Faculty Senate President’s Report

            Welcome to a new semester.

Yesterday there was yet another article about CCSU in the Hartford Courant. Sometimes it feels as though we are living in a fish bowl with all the attention CCSU has been getting in the press.  Furthermore with NEASC visiting next October, everything we do is subject to scrutiny.  Nevertheless since we are a state institution public scrutiny is justified, and this is something we must learn to live with.

            I want to pick up where we left off, at the December 3 open meeting held in the aftermath of the vote on lack of confidence in President Miller.  We had an impressive turnout, and I felt a lot of positive energy in the room as the panelists and audience held a candid exchange of views.  Of course, this was immediately followed by the exam period and winter break, so some of the energy dissipated.  We now need to recapture that energy and move forward.

            President Miller attended the December 3 meeting.  He listened.  We listened to him.  We listened to each other.  The question was where do we go from here?  The answer is, that we all need to pledge to work together more effectively for our common goal of improving this university.  We need to work not only to overcome divisions between faculty and administration but among the faculty ourselves.

            At the town meeting 19 women faculty presented a statement concerning civility and the Academic Users list serve.  You may find that statement on the Faculty Senate web site at http://www.ccsu.edu/facsenate/To%20all%20of%20our%20colleagues%20at%20CCSU,%20on%20civility%20in%20the%20listserv.htm.  I have enthusiastically endorsed it and plan to use it to encourage everyone, especially those who have been turned off by the negative tone of past conversations, to rejoin the list serve.

            Already I see progress in restoring the list serve to its original purpose.  Within the last two weeks we have seen a very thoughtful discussion, from a variety of perspectives, about the advisability of attempting to raise the average SAT score of incoming students and whether or not this conflicts with our commitment to be an accessible institution.  This is a model of the type of discussion we should see, focused on the issue and devoid of personal attacks.

            President Miller has agreed with my proposal to send an invitation to the entire campus to rejoin Academic Users.  My slogan of the day is “Let’s take back the list serve!”

            I would now like to turn my attention to the results of the recent Noel Levitz survey on employee satisfaction which may be found at http://www.ccsu.edu/satisfaction/files/Analysis1_1.pdf.  I want to focus your attention on the “quadrant analysis” found on page 2.  If you look in the lower right quadrant you will find those items from the survey for which there is the largest gap between importance and satisfaction.  These are the ones that need the most attention.  I must say most of them came as no surprise to me. I have regrouped these items into four clusters and would like to address each one.

Cluster #1  Communication and Teamwork. 

BB. There is a spirit of teamwork and cooperation at this institution.

V. There is good communication between faculty and the administration at this institution.

            This is a problem, which President Miller has acknowledged, both in the open meeting on December 3 and on other occasions.  It is something he and I have pledged to work together to improve.  Nevertheless, here are the opening lines of yesterday’s article in the Courant.

NEW BRITAIN - — Jack Miller says there are two sides to his job as president of Central Connecticut State University: dealing with people and getting stuff done.

Nearly three years after taking over the position and two months after a faculty wide vote was taken questioning his leadership, Miller said he has no desire to alienate or disrespect faculty. Still, he has his priorities.

"Personally, if I were going to choose in my career to do one thing completely or the other, it would be toward the getting-everything-done side," Miller said in an interview last month.

            Of course, President Miller recognizes that in order to get things done, he has to deal with people, including the faculty!   In fact, unless we can reestablish a spirit of teamwork and cooperation none of us is going to be effective.   I am sure it was not his intention to pose such a sharp dichotomy, and yet that’s the way it appears in the press.  Let me reiterate, we want our president to succeed in getting things done, but he needs our help.

            (By the way, I am willing to forgive President Miller if he feels his remarks were taken out of context, for I experienced the same a little later in the article, as I will indicate.)

Cluster #2 Teaching load, needs of faculty. 

SS. Teaching load responsibilities are consistent with institutional expectations for research/creative activity.

O. This institution does a good job of meeting the needs of its faculty.

            This issue is related to the discussion we have had about promotion and tenure policies.  As academic departments now establish more specific guidelines and as we monitor the disposition of promotion and tenure cases, we need to pay careful attention to this concern.  It is my personal view, which I have expressed in my essay on “Mission Creep,” that institutions such as ours must be very careful to maintain an appropriate balance of teaching and creative activity in the evaluative process.   I see a danger in drifting toward imposing on faculty teaching a 12 credit load expectations for publication that approach those of a Research I institution to the detriment of our primary mission to serve our students.

Cluster #3 Strategic Planning and Budget

J. This institution involves its employees in planning for the future.

K. This institution plans carefully.

CC. The reputation of this institution continues to improve.

N. The leadership of this institution has a clear sense of purpose.

R. This institution makes sufficient budgetary resources available to achieve important objectives.

S. This institution makes sufficient staff resources available to achieve important objectives.

EE. Efforts to improve quality are paying off at this institution.

            After going in many different directions over the past few years we now have what we should now all recognize as a strategic plan. Later on the agenda today we will hear a report from the University Planning and Budget Committee and you will be able to assess for yourself the progress that has been made.

            Closely related to strategic planning is the budget process.  I again quote from the article in yesterday’s Courant:

Miller meets often with faculty members and has increased transparency within the administration, most notably with the budget process, according to faculty senate President Tim Craine.

            I explained to the reporter that in the past, the budget process was obscure, even to someone such as myself who served on the UPBC back in the late 1990s.  I have applauded President Miller for the steps he has taken to make the process more inclusive and to link the budget to strategic objectives.  In early March this year, as was done for the first time last year, the UPBC will hold an all day hearing at which the heads of each division will explain in detail their budget requests for the next fiscal year; something that did not occur under previous administrations.

            In my discussion with the reporter, I may have used the phrase “by the seat of his pants” to describe my perception and that of other UPBC members of how the previous President and CFO came up with the budget.  The reporter merged my specific criticism of this aspect of the Judd administration with more general comments, so the following appeared in the article.

Miller's style stands in contrast with that of the outgoing Richard Judd, president of the university from 1996 to 2004. Craine said Judd had his share of proponents and was a presence throughout the campus, with a leadership style of "operating by the seat of his pants."

            I did not intend to characterize former President Judd’s leadership style in that way.  Nor do I want to detract from the many positive accomplishments that took place under his leadership.  For this misstatement of my view, I apologize.

            As positive as this evolution in the budget process has been, I remain critical that it has not gone far enough. In my address to the Senate in September I stated:

Although President Miller has made significant strides toward rendering the budget process more transparent, for which I applaud him, the process has not yet been extended to certain areas such as athletics.

            The issue of the athletic fields remains.  Although the proposal to invest approximately $9 million to improve the facilities is supposed to benefit both intercollegiate athletics and student recreation programs, some concern has been raised that the present plan is focused exclusively on the former to the detriment of student recreation.  I hope to meet soon with the Chief Administrative Officer, the Vice President for Student Affairs, and the chairs of UPBC and the University Athletic Board to discuss this matter.  I will request that the plan be thoroughly reviewed by UPBC and the UAB, and that, if necessary, modifications be made to accommodate the needs of the student recreation program.

Cluster #4 Advising, Retention and Graduation

D. The role of academic advising is clearly articulated and understood.

            This has been a perennial concern, not only for the faculty, but for the students as well.  SGA has consistently identified advising as their top priority.  I am gratified that work is being done in this area by the ad hoc advising task force and, more broadly, by the Retention and Graduation Council.   Later in this meeting we will hear a report from Braden Hosch with statistics related to our retention and graduation rates.  We can expect more reports this semester along with concrete proposals to address the issue.

            All of these issues come in the context of preparing for the NEASC site visit in October.  In fact all the work of the NEASC committees may be considered part of the strategic planning process. Subcommittees have completed their work on the descriptive sections of the report and are beginning to write the sections that appraise our effectiveness and make recommendations for the future.  Faculty are involved in all the subcommittees.  We need to take our participation in NEASC seriously; it is part of our contribution to shared governance at this institution.

            Tomorrow the second NEASC town meeting will be held in Founders Hall at 1:00 PM.  I urge all faculty, particularly members of the Senate, to attend and participate in the discussion.

            Finally, as the terms of your current President, Vice President, and Secretary come to a close, we must begin thinking about the election of your next set of officers.  According to section 2.1.2 of the Senate by-laws, the election shall occur at the first regularly scheduled Senate meeting in April.  That will be held on April 14.  I propose that we take nominations for the three offices at our March 10 meeting and give the candidates the opportunity to address the Senate on April 14 prior to the vote.

            It has been a privilege to serve as your President these past four years, and working with all of you has brought me much satisfaction.   I hope that in some small way I have been able to promote the principle of shared governance and the role of the Senate in shaping the future of CCSU.

            Tim Craine

            January 28, 2008