Transition Team Meeting
August 7, 2008, 2:30 PM
Bilger 242
Present:
| Joseph O'Mealy | Alan Teramura | Ned Shultz |
| Dick Dubanoski | Joel Cohn | Carol Karimoto |
| Karin Mackenzie | Martha Crosby | Mike Peters |
| Subramanian Shankar |
I. Discussion Notes
Today's discussion focused on the responsibilities of the various functional offices. Carol reviewed the responsibilities of the functions of the Administration Services Office. Many of these responsibilities will be carried out under the overview of fiscal officers.
Carol next reviewed the functions of the Office of Research and Graduate Education, and noted this office will have a special responsibility for grant writing and coordination with faculty. The actual funding of grants will go through administrative services.
The issue of personnel management was discussed. Faculty personnel management should remain under the jurisdiction of academic affairs while staff oversight would rest with Administrative Affairs. Furthermore undergraduate and graduate education should remain under academic affairs.
Discussion also focused on the nature of the functional leaders. There was strong consensus that these functional leaders would frequently possess professional backgrounds and therefore not be academic positions. However the academic mission must take precedence in decision making.
The positive outcomes of this functional model include:
- Economies of scale
- Consistency
- Streamlined decision making
- Standardized decision making and policy
- Extra coverage
- Will combine personnel from current diverse structure
Nagging questions:
- Will this expand administration? Will it be better? Will there be redundancies? If there are excesses will they be able to morph into new areas of need?
- Will this forward the liberal arts, as that is the purpose of the reorganization.
- This may lead to the removal of some of the current structure, but other offices may expand such as Research.
- Ideally we will be able to show a more streamlined administration with fewer administrative positions but again the goal is to forward the liberal arts which may require more services for faculty.
Karin discussed the Office Alumni and Community Relations. Many of the functions of her current office will be brought into this new office. This office will be the primary liaison of the College with the community and our alumni. The issue of where best to locate our development needs also was raised and this office may be the logical locus of those responsibilities. Arts and Sciences must develop its own clear development goals.
Alan and Peter Quigley will meet with the chancellor this week to discuss the search process for the new dean. There is concern that the process might be too rushed. Faculty must be given adequate time to discuss committee findings and contribute to the search process.
II. Focus for Next Meeting
The Office of Academic Services will be discussed next week
III. Next Meeting:
Thursday, August 14, 2008
2:30 PM
Bilger 242
Meeting adjourned 3:40 P.M.
Ned Shultz