MSU-BOZEMAN FACULTY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES November 1, 2000 PRESENT: Sherwood, Kommers, Linker, Leech, Benham, Stewart, Larsen, Jost, Nehrir, Mooney, McMahon, Amend for McClure, Lansverk, Levy, Bogar, Jelinski, Kirkpatrick, McKinsey, Lynch, Fisher. ABSENT: Young, Hatfield, Morrill, Miller, White, Anderson, Peed, Howard, Harkin, Lefcort, Locke, Bond, Prawdzienski, Butterfield, Scott, Griffith, Carlstrom. The regularly-scheduled meeting was called to order by Chair Ron Larsen at 4:10 PM. It was determined a quorum was present. The minutes of the October 25, 2000, Faculty Council meeting were approved as distributed. Chair's report - Ron Larsen. - A forum for local legislative candidates will be held this evening at 7:00 PM in SUB Ballroom C. Faculty are encouraged to attend and to ask candidates if they support the $500/student additional funding requested for the Montana University System. - A Faculty Council website has been established at www.coe.montana.edu/che/FacCouncil. Membership, meeting agendas and minutes, and handouts such as Faculty Handbook revisions are posted there. - The Hewlett Committee will not meet with University Governance Council next Wednesday. They have asked to meet with the Council at a later date, after they have gathered more information. Faculty line policy - Interim Provost Dooley (Discussion continued from last week) - The criteria for implementing the policy, as adopted by the deans, were discussed. - "Opportunities" is one of the most difficult categories about which to make judgements without a university-level strategic plan. In the interim, college strategic plans will be used for that purpose. - A handout indicating how the policy has been applied this year was distributed. The policy could have been applied to 24 faculty and professional lines. To date, the number of faculty lines authorized to be filled is 16. The number of vacant faculty lines not subject to the policy is one, and the number of professional lines allowed to be retained is two. - The total set aside because of lines not filled is $740,000. One-half of this is retained by the affected colleges, one-half reverts to the Provost's Office. Of the Provost's half, $310,000 has been returned to colleges to make sure classes are covered and other obligations made during the implementation of the new policy are fulfilled. - Deans are given flexibility in using money retained by or returned to colleges for purposes other than funding faculty lines, if they feel it is in the best interest of the college. - In response to a question, Provost Dooley stated it is understood that there may be an unintended consequence of reducing tenurable positions and increasing adjunct faculty lines, but deans and the Provost are sensitive to the issue and would not want to weaken the research/scholarship mission of colleges by a substantial reduction in tenurable faculty lines. He also stated he would consider adding a statement to the policy, with the deans' agreement, that everything possible will be done not to reduce the current number of tenurable lines. - A vacant faculty line will be discontinued in a college if a dean does not need it. The money returned to the college may be used for purposes other than a tenurable faculty position if the dean makes a case for it. The discontinued faculty line may go to another college or be completely terminated. - It was suggested during discussion that all sources of income within the university be considered in order to provide flexibility. The Budget Director now reports to the President, and this may be a step in the direction of looking at all university budgets and making allocations across boundaries of vice presidents. It was affirmed that the SPBC is responsible for planning related to all University budgets, not just the instructional budget. -Chair Larsen distributed for comment a proposed data sheet for faculty line reversion (attached for members absent). Enrollment and its budget implications - Craig Roloff. - Information regarding enrollments and revenue implications was distributed. This information indicates that the MSU budget is very sensitive to minor enrollment changes. - Factors that have affected enrollment this fall include: a slightly lower rate of enrollment in freshman who submitted applications this year in comparison to the past, a slight decrease in student credit hours carried by the average student, and a slight drop in retention. - At issue is whether this is a one-year happening or the beginning of a trend. - There are factors that need to be considered in projecting future enrollment. - MSU traditionally has strong student enrollment from counties in eastern Montana (which tend to be losing population) and UM tends to have strong student enrollment from counties in western Montana (which tend to be gaining population). - Recruitment efforts may need to change. Determine where out-of-state students who would be compatible with MSU are and do more recruiting in those areas. - Consider reasons why students are carrying less credits: Are they deciding to take five years to graduate, are they needing to work more to pay for school? - Continue to work toward increased retention of students. - MSU tries to be as accurate about enrollment projections as possible. This is particularly critical because the university contingency fund is so small. A 200-student contingency fund would require over $1 million. Base commitments would have to be eliminated to have that much in reserve. - The shortfall in budgeted income is covered for this semester. However, attention needs to be given to improving the conversion factor (the relationship between student headcount and FTE) so additional funding is available. As there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 5:10 PM. Joann Amend, Secretary Ron Larsen, Chair