The Citadel Faculty Council (FC) Meeting Minutes

I. Call To Order and Agenda - Chair Rudolph called the meeting of the Faculty Council to order at 1100.

II. Attendees

III. Announcements – Chair Rudolph reminded Council members that a general faculty meeting is scheduled on April 30^th which was to have been the first meeting for the AY13-14 Faculty Council.  The meeting scheduled on April 23^rd will now be the first meeting for the AY13-14 Faculty Council, the final meeting for this year’s Council will be on the 16^th.  Replacements should be identified and NLT April 1^st and communicated to the Council Secretary, Steve Cotter.

IV. Approval of Minutes from Last Meeting – minutes for 11/27/12 were approved.

V. Business - MGen Rosa, BGen Hines, and BGen Elzey accepted our invitation to attend the Council meeting and answer Council-generated questions.

a. General Rosa opened by discussing a few topics prior to answering questions.

· Favorable retention trends

· Scarce funding from the State for all higher education

· Public scrutiny of higher education costs versus benefits

· Backlog of deferred maintenance

· Budget challenges have kept him on the road fundraising 50% of the time

· Parking problems and consideration of building a parking garage

· The need to overhaul Capers Hall and Steven Barracks

b. Questions – before answering specific questions, General Rosa stated that he believed many of the questions could be solved at the school level or by Generals Hines and Elzey.  He encouraged faculty to use the chain of command immediately to address problems.  Below are the questions that were discussed.

Question #1 - With respect to the 2012 faculty survey mentioned in the IPAC report, What is your view on the specific causes of the “significant decline in the trust and confidence that faculty place in the senior administration of the institution”?  Further, what is your plan to restore trust and confidence?

Background – The report states, “For the faculty, 54 of 55 items on the survey have lower results in 2012 than in 2009.  Among the most significant declines are those items having to do with the institution’s senior leadership.  For example, the item “this institution is well run” fell from 65% to 41%.  Similar declines occurred in the following areas: (1) providing clear directions for the future, (2) knowledge, skills, and experience for institutional success, (3) showing a genuine interest in the well-being of employees, (4) communicating openly about important matters, (5) modeling institutional values, and (6) believing senior leadership.”

Answers:

· Generals Rosa and Hines both felt small group meetings were more conducive for communication

· General Hines has met with all schools

· Creating a Faculty Advisory Council is in the works

· Some faculty members feel academic decisions are being made without faculty consultation or input

· General Rosa asked, “What element is missing in the process of shared governance?”

· Some Council members have the perception that faculty suggestions are shelved

· General Hines asked us to recognize an overriding criteria – we must execute a viable strategic financial plan.  The current focus is on cadet retention, growing the undergraduate evening program, expanding online offerings, and trying to maintain a healthy graduate enrollment.

Question #2 - What can be done to increase the academic quality of our entering freshman class so that we can attract more academically advanced students.  It appears that the media reports on hazing and other negative communication deters the serious student from attending. I have heard from many local parents who say that they would not send their children to The Citadel because of the potential for hazing, which is unfortunate. Additionally, once here, the experience in the barracks appears to have less focus on academics, which is reflected in student's classroom performance. A comparison of comparable coursework for cadets with coursework from students at other schools in the state reveals extensive watering down of information.

Note: General Rosa is always emphasizing the increases in our students’ GPAs, but that doesn’t mean that they are learning more, it means that the grades are higher. That can be a result of smarter students or it can be a result of inflated grades.

Answers:

· On average we are getting A-/B+ students with 1100 SATs

· The biggest retention problem is with juniors/seniors; they are digging themselves into a hole and when they realize they can’t get their ring on time or graduate with their class, they tend to leave.

· With the trend of freshman grades improving, the hope is upperclassmen attrition will abate.

· Some faculty questioned the effectiveness of the current faculty advisor system.

· General Rosa has seen a decline in hazing incidents but recognizes the cultural change just takes time.  He sees a trend of fewer parent reported hazing and more cadet reports of hazing (which is a good sign).  He commented on the current severity of consequences which is a significant deterrent factor.

· A suggestion was made to separate freshmen from upperclassman.

Question #3 - Blackboard – two related questions

(a) One of my burning questions has to do with why we have all of the Blackboard support (such that it is) reporting up the chain to ITS and to BG Elzey, when it may be more appropriate to have them (or some of them) reporting to the Provost. Seems to me that the academic support stuff gets short-changed, and it might get better attention if it falls under the chief academic officer rather than the chief operating officer.

(b) Regarding Blackboard support staff reporting to ITS and being under Gen. Elzey - it just makes no sense - the faculty need to be in charge of anything regarding Blackboard administration.  I still would like to see a faculty-run oversight group to govern our Blackboard administrators.

Answers:

· General Elzey’s perspective is that ITS is an administrative function and the feedback he receives concerning ITS responsiveness is generally positive.

· Faculty concerns

o Midstream upgrades of CitLearn result in time-consuming actions by faculty

o CitLearn help desk doesn’t work on weekends

o Slow resolution of problems

· A suggestion was made to create a “Blackboard Users Group” responsibility within the current faculty committee structure

· The Council agreed that the people in ITS are dedicated, hard working individuals.

Note: General Rosa stated the remainder of Council-posed questions have been answered in writing, and the written answers will be forwarded to Faculty Council.

VI. Adjournment - Chair Rudolph adjourned the meeting at 12:30pm.

VII. Next Meeting – Feb 26, 2013, Bond Hall 295

Steve Cotter, Secretary