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Mānoa Faculty Senate Executive Committee
Minutes of October 27, 2008

Mānoa Faculty Senate Executive Committee
Monday – October 27, 2008; Hawaiʻi Hall 208
Present: Wakayama, Crookes (late), Hilgers, Ross, Keil, and Tiles
Absent: (traveling) Crosby

2:00 Meeting with Francisco Hernandez,Vice Chancellor of Students

Dr. Hernandez has reviewed financial aid data. Most financial assistance (GAships, etc) are not handled by financial aid (which covers about $6m of the about $46m that is in some sense available). Because there are many sources of financial aid, particularly scholarships, this data has been hard to track.

SEC asked  about any possibilities of streamlining the handling of small scholarships. Hernandez says he is trying to persuade UH Foundation (for example) to agree to simplify the procedure, particularly in terms of post award audit rather than full compliance review prior to giving the scholarship.

His aim is to commit financial aid and housing to the best students prior to them making the decision to come to UHM, rather than awarding these aids after they have enrolled.

Enrolment management is the responsibility of the Interim Asst VC for Enrolment Management, which is Hernandez at the present time (reporting to the VCAA). He believes enrollment management should be assigned to Student Affairs, and a person hired to fill this position. (It could be in Academic Affairs, but Hernandez would prefer the area to be in his domain, based on his experience in this area.) Student Services, says Hernandez, has the appropriate customer service orientation and experience; they also have needed backup services (Registrar etc); and will pay more attention to students both before, during, and after students are here.  His immediate goals would be to improve procedures, including establishing an on-line application form. Then he would want to identify the best students (especially from Hawaii) earlier and respond to them in a more timely fashion.

The more selective universities have higher degrees of faculty involvement in undergraduate admissions (e.g., Berkeley “reads” or has “faculty touch” in connection with every application, as does UCLA).

There is no permanent Director of Admissions (nor Enrollment Management) at present. UHM has asked the Legislature for one for some time. (In addition, different Interim Directors have been in place for seven years.) A position has to be approved, and then the funds for the position have to be released. A decision to do this has not, apparently, been taken.

VC Hernandez thinks that it would take 2.5 years, starting now, to hire an enrolment manager.

3:00 SEC meeting

1) Minutes of previous meeting were approved.

2) Chair’s report.

MET meeting: Peter Crouch is the Chair of the budget committee and this has not met yet. Kathy Nelson, of UH Foundation, reported that there would be no payouts from accounts that had declined recently.

BoR meeting: VP Johnsrud reported on non-resident student data. Keil presented the Faculty Senate resolution. Two Regents commented that the BoR members were not all aware that there was a search committee whose members had all been decided upon concerning the UH President search. UH President McClain presented the university’s budget, during which McClain he commented (to the BoR) that UH as a whole has a $1.6billion budget therefore it should be able to accommodate a $30m cut (SEC does not agree).

ACCFSC and CCCFSC have passed a joint resolution supporting the Manoa Fac Sen resolution questioning the makeup of the BoR president search committee; their resolution points out the lack of anything other than Manoa faculty representation.

3) UHM Faculty survey – there were about 900 responses out of approx. 2000 (including medical school faculty, or approx 1500 otherwise). About 400 responses had detailed “qualitative” supplementary comments, which will be analyzed in due course. Full results will be made available when analysis is complete.

4) Process committee

This committee has met and begun preliminary discussions.

4:15 Meeting with Chancellor Hinshaw

1) Status of the Faculty Athletic Representative (FAR)

The FAR is appointed by the SEC in conjunction with the Fac Sen. This is the 4th year of the FAR’s tenure in this position; during the next two years NCAA certification will take place.  FAR Peter Nicholson says that he may wish to take a sabbatical during that period. The Chancellor shares SEC concerns over this.

2) A&S Reorg

The SEC asked about a timeline for faculty input following the TT report. The Chancellor says she is working on a report in connection with this. She feels that it is not necessary to have all details settled before a search begins for the new Dean. The SEC also raised, again, the matter of the need for clarity concerning the VCAA appointment. The Chancellor agreed that she would soon make an appointment or else have a new search.

The Chancellor says she is against higher costs for out of state tuition for graduate students, since it is bad for the GA/research interface as well as inflating figures concerning tuition foregone. She says the graduate students should be out of the cap (caps on enrolment for various categories of students have been the subject of discussion at the BoR level). It is common for about 50% of graduate students at public universities to have support, she says (referring particularly to Wisconsin-Madison, in her experience).

There was some discussion of matters relating to international and graduate students, and of various Memoranda of Agreement with international universities.

Adjourned 5:15 pm

Respectfully submitted,
Graham Crookes



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