COE Faculty Advisory Council
February 1, 2017
9:00 – 10:00 a.m. Hill 314
Minutes
Dean Hough called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m.
Attending: David Hough, Deanne Camp, Cory Fearing, Kim Finch, Joe Hulgus, Robin Koerber, Annice McLean, Diana Piccolo, Debra Price, Melissa Schotthofer, Michele Smith, Becky Swearingen, Kayla Lewis (for Eric Sheffield), Teresa Steele
The meeting focused on how to cut money from the COE FY18 budget. The dean has reserve funds available to cover this year’s shortfall, as the Provost’s Office is offsetting much of the academic cost centers’ cut. The dean and a few others from our college will be attending a meeting in Nixa tomorrow where Governor Grietens will announce his FY18 budget. Our college needs to look at ways to cut our budget 2% to 5% for next year. The dollar amount will be more exact after we know the state budget and President Smart has his scheduled a retreat on February 13. Currently, four COE searches are on hold until we know what the FY18 cuts will be. We will continue to support the University’s goals of promoting diversity, recruiting and retaining students, and supporting high need programs as per the long-range plan.
Teresa shared the ideas that came from the Budget Committee meeting on January 27. Their recommendations were:
- Larger class sizes and fewer sections
- Having faculty teach more credit hours to reduce per course expenditures (perhaps having professors teach more hours since they are tenured, but keeping assistant professors at 9 hours)
- Elimination of Program Coordinator positions where appropriate
- Furloughs (Dean Hough said this would have to be a University decision and he has not been made aware of any such discussion(s) having occurred.)
- One FAC member expressed an opinion that some faculty members already have a heavier workload and more should be given to those with lighter loads.
FAC members provided feedback regarding the BC’s recommendations, along with ideas of their own. Joe Hulgus asked for a statement from the dean assuring faculty the cuts are temporary. Dean Hough agreed to address College cuts in his Posts, so faculty can refer to those. The next Post will come out after the February 13th retreat, and Dean Hough’s statement regarding COE approaches will be included therein.
Suggestions from FAC:
- Increase course load, which could save Per Course funds, although there are some Per Course needed due to no funding for new faculty positions. The dean added that the Per Course budget is well over $400,000 and we usually spend closer to $500K.
- Reexamine Program Coordinator positions to determine which ones are needed most. The dean has asked Department Heads to follow the COE policy on program coordinators and apply reassigned time fairly to reflect duties actually accomplished and the amount of time required.
- A recommendation was to edit the Research Active Policy to make it more rigorous. Look at faculty who are research active and what research is being completed. Suggested to change discussing progress at end of first year to determine continuation to second year instead of discussing progress second year to determine continuation to third year. The FAC asked Dean Hough to make those edits and send to the FAC for review at the next meeting.
- Kim Finch asked how much money would be saved if each faculty member supervised one student teacher. It would be approximately $62,000.
- Could look at travel funds. (Approximately $100,000 could be saved by reducing departmental travel to $200 and eliminating additional COE travel for faculty.) Discussion focused on covering travel only for presentations that were made into manuscripts and submitted for consideration of publication.
The topic of faculty who teach online courses being supplemented $55/student was discussed. This money is transferred into COE accounts, so no COE savings would be realized. The dean asked everyone individually if this policy should be continued. Six said it should, three indicated no and other responses were:
- Their program does not have online classes.
- Some classes cannot have the number of students in class increased due to the subject or internships.
If this topic is broached at the University level, Dean Hough will convey same.
Joe Hulgus suggested making any “belt-tightening” voluntary, so faculty could decide whether or not they wanted to participate. The FAC felt a voluntary approach would not produce much savings and suggested a “menu” of options be considered with faculty given the opportunity to pick and choose which they wanted: Travel, increased teaching assignment, student teacher supervision, et cetera.
The dean ended the meeting by saying he will see what the Governor announces tomorrow and the decisions that come from the retreat on February 13th. He will report back via a Post after those events have taken place.
Submitted by Sharon Lopinot