Faculty Senate News

President's Report 2/10/23

February 09, 2023  / Anna Carlin 

Board of Trustees Update
The BOT met Thursday Feb 9 with a short agenda. VP Cordova presented a report on the Student Success Plan that was accepted by the BOT and will go to the Board of Governors for approval. This will hopefully be the closure of that "punishment" for our PBF score going down two years in a row. If and when the BOG accepts the report, we will get the other half of our money from the state investment.  One thing that I felt was not featured in the plan is additional faculty hires focused on high DFW course areas. I learned that spending on faculty through new lines and stipends might be the largest proportion of the spending on the student success initiatives discussed in the plan. I am in touch with VP Vazquez about coming to Faculty Senate to talk to us more about budgets and allocations made to student success and research, as was requested in previous meetings. 

Presidential Search
If you read your emails, you'll know that the PSAC has selected Greenwood Asher & Associates as the new search firm for the Presidential Search and that this search firm has already scheduled online listening sessions for the campus committee for next week. I encourage you to stay engaged and attend as you are able and let them know what qualities, knowledge, skills, and abilities you want in the next president. The next open PSAC meeting is on Monday February 13, and will be focused on training on searching in the sunshine rules. There is another PSAC meeting scheduled for February 16 that will be closed where they expect to discuss potential candidates. 

PDFG data
I located some summary statistics about the PDFG awards from the last 5 years. I believe that the information in the spreadsheets will help answer some of the questions that were brought up at our last meeting. I will send the spreadsheet out to faculty senators after this meeting. 

LinkedIn Learning for Students
I hope many of you have activated your LinkedIn Learning accounts now that we have access to that catalog of courses and training material. FGCU will be rolling out access to LinkedIn Learning for students soon, and this will come with a plug in for Canvas. This means that you can put LinkedIn Learning content direct into a Canvas course and even assign it for points or proof of completion. There is a wide range of topics covered in the LinkedIn learning, including things like communication skills, Microsoft Certification preps, multimedia production, Excel and related software training, time management, productivity, web development, data visualization and business and career skills. These courses could help you provided supplemental instruction for students on technology they might need to use to deliver coursework (Excel, Word, Canvas) or help you provide high quality video content on topics you cover in class. This is my plug for the service to encourage you to look through what is offered and see how it might help you and your students. For an illustration of what other schools are doing with LinkedIn Learning, here is an example from UCF: https://digitallearning.ucf.edu/linkedin-learning/student/. We are just getting started here at FGCU, so if you are super excited about this, please talk to me and I can get you in touch with the steering committee so you can get more info on how to set it up in Canvas. 


ACFS statement on Inclusion
The Advisory Council of Faculty Senates (ACFS) met last week and we agreed on a joint statement regarding inclusion activities in the state university system. 

"The ACFS, representing the faculty senates of the SUS institutions, supports widespread initiatives to expand accessibility and inclusiveness for all persons, regardless of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, and political opinion or affiliation."

Spring Commencement update
Commencement dates are set for spring: Saturday May 6 and Sunday 7, with ceremonies at  10 am and 3 pm on both dates. CAS, Water School and Engineering will be on May 6 and all other colleges and schools will be on May 7.


COACHE Survey
You should have gotten your personal link and invitation to complete the COACHE survey. Don't  let it sit there for too long before you set aside your 25 minutes to complete it!

Some of you asked at the last meeting about who else uses the this survey. There is a page with a full list of schools with years of participation and here are the Florida universities:
Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University (2022)
Florida International University (2020; 2017; 2014; 2011)
Florida State University (2021; 2018; 2014)
University of Central Florida (2021; 2018; 2015)
University of South Florida (2020)
For local information and contacts, we have our own web page:
https://www.fgcu.edu/about/leadership/officeoftheprovost/coache