Faculty Senate News

President's Report 1/13/23

January 12, 2023  / Anna Carlin 

BOT Updates

The Board of Trustees met on Tuesday, January 10.  At the meeting we got an update on the Presidential Search at the meeting. The search committee will remain the same save for two members. Ashley Coone and faculty member Arie van Duijn will not continue on the committee and Trustee Joseph Fogg and faculty member Shelton Weeks will be taking those respective spots. The first search committee meeting is happening at 10 am today (January 13).  The RFP for search firms closed on January 11 and the Search Committee hopes to be able to select a search firm at this first meeting. 

The board approved an amendment to the carry forward spending plan that included money to build a boardwalk between SOVI and main campus as well as increased funds for academic affairs initiatives.

The item that generated the most discussion at the meeting was the presentation on our preliminary performance based funding metric scores for this academic year. The slides from the presentation are available online:

https://www2.fgcu.edu/Trustees/AgendaFile/2023/1-10-2023/January%2010,%202023%20BOT%20Meeting%20Handouts.pdf

The big take away is that our over all score is expected to be 73. This is good because a) it is over 70 and b) it is 2 points improvement from last year. This keeps us out of the punishment range and means that we should not have any funding withheld in the next year. This year we still need to report on the progress of our Student Success Plan in order to receive the remainder of our funding from the state. We were required to submit this plan because our score previously decreased two years in a row. If Faculty Senate agrees, I think it would be great for us to get our own presentation on our performance in the metrics similar to what the BOT heard.

I am still working on getting the chair of the BOT to a Faculty Senate meeting. He is agreeable, we just need to work through schedules.

BOG meeting January 24-25

The next BOG meeting is at FIU January 24-25. The agenda is not published yet, but we expect for the Post-Tenure Review Regulation to come up for a vote.

Florida Higher Education activities in the news

You all are most likely aware of a couple of news items having to do with state government involvement in higher education in Florida. Florida universities have been asked by the Governor's Office to report on state funded activities related to diversity equity and inclusion and critical race theory.  I have learned since this story broke that the form asks universities not to include courses that are electives, only those required for a degree program. 

https://www-chronicle-com.eu1.proxy.openathens.net/article/a-florida-university-is-quickly-assembling-a-list-of-courses-on-diversity-why-desantis-asked

New College of Florida is getting a new slate of Trustees.

https://www-chronicle-com.eu1.proxy.openathens.net/article/the-fight-for-floridas-new-college

Legislative Sub-Committee

Last year we attempted to form a legislative subcommittee of the Faculty Senate to engage in discussions about bills and other legislative activity with the university's legislative liaison in order to provide faculty perspectives. Existing members are welcome to continue, but new members may join. I would especially like to recruit a "chair" of this group that can assume responsibility for convening the group to meet as I cannot commit to performing this duty. Please let me know if you are interested.

Interfolio update

Last year we began the process of investing in faculty-focused technology to support every stage of the faculty life cycle by implementing the Review and Promotion Module from Interfolio. Again, we have engaged with Interfolio, to use their Faculty Activity Reporting module. Over the last several months, a team of FGCU staff and faculty have worked with Interfolio to begin the discovery process to identify current data sources available on campus. Next steps include working towards configuration to provide the best initial experience. Over the next several weeks and months we will send additional communications about the application, opportunities for you to be involved in the implementation process, and ways that you can provide feedback and suggestions for faculty related processes. We are still looking for one more faculty member that can provide valuable input about setup for the steering committee. Please talk to me or Andi Clemons if you are interested.