2/22/06 FS agenda item A1 MEMORANDUM To: From: Date: Faculty Senate Mary Coombs, Chair February 16, 2006
Subject: Chair’s Remarks for February 22, 2006, Faculty Senate Meeting ****************************************************************************** Remember that the February meeting is our annual meeting on the Rosenstiel campus (Virginia Key next to the Seaquarium). It will take place at 3:30 in the Seminar room by the Dean's office. Directional signs will be posted. There should be parking just outside the entrance gate. If for some reason there is no parking, drive up to the guard gate and ask for instructions. You do not need a special parking pass. I am saddened to report the death of Ramon Lemos, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Philosophy, former Senator and recipient of our Distinguished Faculty Scholarship Award in 1997. We had a very successful event honoring Andreas Tzakis with our James W. McLamore Award. The large turnout contributed to the success. Please come if you possibly can to the remaining events listed at the end of this memo. Don’t forget the Richard Light presentation, the day before the February Senate meeting. As President Shalala informed us last week, and perhaps in part as a result of the urging of the Senate and others, there will be no further professional boxing events at the BankUnited Center. The promoter apparently treated a hope as a fact in suggesting that the event on February 10 was the first of a series. It was in fact the first (and last)of a series of one! Questions regarding the University’s activities in regard to hurricane preparedness were also raised at the meeting hosted by the President last week. As she indicated, much of this information is available on the web. Please visit http://www.miami.edu/prepare. The University is continuing to move forward in its SACS reaccreditation process. I invite you to see more at www.miami.edu/sacs/. The Chair of these efforts, Andy Gomez, reported briefly to the General Welfare Committee this month and will be joining the Senate for the March meeting. The University is beginning to move forward on choosing and implementing a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), a new requirement of SACS. The proposal currently under most active consideration grows out of the writing requirement that the Senate had urged that the University adopt as part of the General Education Requirements reconsideration in 2003. It would be a focus on communication, in its myriad forms, to be implemented in a variety of ways appropriate to students in the different schools and disciplines. At the ADPC, the Deans were urged to discuss this with their faculties, so you should be hearing more about it (Andy and the Provost of course acknowledged that the faculty must be involved in the choice as well as the implementation of the QEP).
The Provost has now gone through one cycle of the tenure and promotion process, and he has seen much that is good and also much that could be improved. He has told me and others that he is actively considering what kinds of changes he might suggest be implemented. Over the next few months we are likely to hear more specifics from him and become engaged in a joint project to create a process that will be reliably better for the junior faculty and for the institution. You and your colleagues should be receiving an email from the Faculty Senate office shortly soliciting your interest in committee service. Please do volunteer and encourage your colleagues to do so. As you know, much of the most important work of the Senate is done by and in its committees; next year’s chair will need, as I have had, sufficient volunteers to be able to staff every committee with the appropriate mix of people in terms of affiliation and level, with every one of them bringing knowledge, thoughtfulness, enthusiasm, and willingness to work. Thank you in advance for encouraging your colleagues to consider this important service to the faculty and the university. Upcoming events: Professor Richard Light will make a presentation regarding the role of academic assessment in teaching, research, and student learning on Tuesday, February 21, 2006, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the McLamore Executive Center 3rd floor, School of Business Administration. Assessment is a central component of the SACS reaffirmation process, and Dr. Light is one of the nation’s leading authorities in the area. The Outstanding Teaching Award ceremony, honoring Diana M. Lopez, will take place on Wednesday, March 1, at 4:00 p.m. in the Storer Auditorium, School of Business Administration. The Faculty Senate Naming Ceremony will take place on Wednesday, March 29, at 4:00 p.m 2nd floor lobby of the Ashe Administration Building. The Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award, honoring our own William Whelan, will take place on Wednesday, April 5, at 4:00 p.m. in the Storer Auditorium, School of Business Administration.