Members Present: Andy Howard (BCPS / Secretary), George Schipporeit (Arch), Judi Zawojewski (MSED), Ken Schug (BCPS), Glenn Broadhead (Hum), Joel Goldhar (Stuart), Michael Young (Psyc / UniFC chair), Phil Troyk (BME / MCFC chair), Howard Chapman (Kent).
Members Absent: Ralph Brill (Kent), Dan Tarlock (Kent), Xian-he Sun (CS), Miles Wernick (ECE).
As noted in the minutes of the Main Campus Faculty Council, a proposal for curricula for the undergraduate business programs has been proposed by the founders thereof. After the MCFC approved the curriculum, it was felt that endorsement by the University Faculty Council would be important. Accordingly the University Faculty Council convened temporarily in the middle of the MCFC meeting in order to vote on the proposal. At the University Faculty Council level the proposal passed 8-0. The Main Campus Faculty Council then reconvened. The proposal will go before the Main Campus Faculty at its meeting on 21 April as a report out of the MCFC, and it will go before the University Faculty as an action item at its 28 April meeting.
The University Faculty Council convened immediately after the end of the MCFC meeting at 1:19 pm.
At the University Faculty Meeting on 28 April, Michael Young will describe to the process by which the handbook was revised. A few additional minor changes will be presented: in particular, the current version of the handbook says that category III faculty with more than ten years of seniority must receive a two-year notification of their termination. This number is inconsistent with other university policies and arguably should be altered. Michael Young also advocated a substantive change in the description of the Undergraduate Studies Committee; the document would benefit from language that would provide the committee with some scope of independent action.
Michael said the process by which the new handbook will be approved remains unclear. It will need to be approved by the Board of Trustees after faculty approval; the timing may be tricky, particularly if the Board of Trustees meets too late for the faculty to react. Joel Goldhar asked whether it is it too late to raise another issue, namely, a university-wide limit on category II-IV faculty, perhaps capped at 25 or even 20% of the total faculty. Michael said that the unanimous approval of the current document by the University Faculty Council will stand, but changes can be proposed from the floor of the University faculty meeting. Michael said that the original concept of the handbook revision was to limit its scope of action to items directly related to the merger of the two campuses. After a brief discussion it was agreed to leave the document substantially in its current form for presentation at the 28 April meeting.
Howard Chapman provided an overview of a twenty-page report he has prepared based on publically available data and information provided to him by Lydia Carlson in John Collins's office. Much of what is contained in Howard's report remains unreviewed by the Vice President's office, and there are specific numbers in it that may not be calculated correctly. Howard will meet with Lydia next week to straighten out some of these problems. The general pattern, however, is clear: the university's financial picture is bleak, and the sale of the IITRI assets is the only thing that is preventing the picture from looking even bleaker. The Faculty Council reviewed Howard's report in some detail, both to understand his figures and to interpret the results. A lively discussion ensued; included were comments regarding dissatisfaction with the delays in data-gathering that have left the Council unable to consider these issues until the very end of the semester. It will be difficult for the faculty as a whole to respond to this situation this late in the academic year, but Howard will attempt to revise his report into a cleaner form that can be put in the hands of the faculty at the 28 April meeting. Much of the discussion of the finance report was off-the-record, and Howard encouraged University Faculty Council members to review his report on their own soon.