The new vice provost for strategic enrollment management Dean Kahler discussed the need to target increased enrollment and efforts on retention for the upcoming year at Tuesday’s Faculty Senate meeting.
In addition to discussing his goals for the year, Kahler’s presentation gave Faculty Senate an opportunity to get acquainted with him, given Kahler’s recent start in the senate.
“I think having him be on board and getting up and running and hearing what he had to say gave people a lot of confidence. I felt listening to him, I thought, ‘OK this guy really has the lay of the land,’ so that was a really good opportunity to hear what he was thinking about,” said Faculty Senate Chair Liz Brandt.
During the meeting, Faculty Secretary Donald Crowley said the UI Provost and Executive Vice President John Wiencek briefly discussed Idaho Governor Butch Otter’s state budget proposal and the upcoming budget process.
“Two specific things he mentioned was the governor’s support for the Idaho Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment. The governor recommended that the state invest $10 million in this project of which the UI is a major participant,” Crowley said.
The proposal also included a recommendation for a 3 percent increase in compensation (CEC), Crowley said.
“If this holds up, UI faculty and staff can expect a raise in this range, although a 3 percent increase in state CEC doesn’t automatically translate to a 3 percent raise for everyone,” Crowley said.
Along with the state budget overview, Brandt said Faculty Senate passed three small curriculum changes without objection.
Two of the changes were name changes for classes, Brandt said. The courses in the College of Education themselves did not change, only the names in order to match up with state certification requirements.
The third change was a bit more complicated. Crowley said it involved a change to part of the catalog that outlines general education requirements for all UI students.
“The change mainly dealt with specifying two courses English 313 and English 317, which can now be used to satisfy state board requirements in oral communication,” Crowley said.
Savannah Cardon can be reached at [email protected]