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President's Semester Report

Fall 2006

TO: Members, UIUC AAUP Chapter
FR: Donald Uchtmann, Chapter President
RE: Activities of the Policy Committee, Fall, 2006

This is my first report as Chapter President to the members of the UIUC AAUP Chapter concerning our activities during the previous semester. I have appreciated the support of my predecessor, Geneva Belford, and the other members of the Policy Committee as well as the members of the Chapter during my tenure as President.

The Chapter officers met July 27 to prepare for our activities this semester. The Policy Committee met on September 11, October 16, November 13, and December 11. Members of the Policy Committee also met with Jane Buck, past President of the AAUP, on October 27 when she attended the conference honoring current AAUP President Cary Nelson, a conference that our Chapter supported. The members who attended at least one of these six meetings were: Abbas Aminmansour, Ken Andersen, Geneva Belford, Linn Belford, Vernon Burton, Connie Caveny, Clyde Forrest, Bettina Francis, Michael Grossman, Harry Hilton, Walter McMahon, John Prussing, Arthur Robinson, Robert Spitze, Leslie Struble, Donald Uchtmann, and H. F. Williamson.

The rest of this report provides a summary of our activities and the discussions at the Policy Committee meetings. Two principal activities have been our work last summer on revising the policies for rehiring retirees and our role this fall in the campus review of the Global Campus Initiative. If you would like to have a more active role in our Chapter’s activities, please let me or one of the other members of the Policy Committee know. We would be pleased to have all of our members more involved in the Chapter’s activities, possibly as members of the Policy Committee or of one of the other committees.

Activities of the Policy Committee

(1) Impacts of a Restrictive University Policy on Faculty Re-hires. The actions taken by the Chapter were described in detail in Geneva Belford’s report on the activities during the spring and summer of 2006. These included (a) the meeting with Associate Provost Peg Rawles; (b) the Policy Committee discussion and actions culminating in the adoption of a resolution at our June 12, 2006 meeting; (c) the actions of our members leading up the July meeting of the Board of Trustees (BOT) including a June 20, 2006 meeting with President White; and (d) the BOT actions and the AAUP follow-up. The last included an excerpt from my letter to Trustees Eppley and Sodemann thanking them and the rest of the BOT for considering our views while they worked on this issue. We feel that the new policy represents significant progress on the re-hiring issue in that the board is no longer requiring prior board approval of virtually all re-hire arrangements. (The Chapter’s actions were discussed in detail in Geneva Belford’s report for Spring, 2006. If you would like a copy of that report, please let H. F. Williamson know at billw@uiuc.edu).

(2) Global Campus Initiative. This was a major topic of discussion at all four Policy Committee meetings this fall. We shared the concerns raised by many on campus about a number of aspects of the original proposal particularly with regard to faculty governance (e.g., what role will the faculty have in the administering the program) and academic freedom and tenure (e.g., who will be responsible for the preparation, presentation, and supervision of the courses in this program and who will assure their academic freedom). Members of the Policy Committee played a significant role in the review of this proposal by the Faculty-Student Senate and its Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee and its Educational Policy Committee. As the semester concluded, we maintained our interest in this proposal and planned to play an active role in the actions which would be taking place in the spring. Our viewpoint was summarized in the email that I sent President White in December about our concerns regarding the Global Campus Initiative (GCI) in general and the role of faculty in that Initiative in particular. I urged the President “to fully consider the ideas thoughtfully expressed in the [Senate] Task Force Report and to make every effort to address the concerns identified and the recommendations offered.” President White met with a delegation from our AAUP chapter’s Policy Committee (Burton, Francis, and me) on December 15 to discuss the topic further. He listened intently and appears to be genuinely interested in faculty perspectives on the Global Campus Initiative. I encourage all of our Chapter members to monitor news regarding the Global Campus Initiative posted on the UIUC Senate Website (http://www.senate.uiuc.edu/news.asp).

(3) Invitation to Campus Administrators to meet with Policy Committee. The Policy Committee regularly invites campus leaders to join us for a discussion of issues important to the faculty and the rest of the academic community. Last year, Chancellor Richard Herman and Associate Provost Peg Rawles met with us. On November 29 Francis and Uchtmann meet briefly with Provost Katehi as a prelude to her meeting with the Policy Committee at our February, 2007 meeting. We also have invited President White to meet with us and on December 15 he expressed a desire to do so as soon as a mutually suitable meeting date can be arranged. I am very pleased that President White has met with representatives of our Chapter on specific matters affecting our academic community, e.g., the Global Campus Initiative and the policy on rehiring retired faculty, and I look forward to his meeting with the Policy Committee in the future when we, hopefully, will have a wide ranging discussion about higher education and our university

(4) Chapter Web Site. Cary Nelson is directing the efforts to prepare this site. Most of the elements of the site are in place and a preliminary version is being reviewed. The full site should be available early in the spring semester. This will provide our members and the rest of the academic community a better opportunity to learn about the Chapter’s activities.

(5) Composition of Committees for 2006-2007. We currently have four committees as follows (Chairs in parentheses): (i) Government Relations (Andersen); (ii) Academic Freedom (Robinson); (iii) Programs (Hilton); and (iv) Membership (G. Belford). We hope that members of the Chapter will be interested in working on these committees. If you are, please let me know.

(6) Revision of Chapter By-Laws. A committee (Francis, Chair; Andersen; and Williamson) was asked to review and revise the Chapter By-Laws. Proposed revisions have been discussed at a number of our meetings. The final revision will be available early in the spring semester for review and consideration at the annual meeting.

(7) Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee. The chair, Robinson, is working with two individuals concerning the procedures that were used for decisions on their promotion and tenure .

(8) Government Relations Committee: The chair, Andersen, continues to report on actions by the governor and the state legislature that may have an impact on the campus. This fall, he noted concerns about the funding of student aid given that the planned sale of the student loan fund did not occur. He remains pessimistic that there will be significant actions to address the state’s fiscal problems. Items of consideration for the spring include the usual concerns about the budget situation as well as whom the governor will appoint to the Board of Trustees.