Senate leaders reported to Urbana senators at their Feb. 27 meeting that positive progress had been made on the issue of enrollment management following a meeting of the University Senates Conference held last week.
"The tone of the meeting was much different," said Kim Graber, a professor of kinesiology and community health who is a USC representative for the Urbana Senate Executive Committee. "There was a strong sense the board really wanted to address our concerns."
The USC meeting included the participation of board of trustees chair Christopher G. Kennedy, University President Michael J. Hogan, Vice President for Academic Affairs Christophe Pierre and Vice President for Technology and Economic Development Avijit Ghosh.
Graber told senators Monday that the positive tone and involvement of Kennedy and other high-level administrators led to the successful navigation of several issues related to faculty concerns over enrollment management.
Faculty leaders have resisted an enrollment-management plan pushed by Hogan and supported by the board, saying it was formulated without faculty input and unduly centralizes functions of the recruitment and enrollment process under administrative auspices and at the expense of faculty involvement.
Graber said an agreement between the USC and the administrators ameliorates many of the concerns outlined in a USC report critical of the changes. She said the agreement offers a "bottom-up" and "data-driven" process for enrollment-management functions and sets a path of renewed faculty involvement in future discussions of the issue.
"Campuses will remain in control of enrollment goals," Graber said, "and colleges would remain in control of their own goals."
In fact, several of the administration's initial recommendations have been dropped in deference to faculty complaints and the USC enrollment-management report. Administrators have taken off the table a "branding" initiative that would have marketed all three campuses as one institution and have changed enrollment-management reporting lines to ensure greater campus voice. They've also backed away from an idea to hire a unversitywide enrollment-management director, opting instead for the formation of an enrollment-management policy council to advise Pierre. The council would comprise leaders of all three campuses.
Some senators expressed concern over the ambiguous wording used in establishing the policy committee, which said the committee would be utilized as long as it is "effective in promoting campus-to-campus and university administration-to-campus coordinating."
Sen. Nicholas Burbules, a professor in the College of Education and chair of the Urbana senate's General University Policy Committee, said senators at the USC meeting also questioned the phrase's ambiguity.
"It's going to be given a chance to work, but how it's measured is not absolutely crystal clear," he said. "It is something we had questions about."
Graber said the reporting lines issue was a "considerable revision" and that the revised document would soon come back to the USC for official consideration.
"These concessions are good signs and this was a positive step forward," she said.
Troyer appointment
Senators learned that the process of investigating the appointment of former Hogan chief of staff Lisa Troyer to a faculty position is being initiated.
Troyer left the president's office in January amid allegations she posed as a faculty member in emails during debate of the administration's enrollment-management plan.
In February, Troyer was appointed to a teaching position in the psychology department as a provision of her administrative contract.
Chancellor and Vice President Phyllis M. Wise said the campus will investigate "to see if ethical issues should be brought forward" stemming from Troyer's conduct as an administrator.
Richard Wheeler, provost and interim vice chancellor for academic affairs, said the investigation will be "rigorous" and led by a committee of faculty members from the psychology department and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Committee recommendations would be forwarded to Wheeler.
Meanwhile, Hogan continues to face pressure as a result of the incident, as evidenced in a recent letter signed by high-profile faculty members calling for his resignation.
Kennedy maintained in a response letter that the board continues to have confidence in the president and his ability to lead the university. He dismissed many of the points made in the faculty letter calling for Hogan to resign as "peripheral to the core values that we think a strong president brings.
"The board continues to believe that President Hogan has the capacity to attract and retain a great team," the letter stated, "and we continue to support his efforts, and we hope you will, too."
Other business
In other business, senators:
- Learned from leaders of Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services that the Unified Communications rollout is nearing completion.
So far, the email and calendaring functions have been adopted by almost all of those on campus, with voice functions implemented next.
"We know it's not been an insignificant impact on your life and work," said Greg Gulick, CITES director of application services.
Right now only about 20,000 campus accounts exclusively are using Microsoft Lync, Gulick said, and that all university accounts eventually would be transferred to the voice system, replacing land-line phones.
He called the current period a "bridge," wherein users can test the system before full adoption.
"We still have a lot of work left to do," he said, "but we anticipate the old phones will go away in early June."
Gulick said officials still are searching for methods to address the 911-emergency service issue. As it stands, the 911 service won't work through Lync. He said a recent successful test of a 911 "fix" could lead to a long-term solution.
CITES also is investigating ways to notify outside callers leaving a message on Lync that voice messages they leave could be accessible under Illinois Freedom of Information Act regulations.
- Heard a report on the work of admissions officials to reach high-ability student applicants, which includes methods to better identify and recruit, wide-ranging faculty involvement in the process, and increasingly personalized campus visits.
- Were informed that Senate Executive Committee Chair Matt Wheeler was extending an invitation to Hogan to discuss issues outlined in the open faculty letter questioning his leadership.
"In all fairness, we owe him that," said Wheeler, who did not attend Monday's meeting, in a letter to senators. He said a special meeting would likely soon be called to have a dialogue with the president.
Wheeler said he understood the concerns in the faculty letter and did not want to "silence this expression," however he suggested the best place to make official statements was through the faculty senate structure.
"We need due process and this is a process," he said. "The senate is a place where difficult questions need to be debated."