Senate member Kathryn Stott addressed dining service availability and convenience to students.

“Why are parts of the Marketplace closing during the evening, when students would likely be there?” Stott asked.

Campus Dining has adjusted dining halls’ hours. An example is Wells Commons, which closes at 2 p.m. on Friday afternoons. Stott suggested long lines in the Memorial Union and at the marketplaces are an inconvenience that is pushing students to dine off campus. Janet Waldron, vice president of administration and finance, said auxiliary enterprises have attempted to keep dining user friendly while adjusting to the suffering economy.

“A part of the issue as we renovate is we’re seeking to alleviate pressure on the Marketplace at noon, but this isn’t working because students aren’t going to the dining halls,” Waldron said.

Faculty is working to devise a plan to encourage students to utilize each of the dining facilities.

“We have to consider cost of operation when deciding whether to keep dining venues open,” Waldron said.

Senate also discussed the quality of dining options. Tina Passman, chair of academic affairs for the senate, mentioned the inconvenience that students in evening classes face in trying to find dining.

“We want students to maintain a good relationship with the library,” Passman said, stating that walking across campus to get to a dining hall during winter does not encourage library attendance. “And there’s no ‘grown-up’ food,” Passman said. Senate members agreed to further examine the situation for solutions.

“We’re very willing to explore other possibilities,” Waldron said.

University President Robert Kennedy talked about funding issues and the restructuring of the University of Maine System’s pricing formula. He said members of the faculty are working with the senate’s executive committee to find solutions to the financial challenges UMaine currently faces.

“The overall funding formula may change,” Kennedy said.

Robert Dana, vice president of Student Affairs, presented his plans for helping UMaine students at risk from emotional or social problems. Dana said about 470 first-year students are considered “high risk” due to academic, social or emotional factors.

“We need to work on reaching out to them,” Dana said. He urged professors to watch for cues that students may be struggling to adjust academically or socially.

The senate also addressed the possibility of an H1N1 outbreak on campus and preventative actions the campus could employ. Wayne Maines, director of safety and environmental management, educated faculty members about plans formulated to prevent occurrence of the swine flu or to contain it if an outbreak occurs. Students and faculty members are encouraged to get a seasonal flu shot, available at Cutler Health Center or through private health care providers. There is a shortage of flu shots this year, according to Maines.

“We asked for 1,500 doses and received 600,” Maines said. This number is still up from last year.

An H1N1 Emergency Response Center has been established. The center adheres to CDC guidelines and is working to educate students about preventative measures that can be taken to help prevent an H1N1 outbreak at UMaine. Primarily, individuals are encouraged to employ simple sanitation techniques such as frequent hand washing. Maines asked that anyone who thinks he or she may be exhibiting H1N1 symptoms stay home from work or school or remain in his or her dorm room if they are a campus resident and to get tested for the virus. Students should also alert university officials if they have confirmed cases of H1N1. Maines recommended individuals get the H1N1 vaccine when it comes out in November. He is organizing a clinic at UMaine that would potentially run for two days: Nov. 9 and 10.

“We plan to have 10 stations set up,” Maines said, citing the fieldhouse as a potential location for the temporary clinic.

Maines said approximately 300 vaccines could be administered per hour, though supplies will be limited. Should an outbreak occur on campus, affected students will have the option to wait it out off campus or be contained to their dorm rooms to avoid spreading the virus to others.

“There are detailed plans in the event an outbreak occurs,” Maines said. These would include increased cleaning of the dorms and specific containment guidelines.

Toward the end of the meeting, the senate majority voted to pass a motion to amend the Faculty Senate presidential term of service. A motion was also passed to set proposed Faculty Senate goals for committees for the 2009-2010 academic year.

Hoff, who has been a professor at UMaine for 12 years, said she wants to pursue an administrative role at the university level, but has not been able to find the right opportunity at UMaine. She said a lack of department chairs in the College of Education, which can springboard into administrative positions, was a roadblock to her desire to get hired to such a job.

“My area is leadership and I have been interested in moving into an administrative position at UMaine, but the right opportunity wasn’t presenting itself … and I felt I should explore other options,” Hoff said.

Judy Kuhns-Hastings will replace Hoff as president of Faculty Senate. According to Hoff, her term was going to end in 2009 and her departure hasn’t changed who was going to replace her and when.

The new president will have her own voice, said Vice President of Student Affairs Robert Dana, who believes Hoff will keep in touch with Kuhns-Hastings and UMaine.

“It’ll have an impact,” Dana said, “Doctor Hoff brought a real energy to UMaine.”

The College of Education and Human Development does not have department chairs because of the nature of its departments, said Dean Anne Pooler. She said Hoff is particularly good at helping doctoral students and works very hard. Pooler added the college is currently seeking to restructure itself and possibly implement department chairs, but currently some departments have as few as three professors and therefore have no need of a chair.

“Most of the colleges in the university have department chairs. That kind of a role gets a person really good at administrative experience, Hoff said. “Our college does not have department chairs, and so when there have been job opportunities, the criteria for the job might say, ‘Well you might have at least been a department chair.’ One of the problems was not only did I not see anything that looked like it was going to happen here, but I was not gaining the kind of experience that I needed to stay competitive in job searches in the future.”

Hoff requested leave from UMaine in the hopes of gaining the experience she needed and returning in a year, but her request was turned down – likely because of financial reasons, according to Hoff. She also suggested unpaid leave, partial retirement and a visiting professor status as alternatives, but those were similarly turned down.

“I was disappointed, I won’t lie about that,” Hoff said. “A year from now I thought things might change around at UMaine, or just that maybe I would want to come back here and contribute in some way.”

Hoff said her advisees will transition to a new advisor and that she will continue to give course advice. Pooler said she is unsure whether Hoff will be replaced in the college.

Hoff was previously an elementary school principal in California and has lived in Georgia in the past. She said she is excited to return but is sorry to leave UMaine.

“Her students will miss her, but I know that she’ll be in a position to finish up with her current graduate students,” Dana said. “She loves the University of Maine so it’s bittersweet, I would call it.”

Hoff was awarded the 2008-09 Outstanding Teacher Award in the spring of 2009 for her work at the university. She said she will continue to offer advice to Hastings and finish up her work with doctoral students and her research, as well as return every summer to teach an education law course.

Faculty Senate members became frustrated with a proposed incomplete-grade form during the meeting, having already dealt with it for months. The form is designed to facilitate the process of documenting incomplete grades. Senators raised concerns the form would put students’ grades on the shoulders of deans more than on the faculty and departments they work with.

Faculty Senate also heard from UMaine President Robert Kennedy.

“Instead of making horizontal cuts … we really need to concentrate on identifying all of the colleges in our centers that are centers of excellence and really be vertical [in our planning],” Kennedy said, relaying comments from an April 22 New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) meeting.

Kennedy, having returned from the 8:30 a.m. NEASC meeting, said college accreditors and administrators recommended comparing UMaine to peer institutions around the country instead of universities and colleges within Maine.

Faculty Senate President Dianne Hoff, who also attended the morning meeting, agreed with the recommendations Kennedy relayed to the senate.

Kennedy said he heard Chancellor Richard Pattenaude’s task force may not make its June deadline, when it is required to deliver its final report to Pattenaude. Kennedy said he received this information publicly from the task force chairman, David Flanagan.

“It may take on a life of its own beyond June,” Kennedy said.

Hoff said Wednesday’s NEASC meeting was poorly communicated to the campus community and few people showed up for it.

“We did seem to have trouble communicating with the broader community about what was going on with the NEASC committee,” Hoff said. “The students didn’t seem to know about the sessions.”

Hoff suggested the Faculty Senate work with the provost or president’s office to ensure they advertise future meetings better.

“The Alerts and Announcements folder [on FirstClass] just isn’t really adequate,” Hoff said.

Undergraduate student representative Nate Wildes said Student Government was unaware of the NEASC meeting.

Gail Garthwait, assistant professor of technology, said Ralph Caruso, the chief information officer of the University of Maine System office’s Information Technology department, has offered to meet with faculty members April 28 to discuss concerns they may have with the PeopleSoft program. She invited faculty members to e-mail her on FirstClass if they wish to attend the meeting.

Faculty Senate’s members felt the proposed grading form on the agenda controlled professors too much.

“Seems like more growth of bureaucracy,” said professor James McClymer.

Professor William Halteman asked why the signature of the professor’s college dean was required on the form and why he or she needed copies of the form. Professor Dan Belknap said associate deans like to have something in front of themselves when answering questions about grades from the dean of the student’s college and that requiring the signature ensured they got a copy of the form.

“If they want to talk about students, they need to talk to the faculty member,” McClymer said. He felt students’ teachers should be the one to inform deans of grades, not associate deans.

The senate motioned to remove the requirement of the signature of the faculty member’s college dean, which passed with none against and one abstention.

Hoff said the form’s requirement of a signature from a faculty member’s chairperson was problematic because some colleges don’t have chairpeople.

McClymer said it was worthwhile to approve the form, and that if a problem comes up in the future the senate can discuss it.

After a few extra minutes of debate, Faculty Senate voted to move the form back to committee for revision.

A proposal from the Academic Affairs Committee to modify the student athletic “priority registration policy” to change athlete’s registration status to equal junior standing instead of senior and to cover the entire academic year was voted on during the meeting. It passed with none against and one abstention.

“Keep in mind that this suits the timing, not the location,” Wildes said, reminding senators that this policy gave athletes academic priority, not housing priority.

Belknap said senate needs to reauthorize Maine Day for another four years. He said it should have been done last fall, but was postponed because of other agenda items. The senate will vote to reauthorize it in May. Belknap said UMaine has not cancelled Maine Day this year and that professors should hold classes only if they meet two or fewer times during the week.

An amended version of the Faculty Senate bylaws passed unanimously during the meeting. Faculty senators also approved a shared governance document and three Faculty Senate officer candidates.

Professor James Warhola proposed remanding the issue of extending Kennedy’s presidential term by one or two years to a committee. Hoff said his proposal will be sent to several committees.