President's Report 8/30/24

August 30, 2024 / Lyndsay Rhodes

Board of Trustees, Board of Governors, and State Updates

Syllabus Key Term Search

Earlier this month you received a request for early submission of your syllabi due to a data request from the Florida Board of Governors. The Florida BOG has requested that each SUS institution search all course descriptions and syllabi for the following keywords: Israel, Israeli, Palestine, Palestinian, Middle East, Zionism, Zionist, Judaism, Jewish, or Jews. In an email to the University Presidents on August 2, 2024, Chancelor Rodriguez stated that courses identified by the key word search will be reported to the BOG and each university has been tasked to "initiate a faculty review that will need to be completed by the conclusion of the Fall Semester. This review should flag all instances of either antisemitism or anti-Israeli bias identified and report that information to my office.”

The Advisory Council of Faculty Senates (ACFS) has been meeting regularly to discuss this issue and responded to this data request with a letter to the Chancelor on August 27, 2024. spoke with the Chancelor on Wednesday. The Chancellor’s response to Governor Amanda Phalin, faculty representative to the BOG, regarding the letter from ACFS was that our concerns are noted but the review is moving forward as previously described to university administrators.

I will continue to work with our colleagues through ACFS to represent the concerns of our faculty, and will keep you updated as we learn more.

General Education Course Approval

Last year legislation was passed (SB 266) resulting in modification of FL statute 1007.25 and creation of FL statute 1007.55, and amendment of BOG regulation 8.005, General Education Core Course Options. These changes required extensive review of our general education courses and updates/realignment with the new revised regulation. FGCU submitted our list of courses for 2025-26 and updated all the course information with the state in mid-July. The BOG staff notified FGCU in August that 34 of our 109 courses needed to be reviewed, revised, or removed, and our final list resubmitted by September 1, 2024. General Education Director, Dr. Joe Ross, will be updating us with more details later today. We are continuing to discuss this at ACFS as well and I will continue to update Senate as we learn more.

Board of Trustees

The next BOT meeting is scheduled for September 10, 2024, at 8:30am in the Cohen Center Ballroom. The agenda has been posted to the BOT webpage. Agenda items of note include approval of the General Education courses for AY 2025-2026, approval of the 2024 Student Success Plan, and approval of implementation of phase 1 of the Employee Housing.

COACHE Strategy-Setting Taskforce Report

The COACHE Strategy-Setting Taskforce shared their recommendations with leadership at the end of the Spring 2024 semester. Faculty continued to work with the President and members of cabinet through the summer to further develop and begin implementation of recommendations. Some of the immediate actions included increased transparency and representation of faculty on university committees and faculty recognition. Continue to look for updates on future implementation of recommendations. More information including the most recent taskforce report can be found on the FGCU COACHE webpage.

Effective Use of Canvas

As we work to implement the 2024-2029 Strategic Plan, we need the assistance of faculty to become a more data-driven institution. The President and I would ask you all to encourage faculty to use Canvas for the following:

1. Record Attendance – we are asking faculty to take attendance in every class and record this using Canvas for each class meeting.

2. Use the Gradebook – we are asking faculty to set up their gradebook to reflect the grading outlined in their syllabus, and to input grades regularly into Canvas.

3. Use Early Alert – The Early Alert link is located in the left-hand menu of Canvas under Help & Resources.

These actions will allow the university to identify at-risk students to provide services to increase their chances of academic success. If you need assistance with any of these processes, please reach out to Digital Learning. I also welcome feedback on how to support faculty with these processes.

CBA Changes and FPED Updates

The Collective Bargaining Agreement for 2024-2027 was ratified on August 9, 2024, and included several key changes that will affect the Faculty Performance and Evaluation Document (FPED). These items are summarized below and will be addressed by the Faculty Affairs Team this year for anticipated implementation in AY 25-26 (pending some final negotiations).

1. Instructor-to-professor path
  Article 8.5 Change in Appointments
  D. An Instructor may apply to have their position changed to a professorial position if they have met both the educational degree requirement of the position and the standards and criteria in the respective PECAP. An application procedure, as well as any necessary revisions to the FPED, will be established for this change in appointment by the Faculty Affairs Team and the Faculty Senate, with the final review and approval of the application procedure and revisions to the FPED by the Provost. This procedure must include a provision for approval of the faculty member’s change in appointment by the Dean/Director and the Provost.
2. Early Promotion
  Article 14 Promotion Procedure (14.1.B)
  B. Faculty members may apply for promotion after completing four (4) full years in rank or level. Any credit for time in rank or level will be stated in the appointment letter. A member of the bargaining unit may petition their respective Peer Review Committee (PRC) to apply for promotion after completing three full years in rank or level in accordance with a process to be established and defined in the FPED.
3. Promotion Denial
  Article 14.4 Notice of Promotion Denial
  If an employee is to be recommended to the President for promotion, the employee shall be notified in writing by the appropriate administrative official, by the date indicated in the FPED. If any employee is denied promotion, the appropriate administrative official will provide a written descriptive explanation of the reason(s) for denial by the date in the FPED. The employee may request within 10 days of notification of denial, in writing for further explanation of the denial based on the established promotion criteria and standards. The University will provide such explanation, in writing within twenty (20) days of the request.