President's Report 11/3/23

November 03, 2023 / Lyndsay Rhodes

Promotion Workshops

The Promotion workshop sponsored by Academic Affairs and Faculty Senate was held last Friday, October 27, 2023. We had a nice turnout and several panels to give advice on the various aspects of the promotion process, as well as answer questions. In addition to this university-level event, many academic units have held workshops as we head into promotion prep season. I expecially encourage our faculty who have previously been promoted to serve as mentors and a resource to your colleagues as they enter into the process. Reminder to all that the deadline to submit the letter of intent to apply for promotion is November 15th, 2023, by 5pm. See the emails from Andi Clemons that includes additional information and the link to the electronic Letter of Intent form.

Senate Survey Feedback

The results of the survey that was sent out to Senators and faculty to gather feedback on publication costs, adjunct support, instructor to rank position process, and civility topics from October were analyzed and shared with the Provost. These reports will also be sent out to Senators in the summary email following this meeting. We encourage you to share the results with your faculty as well.

COACHE Update

The Priority Setting Taskforce continues to meet bi-weekly and has begun the drafting their report and recommendations. The team is also scheduling 2 dates in early December for townhall meetings to share their findings and solicit feedback. Be on the lookout for announcements on dates, times, and locations. Additionally, the COACHE Dean’s reports were delivered to Deans this week. These are the unit-level analyses provided by Harvard with peer institutions selected by the units. Deans and Directors will likely be sending out information and requests for volunteers to assist with further analysis and interpretation in the near future.

Chairs and Denas Survey

It has been a few years since we conducted the Chairs and Deans survey and there is interest in reinstating a process for faculty to give feedback to leadership at the Chair/Dean/Director level. There has also been some concern by faculty about the administration, oversight, and anonymity of the previous in-house survey, that impact faculty response rate. Senate leadership is currently looking into some externally administered Chair/Dean/Director survey instruments as options. Please provide any feedback or suggestions you have on this to the Senate Executive Team.

Advisory Council of Faculty Senate, Board of Trustees, & Board of Governors updates

The next Board of Governors meeting is next week, November 8-9th, at the University of Central Florida. I will be attending the ACSF pre-BOG meeting on November 7th and as well as the Trustee Summit and orientation on November 8th. ACSF has a pre-BOG Zoom meeting scheduled for this afternoon to discuss several of the agenda items for the BOG meeting including proposed changes to PBF metric #2 (median wages of graduates), draft regulation 9.016 (Prohibited Expenditures), and draft regulation 8.005 (General Education Core Course Options).

Fall Commencement

Fall commencement will be held at Alico Arena on Saturday, December 16. There will be two ceremonies; the first at 10 am (Lutgert College of Business, Daveler & Kauanui School of Entrepreneurship, Marieb College of Health & Human Services, College of Education) and the second at 3 pm (College of Arts & Sciences, The Water School, U.A. Whitaker College of Engineering). Many units are still looking for faculty to participate. Any faculty needing regalia for commencement are advised to order through the bookstore as soon as possible.

Excellence Awards Nominations Due Nov 17

The newly revised Excellence Awards guidelines are in effect for AY 23-24 and the updated guidelines were distributed to all faculty on 10.11.23. Nominations are due November 17 for all awards. Encourage your faculty to nominate (or self-nominate) for these great opportunities to be recognized for their hard work.