Faculty Senate Chair Joe McLaughlin highlighted different aspects of the U.S. News and World Rankings report and the work of the Textbook Cost Initiative Committee at Monday night’s Faculty Senate meeting.
Textbook Cost Initiative Committee saved students over $1 million in the past year, Greg Kessler, chair of the task force, said. The committee was created by the provost last year to reduce costs of instructional materials, such as textbooks.
“There’s a movement to eliminate textbooks and create alternatives, there is a huge movement in the resource world … to identify alternatives,” Kessler said. “So we are available as a committee to help people find alternate solutions (to expensive textbooks).”
McLaughlin called on the Board of Trustees to be more transparent with faculty and students when it comes to the university’s presidential search. The search committee is slated to have eight to 10 candidates by December.
Ian Armstrong, president of Graduate Student Senate, said he would like to team up with Faculty Senate to encourage the search committee to meet with the senates about the candidates.
“I do have a strong sense that … as a group, (the Board of Trustees) pays attention to what’s happening on campus,” McLaughlin said.
OU President Roderick McDavis opened Monday’s Faculty Senate meeting by discussing the Diversity and Inclusion task force, which held its first meeting of the coalition of all five on-campus senates this morning.
“Last week I sent emails to the individuals chosen for the task force and delivered the charge to generate ideas and recommendations to help our university become more inclusive and accepting,” McDavis said.
Vice Provost Pam Benoit, who was scheduled to speak, was not present at the meeting. McDavis said Benoit will appear at the Faculty Senate meeting in December to provide analysis on OU’s rankings in the U.S. News and World Report. The U.S. News and World Report measures quality of faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, graduation rate performance and alumni donations.
“We are very sensitive about where we stand in the World Report rankings, and we want to see us to get higher in those rankings,” McDavis said.
The Budget Planning Council will vote soon on tuition rates for the upcoming academic year, McDavis said. The tuition rates will be approved in January, although current freshmen and sophomores are already promised that their tuition rates will be maintained.
Faculty Senate passed two resolutions that will require deans to be evaluated before being reappointed. The resolutions came under debate over how much to include Group II faculty members — faculty members that are non-tenured and non-tenure track — in the evaluation process.
“We had several appointments of deans happen in last six months for which there had not been a recent comprehensive review,” McLaughlin said. “We wanted to underscore the fact that the handbook very closely links reappointment of deans and the comprehensive reviews.”
