Present: Hadi Esfahani, Richard Laugesen, Walter McMahon, Gay Miller (guest), Dana Rabin, Robert Parker, Leslie Struble, Carol Tiley, H. F. Williamson.
The meeting began at about 12:35 p.m. with Parker presiding.
- Introductions. Introductions were not needed.
- Review of the Minutes for March 10, 2022 Meeting of Policy Committee. The minutes were approved.
- Report on Activities of the IBHE Faculty Advisory Committee (IBHE-FAC). Miller is a member of the FAC elected by the UIUC Senate. She reviewed the report on the activities of FAC that she had provided to the Policy Committee. It included descriptions of the key elements of its monthly meetings. These were:
- Presentations. The presenter is often from the institution hosting the meeting discussing a topic important to the IBHE-FAC. This is usually the most important part of the program.
- Legislative and Liaison Reports
- Caucus Meetings by institution type (Public, Private, Community College) providing members a chance to compare notes.
- Working Group Meetings on contemporary topics that vary by year. Topics covered recently included: Online Education and Dual Credit; Equity, Racial Justice and Diversity; Performance-Based Funding; Student Debt and Affordability; and Mental Health. Miller confirmed that the Committee did consider issues important to the AAUP such as academic freedom, tenure, and shared governance. For example, the last had been the focus of the March Presentation at SIU-Carbondale. McMahon, who is a past Chair of the group. strongly endorsed its activities and noted the key role it played in providing input to the IBHE. Miller encouraged us to consider becoming involved with the IBHE-FAC, citing the Senate site for how to become her successor.
- President’s Report. Parker reviewed his April 4, 2022 report to the Committee.
- Honoring Harry Hilton. He began his report with a moment of reflection on the passing of Harry Hilton and an acknowledgment of Hilton’s contributions to the AAUP at the local and national level.
- Communication with the Campus Faculty Association (CFA). Parker met on April 6 with Josue Cisneros, President of the CFA. Cisneros was glad to have a chance to talk. They discussed the possibility of a meetings between officers to the two organizations and otherwise left open what the next steps will be. For example, the two groups could help publicize some of each other’s events. Parker also shared with Cisneros our Chapter’s shared governance survey which may interest the members of CFA and provide helpful analogues to a survey that the CFA has recently conducted.
- Review of the Meeting with Provost Cangellaris. It was agreed that the meeting had gone well. One suggested follow-up to the shared governance survey was for the Provost’s office to check the availability of departmental and college bylaws. The possibility of conducting another survey in the next year or two was discussed. This might include surveying department heads/chairs regarding their reaction to the results of this survey.
- Final Planning for Promotion and Tenure Workshop: Thursday, April 14, 2022
- Arrangements. Parker had been able to change the arrangement so that he would be the moderator and had prepared a new poster/flyer reflecting the changes including a new Zoom address that requires attendees to register. If they register, we can follow up afterward with communications to their email addresses.
- Publicity. There will be an announcement in EWeek. Williamson has circulated the packet he prepared to help individuals publicize the Workshop to the affected faculty and the administrators in their departments.
- Membership Recruiting Material. Parker and Laugesen will work on how to get material to the attendees and on how they might be contacted for future mailings from the Chapter.
- Proposed Schedule of Fall Meetings: Williamson presented the following proposed schedule for the Policy Committee meetings next fall. It assumes we will again meet at 12:30 p.m. on an early Thursday in the month. A final vote on the schedule will be taken at the May meeting of the Policy Committee. Rooms are available if we choose to meet in person
- Thursday, September 8 (2nd Thursday); instruction begins August 22; Labor Day is Sept. 5.
- Thursday, October 6 (1st Thursday)
- Thursday, November 10 (2nd Thursday)
- Thursday, December 8 (2nd Thursday); Reading Day is also December 8
- Planning for Annual Meeting: Tuesday, May 10, 2021 at 3:30 p.m.
- Program. The speaker will be Matt Finkin who will talk about current controversies involving academic freedom.
- Report from Nominating Committee. The committee is Struble and Williamson. Please contact them if you have suggestions for nominees.
- Publicity. This will be principally through email contact to Chapter members and an entry in EWeek. Parker may ask Cisneros about whether the CFA might like to help.
- Setup. Parker will supervise setting up the meeting with arrangements that voting can occur.
- Reports
- Proposed Merger of AAUP and AFT (American Federation of Teachers). Nelson has reported on this proposal indicating that it will certainly pass at the Annual Meeting.
- Chapter Website. Struble reported on some of the minor changes that she had implemented.
- Adjournment. There being no further reports, the meeting adjourned at about 1:45 p.m. As noted above, the final spring semester meeting of the Committee will be 12:30 p.m. on May 5, 2022. The Annual Meeting will be at 3:30 p.m. on May 10, 2022