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4/9/12 Policy Committee Minutes

    Present:  Abbas Aminmansour,Ken Andersen, Connie Caveny, Bettina Francis, Harry Hilton, Walter McMahon, John Prussing, Robert Spitze, Leslie Struble, Donald Uchtmann, H. F. Williamson.

    The meeting began at about 11:40 a.m. with John Prussing presiding. 

    President’s Report

    1. Review of the Minutes for March 12, 2012.  The minutes for the March 12, 2012 meeting were approved.
    2. Schedule of Remaining Meetings for Spring 2012 Semester.
      • Policy Committee.  The next Policy Committee meeting will be at 11:30 a.m. on April 30 in 211 Illini Union.  There is no meeting planned for June at this time.
      • Annual Meeting.  The annual meeting will be the afternoon of Tuesday, May 8 in 209 Illini Union. 
    3. Remarks from President.  Prussing noted that he thought the Tenure Workshop had gone well.  Attendance was up significantly from last year.  Prussing particularly appreciated the strong support from the Provost’s office and the presentations by Provost Wheeler and Associate Provost Wilson.

    Action Items

    1. Plan for the Annual Meeting, May 8, 2012.  The current plan is to hold the meeting in 209 Illini Union with the social hour starting at 3 p.m. and the Business Meeting at 3:30 p.m.  This Business Meeting agenda will include the Election of Officers for 2012-2013 and the President’s Report.  This will be followed at about 4 p.m. by the Governance Workshop (see next item).
    2. Plans for Governance Workshop, May 8, 2012. 
      • Program.  The second part of the meeting will be a panel discussion of Shared Governance at the University of Illinois moderated by Struble.  The panelists will be Ken Andersen, Nick Burbules, and Matt Wheeler.  The questions addressed to the panel are:
        • Is shared governance at Illinois broken?
        • If we believe it to be broken, what can we do to fix it? and
        • What are the appropriate roles of the various stakeholders in shared governance?
      • Publicity.  Williamson will work with Struble and Prussing to determine whom we should invite to the Workshop.  We might include other groups (e.g., CFA) among those we invite.
    3. Discussion of Role of AAUP on Campus and the Unionization Campaign.  We discussed how we could inform our members of the results of the Chapter’s poll on our members’ feeling about unionization of the faculty and what position the Policy Committee might take on this issue.  This will be a principal agenda item for our April 30 meeting of the Committee.  Williamson will work with Prussing on drafting a possible message to our members about our situation so far. 
    4. Discussion of Actions by the Senate and the Senate Executive Committee.  The Senate Executive Committee is continuing the discussion of Article IX, Section 6 of the Statutes regarding “Severe Sanctions Less Than Dismissal.”