Academic planning, Athletics dominate
senate discussions

Course requirements eased for Commonwealth College

by Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

early an hour after the Faculty Senate convened its March 14 meeting, the group considered the original item on the top of its agenda. The intervening time was occupied by a sometimes heated question period, during which senators asked members of the administration about the Athletics budget, faculty concerns about academic and budget planning, and other issues.

     Craig Moore, who initiated the move of the question period from the end to the beginning of the agenda, asked interim Chancellor Marcellette G. Williams why deans and other faculty had to learn from reporters and newspaper stories about a $530,085 reallocation to scholarship aid from the more than $1.1 million in Athletics cuts that occurred when the campus decided to eliminate seven sports earlier in the month.

     Senators said they were concerned that the scholarship reallocation was intended to enhance other sports and that the real cut to Athletics was approximately $500,000.
Williams said it had not been her intention to obfuscate or withhold information and apologized for any confusion. She then clarified that the $530,085 is a one-year expenditure to allow any of the 48 students in the seven cut sports who are receiving Athletics scholarships to continue at the University next year at their current level of financial aid.

     "Ultimately there will be a $1 million reduction from the Athletics budget," she said.
Peter d'Errico, chair of the Council on University Service, Public Service and Outreach, asked Williams to comment on some off-campus news he had heard.

     "I was recently informed the Amherst College faculty had a general meeting at which substantial concern was expressed about the state and the University's budget and a motion was made to pass a resolution of the faculty to that effect. And the president of the college informed the faculty that there had been an offer already by him and others among the four colleges to make a concerted public statement about their concern about the University budget and that the chancellor asked them please not to do that."

     "That ... can be denied," Williams said. "I did not ask them to do that. Earlier today, I saw a copy of such a letter that will be going out or has gone out advocating on our behalf. Did I ask them not to send it? No, I did not."

     The statement was posted on the four colleges' Web sites March 26.

     Rules Committee chair Roland Chilton asked interim Provost Charlena Seymour, about sharing information the Provost's Office is gathering from departments about the number of faculty scheduled to teach in the fall, which courses they have been assigned, and the estimated number students who will be admitted to the courses.

     "We all know that a series of qualitative questions will have to be asked if this information is to be interpreted sensibly," he said. "We know that there will be problems with the accuracy of some of the numbers. Nevertheless, starting with the numbers is a good idea, and the administration is to be commended for gathering them.

     "Is it your intention to make all of this information available to Faculty Senate councils and committees in electronic form as soon as possible so that their advice and recommendations will be available to you this semester? When do you think the first set of numbers will be available to the Faculty Senate? (And I'm making a distinction here between the first wave of responses and the final counts that may not be developed before late summer.)"

     "In the spirit of collaboration, I intend to work with the Rules Committee to discuss a process in terms of how this information should be distributed to the other councils [and] groups on campus who feel that this information will be helpful in their planning," Seymour said. "All along, it has been the sense of the administration to be as open and facilitative and direct and timely with regards to all information that is collected and stored in the Provost's Office as possible."

     "The primary goal of this effort is to map the dimensions and the topography of what we are going to see as gaps in the instructional capacity for the next academic year," said John Cunningham, deputy provost. "We're trying to get a course-wise, rather than instructor-wise, look.

     "So we're asking the department chairs, 'If you anticipate not having a certain faculty member, here is a list of the courses they have taught in the past. How do you rate the status of those courses as to "elective," "required," "service," how do you rate the priority of teaching it as "mandatory," discretionary," and what is the status of your anticipation? That you can cover it? That you have a person who can cover it but not the money? Whether you have neither the person nor the money to cover it.' That's the kind of information we're trying to get a view on, and, as indicated, we're happy and eager to talk with the Rules Committee about the appropriate way to distribute, analyze and usefully make...work from that outcome."

     Senate secretary Ernest May asked what was the plan for reviewing nonacademic units.

     Williams said each executive area had received memos specifying "what is to be undertaken and how" that very day. Interim Deputy Chancellor John Dubach said units within each vice chancellory had four weeks to get back to their leaders with budget plans.

     Once the agenda was underway from its beginning, the senate passed an emergency modification to the requirements of Commonwealth College, reducing the number of honors courses needed for graduation from 10 to eight, including a reduction from three to two of the number of General Education honors courses required.

     The senate also endorsed the Faculty and Librarian Declaration of Principle originally discussed at the faculty and librarian forum on Feb. 21 (www.umass.edu/chronicle/archives/02/03-01/declaration.htm); received the annual report of the Council on University Service, Public Service and Outreach; and heard a progress report from the Provost's Steering Committee on Program Assessment, Strategic Directions and Resource Allocation.