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.