Board of Visitors

Academic Affairs Committee Meeting June 9, 2023

Present from the Board

• Steven S. Kast, Chair
• John R. Lawson, II
• Sean D. Miller
• LTC (R) Boris G. Robinson
• The Honorable Ronald L. Tillett

Present from the University

• Quentin Kidd, University Provost and Lead Staff for Committee
• Jason Carney, Senior Lecturer of English and Faculty Senate Representative
• David Salomon, Director of Student Research and Creative Activity
• Nannette Washington, Executive Administrative Assistant to the Provost

The regular meeting of the BOV Academic Affairs Committee of Christopher Newport University was called to order at 11:16 AM on June 9, 2023 by Steven S. Kast, Committee Chair.

A vote was held to approve the previous meeting minutes. Chairman Kast called for a motion, which was made by LTC Boris G. Robinson and seconded by The Honorable Ronald L. Tillett. The minutes were unanimously approved.

At this point, Chairman Kast turned the meeting over to Quentin Kidd, University Provost.

Topics that were discussed by the Provost are as follows:

1. David Salomon, Director of Student Research and Creative Activity
   1. Began employment with CNU in the Fall of 2017.
   2. Currently have an array of programs running. The goal was to engage with at least 30% of students in a research or creative opportunity. This year, they have reached 37%, surpassing their goal.
   3. Current offerings include research-based grants, summer scholars, Paideia, the Cupola.
   4. He has reached out to several businesses in the area to form partnerships.
2. Year-End Summary
   1. We have been awarded over $3.6 million in new grants this year (25 total to 27 different faculty). External grants were awarded to faculty in every college.
   2. We filled 16 faculty lines this year.
   3. We hired Sean Heuvel as the Director of Graduate Recruitment and Admission last summer. The numbers of students in the MFinA program alone have doubled. He is also engaging local companies to send their employees to this program in the years ahead. He will also work with the MAT program.
   4. For the first time in CNU history, two of our professors won the competitive and prestigious SCHEV Outstanding Faculty Award this academic year. There were only 12 winners statewide.
   5. We submitted a strong 5th year report for our SACSCOC accreditation of the University, and we expect to hear back from them in late June.
   6. The Center for Crime, Equity, and Justice Research and Policy (CCEJRP), the Center for American Studies, the Wason Center for Civic Leadership and the Reiff Center for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution hosted nearly two dozen conferences or speaker events on campus that brought thousands of people to engage with our students. The academic centers are increasingly becoming the way our campus engages with the community.
   7. Center for Community Engagement logged 60,000 student engagement hours, and hosted its 15th Annual Food for Thought Campaign which brought in 70,000 lbs. (equivalent to 58,000 meals) of food for the VA Peninsula Foodbank.
   8. Past is Prologue is a history podcast that provides the public with the background behind the day’s headlines, and offers much-needed context to understand the significance of current events that people observed around them. The podcast started in March, and so far, they have had listeners in 32 countries and 36 states.
3. Budget Reduction Planning
   1. AY 22-23 total Academic Affairs budget = $53 million.
   2. Anticipate reduction of $2.5 million in funding for AY 23-24 (5%)
   3. Plans to mitigate the effects of the reductions include:
      1. Reducing full-time faculty count to 272, a reduction of 15.
      2. Reducing overall staff count by 10.5 FTE
      3. Increasing course caps/reduce overall number of course sections.
      4. Relying more on adjunct faculty.
      5. Reducing department and center budgets by 5% across the board.
      6. Targeting additional cuts/reductions in program budgets.
4. Initiatives
   1. Development of new academic programs in Nursing (joint program with Riverside) and undergraduate education.
   2. Exploring ways to better connect university with community via continuing education programs, graduate programs, and certificate programs.
   3. Working on developing programs and expertise in data science and research computing.
   4. Assessing need to better organize academic affairs (colleges and schools).
   5. Developing a regularized sabbatical leave program for research active faculty.
5. Appointments To The Instructional Faculty – New Hires Since Last Board Meeting

The next Board of Visitors meeting will be held at 10:00 AM on September 15, 2023 in the Madison Room of the David Student Union unless otherwise announced.

With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 12:27 AM by Chairman Steven Kast.