the Faculty need to be more pro-active. Further, he agrees with Chancellor Chu, that it would not likely be that effective to contact our representatives. He suggested that we need a large organization that would work with the business community and the political leadership in southwest Ohio. Their goal would be to convince these leaders that in order for their (our) children to stay in Ohio and succeed with the kind of economy and the kind of institutions that they want, they will have to support higher education further.
Chair Faaborg went on to quote the following facts contained in a letter from the Ohio Faculty Council (and on the OBR website):
- Ohio is 40th in public investment per full-time equivalent student.
- Higher education's share of the (state) budget has fallen from 17% in 1978 to 14% now.
- Only 17% of Ohioans have completed a Bachelor's degree or better. This compares with the U.S. average of 20%. This puts Ohio among the bottom 12 states in this regard.
- Ohio is 36th in receipt of federal research and development funding
- (Because of the lack of state support) Ohio has the 11th highest tuition among public institutions.
- Ohio is 40th in per capita support for University research.
- Ohio is 42nd in overall budget allocations for higher education.
Chair Faaborg continued by remarking on the correlation between Ohio's failure to adequately fund higher education and the declines in the state's relative economic performance. He added the following facts:
- Ohio's total personal income is now 5% below the national average.
- Ohio ranked 6th in aggregate personal income in 1960. It is now 22nd.
- From 1995 to 1999, Ohio slipped from 31st to 43rd in rank of the average growth rates in employment income and population.
- Ohio is 32nd in the creation of high tech jobs, 29th in the number of high growth companies, 29th in venture capital industries, 28th in Internet use.
Chair Faaborg also pointed out that the leading centers of technological growth that have managed vibrant economies are also closely related to well-funded public and private universities in states that have traditionally or recently been heavily invested in higher education. He maintains that information age economies rely on top tier universities and a highly educated public; that Ohio can not afford to continue to drift lower in relative state support of higher education; that these trends can not continue if our children are to have a future in Ohio. Chair Faaborg concluded his remarks by encouraging the faculty to work to convince our political leadership of the importance of supporting higher education in Ohio.
- Report by the President of the University, Joseph Steger
President Steger began by thanking the faculty for their continuing efforts.
When he first came to the University of Cincinnati, 48% of the University's budget was state funds. Now state funding accounts for only approximately 24% of the budget. The University was cut by $26 million this year alone and there is a third cut coming in 2003. The budget cuts were sited as the reason for the increases in the tuition. Tuition was recently increased by 8% and will likely be increased again.
Among the items of good news, President Steger reported that research funding is up to $230 million; graduate student enrollment went up this year; and several faculty have been recognized for their work.
President Steger believes that the way to influence the legislature and the governor to support higher education is to make our case to the political party donors. Especially with the lack of cohesion in the state leadership resulting from term limits, it is important to convince those making contributions to the political parties of the need to support higher education.
President Steger predicts more budget cuts in the future given that there is presently no agenda for higher education. In the past we have relied upon endowment funds to help us through budgetary challenges, but the endowments are down 20-25% because of the Œcrash' of stocks and bonds. We still must depend upon private funding and the federal government. President Steger went on to say that although the University's financial situation is okay, the budget cuts continue to be quite demoralizing. He also stated that other mid-western states are having similar difficulties while higher ed is growing in the southern states.
As one remedy for the budgetary difficulties, President Steger vowed that he is going to push for a bond issue upon which the public would vote. He predicts that perhaps as early as November 2002, there will be a bond issue strictly for higher education presented to the voters. This has the potential of bringing in $1-2 billion over a twenty year period.
In response to a question asked by a faculty member regarding enrollments:
President Steger pointed to the April 2001 riots as having had a significant effect. He said he had received several e-mails and letters from parents saying that they could not send their kids to UC in light of the riots.
Chair Faaborg added that a report from SEM indicated that while overall enrollments remained even with last year, we are up 3% in FTE's. This is likely due to part-time students shifting to full-time status.
President Steger indicated that he would like to see an increase of 1000 students (3%) to offset the budget cuts. Further he indicated that the percentage of the state budget allocated to higher education is actually only 11.6% at the present time, decreasing from 14% after the most recent cuts.
- Reading of the Necrology: Ron Huston
Our colleagues who have passed away in the past year (October 2000-September 2001) include the following:
-
| Charles H. Barrett |
Professor Emeritus of Early
Childhood & Special Education |
| Paul Burrell |
Professor Emeritus of Romance
Languages and Literature |
| L.Jean Cahall |
Professor Emerita of Nursing
Administration |
| Gail S. Englender |
Professor Emerita of Pediatrics |
| Scott B. Frame |
Associate Professor of
Clinical-Geo. Surgery |
| Robert E. Hagerty |
Professor of Communication
& Visual Art |
| Patricia Hope |
Professor Emerita of English |
| Karen R. Kottsy |
Assoc. Sr. Librarian,
General Library |
| Louis M. Laushey |
Professor Emeritus of Civil
and Environmental Engineering |
| Carl H. Osterbrock |
Professor Emeritus of
Electrical & Computer Science |
| Janet C. Newman |
Professor Emerita of Psychiatry |
| Carl R. Trahman |
Professor Emeritus of Classics |
- Announcement of the Chairs of Standing Committees
Chair Faaborg identified the following Standing Committees and their respective chairs.
| Academic Affairs: |
Bert Heuther, Biology, A&S |
| Budget and Priorities: |
Larry Gilligan, Mathematics, CAS |
| Committee on Committees: |
Rita Taylor, Business, RWC--Continuing as chair. |
| Human Relations: |
Michael Ma, Physics, A&S |
| Information Technology: |
Karen Monzel, Design, DAAP |
| Planning: |
Rick Karp, Biology, A&S--Continuing as chair. |
In addition, Chair Faaborg acknowledged that David Lee Smith, DAAP , was elected to serve as Vice-chair and also serves as our Webmaster for Faculty Senate. Our web site is: www.uc.edu/facultysenate/
Chair Faaborg went on to list several topics that he hopes the various committees will address this year. They include:
- differential tuition rates among different units of the University
- College admission standards
- the use of student course evaluation forms
- grade inflation
- service learning
- intellectual property issues
- ways to improve UC's national ranking by College guidebooks and national magazines
Faculty were encouraged to contribute ideas or issues they would like to see addressed by giving them directly to the committee chairs or to Chair Faaborg.
- Unfinished Business.
There was none.
- New Business.
By-laws revisions were proposed in order to provide for the possibility of having electronic elections. Chair Faaborg noted that it may not be possible to hold electronic elections, but that the proposed revisions would allow for such elections if and when it is physically possible to do so.. The proposed changes also included a change in the timing of balloting in the spring elections to allow enough time for faculty to vote. Further, the proposed changes include a change in the term of office of the elected Faculty leaders such that the terms will begin on September 1st and end on August 31st of the relevant years. The terms will thus coincide with the academic years. (Details of the changes may be accessed at the Faculty Senate website: www.uc.edu/facultysenate/ ). The motion to make the proposed revisions to the by-laws passed without opposition.
- Adjournment.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 p.m.
