Minutes of the Faculty Senate
DWR 205
October 17, 2019
Present: Senators Zia, Logan, Huang, Oden, Boumtje, Lowther, T. Schroeder, S. Schroeder, Tucker, White, Wise, Fanning, Wilson, Shirey, Hurdle
Ex-Officio: Leigh Labit, Jennifer Rowsam, Trey Berry, David Lanoue, Donna Allen, Roger Giles, Kim Bloss, Amanda Anderson
Call to Order at 3:41
Proxies – Wilson proxy for Testa; Oden proxy for Stanford
I. Approval of Minutes:
Minutes from October 17, 2019 [motion –S. Schroeder, second – Oden]
II. Special Orders of the Day:
President T. Schroeder discussed the budget meeting called by the administration. The COLAs were addressed during the meeting. He summarized that the three ways to get a COLA increase is tuition, increase enrollment, or retain better. President T. Schroeder discussed that since an enrollment increase and an increase in tuition were not likely, the only way to possibly get a COLA would be retention. Also discussed that COLAs were unlikely for this year and that overloads would be necessary. He made the point that faculty don’t normally discuss retention; so, this is a learning process for all. He said that the meeting was not what he thought it would be. He had 2 pages of questions that he didn’t ask because he felt like to focus was more on retention, than on budget. He discovered during the meeting from Vice-president Reed lab that fees roll over from year-to-year. He emphasized that shared governance is important. Also, he asked that if there is a decline in the residence hall occupancy, then why did we build them? He asked that if we are growing, then why are supplies and services being cut? He was also concerned that if minimum wage has increased, but student worker budgets haven’t, that is problematic. He also asked how the new trap shooting program is being funded and why is the office beside Dr. Berry’s office? Another concern is the Love and Loyalty campaign. He said that the faculty don’t receive updated and that the funds need to be considered for professorships and endowed chairs. He also asked if donors realized the needs of academic departments. He is surprised at how the budget process is not more transparent. He suggested that the faculty be more involved in the budgeting process and emphasized shared governance. He asked Dr. Lanoue to clarify.
Dr. Lanoue indicated that he agreed with President T. Schroeder’s summarization of the budget and retention meeting. He explained that COLAs are based on new money and that sources of new money are enrollment, retention and tuition increases. Dr. Lanoue said that it is not wise to have a budget based on growth. He wants input from all level.
He emphasized that we must be careful about tuition increases as well as inflation. Students are pressed economically. However, SAU has not given up on enrollment. There is a drive to be creative in offering new programs. SAU is working on a number of different programs to help entice new students—engineering, public health, etc. He apologized for not being clearer. Dr. Lanoue said that he doesn’t know if the new programs may or may not be successful. Because basing a funding model entirely on enrollment is not wise, it is important to explore retention strategies, as well. Also, the state of AR is not growing in population—we will not succeed on recruitment only. He explained that the recruitment staff is excellent, but SAU will also need help from everyone to increase retention.
Dr. Lanoue discussed shared governance, and he felt that it was important. He also said that he understands the reasons that President T. Schroeder didn’t ask budget questions. However, he wants to hear all the questions and that he wants the faculty to have has much information as possible about the budget. As far as residence halls, SAU needed to find a place to house our students. We would not want to send the students home. Because there were not many rental units, new residence halls were necessary. Dr. Lanoue responded that there has been feedback that students would be willing to pay more for a private room. So, if the residence hall occupancy declines, then revenue could be generated in that way.
Dr. Lanoue said that the drop in enrollment was anticipated. However, the enrollment decline has come sooner than was anticipated. Another analysis is the Scholarship Task Force, which is in place to discuss the discount rates. He said that we can’t compete against every program or initiative that other schools use; however, we want to hold our market share. It is important to talk strategically and allocate resources effectively.
President T. Schroeder asked if our growth coincided with a scholarship increase or recruitment.
Dr. Allen answered said that scholarship amounts have not increased scholarship levels, but because the freshman class is larger, the amount spent on scholarships has increased. Also, the higher retention rates have increased the amount of scholarships given. She mentioned that some of SAU’s counterparts have more scholarship dollars given, but we can try and keep up with everyone else. We have to be strategic.
Senator S. Schroeder explained that is frustrating to see small academic programs go without money and resources when there are new programs and Trap Shooting teams being added.
Dr. Berry spoke and explained that SAU has worked very hard to come up with creative academic programs – marine biology, game design, international business, BFA in a state school–adding the Trap Shooting team is similar. We want to draw students through academic programs as well as activities. So, we have tried adding a Trap Shooting team. There have been donation from donors who specifically give to certain areas. For example, a financial gift from banks and others in town have helped to fund the new programs. There will be 45 students on the Trap Shooting team in the fall. Also, we are going to focus on boosting current academic programs, new academic programs, athletics, and student affairs activity. The Trap Shooting coach is across the hall from president because it was an empty office so that the University can help him because he wasn’t from academia. He explained that 2/3 of the students on trap team would not be here if it were not for the trap shooting team. Publicity is because they are new and that is necessary to encourage interest.
President T. Schroeder explained that he is not surprised that there was a donation to the Trap Shooting facility to faculty that there was a donation to the facility. He is concerned that there doesn’t seem to be the same initiatives to help academic departments.
Dr. Berry said that he disagreed that there was not the focus for fundraising for academic programs. So, he asked for President T. Schroeder’s permission to get Josh Kee to speak at the next meeting about the fundraising initiatives for faculty and academia. President T. Schroeder agreed.
Senator White added that information is not disseminated to faculty properly. He emphasized the importance of administration and faculty working together. He asked what the expense was to start a program and what is the percentage of revenue that SAU makes per student?
Senator Tucker added that there are existing programs need more attention, but don’t get money from the foundation. He wanted to know why funds were put into new initiatives and not current programs.
Dr. Lanoue added that there are restricted and unrestricted funds, which can limit how funds are distributed. He explained that sometimes donors specify the fund designation.
Senator Tucker shared that Dr. Rudy Eichenberger donated $10,000.
Dr. Berry stated that there are some exciting opportunities in the area of fundraising. He said that he couldn’t discuss details at this point due to confidentially. However, there are great opportunities coming up.
Dr. Lanoue explained that Josh Kee makes trips to visit donors in which he invites faculty and staff to join him. He stated that there is faculty representation on the budget committees. However, he said that there is room for improvement in sharing information with the faculty. He said that he is happy to take greater responsibility that messages get conveyed back and forth. We have representative processes, but we need to take better steps to make sure that information gets disseminated.
He shared that the Nursing program has been accredited. Also, the College of Business had good report.
III. Committee Reports:
Senator S. Schroeder reported on Handbook committee progress. Annotations by Dr. Lanoue will be combined. The HR policy will has been revised to replace old paper-based student evaluations. There was a handbook change regarding which faculty members are eligible to vote for Faculty representation. The revision would allow full-time instructors to vote for their representatives.
Motion passes
Senator White gave the Faculty Senate Budget Committee Report
Members of the Faculty Senate and Vice President Reed met on Friday, October 4.
The next committee meeting is scheduled for Friday, November 1, 2019.
Faculty Senators present at the meeting included Senator Lowther, Senator Logan, Senator Zia and Senator White.
The following is a summary (in no particular order) of topics that were included in the 10/4/19 meeting:
• Vice President Reed offered to provide the budget committee members (Senators Lowther, Testa, White and Zia) printed copies of the current budget book to help guide the group in answering questions and finding data in future meetings.
• SSCH (student semester credit hour) as another revenue lens as opposed to FTE (full time equivalent)
• Discussion of the approximately 30 metrics utilized by the State to determine performance funding
• What kinds of qualities contribute to a student choosing SAU?
• A formalized budget review process analogous to the class schedule process.
• Discussion of how much of SAU’s SSCH production earns real cash to the University’s revenue.
• Discussion of how much the residence halls contribute to the real cash revenue of the University.
• Discussion of the actual expenses attributed to SSCH production (e.g. anything placed on any transcript).
• Discussion of the actual expenses attributed to the operation of residence halls.
• Discussion of student-debt (when they owe money to SAU) policies and class registration.
• Discussion of instructional costs by faculty classifications.
• Discussion of SAU’s fixed costs
• Philanthropic works in progress/attainted that directly impact faculty salaries and benefits.
Scholarship Task Force needs a motion and 2nd need vote because there it is not a standing committee. [motion –Logan, second – Oden]
Senator White gave the SAU Scholarship Task Force report
The SAU Scholarships Task Force is an ad hoc committee tasked by President Berry to consider ways to leverage our scholarship offerings to meet student needs while supporting the long-term goals of the institution.
Membership of this task force includes all four academic deans (Bachri, Bloss, Langerbein, Sronce), VP-Lanoue, VP-Reed, VP-Allen, Associate Dean of Enrollment Services-Shelly Whaley, Assistant VP of Enrollment Services-Sarah Jennings, Director of Recruitment – Makenzi Hamilton, Director of Financial Aid – Marcela McRae-Brunson, Executive Director of the Foundation – Macy Braswell, Director of Enrollment Relations – Amanda Anderson, and Senator White.
The whole task force met on Sept 26. President Berry appointed Dean Bloss and Assistant VP-Jennings as co-chairs of the task force.
The whole task force met again on October 7, 2019.
Subcommittees were formed on Oct 7, 2019. Senator White is participating in a subcommittee that is studying work study and performance scholarships and requirements. This subcommittee met on October 16th.
The next scheduled meeting of the whole task force is scheduled for October 21, 2019.
Summary:
No formal recommendations have been made as of this report.
The task force is concerned with meeting the needs of emerging and growing populations such as the nontraditionally-aged students.
The task force has been informed that other institutions are utilizing our publicly available scholarship information in a manner that benefits them on the initial offering despite the fact that our scholarship offerings typically serve the students with more services and products over the long-term.
Workstudy, Leadership and Service (Performance) scholarship requirements are being researched and considered.
IV. New Business
President Schroeder – Cell phone policy needs to be discussed at the next meeting.
Motion to adjourn
[motion –Logan, second – Oden]
V. Meeting adjourned at 4:55
