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President's Semester Report

Spring 2008

TO:  Members, UIUC AAUP Chapter
FR:  Donald Uchtmann, Chapter President
RE:  Activities of the Policy Committee, Spring, 2008

This is my fourth report to the members of the UIUC AAUP Chapter concerning our activities during the previous semester and completes my second year as Chapter President.  I have appreciated the support of the  members of the Policy Committee as well as the members of the Chapter during my tenure as President.  Because of this support, I accepted the nominating committee’s request to serve a third year as President and look forward to another active year for the chapter.  I continue to be impressed by the important role that so many members of our chapter play in campus governance particularly as members of numerous important committees.  We plan to continue meeting with campus and University administrators next year and to hold a tenure workshop during the spring, 2009 semester (see item 2 below).

The Policy Committee met this spring on January 14, February 11, March 10, April 7, April 28, and June 9.  Members of the Policy Committee also met with Vice President Mrinalini Rao on January 14 (see item 1 below).  The members who attended at least one of these meetings were: Abbas Aminmansour, Kenneth Andersen, Geneva Belford, Linn Belford, Connie Caveny, Bettina Francis, Harry Hilton, Lewis Hopkins, Walter McMahon, Cary Nelson, John Prussing, Arthur Robinson, Robert Spitze, Leslie Struble, Donald Uchtmann, and H. F. Williamson.  The annual meeting was held on May 6 (see item 10 below).

The rest of this report provides a summary of our activities and the discussions at the Policy Committee meetings.  Among our principal activities were our meeting with Vice President Rao, the sponsorship of a Tenure Workshop on March 11 (see item 2 below), the establishment of the Chapter’s Standing Rules; and our continued role in helping shape campus policy on such issues as the Global Campus Partnership and the Academy on Capitalism and Limited Government Fund.  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)  Meeting with Vice President Mrinalini (Meena) Rao.  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.  Vice President Rao accepted our invitation to join us at for a lunch meeting in January following our regular Policy Committee meeting.  In her remarks, she discussed her previous positions at the UIC campus and what she has done during her first six months as Vice President.  She stressed the importance of relationship building on such issues as improving procedures that have become overly cumbersome and improving the effectiveness of the Academic Affairs Management Team.  She will be co-chairing the Global Campus Academic Council and be involved in implementing the recommendations generated at President White’s resource summit in December, 2007.  She noted that she understood our concerns about the importance of faculty governance and effective communications between the faculty and the University Administration.  I was pleased to note at the conclusion of the meeting that this had been a great start but certainly not the end of a continuing dialogue between Vice President Rao and our group.

(2)  Tenure Workshop on March 11.  Harry Hilton, Chair of the Workshop Steering Committee, and the rest of the Committee did an excellent job in selecting the speakers, arranging the event itself, and publicizing it to the faculty.  The speakers were Provost Linda Katehi; Vice Provost Ruth Watkins; Professor Gary Porton, a past chair of the campus Promotion and Tenure Committee; Professor Billie Jean Theide, chair of the UIUC Faculty Advisory Committee, and Professor Cary Nelson, a member of the Policy Committee and the President of the National AAUP.  We were pleased at the turnout and that many who attended thanked the members of the Policy Committee who were there for the AAUP’s sponsorship of this excellent program.  Because of this success, we have decided to hold the Tenure Workshop each spring rather than every other year.

(3)  Academy on Capitalism and Limited Government Fund (ACLFG).  As I noted in my report on our activities for the fall, 2007 semester, the Policy Committee discussed this issue extensively throughout the fall including at our meeting with President White.  In October, we adopted a statement inviting faculty to engage in the work of re-framing the proposed mission of the Academy for Capitalism and Limited Government Fund and suggesting three tasks that should be undertaken to assure that this occurs.  We have continued to monitor the actions of the Fund during the spring semester.

(4)  Global Campus Initiative/Partnership.  We have continued to discuss this program particularly now that it has begun enrolling students.  It has become even more important that faculty have an important role in the monitoring of and future developments in the program.

(5)  Preparation of the Chapter’s Standing Rules.  A subcommittee (Andersen, Williamson) was established to prepare the Standing Rules, a task assigned to the policy Committee in the revision of the Chapter By-Laws approved last spring.  The final version was approved at our April 28 meeting, and copies were presented at the annual membership meeting.  It was agreed to place them on the chapter web site.

(6)  Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee.  The chair, Robinson, has continued to work with individuals who have concerns about the procedures being used for decisions on promotion and tenure.  He has also been working with the staff in the Provost’s office who are reviewing these procedures.

(7)  Government Relations Committee.  The chair, Andersen, continued to lead discussions of the problems facing the state particularly with regard to the budget.  Of critical concern were the state’s large structural deficit and the fact that the stridency of those on opposite sides of the tax debate may preclude the legislature being able to reach a reasonable compromise solution. 

(8)  Chapter Web Site.  Procedures have been established to keep the site current.  The site will include (a) summary reports of each meeting of the Policy Committee; (b) the minutes for the Annual Meeting; and (c) a copy of the Chapter’s Standing Rules.  The site has been nominated for annual competition for the best AAUP web site in the nation.  The address of the site is:  http://aaup-ui.org/

(9)  National AAUP.
(a)  Membership Drive.  A letter was prepared by our Chapter to be part of the membership drive mailing to individuals on our campus.  It is important that we follow up on the efforts by the national office to increase our members.
(b)  Report from the President.  Nelson was reelected to be President of the national AAUP.  He has reported on his efforts with regard to such issues as the reorganization of the national office to improve the services that it provides, the new methods for communicating with members and potential members principally by email, and the national membership drive (also see item 10).

(10)  Annual Meeting, May 6, 2008
(a)  Business Meeting.  After the minutes for the May 3, 2007 Annual meeting were approved, Uchtmann made his President’s Report.  He described the activities the Chapter had undertaken during the year and thanked the committee chairs and all the members of the Policy Committee for their important contributions to the successful year.  He then accepted the report from the 2008 Nominating Committee (Hilton, Spitze, and Williamson) proposing the following officers for 2008-2009:  Donald Uchtmann, President; John Prussing, Vice President; Connie Caveny, Secretary; and H. F. Williamson, Treasurer.  This slate was approved unanimously.  Uchtmann thanked Bettina Francis for her work as Vice President during his first two years as President.  He also noted that the final draft of the Standing Rules was part of the packet for the meeting and would be on the web site as soon as possible. 
(b)  Presentation by Cary Nelson, President of the National AAUP, “The State of the National AAUP.”  Nelson noted that it has been a period of “achievement and challenge” during his first term as President.  There have been major steps in improving the accuracy of membership rosters and in extending the outreach of the association through its email program.  The spring membership drive was run with support from the chapters and resulted in 2000 new members.  There will be another drive in the fall.  Nelson feels particularly strongly about the top-notch work of Committee A including establishing (1) principles for the rights of investigators who receive grants from governmental agencies; (2) policies for establishing the role of collegiality in the tenure decision to be sure that it is neither a separate evaluation category nor a criterion used with regard to evaluating research results; and (3) due process for graduate employees with regard to their academic freedoms.  The principal item at the national meeting will be the proposed restructuring of the Association. The three proposed groups are the foundation (501.C.3 status); the professional association made up of all individual members including those in CB units (501.C.6 status) and the CB chapters (501.C.5 status). 
(c)  Presentation by Kenneth Andersen, past-President of the AAUP Illinois Conference and UIUC Chapter, “The State of the State:  Relations among the Legislature, the IBHE, and SURS.”  Andersen noted that, unfortunately, many aspects of his report would parallel his remarks at last year’s annual meeting.  The IBHE has been developing a public agenda for higher education in Illinois.  There is concern about the large range of problems facing the state including (1) disparities between whites and minorities and between regions in the state in terms of such factors as academic performance and retention rates; (2) the increasing cost of higher education with the resulting reduction of accessibility for low income groups; and  (3) general problems with high school completion rates; ability of high school graduates to handle college-level work; and low college completion rates among some groups.  Andersen reported that SURS staff were concerned about whether the legislature would meet is obligation for another year of increased funding.  He noted that there is an excellent report on SURS on their web site including such items as maps and tables showing the income received by SURS annuitants in each house and senate district in the state.  The situation in Springfield continues to be bleak.  It appears that the state will omit its last payments this year to the school districts.  There seems to be no agreement on such key items as the capital bill and how to cover the shortfalls for the current fiscal year.  Regarding the vote in November on whether or not to hold a Constitutional Convention (Con Con), a wide range of groups (e.g., the unions and the Chamber of Commerce) is in opposition.  The worse things are in Springfield, however, the more sentiment there may be to hold a Convention.