Standing charges

1. Hold monthly meetings with the Provost to receive information and provide feedback regarding budgetary and reallocation decisions in all sectors of the university. Include discussions of the budget rollover policy, projected changes in tuition and in tuition accountability, and the utility payment policy. Report regularly and in a timely manner to SenEx, especially when budgetary changes are being considered.

2. Participate in the university's budget formulation process and provide committee representation at hearings where units present their budget plans.

3. Inform SenEx promptly and regularly, in addition to the reporting mentioned in charge 1 above, about developments in planning and budget activities. .

4. Utilize the technical support of the Office of Institutional Research and Planning and communicate to OIRP any SenEx concerns about issues of measurement, standardization, and analysis of higher education data, including teaching loads, class sizes, and faculty salaries.

5. Submit to SenEx: a) the approved minutes of each meeting; b) a summary of issues discussed at the monthly meeting with the Provost; c) recommendations for action as they are approved by the committee d) final report by April 15, 2003. The final report should make clear what was and was not done about each of the charges as well as make recommendations for SenEx action. The report should also include suggestions for changes to next year's committee.

6. Monitor and provide feedback on the Smart Card implementation and related problems.

Additional Charges

7. Monitor and provide feedback on the use of funds derived from increased student tuition and consider establishing a sub-committee to provide greater representation from the University community.

8. Keep abreast of and provide input to implementation of the Campus Master Plan. Specific attention should be paid to transportation issues and how the comprehensive landscape plan relates to campus use and access. Attention should also be paid to new building construction to determine a mechanism by which parking can be included as part of any new construction.

9. Stay informed about building and program developments of the Edwards Campus and the Capitol complex and provide input as circumstances warrant.

10. Continue to study the impact of recent changes in the tuition and fee systems: their effects on the central mission of the University, i.e. on academic programs and how the tuition and fees (e.g., the technology fee, linear tuition, library and differential fees) are allocated. Consider whether University Governance should recommend a policy on the development and evaluation of special and differential fees.

11. Stay informed about the university's Initiative 2001 planning process and implementation.

12. In coordination with the Library committee, consider the effects of rapid increases in periodical prices on the quality of library collections and service.

13. Review the process of raising private funds with the goal of determining the positive and negative effects on the University. (See attached rationale)

14. Determine the extent and impact of recent and anticipated faculty retirements, including phased retirements, upon academic units. (See attached rationale)

Attachment to P&R Charges

Rationale for Charge #13 from Mohamed El-Hodiri:

With a US polity which is increasingly reluctant to increase spending on higher education, perhaps under the mistaken belief that benefits and costs of such an education are purely individual, leaders of higher education have intensified their efforts to obtain funds from alternative sources in order to finance this collectively produced and consumed service. At times it would seem that the quest for additional funding becomes an end in itself, a perception that leads to gathering funds for the sake of gathering funds. At times this is done without careful consideration of the positive and negative effects on the main missions of the higher learning institutions. P&R is charged to review the process of "raising money" with the goal of establishing a clear connection between the funds raised and the way the funds are used to achieve the goals of the institution.

Rationale for Charge #14 from Lloyd Sponholtz:

As an example, in the history department, as many as one-third of the faculty will have retired in the decade ending in 2009. Some sub-units of the department (medieval history) have been devastated; and others (Russian and Eastern European history) have faculty all of whom are of retirement age. Permanent replacements are delayed even further by phased retirements. Is the situation in history a unique case, or is the problem more pervasive?