Restructuring Task Force Meeting Notes - Nov. 26, 2003

Present: Kang, Larkin, Starks-Martin, Rundquist, Nunes, Hansen, Dobey, Spaude, Cogdill, Murphy

Absent: Bayerl, Lawrence, SubbaNarasimha

Andy Larkin distributed another revised draft recommendation memorandum, and Sharon Cogdill distributed a document of suggested changes for some of the wording in the recommendation.

The recommendation needs to be completed as soon as possible.

In the first paragraph, structurally stable should be changed to structurally sound and stable .

There have been comments from people in Fine Arts & Humanities that the language in Item #4 of the recommendation still sounds like we think something is wrong with COFAH. People are wondering why we're mentioning COSE and COFAH, and not the other colleges. It's largely because of size. COFAH is not getting bigger; it's smaller than it has been. It's because there was a strong voice within those colleges that there was interest in a possible reorganization. Disagreement to that; the reasons for recommending possible reorganization of COSE are different from the reasons the recommendation is being made for COFAH. #4 should be changed so it doesn't sound like there's a problem that needs to be fixed. Task force should be used in both items, rather than review committee . The language used in #3 and #4 should be the same.

Item #5 – possible reorganization of the Office of Academic Affairs:

5a: VP for Research and Dean of School of Graduate Studies. There was a comment that the way this was written made it seem unclear that the position of AVP for Sponsored Programs would not be eliminated by the creation of a VP for Research and Dean of School of Graduate Studies. Should we add with AVP or Director to that sentence? Should we delineate the organization of the whole office? We've not done that in other areas. Do we think that all grants would not require the Provost's signature, or only the large ones? Is it contingent upon signatory power for smaller grants? The Provost would probably wish to see grants of perhaps over half a million dollars. It should say smaller grants . Is it all contingent upon the signatory power? Yes. Should it then be at the beginning of the sentence? Yes. Is it contingent upon MnSCU authorization? Yes. Wording will be changed to reflect that.

5b: Review moving the Associate Vice President for Budget into the OAA. There has been a comment that we're putting too much emphasis on academic programs. Larry Chambers has clarified that the AVP reports directly to the President. In making this recommendation, we're reflecting the controversy that exists; we're asking the Provost to look at the fact that there is controversy about it. There is a sense of dissatisfaction. There's a lack of trust. We're concerned about who the position reports to. We're concerned about the functioning of this position. It's not so much recommending moving the position as asking him to look at the widespread concern that exists. We just want to raise the issue. This item will be left as it is.

5c: Dean of Undergraduate studies. The position functions have been added.

Sharon Cogdill's suggested language changes for the principles and guidelines were considered, and adopted with minor changes.

Suggested language for addressing the Ghosh/Mortimer options was considered. Services offered to traditionally marginalized student populations should be changed to services for student diversity and social justice.

A sentence about addressing questions about the recommendation to the co-chairs of the task force has been added. Should questions be addressed to only the co-chairs, or the whole committee? If people want to meet with the committee, the task force would have to be reconvened. The task force needs to be disbanded after we're finished. Informally, if people ask to meet with us, we could invite the other members to a meeting. This was a collective judgment; we may disagree individually, but it doesn't rest on the shoulders of any member.

Because there was not enough time to consider the rest of Sharon Cogdill's suggested additions, she will e-mail them to task force members for consideration before they are added to the final recommendation.