Present: Kenneth Andersen, Connie Caveny, Michael Grossman, Robert Parker, John Prussing, Art Robinson, Robert Spitze, Leslie Struble, Donald Uchtmann, H. F. Williamson.
The meeting began at about 12:30 p.m. following the meeting with James Stukel and Steven Veazie.
President’s Report
- Review of the Minutes for March 12, 2013. The minutes for the meeting were approved.
- Meeting on April 29: 11:30 a.m., 217 Illini Union. This will be a “regular” Policy Committee meeting (no presentations from guests) with an early starting time. The principal topic will be the discussion of the action(s) (if any) the Policy Committee wants to take on collective bargaining. We will plan to start at 11:30 a.m. to provide enough time for this discussion.
- Schedule of Meeting for May 6. This will be a noon, lunch meeting at the Illini Union (room to be announced). The agenda will be a discussion of collective bargaining with Tim Cain, a faculty member in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, and Monica Bielski Boris, a faculty member in the School of Labor and Employment Relations.
Action Items
- Plans for Annual Meeting, Tuesday, May 7, 2013, 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
- Arrangements and Publicity: Hilton will be making arrangements concerning the location and refreshments.
- Business Meeting: President’s Report; Report from Nominating Committee (see next item).
- Program: Ernie Benjamin and Michael Grossman have agreed to serve as panel to discuss the impact of collective bargaining on shared governance.
- Report from the Nominating Committee. Prussing reported for the committee (Prussing, Hopkins, Williamson) on the difficulties the committee had in finding candidates for President. He indicated that Hilton agreed to serve as President for 2013-2014 to give the Chapter time to generate more candidates next year. The Vice President nominee is David O’Brien and Williamson agreed to continue as Secretary and Treasurer. Parker initiated a discussion on the importance of increasing our membership base as part of the actions being taken next year.
- Attendance at National Meeting: We approved a motion to designate Ken Andersen and Cary Nelson (unless he asks us not to do so) as delegates from our Chapter to the National Meeting in June. We also approved a motion to provide support of up to $1000 for documented expenses of the Chapter delegate(s) to the national meeting. Andersen particularly wants to attend to get information on recent changes such a new dues structure because he sees a great deal of uncertainty about the organizational structure.
- Academic Freedom and Tenure Case. Struble discussed her letter to President Easter expressing our concerns about the processes followed in this case, in particular, why he had decided not to follow the recommendation of the Senates Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee. President Easter thanked her for the letter and indicated that he was proceeding following the recommendations of the University Counsel.
Reports
- Report on Chapter Web Site. Caveny will be adding the information on the Annual Meeting and the meetings of the Policy Committee to the site.
- Illinois Conference: Andersen reported that the Conference treasury is in good shape and that they have had some success is establishing Chapters at some of the smaller colleges.