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Summary Report for UIUC AAUP Policy Committee Meeting on January 22, 2014
Present: Michael Grossman, Harry Hilton, Lewis Hopkins, Walter McMahon, Robert Parker, John Prussing, Leslie Struble, Donald Uchtmann, H. F. Williamson
The meeting began at about 12:14 p.m.
President's Report
(1) Review of the Minutes for December 11, 2013 Meeting of Policy Committee. The minutes for the meeting were approved.
(2) Schedule of Spring Meetings. Hilton confirmed that the schedule for the Policy Committee meetings during the spring semester will be as previously announced: (a) Wednesday, February 19: noon, 215 Union; (b) Wednesday, March 12: noon, 215 Union; Wednesday, April 16: noon, 215 Illini Union; (d) Wednesday, May 7: noon, 215 Illini Union. The proposal that the Annual Meeting again be held on the Tuesday during spring final exam week was approved. The date is Tuesday, May 13 in a room to be announced.
(3) Remarks from President: Hilton discussed briefly and expressed his appreciation for the presentation made by Professor Shreeves at our December 11 meeting.
Action Items
(4) Invitations to Other Campus Administrators to meet with Policy Committee in Spring. Now that the dates of our meetings have been confirmed, Hilton will begin inviting individuals to meet with us.
(5) Planning for the Spring Tenure Workshop. Hilton will determine the date once he has found out when the Provost and Associate Provost are available..
(6) Discussion of Actions regarding the Wozniak Decision. There was a discussion of the articles by John K Wilson and Lou Wozniak that appeared in Fall 2013 issue of Illinois Academe concerning the decision though no response on our part was felt be appropriate. The principal discussion concerned the revised draft of Hilton’s letter expressing our concerns about the procedures followed in the case. Based on this discussion, Hilton will revise the letter to reflect the suggestions that it focus on the Senate and look ahead to see what needs to be done to address any problems that were raised by the actions taken in this case. Hilton will prepare a new draft based on this discussion and circulate it to the Policy Committee for review.
(7) Selection of Nominating Committee. Hilton began the process of selecting nominating committee. He indicated that John Prussing would be a member and asked for additional volunteers.
(8) Actions regarding Boycotts of Israeli Academic Institutions. The committee discussed the draft resolution prepared by Hilton. Parker and others noted the importance of addressing the boycott and not the pros or cons on the issues underlying it. Hilton agreed to add a “whereas” concerning the opposition to the boycott expressed by the President and the Chancellor as reported in the article in Tuesday’s Daily Illini. It was suggested that the final resolution be sent to the President and the Chancellor; the members of the Chapter; and the national AAUP office. It was suggested that the cover memo include links to the Daily Illini story and to the 2013 issue of the AAUP Journal of Academic Freedom (JAF) on this topic. Parker noted that we should not expect unanimous support of such a resolution among our members given the division on this issue as illustrated in the articles in the JAF (see, for example, the Editor’s Introduction or the Reader Response by Cary Nelson at the JAF site). (NOTE: A draft of the cover memo for sending the resolution to our UIUC members appears below. You can send any suggested revisions for the memo to me.)
Reports
(9) Report on Chapter Web Site. The members were asked to send Connie Caveny comments on proposed changes in the Chapter web site. Uchtmann noted that the list of officers needs to be revised.
