Faculty Council

January 20, 2015 7-9 PM

VIP Room, A&E

Present: D. Duke, M. Geiszler, J. Harrington, P. Winters, B. Rappa, P. Constantinou, H. Dichter, D. Long, C. McNamara, T. Swensen, J. Winslow, P. Cole Murray, S. Condeescu, V. Bruce Conger, J. Freitag, T. Galanthay, C. Henderson, T. Patrone, J. Rosenthal, S. Seltzer, Anne Theobald, D. Tindall, Rachel Wagner, C. Barboza, D. Birr, C. Dimaras, D. Rifkin, P. Rothbart

Absent: J. Pfrehm, K. Logsdon

Approval of Minutes:

Open Session: None

Announcements

The Faculty Council Executive Committee will begin meeting on a semi-annual basis with the Educational Affairs of the Board of Trustees. This is the first time regular contact between Faculty and Trustees that has happened in the history of Ithaca College. There will be two meetings, tentatively in the May and October.

The President has invited the Faculty Council Executive Committee to attend the Administrative Assembly regularly.

Peter attended the last Administrative Assembly. The assembly included information regarding updates for managerial staff and strategic sourcing (contractual companies such as Staples).

If youd like further information regarding updates contact Peter Rothbart.

There was also information about the Workforce Classification Survey. This survey serves as an articulation of job roles, responsibilities and titles.

The Staff/Faculty Benefits Committee members include: John Rosenthal, Chris McNamara, Ivy Walz, and Karen Edwards. The committee of 10 staff and 4 faculty will be meeting with Mark Holdren and his delegates.

A part-time faculty member is needed for the council and a one-semester replacement for the Facilities Planning Committee.

A general Town Hall meeting will be held in addition to two other meetings revolving around the topic of Shared Governance. The Shared Governance meetings will be at 12:05 on Feb. 17 and 19.

As per Faculty Councils recent motion concerning support for the Counseling Center. Peter wrote a strong letter and delivered it to the President. He forwarded it to the IEBC, and he will be bringing it up at the Presidents Council. The council will continue to follow up with that message.

The Grading Deadline. The registrar is working up a report regarding the extended grade deadline. 650 grades out of 55-60,000 grades were not submitted. There is no discernable difference in the rate of submission over the years.

Interim Provosts Comments, Linda Petrosino

Update about activities occurring in the fall semester. At the end of last semester students protested around the issue of the Michael Brown shooting. Areas were cleared for the protests, administrators acted as support. There was open dialogue about how to demonstrate peacefully and actively around exam time. An administrative team from different offices met four times before break with student leaders to discuss mutual areas of concern and how they could partner with students on these issues, and get the student voice heard. After the break, administrators and students resumed the conversation around student issues. Linda emphasizes the importance of listening to and participating with students. The student questions revolved around students who are not involved with the student government but need to get their voices heard. There has been conversation around the campus climate survey done in 2012 and issues around diversity. The school administrators have a couple plans worked out, but want to present them to the students, and get feedback. There may be a continuation of peaceful protestation and activities on campus from our students.

The Deans were approached by students regarding issues of micro aggressions on campus.

The second point is Educational Affairs has been very active with the zero based budgeting process. Linda wants to thank those who have been actively involved with this process.

The college is currently searching for a Dean for the School of Business.

Faculty Handbook Amendment Committee Proposals

Steve Skopik, Chair, Faculty Handbook Amendment Committee

Current Policy Manual 4.51 Sabbatical Leaves:

The committee was asked to add a minor clarifying sentence to the policy on sabbatical leave. The current handbook states that a faculty member needs to return for a full academic year. If, however, one is taking a semester long sabbatical during the fall semester what does returning for a year mean? The change in language clarifies that two academic semesters, rather than one academic year must be completed after the sabbatical semester or year. The issue was discussed. The motion to amend the policy was passed with a majority in favor, no opposition and one abstention.

All College Conflict of Interest Policy, Nepotism Policy, Whistleblower Policy Nancy Pringle, Vice-President/General Counsel

The Ethics and Integrity Policy was passed in the November meeting.

Nepotism: The Employment of Friends and Family Members

Several faculty felt that the word, suggest, in the final paragraph on the first page should be replaced for clarity. Nancy Pringle was approached about the language she has taken into account the suggested changes and has done them.

In part 3.6.1.1: The word, Friends should be omitted from the document title, as the document makes no further reference to such.

The document was tabled and referred back to Counsels Office to make the above revision. All were in favor of tabling the document with no opposition and no abstentions.

Conflict of Interest and Conflict of Commitment Policy

This document has been corrected according to previous suggestion.

Motion to endorse was seconded. All were in favor no opposition, 2 abstentions. The endorsement was carried.

New Business

The agenda format has been changed slightly. Tentative topics were for the next meeting were added to the current agenda. This will allow for conversation between colleagues regarding agenda items before the Council begins its discussions.

Concern was expressed as to whether or not the campus activities surrounding Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Day are being effective. Students are not necessarily aware of the events and functions on campus regarding MLK.

Zero-Based Budget Discussion

Gerald Hector, Vice-President, Finance and Administration

Gerald Hectors updates

Budgets were submitted from over 280 cost centers for the institution. We were somewhere north of 6.5 million dollars to balance the budget, which implies we need to dial it back. Currently the IEBC and PC are wrestling with getting the numbers back in line. Primarily, they did not want to do an across the board cut, because it is not strategically sound. In addition to the operating budget we are confronted with the issue of deferred maintenance. A deferred maintenance and a master plan study came in at 188 million dollars, not including Butterfield Stadium and the underground infrastructure that spreads all across the campus. That number has been taken by itself excluding the master plan. The number has been broken down into time periods 1-3 years 4-7 years 8-10 years. The 1-3 year time was 111 million dollars, 35-40% of that pertaining to residential halls. The quads are being lifted out of time frame (A) 111 million, this timeframe has been taken down to 60 million. Either the money is going to have to be borrowed or a P3 Public Private Partnership will have to be worked through. The quads were built at a certain time and they are dated. Moving them into the Americans with Disabilities Act will take the price up 30 million more dollars. With the ADA requirements, we are looking at a 90 million dollar proposition. To just replace the quads with brand new ones is 110 million dollars. These are some of the capital pressures on IC. Additionally, more institutional aid has to be offered to students in order for them to afford IC. Everything has to be finalized and taken to the board of Trustees for Review Discussion and Approval.

The Moody rating for the college is a healthy A2.

Ithaca College is financially healthy

None of the money for any new building or renovation of the quad is going to effect current operations, unless we do it by debt.

We are highly tuition dependent at 96%. We are dependent on students to get us our operating dollars on an annual basis. We also budget in a way that we not only meet the operating budget, but we also have excess that will allow us to generate cash to deal with our deferred maintenance.

Adjournment: Motion to Adjourn at 9:05 PM