Minutes for University Faculty Council Meeting,
12:30pm - 2:00pm, Friday 7 March 2008

Members Present (tentative list): Javad Abbasian (ChBE), Patricia Bach (Psyc), Jeff Budiman (CAEE), Howard Chapman (Kent), Warren Edelstein (AMAT), Ali Emadi (ECE), Joel Goldhar (SGSB), Bill Grimshaw (SocSci), Joyce Hopkins (PSYC), Andy Howard (secretary, BCPS), Vijay Kumar (ID), Robert Krawczyk (ARCH), Art Lubin (AMAT), William Newman (MSED), Boris Pervan (MMAE), Ganesh Raman (MMAE), David Rudstein (Kent), John Snapper (Hum), Phil Troyk (chair, BME), David Venerus (ChBE), Catherine Wetzel (ARCH), Chris White (chair-elect, BCPS), Geoff Williamson (ECE), Wai Gen Yee (CS).

Student Representative: Adam Bain.

Faculty and Staff Visitors: Joseph Orgel (BCPS), Mary Anne Smith (Counsel), Christopher Stewart (Dean of Libraries)

Members Absent: Shlomo Argamon (CS)

Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 12:34pm on Friday 7 March 2008 in the ballroom of the McCormick / Tribune campus center after lunch.

Discussion and Action Items:

  1. Minutes from 2007 Meetings (Andy Howard):
    Andy Howard (BCPS) noted that the minutes from the 4 May, 7 September, 24 October, 2 November, and 7 December 2007 meetings have been posted on the UniFC website for several weeks. He asked that the Council approve these minutes. After brief discussion all five sets of minutes were approved.

  2. Committee Reports:

    1. Budget Planning:
      Phil Troyk (BME) noted that a faculty group has met with Susan Wallace to discuss faculty involvement in budget planning. President Anderson wants budget planning to be more decentralized, i.e. more authority will fall at the Dean level rather than the Provost level. Roughly $2 million will become available for performance improvement in Armour College, and a similar amount in the College of Science and Letters. Each Dean will be expected to define mechanisms for revenues and expenditures. Chris White (BCPS) noted that this is an awkward time to begin this kind of change, with a retiring Provost and vacancies in the Dean positions; Phil said that it will be helpful to have an appropriate process in place when the new officers take charge. The Council discussed the changes in budgetary process; the University needs ideas on how to improve performance everywhere.

      Mary Anne Smith (Counsel) noted that there is a separate account for the Faculty Council itself, and that expenditures for our lunches will come from there.

      President Anderson has noted that the average charge-off for Armour faculty members is $20,000 per year—a factor of 3.5 lower than that found at comparable schools. The Grants Accounting office is getting better, and the implementation of Banner Finance is forcing them to improve their techniques. There is a good deal of cleanup underway in that office and other Main Building offices. Andy noted that a key to financial success is offering appropriate incentives for desirable behavior. Phil was asked to bring the Council's concerns about budgets back to his committee and to Vice President Wallace.

    2. Capital Improvement:
      Phil and John O'Leary are serving on this committee. It has examined both small and large projects. The two of them are preparing a report that will include a set of recommendations to the President's Council. $25 million in capital projects have been proposed for 2009, but there is only about $10 million available, so some hard choices will need to be made.

    3. Academic Freedom:
      This committee is examining the proposed Code of Ethics that Prof. Vivian Weil (Hum) and her group have promulgated. Chris White noted that this is a long and still-unresolved process, and we will postpone discussion of it until the April UniFC meeting. Phil said he is confident that the process will converge by the May Board of Trustees meeting.

  3. Faculty Survey:
    President Anderson wishes to deliver and discuss the results of the survey in person to the faculty. Chris noted that he has seen an advance copy, but has been asked not to discuss it prior to the President's presentation.

  4. Terms and Responsibilities of Faculty Council and Senate:
    Phil noted that he, Lew Collens (Kent / ex-President), Jack Snapper (Hum), and Michael Young (Psyc) have been meeting to discuss the roles and election arrangements for University Faculty Council and University Senate officers. They have assembled a proposal for changes to Appendix B of the Faculty Handbook as an outcome of their deliberation. The first item, involving a clarification in Article V, section D, on how Council members are to be appointed, was seen to be uncontroversial. The second item, involving a change in article IV, section F, establishes the elective term of the UniFC chair to be two years and sets up the notion of a "chair-elect". The third item, involving a change in article IV, sections L and B, alters the process for choosing a Faculty Senate chair; the committee spent some time considering voting rights for emeritus faculty as part of their deliberations on this point. The final item consists of elimination of article V, section D and article V, section E, thereby abolishing the Main and Downtown Campus Committees, on the grounds that they are inactive.

    The Council discussed the proposed changes one by one. Phil moved for approval of the change to Article IV Section D, and Jack Snapper seconded. Chris White asked Mary Anne Smith whether there were problems with any of these proposed changes from her perspective; she said no. It was noted that Category II faculty are not allowed to serve on the Faculty Council; the Committee feels that that is appropriate. Chris proposed a friendly amendment, viz., to delete the final sentence in the revised paragraph IV.D. Phil and Jack accepted the amendment, and it passed 13-2. Phil said he would re-word the rationale given in the document to reflect the change in language. At that point the chair called the question of the changes to Article IV.D.; the change passed by a vote of 13-2.

    The Council then considered the proposed changes to Article V, Section F, regarding election of UniFC officers. Some Council members asked what happens if the 15 April deadline for election of UniFC officers is not met. Catherine Wetzel said that faculty members need to be reminded of that deadline prior to 15 March each year. Phil noted that the proposed two-year term allows for more continuity in governance from year to year. Council members noted that the UniFC chair needs to be a tenured faculty member, so not all UniFC representatives are eligible to be chair. The Council discussed the logic of that phenomenon. David Venerus (ChBE) asserted that the UniFC chair should be a representative on the Council; the proposed election rules do not require that. Accordingly, David Rudstein (Kent) proposed the following rewording: The University Faculty Council shall elect from amongst its members a chair for a two-year term. If the elected chair is in his or her final year, he or she shall be an ex officio member for the second year of his or her term in office. Geoff Williamson seconded this proposed amendment; it passed 13-0. After some further discussion Phil proposed an additional rewording, saying that at the time of the election, The chair shall be a regular voting member of the Faculty Council. This change was agreed to, and as amended, the proposed alterations in Article IV, Section F were approved.

    The proposed changes to Article IV, Sections L and B regarding the election rules for the Faculty Senate were agreed to, apart from a change in IV.B under which the word select is replaced by the word elect. The Council approved the amended changes unanimously. Phil said he would re-word the rationale to reflect the amendments.

    The Council approved the proposed deletions of Article V, sections D and E by unanimous vote.

  5. Upcoming Faculty Meeting:
    Phil and Chris noted that the President has scheduled a University Faculty meeting for 26 March 2008. The agenda will include the handbook changes just discussed; the Aerospace BS degree changes discussed last month; and, the Library Committee reorganization, if it passes at the UniFC level (see below).

  6. Major rewording of the University Faculty Handbook:
    There had been some discussion of a global overhaul of the Faculty Handbook; the predominant sentiment in the Council, though, was that such an overhaul would be ill-timed. Howard Chapman moved that we postpone indefinitely the consideration of such an overhaul; David Venerus seconded, and the motion passed unanomiously.

  7. Library Committee reorganization:
    Christopher Stewart has asked that the Council consider changes to the description of the Library Committee in Appendix A of the Faculty Handbook. The Council discussed the proposed changes. David Venerus asked for a change in the second sentence in the proposed paragraph, which in Dean Stewart's version reads
    Faculty appointments to the University Library Committee shall be nominated by the Dean of Libraries and approved by the UFC.
    David proposed that the word approved be changed to appointed. Phil noted that the language describing the undergraduate and graduate colleges is out of date and should be altered to reflect the current university structure. Dean Stewart agreed to these changes. Phil moved approval of the reworded proposal, and David Venerus seconded; the motion passed unanimously.

  8. Report on implementation of Banner Academic:
    Joseph Orgel (BCPS) presented a progress report on the implementation of the academic and student-registration portions of Banner. Phil noted that this was a highly controversial subject, and said he will moderate the portion of the 26 March faculty meeting on this subject; he intends to manage the discussion so it does evolve into a meta-discussion of the overall suitability of Banner.

Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 2:12pm.