President's Report 4/14/23

April 13, 2023 / Anna Carlin

BOT Updates

The Board of Trustees met on April 11 this week. Some items of note:

Approved a change to admissions regulation to allow for additional ways to pass the English as a Second Language requirement.
Approved a new MA Program in Instructional Design and Educational Technology that will eventually replace the current MA Program in Educational Technology.
Approved a plan to ask the legislature for 5 million dollars for planning a FGCU building/satellite campus in Babcock Ranch
Approved the 2023 Accountability Plan, which contains our goals on PBF metrics and other KPIs for the next 5 years
Approved carry forward spending plans and Educational Plant Survey Report

Presidential Search

Four finalist have been identified and on campus visits have been scheduled. See the official website for all dates and times. Please consider coming to a open forum in person if you can. It will make a great impression on our candidates if we have a good crowd show up in the room in front of them. There will be one session each day that will be facilitated by Faculty Senate but you do not need to attend that one. There will be a week in between the on campus visits and the BOT interviews for each finalist, which means you have a chance to see all 4 and provide your feedback to the BOT. The BOT will be making the final votes on who will be named our next President. As a reminder my term on the BOT extends through August 6, so I will be casting a vote. I welcome your ideas and input and will also get to look at the official feedback forms that the search firm will collect. If Faculty Senate wishes to organize an official endorsement or resolution in support of or opposition to a candidate, we can do this through either a special meeting or through asynchronous presentation and vote. Please contact the Executive Team with requests for business items to be addressed outside of our regular meeting.

COACHE Taskforces

A call for participation in two COACHE survey related taskforce went out this week.

There are opportunities for faculty to be involved in two teams. The first, a Priority-Setting Taskforce, will be tasked with analyzing the data and identifying the areas of most significant potential impact. The second team will be a Strategy-Setting Taskforce, which will focus on ideating and researching specific policy changes to address the priority areas set by the previous team. Each task force will require a one-semester commitment during the 2023-2024 academic year. Respond to the call by filling out this form: Interest form

Commencement

There will be four commencement ceremonies in May. The Commencement Committee and the Provost's Office are hoping to have a great faculty turnout. If you haven't RSVP'd as an attendee and you would like to attend your college's ceremony, please get in touch with your dean/director or administrative assistant to get on the list. Julie Eacho in the Provost's Office is looking for responses from the colleges/schools by April 21.

Faculty Senate Administrivia

Please sign up for Summer Senate if you will be available to participate. To be clear, there are no scheduled meetings for Faculty Senate during the summer, but should important business arise, the members of the Summer Senate will be contacted for virtual participation. If you happen to be unavailable at that time, it is ok, even if you signed up.

Units should be conducting their elections for Faculty Senate, and Senate Teams and Committees for next year. We have guidance available for any governance teams that need help getting started or knowing which seats need to be filled. After looking at the attendance record from Faculty Senate this semester, I've found that there may be some seats that have been vacated due to non-attendance (did not attend 3 or more meetings in a semester in any medium). I will share the attendance record with governance teams so that those decisions can be made and would be happy to share that information with anyone that would like to see it.