The faculty senate voted 25 to 17 to endorse President Selma Botman’s final restructuring plan for the university in their meeting Friday afternoon.
While some faculty remained vocally averse to where their departments would fall within the new colleges, the senate voted with the understanding that the names of the new colleges and the departments within are merely placeholders and can still be changed.
After spending nearly half of the meeting clarifying what they would actually be endorsing, the senate conducted a secret ballot vote to approve the restructuring plan, minus the appendixes. The senate applauded after Chair Jerry Lasala announced the passing of the motion.
The plan will consolidate the university’s eight colleges into a five-college model, eliminating three dean positions. The design team, a committee of eight faculty and administrators, issued the first draft of the plan on Feb. 26.
Botman will submit her final report to the University of Maine System Board of Trustees on April 24 before their meeting May 23 and 24.
Lasala said while the vote wasn’t an overwhelming majority, it still “expressed the will of the senate.”
“This isn’t perfect. I think it’s good enough,” said Lynne Miller, professor of professional education and member of the design team. Lasala echoed her sentiment and said the challenge lay in actually carrying out the plan.
Some senators questioned the lack of definite decisions regarding the organization of schools and departments.
“There seems to be kind of a randomness. There are cups here, each of which can be filled randomly in the future,” said Shelton Waldrep, professor of English. “That disturbs me.”
“I’m going to respectfully disagree with you,” responded Hillard. “I think what we’re voting on foremost is eliminating deans instead of faculty.”
Jeannine Uzzi, chair of classics and member of the design team asked if they were going to have to redesign the structure once again during implementation. “I want this to make academic sense before I vote on it,” she said.
Botman said she expects the five colleges and their contents, as outlined in the plan, to remain similar to how they’re listed and does not expect a “free-for-all.”
“In implementation, there will be an opportunity for people to change and move based on principles and procedures established by the steering committee,” she said.
The steering committee will consist of students appointed by the student senate, faculty appointed by the faculty senate and staff Botman and Provost Kate Forhan appoint. According to the plan, the steering committee will be formed in June of this year, along with the summer working groups.
The working groups will be rewriting the university-level governance documents – essentially the constitutions of each school – for the new academic structure over the summer.
Deans for the new colleges will be appointed this August, though the colleges’ names and contents could still change. “We envision the deans to be academic leaders who understand all parts of the unit,” said Botman.
The deans will begin the process to design the new colleges’ organizational structures this Sept. and the faculty senate will review the designs of the individual colleges Feb. through May of 2011.
Members of the College of Nursing and Health professions had submitted an amendment calling for their school to be in the College of Public Service, Business, Graduate Education and Social Work. They reside in the Engineering, Health Professions, Nursing, Science and Technology College in the plan. According their proposed amendment, they feel they don’t share a common mission with the science, technology, engineering and math programs and fit better with other professional programs like social work and Muskie.
They withdrew the proposal because they said they didn’t feel they had time to come to a consensus in their school. Nancy Richeson, professor of recreation and leisure studies, said they did so with “a heavy heart.”
Judy Spross, professor and acting dean of the School of Nursing, said the issue was not having enough time. She said it’s not apparent in the plan that people paid attention to what the School of Nursing and Health Professions feel is important to them.
“We feel we had no input. We felt that people outside our discipline were telling us where we belong,” said Karen Croteau, professor of exercise, health and sports science. She said she didn’t think the design team adequately represented the faculty as a whole and those who weren’t represented now have the most problems with the plan.
Lasala steered the senate’s discussion away from areas left up for the implementation stage like the establishment of some interdisciplinary leadership. Miller, Waldrep and Michael Hillard, professor of economics, had submitted an amendment to the restructuring document requesting the establishment of an Office of Interdisciplinary Studies to advocate for and develop interdisciplinary programs. However, Botman told the senate to save ideas about the topic for implementation.
The plan can be found on the reorganization website at http://www.usm.maine.edu/pres/reorganization/.