Minutes of the AAUP Executive Committee Meeting of January 23, 2008
Present: D. Burns (Chapter President), E. Chudacoff, M. Crichton, W. Ensminger, T. Moore, and C. Smith.
D. Burns called the meeting to order at 12:20 p.m.
Agenda. The proposed agenda was adopted by consensus.
Announcements: T. Moore recommended to the Committee an article by Robert O'Neil entitled "The Supreme Court, Affirmative Action, and Higher Education" that appeared in the January 2008 issue of Academe Online. The Committee asked that R. Lomax place a link to this article on the Chapter's web page. T. Moore reminded the Committee that it was time for the Chapter President to appoint the 2008 Nominating Committee.
Minutes. The minutes of the January 9, 2008 meeting were adopted by unanimous consent.
Treasurer's Report. M. Crichton reported that the Chapter had received $232.30 in payroll deduction dues from the University of Michigan Payroll Office and had sent $536.60 in payroll deduction dues to national headquarters and $126.60 in payroll deduction dues to the Michigan Conference. She said that the balance in the Chapter's checking account is $1689.04. The Treasurer's Report was adopted by unanimous consent.
Active Cases. C. Smith said that there were no new cases.
Faculty Governance. C. Smith reported that he had delivered SACUA's annual report to the Board of Regents on Thursday, 17 January 2006. He noted that a search is underway for a replacement for Deputy General Counsel D. Sharphorn, who was in charge of academic and faculty legal issues. He added that he and Professor D. Potter had met with President M. Coleman to introduce matters of concern pertaining to student athletes, specifically admissions and academic program selection. C. Smith said that other issues that have come before the Academic Affairs Advisory Committee are a) preparing an RFP for the 100 multi-disciplinary junior faculty to be hired in the next five years, b) the joint institute in Shanghai and concerns about respect (or lack thereof) in China for academic freedom, c) difficulty in arranging a meeting between the AAAC and the Director of Admissions, d) handling of student evaluation comments (as opposed to numerical scores) in the online evaluation system, and e) possible priority registration for student athletes. Finally C. Smith informed the Committee that the results from the fall 2007 AEC round have been posted at http://aec.umich.edu.
The Committee had a general discussion of the events that occurred on campus during the Martin Luther King Day celebration.
2008 Annual Chapter Meeting. D. Burns reported that AAUP President Cary Nelson will attend the Annual Meeting on April 30, 2008. He suggested that Nelson be asked to deliver two presentations. One would be to the public and the other to AAUP members only on the proposed reorganization of the national AAUP.
2008 Annual Chapter Newsletter. D. Burns suggested that the format of the annual newsletter be changed to include photographs. C. Smith suggested that inclusion of photographs might significantly increase the cost of printing the newsletter. D. Burns said that he had obtained from the SACUA office a disk that contains the mailing list for the newsletter.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:05 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
C. B. Smith
Chapter Secretary