October 5, 2006
Loyola Marymount University
Faculty Senate Meeting Summary
October 5, 2006
Collins Center
3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Present: Blake Mellor, Cynthia Becht, Jeffrey Davis, Charles Erven, Sonny Espinoza, Omar Es-Said, Rudy Fleck, Vicki Graf, Paul Harris, Gary Kuleck, Yvette Lapayese, Mel Mendelson, Ed Mosteig, Liz Murray, Jennifer Offenberg, K. J. Peters, Damon Rago, Nina Reich, Rhonda Rosen, Sue Scheibler and Seth Thompson
Excused: Najwa Al-Qattan, Chun Lee, Ralph Quiñones, James Roe and Jonathan Rothchild
President Graf began the meeting with a moment of reflection for the work we are doing.
1. Updates
President Graf provided the Faculty Senate with updates:
-The Board of Trustees meeting highlights included reports from the Senior Vice Presidents including the Dean of the Law School.
- CAO Rose discussed the 6 year graduation rate. The percentage of students graduating is 75% and the goal is to have that percentage go up to 82% in the class of 2008. An additional area of concern is financial aid.
- There are plans to internationalize LMU and recruit from the Pacific Rim and Latin America.
- Peter Hoffman’s report on the Trustees Facilities Planning Committee meeting was distributed.
- This meeting reviewed the summer capital improvement projects completed in the summer of 2006—more than $3.7 million were spent on renovations that included the “creation” of 46 new spaces (e.g. conference room, classroom, etc.) from existing spaces on campus; biggest single project was the $900,000 renovation of Hilton basement, other major projects included the Collins Center, St. Roberts basement computer lounge, etc.
- A summary of deferred maintenance issues on campus—this year’s budget allocates $4.6 million to deferred maintenance; substantial managerial changes were recently implemented in Facilities Management to manage this budget and the designation of projects for completion.
- There was also a discussion of the energy systems on campus and the ongoing projects to increase efficiency and update campus electrical/HVAC systems.
Future action and plans that were discussed at the meeting that may concern and/or be of interest to the faculty included:
- Continuing efforts to increase efficiency of existing campus spaces by “right sizing” existing offices; problem/issue is especially acute in University Hall, where such units as Education are in need of more office space.
- Major capital improvement projects slated for this year/coming summer include HVAC upgrades for Xavier, Malone, Doolan and Burns and the renovation of the second floor of Hilton.
- Staff is currently looking at improvements to lighting in the Sunken Gardens and a consultant is working on upgrades to the Sunken Garden and terrace in front of the chapel to make this site more useful for campus gatherings and the re-oriented graduation ceremony.
- A wide variety of ongoing projects in the campus infrastructure (central plant, electrical systems, sewage, etc.) will be a primary focus of Facilities Management staff this year as they attempt to increase efficiency of systems, save energy costs and take advantage of various incentives of City of Los Angeles and DWP.
- Finally, the staff estimates the University currently has approximately $20 million in deferred maintenance projects. The current budget is for $4.6 million. Deferred maintenance budget for next year is unknown and cost of the projects will continue to escalate as buildings and systems age. Concern is that this year’s budget was a one time increase (historically the deferred maintenance budget has been around $1 million) and that subsequent budget will not enable staff to meet ongoing costs—resulting in “emergency” allocations when systems fail and substantially increased repair costs over regular deferred maintenance and/or increased preventative maintenance.
- Faculty Handbook: President Graf announced that Drew Bridges, University Attorney, would be coming to the Deans’ Council to discuss the procedure for revising the Handbook.
- Faculty lunches with Fr. Lawton are continuing. Fr. Lawton has requested to have lunch with junior faculty on Tuesday, October 10th, to discuss issues related to the retention of junior faculty.
- Damon Rago was thanked for conducting the election for the at-large position replacing Rudy Fleck for the Spring 2007 semester. Veronique Flambard-Weisbart will be the replacement.
- The Faculty Senate By-Laws and Constitution need to be reviewed regarding the representation of non-tenure track faculty and the extra monthly meetings.
- A meeting was held with Ray Lee of Sodexho, President Graf, Linda Towner and Rosa Calderon at the Collins Center to discuss possible lunch options that Sodexho can provide at the Center.
2. Discussion on University Comprehensive Benefits Committee
- Introduction to Proposed Committee – “LMU leadership recognized the importance and value of input for many areas of decision-making by members of the campus community. To facilitate such collaboration, the University, in partnership with the Faculty Senate, has set forth a University Comprehensive Benefits Committee (UCBC).”
- This is the first opportunity for the faculty to sit at the table with administration to discuss salaries, compensation, benefits packages, etc.
-Rebecca Chandler drafted the “Membership” policies:
- Membership: Ten (10) members at large appointed by the President.
- Set: Faculty Senate President/Co-Chair; VP for HR/Co-Chair; Business
and Finance/VP for Finance & Controller; Academic Affairs designee (Dean); and Loyola Law School Administrative Representative
- Rotating: 2 Faculty; 1 Faculty Loyola Law School; and 2 Staff (1 from Student Affairs and 1 from University Relations
- Margaret Halm/Benefits Manager and Maria Cano/Director for Academic Affairs
Discussion about the committee focused on the role of the Senate President and ESOF, length of terms due to term limit for Senate President, and input from Staff especially Professional Librarians.
3. Discussion on Subcommittees
-Issues related to junior faculty
- Junior Faculty Concerns: Ed Mosteig and Yvette Lapayese will be co-chairs of the sub-committee including Liz Murray, Jonathan Rothchild, Nina Reich, Blake Mellor and Sonny Espinoza. The committee will be looking into quality of family and economic Life and diversity.
Discussion focused on the best way to implement Sub-committee changes and recommendations. The Co-chairs were invited to the next meeting between the CAO and the Executive Board.
- Governance and IT
- General concern: Faculty involvement in planning policy for IT has been lost. Faculty Senate should have an independent voice in ITS.
Seth Thompson will report back on the current role of faculty in the oversight of IT.
- Non-tenure track faculty
- Non-tenure track faculty does not have representation to assist them in discussing pay, etc. Questions included the getting the exact number of these faculty, the implications of the increasing trend of hiring these faculty for the professoriate and tenure
President Graf will get information related to the number of these faculty in the various Colleges/Schools at LMU.
- Unions and unionization at LMU
Sue Scheibler has expressed interest in this matter and will investigate the situation at USF and related research.
- Corporatization and its impact on LMU Culture
This is an issue related to the union issue and could be discussed along with this issue.
4. Discussion on Reduced Teaching Load
- The Teaching Load subcommittee of Matt Dillon, Jeffrey Davis and Seth Thompson is developing a survey to assess the faculty’s opinion on various issues related to teaching load
- The Subcommittee is requesting Faculty Senate approval to send surveys and other instruments to the faculty without obtaining the Senate’s approval on the text.
Discussion included the recommendation to look at models of self-selection of teaching loads, identifying what loads faculty currently have, and issue of clinical faculty.
It was moved and seconded that Matt Dillon and his Senate sub-committee on the Teaching Load be given authority to draft and deploy a survey without Senate approval. Motion was approved.
5. Discussion on Governance
In the interest of time, this discussion has been deferred until the next meeting.
6. Discussion on Evaluation of Administrators
Michael Berg presented the report on the Sub-Committee which he is co-chairing with John Wholihan. He reviewed the time line of the inception of the committee including the first meeting which was held today. The Senate discussed the process by which the sub-committee had been created as well as its charge. Concerns were voiced that the evaluative model approved by the Senate last year had not been carried forward. It was suggested that the Senate-approved model for Evaluation of Administrators be held as a reserve option if other models the sub-committee explored did not fulfill the Senate’s expectation of full participation.
It was moved and seconded that the Committee on the Evaluation of Administrators (CEA) move forward in the development of an administrative evaluative tool including the voice of the entire faculty in consultation with Margaret Kasimatis and the CAO.
The motion was approved with one nay vote and one abstention.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m.
Submitted by: Cynthia Becht
Prepared by: Rosa Calderon
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