Summary Report for UIUC AAUP Policy Committee Meeting on February 13, 2012

Present: Bettina Francis, Harry Hilton, Lewis Hopkins, Cary Nelson, John Prussing, Arthur Robinson, Robert Spitze, Leslie Struble, H. F. Williamson.

The meeting began at about 12:20 p.m. with John Prussing presiding.

President’s Report

(1) Review of the Minutes for January 17, 2012. The minutes for the January 17, 2012 meeting were approved with one minor correction in the heading of section (2) which covers the Spring, 2012 (not 2011) semester..

(2) Schedule of Meetings for Spring 2012 Semester. Prussing went over the schedule briefly. There was an error in the tentative date for the Annual Meeting in the Agenda: it will be May 8, 2012 (not May 18). He also noted that we will need to find a room for the March 12 meeting. [NOTE: Due to a delay in the construction at the Union, we in fact will be meeting in 211 Illini Union on March 12.]

(3) Remarks from President. Prussing discussed the letter he had written to President Hogan suggesting that there be faculty representation on the search committee for the new Director of the University of Illinois Foundation and the reply both of which had be circulated to the Policy Committee. In effect, there would be no “outsiders” on the committee even without vote.

Action Items

(4) Meetings with Campus and University Administrators. Prussing indicated his appreciation that Michael Andrechak was able to join us. We discussed possible individuals to invite for future meetings. It was agreed that the Vice President for Academic Affairs Christophe Pierre should be the first person we invite. Prussing noted that he has talked with Matt Wheeler, Chair of the Senate, about joining us if there are Senate-related items we would like to cover.

(5) Plans for Spring Tenure Workshop. A copy of the flyer for the workshop was part of the packet. The Workshop will be Tuesday, March 13, 2012 in the General Lounge. Hilton will arrange for the printed publicity (e.g., a note in Inside Illinois).

(6) Unionization on the UIUC Campus. Nelson described the procedures that must be followed according to the Department of Labor (DOL) even during the first, exploratory stages of a campaign to unionize a campus. For example, you may not send items such as a questionnaire from a University email address though these items can be sent to individuals at their University email addresses (though the DOL has tried to forbid that as well on occasion). Later, there was a brief discussion of the responses to our poll of Chapter members. Nelson noted that for those in the national office working on the campaign here, a position of neutrality on the issue from the Chapter would be acceptable. A further discussion of the Chapter’s position was planned for the March meeting of the Policy Committee.

(7) Governance Workshop. The draft of an agenda for the workshop prepared by Lew Hopkins was in the packet. There was a lengthy discussion of the purpose of the workshop and who else would be involved in its organization such as the CFA and the Senate. There was concern about when it might be held. It was agreed that an open meeting would be arranged on this issue in conjunction with the Chapter’s Annual Meeting on May 8. Nelson noted that the title might be “How to educate faculty on what shared/faculty Governance is and how should it work.” If possible there would be background material available to help those attending prepare. Examples of this material were the paper “Faculty Participation in Shared Governance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign” by Michael Grossman and the chapter on this subject in Cary Nelson’s book. Hopkins was informally placed in charge of developing the program for May 8.

(8) National Office. Nelson reported on two documents being prepared at the national level. The first regards policy on sexual assault. Nelson noted that President Hogan has set up a committee in part as a result of the problems at Penn State but there may be confusion on how to distinguish policies regarding sexual assault from those regarding sexual harassment. The second report concerns industry-academic relationships. It will be the longest report issued by the national office. Individuals who would like to provide input on this issue can contact Cary Nelson.

(9) Other. Nelson noted that we may want to review the reform proposal for SURS in a report by Robert Rich and Jeff Brown (report can be found on the IGPA web site. http://igpa.uillinois.edu/system/files/SURS-Paper.pdf) to see if the Committee wants to comment.

Summary Report for UIUC AAUP Policy Committee Meeting on February 13, 2012

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