Key Meetings, February 14-18, 2011

Monday, February 14: Faculty Welfare and Compensation, 1:oo. Teleconference. Ask Linda Gibbons for dial-in information.

Wednesday, February 16: Faculty Senate, 11:00. Chicago room 4025 and teleconference with meeting ID 199099.

Difficult Choices and Decisions

First, thanks to all faculty who participated in the Special Meeting on last week. It's really gratifying to see such interest and participation from so many faculty members, whether senior or just beginning their NLU careers.

One of the most difficult challenges facing our faculty is responding to the BOT's request to require promotion to associate professor in order to get tenure. This request has provoked controversy since it was communicated to Senate in fall 0f 2009 by Interim Provost Kathy Walsh.

According to the Task Force chairs, the Task Force engaged extensively on this issue during their year-long research. They discussed it extensively in the first part of their work, and during fall, when they were writing the policy, they talked with many faculty members. According to what the Task Force reported, most faculty they talked to over a period of months accepted the notion of requiring promotion to associate as a requirement for tenure. Therefore, they included it in the policy. Here is a comment from recent email traffic.

[T]hose we interviewed and talked with throughout multiple venues seemed to be fine with the requirement that someone be promoted before tenured, even if this were to occur within the same year. Therefore, the Task Force moved forward on this, making promotion a prerequisite to tenure since the BOT has said they don't understand the justification for why someone is worthy of tenure who had not met the criteria for promotion. This was possible in the past, I think, because the criteria for promotion to associate in the old policy were higher then than that for tenure. This is no longer the case.

Many faculty have wanted to know the reasoning behind the BOT position. Basically, they view tenure as a significant investment in an individual. To them, to merit this level of investment, the candidate needs to demonstrate continual professional growth and achievement. They believe that earning a promotion is an indicator that the candidate has the follow-through and commitment to merit this lifetime guarantee.

The Board of Trustee members also believe that most colleges and universities link tenure and promotion in some way, and that NLU is out of alignment with a fairly standard practice in higher education. As you know, faculty have received conflicting reports about about practices throughout higher education. In a recent email, the chair of the Task Force, Sue McMahon wrote:

Many others of us have also done the research and found that our practice is rare, if not nonexistent elsewhere. Further, the situation that resulted in assistant professors becoming tenured to NLU in the past was not because the policy explicitly supported such a decision. In contrast, the policy was so poorly written that the criteria for becoming an associate professor were higher than for earning tenure. This was genuinely problematic and one issue the Task Force worked hard to address because it created misunderstanding for faculty, P&T committees, administration, and the BOT.

At this point, we are better off avoiding an argument among ourselves on these nuances, and instead seek the best possible P&T Policy we can.

Many faculty have asked me whether we have tried to push back or negotiate on this. I have to report that when I tried, I received the strongest resistance I can recall in any kind of negotiation. One administrator told me that the BOT is "adamant" on this issue.

I don't think that faculty are of one mind on this issue. Obviously, some faculty feel very passionately about this subject, but the TF research over a long period of time showed that many faculty agree with this requirement, which is why they created the policy the way they did.

Senate will carefully consider all feedback from faculty as we finalize this policy and work to obtain the best policy we can.

Meetings, February 7-11, 2011

This week there are several important meetings of interest to all faculty.

Wednesday, February 9 Special Faculty Association Meeting, 9:30 AM Chicago and Wheeling Campuses, teleconference 888-338-6900, Meeting ID 199099. Powerpoints will be projected in both locations. You can teleconference from any location and view Powerpoints at Centra. A Centra meeting invitation will be mailed to all faculty on Monday and updated here.

Wednesday, February 9 NCE and CAS Faculty Meetings, 11:30 AM, Wheeling (NCE) and Chicago (CAS). If you connect remotely, you will need to hang up from the Faculty Association meeting and reconnect to the college meeting.

President's "State of the University" Presentations

Monday, February 7, 10:00 AM, Wheeling Campus & 2:00 PM, North Shore

Wednesday, February 9 1:00 PM,Lisle Campus

Friday, February 11, 10:00 AM,Chicago Campus
Monday, February 14, 2:00 PM, Webinar via Centra for Elgin and Milwaukee, plus anyone unable to attend other sessions.

Thursday, February 10, 2011 Senate Academic Planning Committee, 10 AM, Chicago Campus.

Senate Finance Committee, January 31, 2011

The Senate Finance Committee met on January 31. Kent Kay reported on the university's financial results to date. The enrollment decline continues, and enrollment for Winter is behind both plan for this year and actual results from last year. Spring enrollment is about 11 percent behind where we were at this time last year for Spring quarter.

The budget planning process will work from actual numbers for this year; expenses need to be managed to match this year's actual income, which is still a moving target.

The administration is committed to an open process for the budget. SFC reps will be invited into the budget process during March and April.

University Leadership Council, January 25, 2011

NLU President Dr. Nivine Megahed reported that enrollment continues a downward trend of ten percent. The budget situation underscores the importance of developing a focused strategic plan which eliminates things that do not serve that focus. The strategic plan will be directed to three areas: student experience, financial strength, and academic excellence.

ULC heard reports on 2 AQIP projects. Steve DiBenedetto and David SanFilippo, co-chairs, reported on the project to improve retention, success, and satisfaction. Their report recommends simplification of processes, training of faculty and staff so they can help students navigate NLU, early identification of “at risk” students, creation of a concierge service environment, and more.

Co-chair Holly Battaglia (faculty co-chair Anne Sullivan ) reported on the project to simplify the publication and communication of NLU policies, as well as to identify processes and timelines for the regular review of those policies. About 150 policies (and counting) were collected from throughout the university. Some of these policies are duplicative, competing, ambiguous, or outdated. The report recommends creation of an Online Policy Library, which indicates the owner of the policy, when it is up for review, and where else that policy is published. Both groups are finalizing their reports, which will be submitted to ULC, the president, and the NLU community.

Dr. Megahed announced that the strategic planning process will be co-chaired by Chris Davis, Vice Provost of Institutional Effectiveness, Tim Collins, Chair of Faculty Senate, and Joselyn Zivin, Vice President of Marketing. Since ULC will be focusing on the Strategic Plan, Dr. Chris Davis will act as the presidentially-appointed co-chair of ULC. Joselyn indicated that three teams would be formed, each representing one of the three areas of the plan: student experience, financial strength, and academic excellence. The members of these teams will represent a cross-section of the NLU community and be appointed by the President.

This report is condensed from the ULC Highlights distributed to the community earlier.

Meetings January 24-28

These meetings are scheduled for this week:

University Leadership Council: Tuesday, January 25, 10 AM to noon, Chicago Campus Board Room,888-338-6900, meeting ID 227240.

Senate will be meeting with administrators on Monday and Tuesday to finalize the P&T proposed draft.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I just heard that at least one NCE department has a meeting on February 11 that they cannot change. I am working to figure out a better date. I will keep everyone informed.