President's Report 3/15/24

March 15, 2024 / Lyndsay Rhodes

Board of Trustees, Board of Governors, and State Updates

Reminder that Chair Wynn will be joining us at Faculty Senate on March 29th to connect with faculty and answer questions. We have created a brief survey to collect questions or topics for discussion for you to share with faculty in your units that will be included in the post-meeting email Monday. We will then collate survey responses to facilitate as efficient of a discussion during the allotted time as possible.

I will be attending the Advisory Council of Faculty Senates (ACFS) and the Board of Governors meeting in Gainesville March 25-27. You can find the draft agenda here. If you have any comments on any of the agenda items, please feel free to contact me.

Friday March 8th, the Senate and House of Representatives adjourned after the 2024 Legislative Session. Both the House and Senate voted to approve the state’s 2024-2025 General Appropriations Act (state budget). FGCU’s legislative budget requests are maintained, to include:

Operational Support Funding- $11 million (recurring) $10 million (non-recurring)
Health Sciences Building, AB 10- $56.1 million
Reed Hall Renovations, Phase I- $11.6 million
Wilson G. Bradshaw Library and Annex Renovation- $4.7 million

Governor DeSantis has 15 days from the date he is presented with the budget to complete his review and execute any veto actions.

Academic Calendar Updates

We have initiated conversations with Academic Affairs and the Cabinet regarding a move back to a 15-week academic calendar. The Institutional Affairs Team will be gathering information from various stakeholders and offices across campus that would likely be affected by a change in term length. You will be receiving a brief (3 question) survey in the post-meeting communication to gather feedback on the potential impacts of the move to a 15-week calendar on your courses. Please share this survey with your colleagues and encourage engagement in this discussion. The survey will close March 29th.

Additionally, there is discussion within Academic Affairs to move back to a primarily 2-day course schedule (M/W, T/R, with some large block format classes on Friday). These discussions are in response to campus input, as well as a preference for longer meeting times (75-minute as opposed to 50-minute classes), and increased schedule flexibility. If you have input on the potential shift back to 2-day courses, please send that feedback to me as soon as possible.

Professional Development Plan Process Launching in Interfolio

The new draft PDP process will be opened in Interfolio for Faculty in April for the 24-25AY process. You all received an email from Andi Clemons on March 14 outlining the relevant information as well as information on upcoming training sessions. The first session will be held March 27th. A new training sign-up page has been created in Eaglelink where you may access all of our upcoming trainings and sign up FGCU Interfolio Training Link.

From Andi Clemons:

"Implementing an online faculty activity reporting system offers several advantages: entering faculty data just once reduces redundancy and saves time, collecting information in one location streamlines evaluations and reports, importing data from various sources enhances accessibility, and streamlining performance reviews leads to quicker, paperless processes. This system also simplifies accreditation reporting, supports grant applications, facilitates decision-making by providing data to leaders, showcases faculty accomplishments globally, and fosters collaboration through networking functions. Ultimately, such a solution contributes to resource efficiency by saving time, effort, and costs."

For any questions on these Interfolio processes, please reach out directly to Andi Clemons or Kristin Toth.

Great Colleges to Work for Survey

The Great Colleges to Work for survey has been launched and you should have received an email from <surveys@modernthink.net> on Tuesday March 12th. Please check your “other” or junk mailboxes as many have reported this email being filtered. This effort is being spearheaded by Dr. Sang Ki Min (AVP Planning and Institutional Performance) in collaboration with a committee including faculty representative Dr. Derek Lura. The survey will close Tuesday March 26th. This survey, along with COACHE, is a key performance indicator included in our 2024-2029 Strategic Plan and is an important way in which we can voice our opinions and concerns. Please encourage your colleagues to take the time to complete the survey.

ORSP Update on Indirect Cost Rates and Waivers

The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs delivered the following information this week via email to the campus community:

“We are aiming to improve our processes in ORSP. For indirect costs for proposals, the FGCU Federally negotiated rates are 42% for on-campus work and 17% for off-campus work. Some foundations, agencies and sponsors have published indirect cost rates which are lower than the Federally negotiated rates. FGCU will honor these published rates. These rates generally appear on the sponsor’s website or in the request for proposal (RFP). Unless a sponsor has a written policy that limits the amount or percent of F&A or indirect costs that can be applied to a project, the University will propose the applicable federally negotiated rate. If the sponsor has questions or requests a waiver or reduction in the F&A, the sponsor is to be referred to the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at FGCU. Faculty are not permitted to negotiate such reductions in F&A costs. An F&A waiver or reduction is an institutional agreement between the sponsor and FGCU. These waivers are extremely rare and require approval from the Dean/Director and the Associate Vice President for Research and Sponsored Programs. The instructions for an F&A (indirect cost) waiver or reduction are at:
https://www.fgcu.edu/academics/research/files/facilities-and-administrative-waiver.pdf

The waiver request can be found at:
https://fgcu.formstack.com/workflows/fa_rate_waiver_request

ORSP requests that advance planning and discussion with ORSP occur no less than 2 weeks prior to the sponsor deadline for the proposal. If there are questions, please reach out to ORSP.”

Please work with ORSP to facilitate negotiations on indirect cost rates where necessary.

Additional ANNOUNCEMENTS

Unit elections – happening soon. Please encourage faculty to get involved. There are a number of open seats for Senators as well as membership on teams and committees. This is important work and we are always looking for new perspectives and ideas.

Save the date for FGCU Teaching, Learning, and Research with AI Symposium

Friday, April 5, 2024 9:00am - 4:00pm, FGCU Library
Open call for presentations – see link for further details
Sponsored by the AI Task Force, FGCU Library, and The Office of the Provost
FGCU Teaching, Learning, & Researching with AI Call for Presentations Link
Deadline to apply is Wednesday, March 20, 2024!

NSF grant Sustainable Regional Systems Research Networks

FGCU is working to prepare a grant application for the NSF grant Sustainable Regional Systems Research Networks proposal (NSF 24-533) opportunity. This up to $15 million over 5 years award is focused on the interconnection of urban-rural systems and the need for sustainable regional systems, with emphasis on integration of science, engineering, education, business, and social/human behavior. Faculty interested in collaborating on the NSF grant Sustainable Regional Systems Research Networks proposal should reach out directly to Dr. Rosemary Higgins (AVP, Research and Sponsored Programs). The full application is due May 15, 2024, and will be prepared in collaboration with Dr. Madeleine Khan.

Intellectual Freedom and Viewpoint Diversity – Key dates for Survey Dissemination

Florida Statutes (F.S.) 1001.706(13), requires the Florida College System (FCS) and State University System (SUS) institutions to conduct an annual assessment of intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity. The student survey instrument has been created for use by the State University System and the Florida College System. The survey will run from March 18th through April 12th, with a report from the BOG/FLDOE due to the Florida legislature by December 31, 2024.