CUSF Meeting of December 13, 2007

CUSF Meeting Minutes

Towson University, Administration Building, Room 424

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Present: Joyce Shirazi (UMUC, Secretary),  Bill Chapin (UMES), Bill Stuart (UMCP, Vice Chair), Patti Cossard (UMCP), Joyce Currie Little (TU), Martha Siegel (TU, At-Large), Edyth Wheeler (TU), Jay Zimmerman (TU), Dennis Coates (UMBC),  Zane Berge (UMBC), Joyce Tenney (UMBC), John Collins  (UMBI, Chair), Rosemary Jagus (UMBI),  Alcott Arthur (CSU, At-Large), Dave Parker (SU, Past Chair), Mike Garner (SU)  

Guests: Robert L. Caret (TU, President), James Clements (TU, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs), Irv Goldstein (USM, Senior Vice Chancellor, Office of Academic Affairs)

John Collins called the meeting to order at 10:00am.

Martha Siegel introduced Dr. Bob Carret, the President of Towson University, who discussed his background and noted how much of a pleasure it was for him to be working with CUSF. He also noted the strong shared governance at TU.  President Carret and Martha Siegel introduced the new Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. James Clements, who mentioned that he has been in his new position for nine months. He gave special kudos to Martha Siegel, Irv Goldstein and Brit Kirwan for their work at USM.  In response to CUSF questions, he responded about the growth of TU with the capital campaign, that about 30% to 40% of the students live on campus, and that there are approximately 20,000 students at TU.

Without a quorum of CUSF members, Irv Goldstein began his USM report.

Governor’s Budget

The Governor’s new budget will be published around January 18, 2008.  We have been assured that higher education is designation for support from the corporate income tax (1/2 of 1%).. ‘But we need the slots bill to pass in the November balloting or the extra money for a higher education investment fund coming from the corporate income tax may be only a one-time thing.  WE expect that the budget will include our general services costs for doing business including a merit salary increment and increases for operating costs such as health care and utilities.  We are also hopeful that there will be funding for enrollment growth, and workforce/access initiatives.

  CUSF question regarding the budget:

John Collins: Are we going to be asked to advocate for slots?

Irv Goldstein: We are asking the State to support higher education and how the legislation decrees so, we will be grateful.

Closing the Achievement Gap

We are moving forward. We (Chancellor and Vice Chancellor) have sent letters to each campus asking how they plan to address the achievement gap.  As part of that letter, we have also emphasized the importance of shared governance in this effort.  The wording used is as follows:“In the spirit of shared governance, I urge you to engage faculty, staff and student leadership in your planning efforts.  We can only be successful with this ambitious initiative if we make it an important priority for all of the USM constituencies.”

CUSF questions regarding closing the achievement gap:

Rosemary Jagus: Will it cover underrepresented minorities, low income students, and African American males?

Irv Goldstein: Those are the categories we are concerned with.  Campuses will be provided data showing how they perform with the various categories..

Martha Siegel: Has money been requested?

Irv Goldstein: From the state, yes, and also support for STEM teachers. . . In addition we are applying for grants such as the Lumina Foundation for $1/2 million. Nancy Shapiro is talking to NSF. We are trying to free funds.

Martha Siegel: The 4-year schools need to come across as accessible but having high standards . . . which gets back to Dr. Nancy Grasmick, MD State Superintendent of Schools.  I hope we do not lose the focus we need to work on grades 7 to 12.

Irv Goldstein: Data shows that students who study in the summer in small classes do better, and in learning communities surrounded by their peers and advisors.

Martha Siegel: We do not get funded in the summer.

Irv Goldstein: That is part of the plan development for each campus, i.e. if you have certain entry level students? How high is high income? What is right fit for your campus.

Rosemary Jagus: Those of us who attended the Closing the Achievement Gap Conference expected a CD.

Irv Goldstein: They will be out in about 19 days. It was more complicated because a VHS format was used. Now we must have them digitalized to DVDs.

Bill Stuart: STEM for Research I institutions -- they can not run those programs for minorities.  Therefore the Research I institutions may not be able to help.

Irv Goldstein: TX and NY (a $20 million program) have been successful with scholarships. NY provided scholarships and mentoring for  781 qualified math teachers, who then owe the city teaching time.  Data shows that if a teacher stays 5 years, they may stay much longer.

Rosemary Jagus: If it is a work force issue, what about the military?

Irv Goldstein: Yes, now it has expanded to include workforce groups.

Patti Cossard:  It is P-20 right?

Irv Goldstein: Yes, I am speaking of the P-20 group and the Governor will chair the P-20 Council. There are five agencies involved. The mission is what we have been about and the meeting will probably be open to the public.

Michael Garner: In our time, college was not an absolute success, but now we need to do something, and need to understand how it came about. Is there any information on the UMB refusal to release minority data?

Irv Goldstein: This is protection from a reverse discrimination lawsuit, which they won.  In the next meeting of the Provosts group, Carl Snowden, the Director of Civil Rights, is coming to talk about what we can and can not do. 

Patti Cossard: Budget question -- How high is Maryland Digital Library in the funding?

Irv Goldstein: Don’t know yet. The general services budget is stable.  The tax money is treated as one-time regretfully now (due to slots). ‘And the campuses are working with Joseph Vivona, USM COO/Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance, on what they want.  Then we will work with the Governor. The discussion will include enrollment growth, holding tuition down, and achievement gap, as well

BRAC

Discussion included the following items:

---BRAC draft report, which the Governor has a draft report of

--–Status of Ft. Monmouth

--- Status of Ft. Detrick

---UMBC performing arts building

---Jim Lyons will work with us to find out what we will need to do

Legislative Issues

We may have to address the following items:

---BRAC

---Climate Change and Sustainability

---Weapons on Campuses

---Cost of Textbooks

---Office of Civil Rights

---Protecting Our Budget

CUSF questions regarding legislative issues:

Bill Stuart: The Chancellor’s Initiatives – Addressing the achievement gap and STEM are two things that work against each other.

Irv Goldstein: I don’t’ know why that should be.  It is a big budget and each campus will designate how they will use it for the various initiatives.  There are other initiatives which don’t involve stem but are workforce related i.e. Salisbury and respiratory theory. Each campus will focus on initiatives which are most relevant to them with the USM strategic goals..

Bill Chapin: Does anyone have an answer to truth in advertising, i.e. Pre Algebra versus Algebra Part I, etc.?

Irv Goldstein: That is why math teachers are involved.

Irv Goldstein: The Chancellor is concerned about it.

Martha Siegel: One way is to have a report for each school. Question: Different Topic – The Faculty Senate wants to review an intellectual property document.  The problem is that we have faculty who develop software for music and the university, for example, and they do not like it.

Irv Goldstein: Martha Siegel needs to put a paper together on it.

John Collins: MHEC FAC Agenda includes the cost of textbooks, the achievement gap, and P-20 group. There are 10 seats allowed for USM, and Patti Cossard represents us.

Patti Cossard’s MHEC FAC Report:

Patti Cossard commented that CUSF’s representation with MHEC FAC has been very successful, thanks to Martha Siegel.  There is now a two way talk, and a shared governance statement. She indicated that there has been much discussion about bringing the prices down for textbooks, because they are a burden for students.  Martha Siegel mentioned that she and Dave Parker sent a letter out that she will send to Patti Cossard. Martha Siegel also noted that we do not need to worry, but to respond.  The issue is how universities run bookstores and where they are located, as well as where the profits go.  The off-campus bookstore representatives come to the legislation and complain that the campuses will not give them the ISBN numbers for textbooks.  Pearson (publishers) did not like that fact that Martha Siegel requested that we order old textbooks.

Irv Goldstein noted that we have 2 board policies – 1) Military, and 2) contractors who work with BRAC as a result. CUSF has a representative. Jim Salt, USM Director of Procurement & Real Property, who authored the Salt Report with Joseph Vivona and Joyce Tenney are on it. Jim Salt believes that AAC and CUSF should now take over and that he had done his work and completed the report. John Collins stated that Jim Salt sent him a report that showed that he had given advice on the report. Jim Salt also noted that he will come to the January 7, 2008 Executive CUSF meeting.  John Collins invited all members to come to hear what Jim Salt has to say.  He reiterated that it is a CUSS-CUSF meeting; therefore important to come to the Executive meeting if that want. Michael Garner mentioned that factors have occurred and most of the costs have to do with marketing strategies that have not worked.  The CDs are never cracked.  This is the professor’s problem. Patti Cossard finished by noting that the intellectual property issue is a part of the problem.  Once the legislature becomes involved, faculty will become more concerned about what books should be used. ‘And that is what MHEC-FAC is trying to address.

Regents’ Faculty Awards

Joyce Tenney said that the mailings will be completed this week.  The Regents’ Faculty Awards Meeting is on Dec 20, 2008. John Collins noted that he will be an honorary committee member.

Student Research Day

John Collins referred to Joan Langdon’s email message regarding Student Research Day:

At 08:30 PM 12/12/2007, Joan Langdon wrote:

Hello,

I have final presentations tomorrow starting at 12 noon so I cannot attend the meeting.  However, I want to update you on the Annapolis Research activity.  I got your message about contacting the two people in Annapolis.  Before the last CUSF meeting, I had already called the two people in Annapolis to get the documents that I needed to send to the Provosts.  The people in Annapolis promised that they would respond with the needed information.  They did not respond.  I called a different person whose name that I got from the System, but still no response.  I am now attempting to get help from another source.

Joan Langdon

Martha Siegel noted that the issue is to send a letter to campuses telling them that we will have it in February and to sign-up, but now it is too late. She noted that it will be February before they comeback and that we need to pass. Bill Chapin added that we have missed the calendar this year. Patti Cossard suggested that the MD Scholars Research Day is something that we can take advantage of. Joyce Tenney stated that she told the student representative that it was too late and she suggested that a message go to the Provosts now canceling this year and rescheduling for next year. Michael Garner and Bill Stuart concurred that this would be a way to get ahead of the curve. Martha Siegel agreed to put the letter together for the Provosts.

Membership

Bill Chapin referred to the membership handout below:

  The University System of Maryland

Number of Full-Time Instructional Faculty

Prepared for CUSF Reapportionment

Fall 2006

Prepared by: USM Office of Institutional Research

John Collins observed that the data does not include UMCES or UMBI -- research facilities -- and that we need to get those numbers. Bill Chapin asked that each CUSF member review the numbers and email him if they have more accurate numbers for their institutions.

Bill Chapin also shared the following data with us:

  CUSF Reapproportionment*

*Irv Goldstein, December 12, 2007

Academic Affairs

Bill Stuart noted that we now have P-20, not K-16, but no details of who is on the P-20 board.

Faculty Affairs

n      No report

Legislative Affairs

Patti Cossard talked about her meeting with PJ Hogan and that capwiz will be used again for support of the budget. Resolutions will be used as a way of moving from what we do here.

BREAK FOR LUNCH

The meeting resumed at 12:30 pm.

Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA

John Collins mentioned the Voluntary System of Accountability power point slides and noted that the last slide refers to the wrong url as VSA.org (Volvo Sport America). Dennis Coates noted that shared governance is not part of the Voluntary System of Accountability. There was more discussion about the possibility of scheduling another meeting with the Chancellor and the Faculty Senate Chairs. Martha Siegel asked about who sets the standards and who sets what the outcomes are. The tough part is to show that the under-prepared are different.  ‘Just one math class at the beginning will not allow a high test score at graduation. Bill Stuart stated that at Harvard University they showed that students tested worse upon graduation because they never used all those skills that they needed to get into Harvard University while attending the school. He also suggested that we draft a letter requesting that CUSF is represented on STEM, P-20, and all of those committees – which should be done it in the CUSF Academic Affairs committee.

Chancellor’s Council Meeting

John Collins stated that at the Chancellor’s Council Meeting, Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski III, the President of UMBC talked about the importance of faculty involvement in the Closing the Gap Initiative. He noted that the race issue is as important as the green initiative. Bill Stuart said that the problem is that the data is not reliable and we do not know what it means.  What does it mean with an 8% gap versus a 6% gap?  He noted that we need to be wise about our acceptance of these numbers. Martha Siegel elaborated that you will not get it because each institution has its own challenges. We must make a plea for white males. White women are already involved. Patti Cossard stated that perhaps we can put Dr. Hrabowski’s challenge in writing.

Resolution on the MD Digital Library

Patti Cossard noted that there is a resolution about the MD Digital Library that she elaborated on, as follows:

Background Report on the Maryland Digital Library

Presented to CUSF

12/13/07

The Maryland Digital Library (MDL) was authorized in 1999 with an initial one-time funding of $900,000.  The project was the general responsibility of the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) and the Secretary of Higher Education.  The University of Maryland, College Park, has provided the technical and fiduciary support for the effort, with policy and governance matters delegated to a management group representative of various higher education library constituencies.  In 2004 the State Legislature made MDL a permanent program of MHEC with two primary purposes:  strengthening the academic library cooperation in the state and creating fiscal efficiencies through enhanced cooperation among academic libraries.  The MDL mission is to provide information resources vital to the education of a population that must be intellectually competent, technologically proficient, and information literate in order to compete in the global workforce.

No additional state funding has been made since 2000.  MDL has been self-funded by participating institutions which benefited from the fiscal advantages of consortial buying.  However, the self-funding model cannot sustain expanded collaborative initiatives because it is currently restricted by individual campus budget allocations.  In order to expand access to academic resources, leverage the existing investment of individual campuses and thereby help keep education affordable, further funding is sought to pursue the following initiatives:

1. Provide additional access to electronic databases

2. Investigate and begin to implement a collection-sharing model that would facilitate direct patron borrowing from all libraries essentially expanding access for all efficiently and economically

3.  Undertake Maryland Heritage Digitization Projects to expand access to unique materials of high value to all sectors of Maryland education, K-16.

MDL Successes

o        students, faculty and staff of over 50 two- and four-year public and private institutions accredited by MHEC have cost-effective access to electronic resources including electronic books, full-text electronic journals, reference works such as a science encyclopedia and African American studies database, the Oxford English Dictionary Online as well as indexes in general academic studies, nursing, allied health, education and business

o        equitable access to a core set of resources for undergraduates of all higher education sectors has been provided

o        supports distance learning by providing quality information regardless of one’s physical location, 24 hours per day/7 days per week

o        over 200,000 FTE students have utilized the shared collection of 5 core electronic databases

o        over 7500 full-text journals can be accessed through these 5 core electronic databases

o        5,050,436 million searches conducted in FY06

o        5,099,097 full-text articles or documents have been retrieved in FY06

  Patti Cossard said that she will send this to all CUSF members, and that UMUC is already totally digital. Bill Stuart added that it plugs into the textbook issue. Joyce Tenney elaborated that it has gone down because the funding is not there. The tobacco settlement funded it. Now that the money is gone, it is gone.  Academic Source Premier and EBSCO are two of the databases. ‘But they want to be able to fund things like Science Direct, but not each individual campus funded by the state and not individual budgets.  Joyce Tenney also noted that University of Phoenix and other privates can not use USM’s digital library, but can have and use their own. Patti Cossard reiterated that she will send the resolution out to us today.

Other Issues

Patti Cossard stated for the record that she is disheartened by the attendance record of members at the CUSF meetings. It is impossible to get motions and actual work done.  Leaving early is also bothersome. We should have lunch at 1pm instead of 12 to keep people from leaving at lunch. Martha Siegel noted her support, but reminded all that this is exam weekend and the weather conditions are bad. We must insist that the committees meet before the meetings.  As the secretary of 2 national committees, Martha Siegel stated that they meet via email.  If people are not willing to do this, then they should not be here. Jay Zimmerman agreed that we need to send motions out and get committees working between meetings.

Joyce Currie Little mentioned that many professors are not tenured and that this is something that she is concerned about. Martha Siegel said that we still need faculty salaries and rank per institution --The Faculty Salary Report. We do not have the material that we need to work. The 14^th Annual Workload Report used by the Provost pointed out that we do more than teach. The workload report is a very important document, and we need to put pressure on CU about the 10 courses per year (5 courses per semester) that their faculty must teach. John Collins added that it is not USM refusing to give us the documents. Patti Cossard noted that library faculty are not covered, which is a faculty issue, and she would like to know how to be included. Martha Siegel suggested that the Library Assembly would be the proper place to go.

The meeting ended at 1:35pm without a quorum.