President's Report 10/21/22

October 21, 2022 / Anna Carlin

Post-Hurricane Recovery

Many FGCU faculty, staff and students experienced loss and trauma due to Hurricane Ian. Some of you with us today have lost everything, and I hope you know that your colleagues are here to support you however we can. I know that we have all either gone to help others in need or have experienced your friends, work friends, and neighbors reaching out to help you when you needed it. I feel like that is one of the positives to come out of such a terrible experience as this. I hope that we can continue to hold each other close as a community as we continue to make steps forward to recovery.

Obviously, the university had to make a number of adjustments to normal operating procedure during the storm and in the following weeks as the campus reopened. One of those adjustments was to the instructional calendar. The length of the semester remains the same, but campus facilities have been made available on designated Saturdays as make up dates for dates we missed in the storm closure. I believe that it has been made clear that faculty are encouraged to make up for missed class time in whatever methods are appropriate and are not required to use Saturdays. If you have additional questions or concerns about the instructional schedule, we will direct those to Provost Rieger in his report.

Where appropriate, deadline have been extended for things like Sabbatical and Professional Development leave applications. The promotion deadlines remain the same since the packets are not due until January. There is a promotion workshop scheduled for Friday, October 28 at 9 am in the Cohen Center Ballroom for anyone interested. The Provost, PRC members and successful faculty share their insights and advice at this workshop. It is highly recommended for those intending to go up from promotion this year or in the next couple of years.

President Search

The three finalists in the search for our next university president will be on campus on October 28, October 31, and November 1 for open forums. You should have recieved an announcement this week with those dates and times, and it is also listed on the search website. Faculty Senate is "hosting" one session on each day, which just means that Vice-President Lyndsay Rhodes will facilitate the session and will ask any questions submitted from Faculty Senators during those sessions. You are free to attend any of the sessions during the day that suit your schedule.

The Board of Trustees will be meeting on Nov 2 to interview the candidates and make a final recommendation. This is very short turnaround from the candidate's visits with the entire campus. Please be sure to use the feedback forms provided by the search firm for each candidate on the search webpage for finalists. That feedback will be presented to the BOT. You can also communicate directly with me with your feedback, as I will be participating in the BOT interviews and selection. Anything communicated to me in writing will be public record.

Commencement

FGCU is having real commencement ceremonies again this winter. Dates and times are:

Ceremony 1 : Saturday, December 17th – 10 a.m.

Lutgert College of Business

Ceremony 2 : Saturday, December 17th - 3 p.m.

College of Education

U.A. Whitaker College of Engineering

Daveler & Kauanui School of Entrepreneurship

Marieb College of Health & Human Services

Ceremony 3 : Sunday, December 18th - 10 a.m.

College of Arts & Sciences

Please attend to congratulate your graduates on getting through a challenging few years! RSVP messages will go out soon to faculty so that you can let organizers know to save you a chair up front.

Office of Research updates

Faculty Senate leadership had a meeting just before the hurricane with Dr. Higgins and Environmental Health and Safety to touch base about safety approvals and applications needed for funded and non-funded research. Application forms are being worked on to make them function better and careful reviews will be done on grant renewals and new grant applications. I'm sure more information will be forthcoming, but I wanted to just start to get the word out that if folks had gotten used to some flexibility in following procedures or approval processes regarding lab and research safety, to get ready for that to change. It is not a change in procedure or rules, just a directive to follow them.