Meeting,
Approved 10/9/03
|
Members Present: |
E. Ametsbichler, H.
Ausland, M. Bachmann, D. Beck, F. Brown, N. Browning-Bradley, C. Bruneau,
G. Burns J. Carter, G. Cobbs,
J. Crepeau, d. Dalenberg, L. Dent, P. Dietrich, D. Doyle, E. Edlund,
P. Fandozzi, R. Field, D. Fillmore, C. Gajdosik, S. Ganesh,
L. Gillison, S. Greymorning, J.
Gritzner, L. Hayes, T. Herron, N. Hinman, W. Holben, C. Johnston, R.
Judd, S. Kalm, C. Knight, B. Knowles, C. Krussel, J. Laskin, R Ledbetter,
M. Mayer, V. Micheleto, M. Monsos, S. Mueller, N. Nickerson, D. Pletcher, B.
Reider, D. Schuldberg, A. Sondag, S. Stiff, L. Tangedahl, H. Thompson,
T. Tonev, K. Unger C. Winkler |
|
Members Excused: |
C. Brewer, K. Canty, J. McNulty, D. Schantz, |
|
Members Absent: |
E. Dove, K. Kane, J.
Sears, P. Silverman |
|
Ex-Officio Present: |
Registrar Bain, President
Dennison, Provost Muir, VP Duringer, VP
Branch, A.V.P. Ford, Dean Fetz, Dean Strobel, Dean
Forbes. AVP Walker-Andrews, AVP Staub |
|
Guests: |
|
Chair Knowles called the
meeting to order at
The minutes of
Senators stood to introduce
themselves and Registrar Bain recorded attendance.
Communications:
Chair Knowles announced that the new
Commissioner of Higher Education, Sheila Stearns is at another meeting in town
and may be delayed.
President George Dennison
The President reported on
two items. First, the development of a
new budget request process should be fina
The second item is an ongoing
planning process on all four campuses. The
general fund and enrollment are conservatively projected using the best assumptions
possible from scanning the environment; aligned with projections of current
services adjusted for likely salary increases; and evaluated to determine
consequences to the University through 2009. The indications and possible solutions from
the process will be used in communications with the Board of Regents and policy
making. The work provides an opportunity
to be more proactive with what needs to happen in order to maintain the University
and protect quality and equipment.
Provost Lois Muir
Provost Muir introduced the
two new Associate Provosts, James Staub and Arlene
Walker –Andrews, who have been on campus for three weeks. There is rapid learning going on in the office.
Faculty should receive the first installment of the Academic Bulletin soon. It contains the recent hiring numbers. There
have been 35 – 40 new tenure track hires.
Most are existing lines.
The “quality initiative” has resulted in the approval of 12 new tenure track
lines over the biennium. Three deans
submitted requests for positions in May.
The proposals had to involve an increase of tenure track faculty
teaching general education. Funds have been designated as follows: 8 positions
in the College of Arts and Sciences (Anthropology, English, Foreign Languages
and Literatures,
The Provost shared
highlights from the 2003-2008 Academic Plan. The Plan is the culmination of work on the
academic clusters. The academic planning
process is dynamic and changing. Some of
the action plan goals have already been met and others will require careful
needs assessment and evaluation as proposals are developed and move forward
eventually for Faculty Senate approval.
Another piece of the process is linking action plans and performance
indicators to the strategic plan. There
needs to be further discussion regarding operation priorities to link the
various levels of planning (Departments with Units, Schools, or Colleges). This semester the Provost’s Office will
initiate a process to allow for systematic communication/coordination of
planning and priorities to continue academic planning. Work on the clusters has ended, however it is
hoped that the spirit of interdisciplinary collaboration, excitement and
creativity will continue across campus.
Chair Knowles asked for clarification
regarding the quality initiative. Was the initiative for 12 new faculty? The Provost responded that the initiative was
for $700,000 over the biennium or $350,000 each year. This figure was estimated at six faculty for each year.
Funds were stipulated for other items as well ($42,000-writing, $62,000
online course development, and $10,000 with matching funds for undergraduate
research). [Handout provided]
Chair Knowles and last year's chair, Karen Hill testified at the Board of
Regents that the Senate would monitor how the 1% was spent. Students have every right to know what they
are getting for their money.
The Provost commented that
the administration is in agreement that it is important that experienced
faculty are in front of students during the first two years for learning and
retention.
Vice President, Student Affairs
Teresa Branch
The new Vice President for
Student Affairs, Teresa Branch provided a flavor of her institutional
experience.
BA
Psychology UC
MA Criminology Suny
PHD Clinical Psychology UW, Seattle
Staff Psychologist,
Director
of Counseling and Assistant VP of
Associate
Vice President, Student Affairs -
She spent her first two months
getting familiar with her departments and has outstanding staff. The largest
issue in Student Affairs is recruitment and retention. The critical factor is bringing in nonresident
students. One of the marketing techniques
is to emphasize affordability and quality of education. Rises in tuition have made students more reliant
on financial aid, employment, and loans. Student Affairs is clearly a player
in identifying new revenue streams.
Student Affairs would like to
partner with Academic Affairs to focus more on student retention and graduation
rates. Thirty percent of the student
population is replaced each year.
Student Affairs has a goal
of growing and stabi
Related to diversity, a new American
Indian Student Service program has been developed. The director is Patrick Weasel Head. VP Branch encourages faculty to become more
aware of what is going on in the program.
AVP/Info Technology
AVP Ford briefly mentioned a
few ongoing items and requested that senators contact him if they would like
more information.
§
The
§
The University
is expanding into internet delivery of remote video courses with the
§
A press release next week will announce that
the University received an award with other I-profile institutions to bring
out university-wide Portal.
§
Building
upgrades are continuing.
Security issues [handout]
Email beasts (worm and viruses)
via email messages vs other types of beasts that propagate through non-email
activity. When Faculty and students
returned to campus there was an explosion of both types of beasts. The performance
of our network was degraded, but managed to stay up. A few infected computers can bring down the
network. As of yesterday another version
of the latest beast was released. Though
our network has been affected, we managed to keep it operating through the
critical registration period. Note
that many other universities and organizations were shut down for days trying
to eliminate the beasts.
There are many ways to get and send email (through internal/external computers).
One way to address the email
based problem is with a PC virus checker (Norton/McAffee).
All faculty/staff computers should have these installed, but there are many
student computers without the checker.
So the Information Technology Office (ITO) is working with other groups,
such as Student Affairs and Dormitory Services to get a site license for virus
checking. This will eliminate, if used properly, most email beasts.
A type of email monitoring was
approved on an emergency basis. Email
that comes from the outside is passed through an email monitoring system that
eliminates viruses. It does not
eliminate spam or look at who got what. The system’s primary function is to reduce
the load of viruses on campus. The
university will resume discussion about monitoring soon because there are policy
implications. Weather the filtering system
is used to eliminate viruses or spam, the issue
becomes who retains what personal information. The Faculty Senate will be
updated as discussions take place.
The real insidious beasts
are not carried by email. If the level
of infection on a certain part of campus reaches critical levels, so that
part of the network must be shut down. The
Dorms and Computer Science were temporarily shut down the first day of class
because of critical levels. This was
an emergency situation that threatened operations of the Banner network in
the
Intrusion detective systems
can be used to block the non-email beasts. Ideally a system would be placed
between every two computers to shut off the infected computer before it can
infect the other one. The systems will
be selectively placed, because they are expensive.
In response to the question
whether firewalls would help, AVP Ford replied yes
and no, and indicated this was a complex technical issue that would involve
a detailed review of the role and context of the particular firewall.
A firewall is in existence on the campus level, and could be done at
the department level, but has to be used appropriately; otherwise it can do
some damage.
Senator Edlund
asked if the situation would improve if the networks were Linux or Macintosh
computers. AVP Ford responded the only
way the problems created by beasts get fixed is if the vendor issues a
patch. The reality is we have a huge
number of Microsoft PCs and the servers, so like it or not we have to rely on
Microsoft to fix the problems. If more people start to use Macs and Linux we
would have issues with those.
In response to a question,
AVP Ford noted that any effects on UM online would be a denial of service
caused indirectly by the load on the network.
A senator noted that different
parts of the campus have different anti-virus licenses and asked if one was
better than another. Ford responded that
ideally there would be overlapping service because although all vendors detect
well-known viruses, a new virus may be recognized faster or slower by a single
vendor. The main concern now is to cover
the dorms.
AVP Ford encouraged senators
to contact him if they wanted to hear more, invite him to speak at a department
meeting, or request the Senate to host an open forum.
Selway is going away [handout]
Clearly the transition is
behind schedule and nothing will happen on October 1st as originally
announced. The students’ email transition
was delayed a couple of weeks at the start of the semester with the outburst
of beasts and a patch that was suppose to prevent attacks that instead broke
the system. Consequently the student system will be watched closely and once
it is stable a revised schedule will be established for the faculty/staff
conversion. At that time communications will be sent out
with explicit instructions. A modern email system is needed because the Selway
vendor no longer exists; thus if the system were to be infected there would
be no fix issued
At some point faculty/staff
will have a role in selecting a new email address, establishing a delivery
point for their email, and then choosing where mail that currently goes to
Selway will go once Selway goes away. At
some point new mail will not be delivered to Selway, but faculty will have
plenty of time to offload the mail stored on Selway.
Senator Greymorning asked
about the ability to unload email in bulk.
AVP Ford responded that the ITO is looking for a user interface that will
work with Selway to assist the users in unloading their mail, but have not yet
found software that makes this as easy as they’d like.
Senator Holben inquired
about the need to check multiple addresses.
AVP Ford answered that the process is designed to allow people to
collect all email at one location. In
response to questions about exactly how this will work, AVP Ford noted that instructions
will be created that describes the process in general and then the help desk
will help individuals with the variety of possible set up situations.
Network access fee
A four dollar per month (per
port) access fee was implemented
Chair Knowles suggested that
senators copy the handout and provide an update to their department faculty.
ASUM is focusing on the
possibility of a special session in January and encourages faculty to come to
ASUM with ideas on how to lobby. He pointed
out
Montana Connections is something
new this year designed to help students and the campus community meet state
leaders. Tuesday evening House Minority
Leader Dave Wanzenried, House District 65 Representative
Rosalie “Rosie” Buzzas, and Senate Majority Leader
Fred Thomas were available for discussion. They are in support of tuition relief.
Commissioner of Higher
Commissioner of Higher
UFA President Mike Kupilik
The contracts between the
University Faculty Association and the University went to the printer and
are due out early next week. Each faculty
member will be mailed a contract. The
contract is also available online through the Provost's web page or the
Committee
Reports:
§
Online
curriculum review
The new process is a result of
The new process also applies to curriculum review done by the
§
Plus/Minus
Motion -ASUM
resolution
The motion is the result of last year’s
Chair Knowles stated that the issue will be brought to vote next month. He urged senators to discuss with their respective
departments and constituencies. He
also referenced the ASUM resolution, created by
The
New
Business:
Program of the Senate for AY 2003-04
The Faculty Senate bylaws call for
Liz Ametsbichler is chairing
the ad hoc committee to evaluate the Faculty Senate structure, namely the
awkward transition to the new chair. The
timing of the election makes it difficult to plan for the upcoming year in
regards to relief time, and etc.
Joe Crepeau will be heading
the ad hoc committee to evaluate Faculty Senate representation and
constituencies.
Dick Field will chair an ad
hoc committee to delve into the writing proficiency issue.
Nomination to Coca-Cola Marketing Contract Committee
Senator Nicole Bradley Browning’s nomination was unanimously approved.
Other committee nominations
Good & Welfare
Senator
Ausland commented that he hoped time will be allowed for good and welfare at
future meetings.
The meeting was adjourned.