Maintained by: facultysenate@american.edu
Last updated: June 2, 2006
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Tony Ahrens called the meeting to order at 1:45 p.m. Present: Professors Ahrens, Becher, Bennett, Burke, Cochran, Durant, Fantie, Gill, Girard, Belson, Isaac, Jacoby, Loesberg, Mardirosian, Petit, Richardson, Riley, Rosenbloom, Sampson, Schaeff, Weaver, Dean Mardirosian, and Provost Broder. Welcome and Introduction, Tony Ahrens Professor Ahrens started by mentioning that there is no transcription service present and that Georgia Christou will now be recording the minutes. Also, Professor Ahrens mentioned that the minutes of the November and December Faculty Senate meetings are still being revised and will be circulated to the Senators on January 25th. Report of the President, Neil Kerwin Budget • In terms of where the university stands with regard to the budget for the current fiscal year, the revenue accounts on the one hand and the expenditures at this point, it is about ten days out from what would be the normal date of the third quarter analysis. Based on the budget numbers, it appears that the tuition revenue will fall short of the budgeted expectations by about $4½ to $5 million. The number may be a bit inflated because the institute revenues have been climbing rather steadily over the past ten days. Dr. Kerwin expects that with regard to tuition revenue and other sources of revenue (i.e., housing revenue, auxiliary income revenue from fund-raising) the university will be able to close the year in balance through a combination of the tuition reserve account and less than expected expenditures in other areas. Some of these expenditures include standard leave savings that each of the units may have due to vacancies in staff and the high energy cost estimates from last year may provide a bit of a respite if this winter proves to be milder than last winter. In general the financial condition is sound. • The university has asked the accounting firm, Protiviti, to do some work which began about 14 months ago and was an effort by the V.P. of Finance & Treasurer to validate business practices and internal control systems so that they would be compliant with current Sarbanes-Oxley Standards for the private sector. Protiviti is currently engaged in a comprehensive analysis of the University’s business practices and internal controls, to map those business practices and controls, to compare business practices and controls to what are considered best practices in the industry, and then to validate that in fact the practices as described to Protiviti are in fact the practices in reality. During the course of this analysis, Protiviti will make whatever recommendations to the Board of Trustees that they feel appropriate for changes and practices, and this will establish a baseline set of expectations with regard to audit work which will be determined not only by this process but also by other decisions made by the Board of Trustees to determine which offices should be examined. Dr. Kerwin expects to receive an update on the Protiviti work within the next ten days. Don Meyers will share that report with the Senate. • The university is in the process of selecting a new external auditor since it has severed its relationship with KPMG. There have been a number of other auditors offering bids. Some auditing firms were not interested in our business because they had insufficient staff due to other demands. But, the university has secured bids form a number of highly regarded companies. • There have been questions raised about the budget process at the institution. The university has experimented over the past decade with a variety of approaches to developing budgets. One significant breakthrough is the process of Two-Year Budgeting, which enables us to look further beyond a single fiscal year. However, there have been some concerns raised about the adequacy of budget deliberations particularly with regard to the range of questions that the Instructional Budget and Benefits Committee of the Senate have felt constrained to discuss. It is perfectly reasonable for the community to ask questions about the budget, and these concerns should be aired, addressed, and discussed. Board of Trustees • With regard to the ongoing work on governance, the Board of Trustees has a special committee on governance which consists of five members of the Board. They are actively considering expanding that membership with more Board members because they anticipate a very extensive set of consultations with the university community. This committee has been meeting regularly throughout the holiday season and is expected to post a progress report on their website by next week. They have decided to work with Martin Michaelson to get advice and counsel from him on governance matters. Mr. Michaelson is a partner with Hogan & Hartson in DC and is the former general counsel at Harvard University. He has advised dozens of other universities on such governance issues and problems. The special committee on governance has been discussing the possibility of creating a working relationship between at least one member of its committee and one of the key constituencies on campus to ensure that at least one trustee develops a level of familiarity and expertise with the issues, concerns, positions, and recommendations that the major constituencies such as the Faculty Senate and the Deans develop. While the work on governance may not have an end point by this May, there is an urgent need for expressions of policy relating to matters of supervision of the President’s Office. The range of issues to be addressed and resolved will take time and is expected to be on the Board of Trustees’s agendas for the foreseeable future. • One of the critical issues the Board is dealing with is the reconstitution of the Board itself. The Board stands at 20 members, including Dr. Kerwin, who serves ex efficio. A matter that has been actively discussed is to what capacity the university President sits on the Board. The statutory minimum for the Board is 25 members, so there are at least 5 or 6 additional member appointments needed. Dr. Kerwin feels personally that the Board will be well served with a membership somewhat larger, about 30 members because of the nature of the responsibilities and the intensity of the work. The Chair of the Trusteeship Committee is Tom Gottschalk who also serves as the Vice Chair of the Board. The Trusteeship Committee will meet in February to discuss a set of candidates who have already been presented. This matter will also take some time toward completion – it is an extended process. It constitutes a massive obligation for a volunteer Board to be dealing with both this and the governance issues simultaneously. • The Board has delivered to the U.S. Senate a candid and responsive reply authored by Tom Gottschalk and Gary Abramson on behalf of the entire Board. There has been no formal response from the U.S. Senate yet. • The February Board meeting is scheduled for mid-month and Dr. Kerwin expects that the meeting will be dominated by issues of governance and trusteeship. There is also additional work to be done. • There has been no change in the plans for launching
a search for a President of the university. The plan is to launch
the search sometime in June. Fund Raising The report that Dr. Kerwin received from Abbey Silberman, Director of Development, is that the campaign stands at $116 million on a $200 million goal. Nothing with regard to the priorities of this campaign has changed, nor is it going to. The two major capital requirements have not been finished yet. The university has made commitments for a new building for the School of International Service and for the School of Communication. Moreover, the university has brought in a firm, Marts and Lundy, to assist in the analysis of major donor opportunities for these two projects. It is important to be very clear where the fundraising efforts need to focus over the next twelve months in order to make the kind of statements about the importance and feasibility of these two projects. The modest amount of assistance from these firms will allow the university to determine from the prospect of donor lists which in particular Dr. Kerwin and the Deans will need to spend time with in order to convince them that these projects are worthy of their help. Of course, there are other important items on the campaign, but it is vital to the future of the university to complete these projects first. Fiscal Year With regard to the fiscal year, the cash payments are up over last year due in large part to payments on some very substantial pledges. The number of donors is up 2% from this time last year. There is a question as to whether this can be sustained to close the year. The alumni giving is almost exactly even from last year. Will the pace with which alumni have been giving persist? The faculty and staff giving have been down slightly. The giving from parents is okay. Giving from the School of Colleges is variable. Visits From all of the visits that Dr. Kerwin makes people often ask how the university is doing academically. Almost everyone asks a question about the faculty and what they are doing. Most people understand that what has happened with the episode of former President Ladner does not reflect the faculty and their effectiveness. Time will tell if the actions that have been taken will satisfy them. The alumni have a huge appreciation of the university and how it has helped their careers. Open Discussion President Kerwin offered his congratulations to everyone involved with the Ann Ferren Teaching Conference. Professor Burke asked Dr. Kerwin if there is any information about the Senate’s schedule for hearings. Dr. Kerwin responded by saying that no information has come back to him. Professor Jacoby mentioned to Dr. Kerwin that many faculty members have tried to contact Board members and they have not had any response. Dr. Kerwin suggested that the faculty members should always send any communication through Mark Huey of the President’s office to ensure that it does indeed go to the Board member. Professor Cochran expressed his concern about when the Board will get some of these vital issues behind it. Dr. Kerwin responded that the Board does feel the urgency to complete vital matters. Professor Burke asked if there is a link between the end of the governance issues and the beginning of the new president search. Dr. Kerwin answered by saying that to the extent that a new president would want to know certain important things such as, who the Board of Trustees is and what their values are, there is a link. Report of the Provost, Ivy Broder For new undergraduates, enrollment is right on target with budget. There are 77 new full-time freshman students and 94 full-time transfer students. These numbers reflect targeted expectations. The returning students are at 94% of the targeted budget figure and are expected to be exactly on target. That says something very positive about retention and that this category is holding firm. The study abroad numbers are over budget by just a few students. The law school is consistently over budget, as they have consistently strong enrollment. The major category in terms of weakness at the university is the Washington Semester Program. The enrollment is down by about 100 students from its budgeted target and it will be over $1 million in shortfall. There tends to be an enrollment cycle, and although there was expected to be a lower enrollment, it was not expected to be such a dramatic drop. The graduate enrollment is also weaker than expected, at about 5% short of budget. Most of the gap in the budget will be in the College of Art and Sciences and the Kogod School of Business. Enrollment for Fall ‘06 There were 411 total applications for early decision, compared to 408 last year. The application quality was very slightly down, about 10 points in SAT scores total and .04 in GPA. There were almost the same number of admits, although down slightly, with 237 early decision as opposed to 251 last year. The numbers of admits may have been slightly lower in order to keep the quality the same. The admit quality SAT score is 1217 compared to 1214 last year and the GPA 3.34 compared to 3.35 last year. It was very important to keep the quality the same level. The applications for the upcoming fall semester are up and applications for new freshmen are up by 11% and transfer applications are up by 1%. The university is not willing to make any compromises on the early decisions given that the numbers for the fall semester are up at this point. Masters applications are down about 10%. The College of Arts and Sciences and School of Public Affairs are about even, while other schools are softer. PhD applications are down by 11%, but SIS is missing from this number. Open Discussion Professor Loesburg asked about the progress of the proposal for the course load reductions for assistant professors. Provost Broder will bring this issue up at the next Provost Council meeting. However, she sees this as a matter of logistics and in thinking about how to manage this issue. It may be better handled by not increasing the adjunct professor rate but rather with the use of temporary faculty. Professor Schaeff mentioned her concern about evaluating for tenure with regard to this issue. Provost Broder responded by saying that this issue has not been thought out yet, but there are several options. Professor Rosenbloom followed by asking what is the full course load for the junior faculty. Provost Broder will update the Senate after she gets more information from the Schools and Colleges about the status of the criteria for variable loads in the units where they are implemented and how the discussion goes with the Provost Council about the four course loads. Update on Governance Issues, Tony Ahrens The Faculty Senate’s Committee on Governance has added four new members and the complete list of members is: Anthony Ahrens, Stephen Silvia, George Arnold, Barlow Burke, John Douglass, Eileen Findlay, Clarence Lusane, Michael Sampson, Rita Simon, Myra Sklarew, and Richard Stack. The committee had its first meeting prior to the holidays and Professors Steve Silvia and Tony Ahrens were chosen co-chairs. At the meeting some of the topics discussed were: improved Board of Trustee oversight of the university executive, enhanced accountability and linkage of Board of Trustee members to university constituency, Board size, Board selection processes, criteria for Board membership, and greater transparency and oversight for university finances. Several members have met with Marty Michaelson, the consultant to the board’s governance committee. It is anticipated that the Committee will be soliciting the opinion of the faculty. Professors Silvia and Ahrens asked for an extension of the report until the March meeting. The extension was unanimously approved. Professor of the Practice Discussion will be deferred until the next meeting. Professor Bennett is working on a proposal which should be circulated next Wednesday and he will be asking for any input from the faculty. Report of the Chair Professor Ahrens encouraged the Senators to contact Georgia Christou for any assistance related to the Faculty Senate and its committees. The Faculty Senate has been offered a new space in the Sports Annex. This new location is preferable because the McKinley office is isolated and has heat/air conditioning issues. Also, the School of Communication is expected to move into the McKinley building in the near future. Don Meyers, Vice President of Finance & Treasury, is unable to attend the February 1st meeting. He has agreed to attend the March 1st meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 3.20 p.m.
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