12/9/21 Policy Committee Minutes

Present: Hadi Esfahani, Richard Laugesen, Walter McMahon, Cary Nelson, David O’Brien, Robert Parker, Bruce Rosenstock, Daniel Steward, Leslie Struble, Carol Symes, H. F. Williamson.

The meeting began at about 12:34 p.m. with Parker presiding.

1. Introductions. Introductions were not needed.
2. Review of the Minutes for November 11, 2021 Meeting of Policy Committee. The minutes were approved.
3. President’s Report. Parker reviewed the report that he had sent to the Committee. He thanked Hilton for organizing the annual promotion and tenure workshop. The workshop will be held at 3 p.m. on Thursday, April 14, 2022. There was a brief discussion of the plans for publicizing the event. He also reported on his exchange with Vice Provost Bernhard concerning administrative responses to attacks on faculty. Bernhard responded with two links regarding this issue. It was agreed that these should be posted on the chapter website and he will work with Struble to do this possibly along with a resource page from the national AAUP. Struble proposed and the committee agreed that we should continue including on the website the links about AAUP concerns in the news on the website included in the President’s monthly reports.
4. Spring, 2022 Meetings of the Policy Committee. Williamson noted that the schedule of meetings for the Policy Committee in the spring that we approved last month was in the agenda.
   1. We will meet at 12:30 p.m. on the following Thursdays. The format is to be determined.:
      • January 20 (third Thursday; instruction begins Jan. 18; King Holiday is Jan. 17)
      • February 17 (third Thursday)
      • March 10 (second Thursday)
      • Spring Vacation starts March 12 and ends March 20
      • April 7 (first Thursday)
      • May 5 (first Thursday, this is Reading Day)
   2. The annual meeting would be scheduled for May 10 if we follow the policy of holding it on the Tuesday of final examination week.
5. Programming for the Spring, 2022 Semester.
   1. Promotion and Tenure Workshop. As noted earlier, this is scheduled for April 14, 2022, at 3 p.m. via Zoom.
   2. Panel on Critical Race Theory. Three individuals have accepted Parker’s invitations to be panelists for the program: Adrienne Dixson, Department of Educational Policy, Organization and Leadership; Rodney Hopson, Department of Educational Psychology; and Junaid Rana, Department of Asian American Studies. He thanked Carol Tilley for a suggestion that led to identifying two of the panelists. He will continue to work on selecting a date and format for the panel. This will include choosing a title for the program (a tentative tile is “Teaching Critical Race Theory”) and discussing the format with the panelists including whether it will be recorded.
6. Review of Policy Issues: Academic Unites Issuing Statements on Matters of Public Policy. There was a lengthy discussion of the advisability of a campus policy against departments issuing statements on political or controversial topics. A Senate committee has been assigned the task of considering this matter. Rosenstock submitted a rationale for a policy advising that any such statements come with a disclaimer that they do not represent the official view of the university or of any of its administrative units. Nelson submitted a rationale for a policy endorsing a prohibition on such statements. The committee discussed the pros and cons of both approaches, and of not taking a stand on the matter, without reaching agreement. The committee decided to take up the question again in January, when we may consider the possibility of a panel with Rosenstock and Nelson discussing the issue.
7. Other Activities
   1. Registration of Chapter as a Registered Organization: Williamson noted that the we may finally
      be registered later this month.
   2. Meetings with Administrators: Parker will invite the Provost to join us for a meeting.
8. Adjournment. There being no reports, the meeting adjourned at about 1:40 p.m.