Minutes of the AAUP Executive Committee Meeting of January 7, 2009
Present: C. Smith (Chapter President), D. Burns, E. Chudacoff, M. Crichton, J. Lehman, R. Lomax, T. Moore, G. Poe
C. Smith called the meeting to order at 12:15 p.m.
Agenda. The proposed agenda, as modified, was adopted by consensus.
Announcements. C. Smith made the following announcements:
1) Planning for the Annual Newsletter will begin at the next meeting.
2) The ACLC will be meeting soon to consider strategy.
3) Plans for the fund raising campaign need to be developed.
4) Changes in federal law re contributions to charitable organizations can now be given directly from an IRA. UM chapter members have contributed almost $25,000 to the national AAUP's Campaign for the Common Good.
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Minutes. The minutes of the December 10, 2008 meeting were adopted with minor corrections.
Treasurer's Report. M. Crichton reported that there had been neither income nor expenditures since our previous meeting, and that the balance in the checking account remains unchanged at $1,618.72.
Faculty Governance. C. Smith reported on the Executive Committee's request to the Provost's office for individual salary information, with all names removed. (See minutes of October 22, 2008, and the copy of the letter attached to the minutes). It was noted that, in addition to AAUP, the Committee on the Economic Status of the Faculty (CESF) and the Budget Study Committee (BSC) had jointly submitted a similar request for the information. The Provost's office considered the letter a FOIA request, and forwarded it to (Assistant Provost) Jeffrey Frumkin who has since replied that the request cannot be honored because the data requested reveals personal information. The CESF is resubmitting its request to the Provost. The following motion was adopted by unanimous vote: "If the Executive Committee has not received the requested salary data by the next meeting [on January 28, 2009], the chapter will proceed to contact the Auditor General of the State of Michigan." J. Lehman reported that the Tenure committee has completed the hearings on the 5.09 case and has reached a decision, but the conclusions have not yet been published.
Active Cases. J. Lehman reported the status of the three active cases he had introduced at the 26 November executive committee meeting.
1) This case involves an assistant professor who filed a grievance in a tenure case alleging conflict of interest by an executive committee member. The grievant has received an initial response from the dean's office that included a 'recusal policy' document from the college enigmatically dated 20 May 2008. The date seems enigmatic because the grievant had filed FOIA requests for any such document and as recently as September 2008 had been informed that no such document existed. The dean's office cites the document in its response and asserts that the policy was followed 'scrupulously.' It asserts to the GRB that, therefore, the grievance is 'not grievable.'
Of interest to the AAUP is the following statement: 'The
AAUP position on the relevant role of expertise in the process for
making decisions on promotion cases is useful for heuristic reasons, but
irrelevant to the practices and procedures of the [unit name].
Indeed, every executive committee in the University has the right to make - in
its fashion and following its own procedures --the final judgment on promotion
recommendations. In this case a difficult substantive judgment was made
following existing … procedures scrupulously.'
2) The faculty member has filed a grievance. There are disturbing accounts
of threats attributed to the U-M office of general counsel that need to be
discussed in executive session.
3) This is the case of an individual who showed the AAUP representative evidence of scientific misconduct by other U-M faculty on 29 July, and who was forcibly arrested in his/her office and charged with 'trespassing' on 4 September while still a U-M employee and active member of the University Senate. The individual has been told by his/her attorney that if s/he will agree to plead guilty to 'disturbing the peace' that the U-M will withdraw all other charges and will have the record expunged in six months. S/he claims to have received police records that suggest collusion of specific U-M administrators and DPS in response to his/her revelations of scientific misconduct, plagiarism, and grant fraud. There is no further word about the fate of the evidence, research materials, data books, and personal property that were lost when s/he was forcibly expelled from his/her office. The case warrants additional discussion in executive session.
D. Burns also spoke with three colleagues about three cases at earlier stages than those reported by J. Lehman. In the first, a colleague has lost certain perquisites of his position without procedure, possibly an infringement of RB 5.09. Colleague was advised where to find the appropriate texts and is looking them over to consider further options. Another was warned by a dean not to threaten to sue a former student who had been harassing that colleague. That seems to have quieted down now. Colleague erred in sending such threats via UM email. Finally, one colleague was threatened with being squeezed out of the colleague's college, if the colleague didn't come up with external funding very soon, but the threat was made on the basis of the colleague's being close to retirement age. While egregious age discrimination, there was no written record, and the dean would surely deny saying what the colleague heard. The colleague was warned to be vigilant in the future as to communications with school administration, and to seek help before speaking with the college rather than after in the future."
Fall Chapter Meeting. C. Smith recommended that the Chapter's annual meeting be scheduled close to the State Conference meeting and that the subject for the Chapter meeting be the same as that of the Conference, namely, "Academic Freedom". The Executive Committee briefly considered possible participants for that topic.
State Conference Developments. The theme for the 2009 annual meeting, traditionally held in April, has been set: Academic Freedom.
National Headquarters Developments. The organization has a new Executive Secretary and is in the process of moving to new offices.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:25 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Edward Chudacoff
Chapter Secretary pro tem