Faculty Senate
Faculty Senate hears about new budget model, diversity initiatives
Editor's note: For more detailed information on the Faculty Senate, including meeting minutes, visit the Faculty Senate website.
8:50 a.m., Nov. 5, 2015--Presentations on the new budget model, an action plan for diversity and permanent approval of the bachelor of science degree in energy and environmental policy were among the topics addressed during the regular meeting of the University of Delaware Faculty Senate, held Monday, Nov. 2, in Gore Hall.
In his opening remarks, Robert Opila, president of the Faculty Senate and professor of materials science and engineering, said that the five elements of the General Education Initiative are in place.
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The Faculty Senate General Education Committee is focusing on a review of undergraduate degree programs, the core curriculum proposal, capstone requirement, first year seminar and alignment of multicultural courses with the diversity rubric.
“The work is going very well,” Opila said. “They are moving forward, and we are very happy about that.”
New budget model
Charles Riordan, deputy provost for research and scholarship, and Kathy Dettloff, chief budget officer, briefed members of the senate on the University’s current and new budget models.
“For the past two years, we have been working in a collaborative effort that involves internal and external review committees and committees of the Faculty Senate,” Riordan said. “There also has been collaboration between and among the deans of the colleges, with the provost and the Provost’s Office and with the Budget Office to reflect and review the responsibility based budgeting (RBB) model that was rolled out at UD in 2010.”
Riordan said that several key goals have been achieved as a result of budget model revision efforts.
“Among those are enhanced simplicity, transparency and predictability within the budget,” Riordan said. “There also will be greater clarity in reporting."
Riordan said the new budget model represents more than a revision of the current RBB model.
“We are referring to it now as Budgeting at the University of Delaware, and one of the attributes that I think will help you to appreciate that this is a very different model is that there are no algorithms,” Riordan said. “These have been replaced with a system that is much more transparent and aligned with our goals and aspirations.”
The new model betters aligns itself with the culture at UD, including its mission and aspirations as stated in its newest strategic plan, Delaware Will Shine, he said.
“This is not a replacement for the vision and the aspirations that all of us have individually and collectively for the University of Delaware,” Riordan said. “We are focused on excellence, and every decision that we make at UD needs to align with that excellence in ways that are consistent with our goals and our mission.”
Dettloff said the new budgeting model empowers decision makers, aligns authority, responsibility and accountability for revenues and expenditures, and provides units incentive to maximize revenues and operate more efficiently.
“This budget model supports priorities but does not drive them,” she said. “It also empowers decision makers in ways traditional expense-oriented, centralized budgeting cannot, and it contributes to a higher quality, more competitive and more prominent University of Delaware.”
The new model, Dettloff said, will run in parallel to the existing budget model in 2016-17, and will be fully implemented in 2018.
Detailed information on the new budgeting model is available at this site.
Diversity initiatives
Senators also heard a report on “Inclusive Excellence: An Action Plan for Diversity at UD” presented by Carol Henderson, vice provost for diversity.
Henderson, who led a diversity forum earlier in the day at the Perkins Student Center, noted that a recent Gallup poll of 30,000 students in America found that diversity was an added value to their educational experience in higher education nationwide.
“I want us to get into the mindset of thinking about diversity as being connected to the idea of the University of Delaware being excellent,” Henderson said. “I want to lead with that because I think it’s important that there is plenty of information out there to suggest the importance of diversity in higher education.”
Diversity, Henderson noted, requires transformation on a campus-wide level and is the responsibility of all members of the UD community.
Henderson also cited the idea of transformational change put forward by Damon Williams, senior vice president with Boys and Girls Clubs of America who formerly worked as a diversity officer in higher education. Williams wrote, “The diversity idea is central to an institution’s mission to develop an educated and informed citizenry…noted from this vantage point diversity is no longer simply an end in itself, but a means to fundamentally reconfigure the mission of higher education.”
The University’s new strategic plan will drive diversity initiatives at UD, Henderson said.
“Delaware Will Shine stresses that in creating our future, UD’s success is firmly predicated on our steadfast commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion,” Henderson said. “This culture is crucial from the perspective of equity and justice, and it is essential for educating global citizens, improving learning outcomes, critical thinking, developing knowledge and enhancing societal impacts, innovation and creativity.”
Henderson said that diversity is a core educational value and guiding principle and that diversity and inclusion are key to creating an engaged and inclusive excellence at UD.
“If you are going to welcome someone into your home, you have to make that person feel welcome,” Henderson said. “What I find perplexing about diversity and some of the practices here is that we want to increase diversity, but we want that person to accommodate our ideas of diversity instead of rethinking the paradigm within which we welcome them.”
Henderson also noted the ethnic diversity index (EDI) numbers computed by James Jones, director of UD’s Center for the Study of Diversity and professor of psychological and brain studies and Black American studies.
To measure an institution’s racial and ethnic diversity, the U.S. News and World Report college ranking computes an ethnic diversity index (EDI), which varies between 0 (none at all) to 1.00 (maximum possible diversity). A higher diversity index indicates a more diverse student population.
“Overall, the ethnic diversity index for faculty at UD is substantially lower than for students and, unlike students, has shown no change for faculty during the last nine years,” Henderson said. “The infrastructure for diversity can help to address some of these issues so that we can begin to develop intentional progress towards changing our ethnic diversity index.”
This infrastructure at UD includes the Office of the President, the Office of the Provost, the vice provost for diversity, the Office of Equity and Inclusion, the Center for the Study of Diversity, and the Office of Human Resources, Henderson said.
Educating search committees and asking job candidates about their individual diversity philosophies might also help in fostering diversity and inclusion initiatives at UD, Henderson said.
“We ask for a person’s teaching philosophy and research philosophy, so it would be interesting to find how they implement diversity learning practices in their classrooms, or if there are things that they have done at their previous institutions that can assist us with our diversity initiatives here at UD,” Henderson said. “If we don’t put this at the forefront with the people we are hiring, how will they know that diversity is important to us?”
Henderson remarked that increasing diversity and fostering inclusion requires a campuswide effort and commitment.
“I realize that diversity is something that is incumbent upon everyone in this room, and that every member of the UD campus community has a responsibility to engage in practices of equity and inclusion,” Henderson said. “That will help increase the ways in which we can become more diverse.”
To see the "Preview to the Diversity Blueprint," which includes a revised and strengthened diversity statement and the six guiding principles for action, click here.
Senate action
Senators approved a resolution to permanently approve the establishment of the bachelor of science degree in energy and environmental policy.
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Faculty Senate is 4 p.m., Monday, Dec. 7, in 104 Gore Hall.
Article by Jerry Rhodes