New Year's Resolution for National-Louis University

In the spirit of the season, I offer these suggested New Year's Resolutions.

1. Make a budget and stick to it. National-Louis's biggest challenge in the short term is ensuring income exceeds expenses. To do so, NLU needs to watch its expenses and work hard to meet its revenue forecasts. Meeting revenue forecasts for this year is hard because of the downturn, but the Enrollment group is doing its best to turn the tide. Faculty can do its part by ensuring that their students have excellent experiences in their classes. The whole institution has done well holding the line on expenses, but sacrifices will have to be made for the budget that begins on July 1, 2011.

2. Start working out to increase endurance and gain muscle. NLU needs to build the strength of its academic programs and develop strong new ones. Following through on the recommendations of the Senate Academic Planning Task Force will help NLU strengthen its present programs and develop fresh, new programming that is academically sound, mission-consistent, appealing to students, and linked to the job market and workplace demands. Smart organizations know that when times are tough, one way to make improvements without raising expenses is to increase quality. NLU's excellent faculty is well equipped to do this. Faculty also need to be ready to collaborate with all stakeholders to begin development of new programs.

3. Get a part-time job for extra income. NLU needs to find new sources of income. Finding a new daytime tenant next year for the Chicago campus, when the high school is scheduled to move out, would be great. Our grants and contracts for this year are already at record levels, and we need to continue to build in this success.

4. Build up savings and investments. NLU needs to increase the size of its endowment. Institutional Development is also deeply engaged in improving alumni relations, leading to more giving, and taking advantage of the 125th anniversary celebration to move the institution forward. The Board of Trustees has also made some changes to our investment portfolio to increase yield and minimize risk.

5. Get along better with significant others. The Senate Task Force on Promotion and Tenure has worked very hard to build an improved Promotion and Tenure policy, which is designed to build the faculty NLU needs for the next 30 years. The administration has also worked very hard to build collaborative relations with faculty. Faculty need to get to know the new administration, provost, and president, and build strong, positive working relations going forward. NLU also needs to ensure it has good relations with staff and adjuncts. Finally, NLU needs to continue to do a good job of getting along with regulators and accreditors, such as IBHE, HLC, ISBE, NCATE, etc.

6. Go back to school. As a knowledge organization, NLU needs to not just stay up to date, but be a leader. Faculty and administrators need to stay informed about trends and forecasts in higher education. Faculty need to stay up to date in their fields, and get information on higher education from resources like the Chronicle, Inside Higher Ed, and other sources. We also need to ensure that our programs are up to date academically and linked to students career and life goals.

7. Do a fashion make-over. NLU has done make-overs at Lisle, North Shore, and Wheeling, but Chicago needs some work. In addition, our website really cries out for a change. Finally, a new marketing campaign is needed to get the word out about how great we are.

8. Build a retirement plan. NLU has an aging faculty, and a large portion will be retiring soon. NLU needs a strategy on how to manage this demographic shift. and also needs to examine whether an early retirement package will help the institution manage the transition and replace higher faculty salaries with lower ones.

9. Do a good job bringing up the kids. NLU needs to improve its development and mentoring of new faculty, especially given the large number of new faculty coming here over the next few years. Many universities have a Center for Teaching Excellence just for the purpose of mentoring and supporting all faculty. In addition, many faculty are still not receiving regular reviews per policy.

10. Focus on doing a great job at work. We are primarily tuition-driven, so we need to watch the fundamentals of that business. We have a stellar reputation, but there are some recent red flags about student satisfaction. Faculty need to engage with data, and use our successes as models for areas that need improvements. We also really need to improve student service, and for faculty that involves being responsive to students, for example, when they contact us by email. Responsiveness to students is especially important in clusters, where the faculty member may be the main or only contact with faculty.

11. Learn to use my computer. Well, we probably all use our computers, but we need to consider whether we are using technology appropriately to support learning. Every program needs to examine web enhancements, and we need to ensure that students are exposed to the technology they will need on the job. For example, in teacher education, we need to model the technology tools teacher will use in their classrooms. Teachers need to see and use smart boards, mobile devices, and other tools, and watch as their teachers use them. We also need to stop misusing email, and migrate to other kinds of electronic communication, such as blogs, wikis, and collaborative tools. And the Digital Commons needs to become a rich, vibrant place for faculty, students, and the academic community to find valuable content and resources.

12. Get a life. NLU has developed a workaholic culture over the years. Faculty with meetings in the morning and classes at night end up working multiple 12 and 14 hour days each week. Faculty are on email constantly. And NLU is facing a time of increased work as we do all of the things we need to get through this period and move forward with enhanced academics, stellar student services, new programs, and increased quality. Faculty need to ensure that they have time for family, personal and professional development, exercise, and fun so that they are fresh and ready to face our challenges and do a great job.

Academic Excellence at NLU

It seems like I think about NLU all the time in this role, and meet NLU stakeholders everywhere I go. I was recently in a video store, and it turned out that a clerk is in the elementary education program. He is just about to start student teaching, and in fact had just got the call about a placement interview when we talked.

He told me that he really valued the preparation he was getting at NLU, and praised the faculty again and again. In fact, he told me that he had transferred from Northeastern because our program met his needs much better than theirs. His enthusiasm and outstanding preparation bode well for the students he will serve during his student teaching and his entire teaching career. Schools need all the bright, motivated, enthusiastic, caring teachers they can get!

This anecdotal evidence shows again what we already know and has been borne out in Marketing's new research on NLU--a prime reason students choose NLU is because of strong personal relationships with faculty. Alumni affairs is also building strong relations with alums (which will lead to increased giving) by leveraging faculty relationships and building them over time. For example, the university is now webcasting faculty presentations to alums, starting with a presentation by Fletcher about his new book on academic rituals. That presentation got an excellent response from alums.

As we move forward into challenging times, we need to ensure that we retain the vigor and vitality of our programs and continue to ensure that students form strong, positive relations with faculty.

The Academic Planning Task Force is one way to ensure that faculty have a strong and vital role in academic planning, that programs remain vigorous, and that students are achieving our learning outcomes. The Promotion and Tenure Policy is a good way to ensure that an outstanding faculty will be here now and in the future.

Faculty needs to continue to monitor teaching load as well as service load to ensure that we have enough time to do our work of serving students and building strong programs. Faculty have too many non-faculty responsibilities right now, which makes doing our jobs a real challenge.

Senate Special Meeting January 5, 2011

Senate will hold a special executive session on Wednesday, January 5, 2011 at 1:30 PM at the Chicago campus, primarily to discuss the report of the Promotion and Tenure Task Force. The Senate will discuss next steps toward a new policy.

Dr. Chris Clemmer and Dr. Randee Lawrence of the Institutional Promotion and Tenure Task Force, are invited to the meeting as guests of the Senate to contribute their thoughts about the procedures described in the report as well as ideas on the transition plan for faculty already on the tenure track.

Dr. Susan McMahon, chair of the task force, has also been invited to the meeting.

The next regular session of the Senate is Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at 11 AM. Senate will meet in Executive Session that day at 9:30 AM primarily to organize the agenda of the 11:00 AM meeting of the Senate.

University Leadership Council

ULC met today to approve the complete implementation plan for the calendar conversion and the semester hour conversion.

Faculty groups are already engaged in making curricular revisions to those programs needing changes to meet the requirements of the new calendar. The programs most affected are IDS, ABS, and the MBA. The appropriate Senate committees are ready to take on the necessary curricular approvals. The new calendar will take effect in Fall 2011.

The conversion to quarter hours will take place in Summer 2012. This later date is necessary because of the change affects more programs than the calendar project.

Chris Davis will be leading the implementation of both conversions. Chris, the Interim Provost, and I will discuss the proper support that Chris needs to implement smoothly. Probably a committee is not needed, but he definitely needs the support of the appropriate Senate committees/committee chairs.

Meetings, December 20-23, 2010

This is the last working week of the year, so there are very few meetings.

Senate Finance Committee, Monday, 8:30 AM, Phone. Contact Andre Guerra for details

University Leadership Council, Tuesday, December 21, 1-3 PM, Chicago

Faculty Senate, December 2010

Faculty Senate met on Wednesday, December 15, 2010 at the Chicago Campus.

Faculty has been working very hard this year on a number of projects, including:

Calendar revision

Promotion and Tenure Policy

Academic Planning Process

The task forces working on the Promotion and Tenure Policy and the Academic Planning Process have both submitted their reports to Senate at this meeting. The Academic Planning Task Force's report was only an interim report. They will be submitting their final report to Senate and the Provost in early 2011. The Promotion and Tenure Task Force's report is the final report. Senate will examine that report in a Special Executive Session to be held the week of January 3. That meeting will be announced to the faculty on Thursday, December 23.

At the Special Executive Session, Senate will consider the report and discuss implementation with representatives of the Institutional Promotion and Tenure Committee. Senate will also discuss a plan to share details of the proposed policy with faculty at large.

University Leadership Council will finalize the implementation plan for the Calendar Project at its meeting on Tuesday, December 21, 2010 at 1:00 PM at the Chicago Campus board room.

Senate also heard a report from Faculty Welfare and Compensation Committee. FWCC reps met with the respective colleges last week, and are gathering faculty input, including reactions to proposed increases in load and faculty-generated ideas on ways NLU can reduce expenses in next year's budget. FWCC will submit a complete written report to Senate for its January 2011 meeting.

The complete Senate Highlights will publish to the Faculty Listserv on Monday, January 3, 2011. The next regular meeting of the Faculty Senate will be on January 19, 2011, at 11 am at the Chicago campus.

Diversity and Inclusion Council

Two members of the GLBTQA Coalition met with the Diversity and Inclusion Council to discuss NLU's Diversity Statement. The statement currently reads:

National-Louis University strives to achieve a diverse and inclusive community where every person is given the opportunity to be heard, respected, valued and welcomed. The University recognizes that diversity defines our individual and group lives. All members of the NLU community are expected to actively build a university environment enriched by contributions from diverse experiences, perspectives and backgrounds. Diversity, inclusion and social justice are key components of the University’s mission of Access, Innovation and Excellence.

Recognizing that it is difficult to have an all-inclusive list, we acknowledge the importance of these and all other aspects of diversity: ability, age, economic status, educational level, gender, national origin, language, political affiliation, professional status, race/ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation.

The Coalition requested the addition of the words "gender identity" and "gender expression" to the statement. This request comes in order to make the statement more responsive to the kinds of diversity we encounter these days. The Coalition for Safe Schools has stressed the importance of education schools including all kinds of sexual diversity in the diversity statements of educational institutions that prepare teachers. The Illinois State Board of Education has also identified gender identity and gender expression as worthy of mention in the new Illinois Professional Teaching Standards, which became law on July 1, 2010, and will become effective in July 2013. At that time, all teacher preparation programs and evaluations of teacher performance will have to meet this indicator, which is the first one of the more than 100 indicators in the new IPTS:

The competent teacher understands the spectrum of student diversity (e.g., race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, special education, gifted, English Language Learners, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity) and the assets that each student brings to learning across the curriculum.

Key Meetings December 13-17, 2010

Here are some key faculty meetings this week:

Tuesday: Diversity and Inclusion Council, 10 AM Chicago Campus

Wednesday: Faculty Senate, 11 AM, Chicago Campus

Holiday Parties are as follows:

Monday--Lisle

Tuesday--Elgin

Wednesday--Chicago

Thursday--Wheeling and North Shore

University Leadership Council meets Tuesday, December 21, at 1:00 PM, Chicago Campus

Faculty Welfare and Compensation Meeting

This committee has a very full docket this year. In addition to their regular charge, they have taken over the work of the former Full-Time Faculty Task Force. Their charge is to examine data and make recommendations about ways to close the gaps in our pay--both among faculty and among peer institutions.

In addition, the committee is keeping abreast of the benefits discussion. Faculty's reps on the Benefits Committee are from FWCC.

Finally, FWCC is taking a very active role in the budget discussion. As the university builds its budget for next year, the committee is investigating all of the cost savings measures proposed, gathering ideas on other ways to save costs, and ensuring that all cost savings measures are equitable and compatible with NLU's mission and values. They are also holding the administration accountable to ensure that administration itself shoulders its fair share of the savings needed.

FWCC will be sharing information on the budget, proposed cost savings measures, and the latest budget numbers with NCE and CAS at their meetings Wednesday, and bringing faculty input to the budget process and the administration.

Faculty are rightly concerned about all of these proposals, and I hope everyone participates actively in the college meetings on Wednesday.

Key Meetings, December 6-10

Here are some key university level governance meetings this week. Most meetings are open to faculty. If you have specific questions or issues that you want addressed, please contact me.

Faculty Welfare and Compensation (Monday, 2-4 PM, Chicago)--Open to all faculty

Academic Planning Task Force (Monday, 2-4 PM, Chicago)--Open to all faculty

Tenure and Promotion Task Force (Tuesday, 11 AM to 1 PM, Chicago)--Contact Sue McMahon

2011-2012 Budget Planning Meeting (Tuesday 12:30 PM to 2:00 PM, Chicago)--Closed

NCE Faculty Meeting (Wednesday, 9:30 AM to 12 noon)--open to all

CAS Faculty Meeting (Wednesday)--open to all

Senate committees that want their meetings added to this weekly schedule may contact me.

Research Needed

An NCE faculty member recently reminded us that faculty needs to do careful research and we prepare to engage on balancing the budget for 2011-2012. I am sharing her list with the whole community so that everyone can understand the questions that need answers, and provide relevant insight and research.

1. What is the percentage of university expenditure on administrative salaries and staff salaries and what on full time faculty salaries? How do our salaries stack up with the comparative statistics that are kept on universities like ours (e.g. what percentile are we at for faculty and administrators when compared to like institutions?) Our Faculty and Welfare reps should be able to provide this info(Can you help, Michelle and Linda?) I know the university no longer uses AAUP stats to compare administrative and faculty salary percentiles; there is another data base and we need to have our knowledge refreshed on this.

2. What would be the plan for approaching the deficit with administrative furlough days and other cost savings? We ought to know this, and the amount it would generate before considering any thought of faculty contributions.

3. What is all this “other time” that we are supposedly allocating elsewhere?
Who would be doing that work?

4. What are the projected financial savings anticipated from the new calendar?

5. What would be the university’s process for acknowledging the donation of services by faculty if we should come to that point? We would basically be donating 1/9 of our salaries to the institution and would need acknowledgement for tax purposes.

6. How would we retain our adjunct faculty for the “upturn” ?

Making It Through Financial Challenges

Many faculty members have questions about faculty rights and responsibilities during a period of financial crisis. Because so many institutions across the U.S. are facing difficult decisions because of budget cuts, AAUP has prepared a special FAQ.

www.aaup.org/aaup/financial/mainpage.htm

This FAQ provides a lot of clarification on AAUP's expectations, guidelines, policies, and advice on dealing with issues such as furloughs, sources of data, and appropriate roles of Senate, AAUP chapter, and faculty members.

Thoughts on Service to the Profession and Community

It seems like I spend all of my time on faculty business, but yesterday I had the honor of participating in a National Selection Committee to select Fulbright Scholars for the 2011-2012 academic year.

Fulbright Scholars are selected through a rigorous procedure in which applicants from the U.S. to go overseas are first screened by a U.S.-based panel. There are many panels for each country the U.S. sends Fulbrighters to, for each of the different types of awards (faculty awards, student awards, English teaching assistantship awards, etc.). This year, my panel selected participants to go to India as English Teaching Assistants--the same type of program I ran in Taiwan for two years as a Fulbrighter in 2006-2008. After my panel meets, our approved, ranked list is sent to the country for further consideration.

A similar process is followed for Fulbrighters coming to the U.S. In each location, panels are convened for each type or category of grant. Then approved lists are sent to Washington for further selection. Each year, approximately 800 Americans participate in the core Fulbright program. About 1800 students come to the U.S. on Fulbrights each year. U.S. students can apply for study in 140 countries, and participate in English Teaching Programs in 50 countries.

Even though I am very busy, I took on this responsibility (which involved reading 72 applications online) and working with a panel to narrow the pool down to 16. I did it because of the impact that Fulbright had on my life and on the ETAs in our program. I wanted to ensure that appropriate participants were selected, and my expertise in having run such a program was very helpful in making proper selections.

More importantly, I wanted to give back. Someone took the time to be on a panel to select ME for a Fulbright. So the least I can do is respond when I am asked to choose participants.

I am very concerned that this type of service will become less valued at NLU with the new load policy. Our engagement with the scholarly community is important because that is how the scholarly community is run--it's supported by our collective work and support.

Faculty can be sure that I will foreground the importance of service in both the P&T discussions (for the new policy) and in any discussion about load, changes to load, faculty responsibilities, and changes to faculty expectations.

Acting Democratically

One of our faculty's most important values is operating in an open, democratic, and deliberative manner. Our faculty processes purposefully build in broad representation and time for thought, discussion, and open exchange of ideas.

At times like these, it's really important to recommit to these democratic processes. Because of the difficult decisions facing NLU, we need to ensure that all faculty have opportunities to express their thoughts and feelings, even if they are different from other faculty's opinions. In fact, because these are important questions, it's likely that there will be diverse opinions and, therefore, a need to discuss and consider each faculty member's data. In addition, faculty with expertise in certain areas should have time to do some research and investigation as part of our deliberative, democratic process. The questions I posted from Camille, which were important for the budget discussion, are a good example. Other faculty members have promised to investigate more about clinical appointments at different universities, to help us with the P&T discussion.

It's also important for us to act democratically because we want the administration to do likewise. If we cut a corner now, it will be very hard to hold administration accountable for acting democratically. Administrators would most likely not need calls to allow time for faculty to contribute to a process or a decision if we say out of one side of our mouth that our democratic tradition is vital, but don't act that way when we are engaged in an issue.

I frequently have to remind administration that in order to get faculty input, they need to wait for a particular meeting, especially faculty meetings. It's hard to get them to agree if they perceive that we do not follow our own espousals.

So far, this administration has been very eager to get input from faculty. In fact, at least one administrator has complained that she does not receive enough information from faculty. So there is willingness to engage with faculty from the administration.

Senate Finance Committee

The committee spent most of its time analyzing and strategizing about next year's budget and the savings that have to be made to protect NLU's future.

It's really important for everyone to realize that there is no emergency or imminent threat. We are planning for next fiscal year. As the President has warned, we can sustain a loss this fiscal year, but need to be careful in the next 18-24 months as enrollments rebuild when deficits will not be sustainable. This is the first time NLU has been so proactive about a forthcoming budget issue that some people are having trouble believing that we are being so proactive. Some people believe we are being reactive to an immediate concern because NLU was managing by "putting out fires" for so long. This time, we can see the fire a ways off, and we can be thoughtful and strategic, and take time to help everyone understand our budget realities and ways to solve them.

Faculty has focused almost exclusively on the load issue, probably because this is the biggest way faculty see the budget affecting them. Faculty need to know that everyone at NLU is going to be affected by the budget, not just faculty. Load will make up a maximum of $780,000 of the total savings/new income of $6 million we need to find. Obviously, savings will come from every part of the institution.

To help administration understand faculty's position, I have let everyone know that faculty have already made financial sacrifices this fiscal year because of the new ways load was allocated for summer and fall. There were fewer contracts for 1/6 or 1/12 of pay this summer, and fewer overload contracts in fall because of lower enrollments. Faculty understands the need to allocate load differently, but administration needs to know that faculty had become used to the prior situation, which was used by faculty and administration to compensate for our low pay. I believe that faculty in fact, not only have taken a hit already, but we are the only ones to be affected directly by this year's drop in tuition revenue.

Faculty also have expressed concerns about administration's offer to teach classes for free in order to match the sacrifices faculty are making. Faculty need to know that administration's contributions to the cost savings need to be discussed carefully. Clearly, it's not a good use of the president's time to teach a class if she could be using that time to meet with a donor. And administrators might be so focused on their jobs that they don't have the time or energy to shift gears and teach. All of these considerations need to be discussed.

Academic Planning

The Academic Planning Task Force met today. That group has made a lot of progress in creating a system that is agile and responsive, yet deliberative and focused on quality. The task force is also accomplishing goals of:

1. Reallocating tasks so that SAPC is less overwhelmed and Senate Curriculum Committee has more responsibilities.

2. Building in more rigorous academic reviews of programs, including assessment data on student outcomes

3. Ensuring faculty control of the curriculum

A next step after developing this policy will be to develop a policy for launching programs. We need an agreed-upon process and timeline, so that we know when new programs will launch based on the amount of time it takes Marketing and Enrollment to do the tasks they need to do. In the past, we have launched programs before Enrollment was ready, and then there were problems.

This coordinated approach will help ensure that faculty's hard workcreating the program will be reciprocated when the program launches.

Key Meetings, November 29-December 3, 2010

These meetings are scheduled this week.

Monday: Senate Finance Committee, Academic Planning Task Force

Budget Concerns from Some CAS Faculty

A group of CAS faculty prepared this list of concerns. The list was routed to NCE faculty for discussion. It's a good starting point for understanding these faculty member's concerns about the budget.

1- We recognize that NLU's expenditures are very likely to exceed revenues in FY 11 and 12;

2- We are willing to participate in a JOINT effort to reduce expenses for these years but we also expect to participate in the development of a recovery plan for the University;

3- We believe that equity is a key issue in this effort and we believe that all stakeholders should participate equitably in this effort;

4- We believe that travel expenses, future professional development, Fall Connection, and other non-essential expenses should be cut first;

5- We believe that across (faculty, staff and administrators) the board TEMPORARY (2 years maximum) cuts in NLU's matching retirement contributions are more equitable than the proposed increase in faculty load and that compensation not affected by this decrease should be equally reduced. This includes among others: overloads, adjunct pay, bonuses, salaries of staff and administrators not eligible for retirement contributions, etc.

6- We believe that the proposed increase in faculty load is equivalent to a salary reduction to a very large percentage of us and is not equitable. First, because it will only reduce faculty salary and second, because it unfairly reduces lower salaries by a higher percentage than larger salaries;

7- We believe that general layoffs are the least preferred option of expense reduction but we recognize that most open positions may not be filled in the next two years.

8- We believe that if layoffs of non-tenured faculty occur they should not be based on “last in first out” approaches and they should take into account the performance of each faculty member and the specific current and future needs of the College;

9- We support the President’s decision of not reducing the budget for marketing and enrollment efforts;

10- We believe that the University needs to diversify its program offerings and that increased investment in new and existing CAS program is a key component of this strategy;

11- We are willing to develop and participate in new initiatives that would increase the number of students we serve;

12- We want to make it clear that these concessions are TEMPORARY and are meant to last a maximum of 2 years and that any future concessions would have to be renegotiated from the base situation of 2010.

Clinical/Professor of Practice Track

As we work through creating the new Promotion and Tenure policy, many faculty have asked questions about the proposed Clinical Track.

Senate became aware of the need to consider a new faculty track last year as we researched promotion and tenure concerns at NLU. We realized that faculty take on many diverse roles, and that some faculty are not here on a teaching/research track, though they may engage in some limited research or active public speaking. (I am using research here broadly to encompass the many types of inquiry conducted here at NLU, which is often community-based, emerges from diverse paradigms and methods of inquiry and engagement, and based on our model of linking theory to practice.)

These faculty are sometimes older, experienced educational leaders and professionals who take on teaching, supervision of clinical experiences, community engagement, and leadership roles at NLU. They might be associated with a center or be engaged with a school district. They are networking, organizing professional development, and providing leadership to centers and schools. They might do some teaching, but have many other responsibilities They are individuals who are not interested in doing research or publishing at the same level as tenured/tenure track faculty, though often they are interested in being paired with a tenured/tenure track faculty member who would work on research related to the clinical/field work.

Placing individuals like these on a tenure track would not be appropriate, and would most likely lead to failure in the P&T process, which would cause the university to lose great faculty. They are different from non-core faculty, who should be primarily engaged in teaching, service, and some scholarship.

Senate also took into consideration that many institutions, such as Teachers College, for these same reasons, have similar positions, often called "professor of practice," or "clinical professor." Universities with such tracks frequently report that such a track strengthens the tenure-track because it would ensure that those faculty are really focused on research and publishing, while also letting clinical faculty focus on their interests.

For all these reasons, Senate asked the Promotion and Tenure Task Force to consider creating a new, separate track for such faculty that would provide a more appropriate career path. This career path would provide more security since they would not be at risk of failing at something in which they have little interest--the research required of tenure track professors.

Right now, full time tenured faculty have all of the security of tenure, and receive annual contracts. Tenure track faculty receive annual contracts as they work to build a record of teaching, scholarship, and service required to obtain tenure and/or promotion. The administration has proposed that time-tested, long term clinical faculty might receive longer contracts depending on funding and other variables. Clearly, clinical faculty still lack the employment security of tenure, but might get longer contracts to match their time-tested commitment and service to NLU.

This is a very complicated matter, and for that reason is a topic of discussion at the special faculty meeting in December. The Promotion and Tenure Task Force, and NCE Senators, will be present to hear your opinions and gain a sense of the faculty.

We are very fortunate that we have an administration and Board of Trustees that is focused on strengthening the tenure system when many universities are moving away from it or weakening it. Our president has told me countless times that she considers a strong research faculty as a core element in building our university for the future, and differentiating it from for-profits. Reserving the tenure track for engagement with research and publishing helps us focus on high quality research as a criteria for granting tenure and promotion, while creating the possibility of others pursuing their professional activities.

Faculty Senate Highlights, November 2010

Senate met on November 17, 2010.

President's Report
The President reported financial results to date and projections for the rest of the academic year. As everyone has heard, enrollments have been down in summer and fall. We will have a loss for the current fiscal year, but we are using the gain carried over from last year to cover some of that loss, while continuing to manage costs. That gives us time to make plans for next fiscal year, when we will not have a gain to carry over. This is the most proactive the university has been in recent years in considering budget and enrollment in times of challenge, since we are thinking ahead to the next fiscal year. In fact, planning ahead for next year gives us time to be thoughtful and strategic. Dr. Megahed stressed that NLU's long-term future is extremely bright as long as we take the right steps to take us through the next 18-24 months.

As described at previous meetings, tuition revenues for Summer were under budget by about $1.03 million dollars, and the university is anticipating being under budget by about about $2.3 million dollars for Fall Quarter. Therefore, for the first six months of the fiscal year which began on July 1, 2010, the university will be under budget by about $3.3 million dollars. The $3 million surplus from last year gives us some time to make plans for addressing budget concerns for this year. The university has carefully monitored expenses, and will continue to do so. Nevertheless, for the full academic year, the university is anticipating being about $6 million under budget. These low revenues are expected to continue for the next 18-24 months as enrollment rebuilds.

For the current academic year, we need to take measures to mitigate the loss as much as possible. For next year, approximately $6 million must be found, in a combination of increased revenues or decreased costs, to balance the budget. We have time to figure out the solutions for next fiscal year.

Measures this university is taking this year include careful cost monitoring, increasing grant activities (which are already at a record high), examining information technology costs, carefully examining vacant positions, and resourcing tasks differently when staff positions become vacant. [IT costs are being examined to ensure that services and costs are adjusted to reflect our enrollment and smaller size than when the contract began, not to cut services.] Weekly enrollment management meetings focus on accountability and the use of data to make decisions.The new academic calendar is expected to add new efficiencies that will improve operations, generate savings, and encourage enrollment. The new marketing campaign is also expected to improve enrollment. Moreover, the university is looking toward the 125th anniversary celebration as a way to build resources and goodwill. Tim Collins pointed out that one of the purposes of the new academic planning process Senate is currently developing is to facilitate the creation of new programs that increase enrollment and therefore revenue.

Dr. Megahed pointed out that the full time faculty serve NLU in a variety of ways in addition to teaching: advising, monitoring student progress, governance, program design and development, evaluation of students and programs, and much more. For the next 18 to 24 months, Dr. Megahed is requesting that full-time faculty reallocate time in order to help the institution--she would like faculty to do more teaching and less of other activities in order to leave the institution in a good, healthy place at the end of that period. The idea under consideration is to ask each faculty member to teach an additional 3 hour course.

Dr. Megahed has asked all budget heads and all employees, including faculty, to consider ways to cut costs or increase revenues for a budget meeting in early December. [Faculty may share their ideas with their deans, FWCC members, or Senators. The budget planning team has faculty representatives, including the co-chair of FWCC and Senate Finance Committee, so faculty can also give suggestions to them.] If load is adjusted, the savings are roughly estimated at approximately $786,000 in adjunct pay and benefits. Furlough days alone would not yield this much in savings. Expenses will have to be cut in many places in order to find this much money.

The president reported that the new marketing campaign is in development. A new interim campaign will launch soon to replace the old "Got it" campaign, while the new campaign is in development.

Report of Faculty Welfare and Compensation Committee
Senate considered a report from FWCC about the university's budget and potential changes to load. FWCC, and Senate, want to be proactive and be part of the solution to these problems. Faculty have many questions about the load policy in the faculty handbook, and need closure on those issues. Nevertheless, Senate and FWCC recognize the importance of taking action now to solve the university's budget problems in the next 18 to 24 months. Based on the President's remarks, Senators are curious about whether proposed changes to load are only for the turnaround period. Representatives will get clarification and advocate appropriately as we move forward.

After considering FWCC's report, Senate resolved to ask FWCC to continue to examine the budget, proposed cuts, and changes to load with the administration. In particular, FWCC and Senate need to understand the projected savings from all cost cutting ideas, so that faculty can understand decisions once they are made, and know that all alternatives, including faculty input, were considered. FWCC and Senate will act as ears to bring faculty concerns and ideas forward to the budget planning process. FWCC and Senators will be making reports at the NCE and CAS faculty meetings in December. Faculty may attend FWCC's meetings, forward questions or suggestions to their reps, or send them to their Senators.

Senate and Senate Committees will focus their work on 3 key areas:
Data--Understanding and helping faculty understand the budget issues and proposed solutions, and using data to ensure equitable, effective solutions.
Communication--Ensuring effective communication between faculty and administration, including communication of faculty input and ideas for increasing revenue or managing expenses.
Mood--Ensuring we maintain a positive, proactive, and collaborative mood throughout the institution even as we have challenging conversations and difficult moments.

Dr. Megahed in her report and Senate in its discussion agreed that we as a faculty need to stay focused on our work and continue to do what we always do--provide excellent learning experiences for students and positive messages about NLU and it's future so that students want to come back and tell their friends about their good experiences. In conversation after the meeting, Dr. Megahed indicated that administration is interested in hearing faculty's ideas and in sharing information with faculty as it emerges. We have a great opportunity to participate, and all faculty ideas are welcome and important.

Provost's Report
The Interim Provost, Kathy Walsh, reported that faculty work now in progress, including the Promotion and Tenure Task Force, the Academic Planning Task Force, FWCC's work, and the academic calendar project are all critical parts of addressing our challenges. She finds it gratifying that faculty recognize the urgency of the situation and are acting energetically and collaboratively to address it.

The Provost reported that the new calendar proposal was adjusted and finalized at the last ULC meeting with input from faculty from all colleges. The new calendar does not have breaks between several terms. Therefore, faculty teaching courses that end in the last week of those terms will have to be very careful to turn in grades on time so that the university can monitor student progress and disburse student aid appropriately. Because now terms will all end within a delineated timeframe, it will become easier to monitor that grades are turned in on time. Dr. Megahed pointed out that for programs whose courses end in the last week of a term, faculty may want to consider web-blended options to achieve required contact time and build in breaks. Right now, the new calendar is expected to begin in Fall 2011. The switch from semester hours to quarter hours is anticipated to take place in June 2012. University Leadership Council members are now examining all of the changes that need to be made to implement the new calendar and credit hour systems. Faculty input can be directed to faculty ULC representatives. The plan for communicating and implementing these changes will be finalized at the December ULC meeting.

Because of the Banner upgrade, Banner will not be available during the Thanksgiving Break period. Faculty should enter grades before the Banner update begins or after it ends. Obviously, grades due during the holiday period can be entered on Monday after Thanksgiving. The administration will send further information on the Banner Upgrade to faculty.

Vice-Provost of Institutional Effectiveness Report
Chris Davis, Vice-Provost of Institutional Effectiveness, gave a brief presentation on results of the Noel Levitz Employee Satisfaction Survey. Senate will consider this report in more detail, and Dr. Davis will make a similar report to FWCC so it can consider ways to improve employee satisfaction even during this difficult time. One key take-away from this survey is that faculty want better communication. Senate will work to ensure effective communication as a way to ensure that faculty voice is heard and that faculty remain informed and involved as decisions about budget move forward.

Concluding Remarks (These were not discussed at the meeting, but I am appending them here so everyone knows what happened since the meeting.)
These are challanging times for our institution. Right now, I am working to ensure that all budget decisions are made with faculty input. FWCC and Senate Finance Committee are working to gather faculty input between now and a budget meeting early in December and for Senate's December meeting. In the meantime, I am working to ensure that thoughts and ideas from CAS and NCE faculty meetings on December 8 are considered before any budget decisions are made.

Knowing what I know, I am planning to be proactive and positive in my approach and have encouraged Senators to do so as well. That being said, I hope you as the faculty of NLU will also be a strong and positive voice and help us hold on to a positive mood and tone throughout the institution as we work to ensure our ideas and concerns are heard.