Board of Trustees Meeting March 10, 2011

Yesterday, the NLU Board of Trustees met. They had a full day of meetings, including Finance Committee and Academic Affairs committee meetings at noon and 2:00, and a full board meeting at 5:30.

I am happy to let you know that the Board of Trustees passed the revised Promotion and Tenure policy last night. The policy will become effective on May 1, 2011. I thanked the board for their confidence in us and for their support of the notions of tenure and academic freedom in an environment where these concepts are under pressure. Of course, I expressed faculty's gratitude to Vice Provost Kathy Walsh and President Nivine Megahed for working so hard to create an agreed-upon policy to present to the board.

The board was very impressed with the process that faculty followed to build a policy that is clearly superior to its predecessor. They were also impressed with the policy itself. The board particularly liked the enhanced focus on research, the better articulation of excellence in teaching, the improved clarity, the emphasis on regular evaluation of faculty, and the clear differentiation of tenured/tenure track and non-tenured, which makes neither second-class citizens.

I would again like to thank everyone involved in developing this policy, including the Task Force, Senate, and all faculty who participated in meetings and/or research into the policy.

The BOT also began to engage with the budget challenges we are facing. They received a complete report on the university's finances, and in their executive session saw an overview of the ideas the administration is contemplating to balance the budget. Right now, no decisions have been made. I let the board know that we are working with administration to insure that there is faculty have opportunities to give advice and recommendations as the budget is developed, as well as ways to communicate with faculty leaders and faculty about the budget.

The BOT also made decisions about sabbatical applications. The board will act on promotion and tenure decisions at its June meeting.

Voluntary Separation Program Passed

At last night's Board of Trustees meeting, the Voluntary Early Separation plan was approved. This plan provides two ways for tenured faculty over 55 with 15 years of experience to retire early and receive a payment and subsidized health insurance.

All eligible faculty will receive an email on Friday. The entire faculty will receive a slightly different announcement on Monday, in case anybody was excluded from Friday's announcement. Any tenured faculty members who submitted retirement letters for this year but otherwise would have been eligible will be allowed to participate.

Nearly 80 faculty members are eligible, and the administration expects about 1/3 of them to participate, based on participation rates in previous plans. I believe that the participation rate will be closer to 50 percent, based on faculty interest.

It will be sad to lose so many colleagues, but it will be nice for so many to receive options about the next part of their lives.

This plan is good news for faculty who feel ready to retire. It will help save some money and give faculty options on how to move to the next stage of their lives.

March Senate Meeting Rescheduled

Senate has decided to postpone the Senate meeting scheduled for March 16, 2011 to THURSDAY, March 24, 2011 at 10:30 AM on the Chicago Campus. The reason for the change is to accommodate a number of schedule conflicts on March 16, such as conference attendance. Senate will resume its usual meeting pattern in April.

The March 24 meeting will conclude by 1:00. Senate will meet in Executive Session at 9:30 AM on Thursday March 24, primarily to organize the business of the 10:30 AM meeting.

As usual, all faculty will receive the agenda approximately one week before the meeting.