Minutes of the AAUP Executive Committee Meeting of September 9, 2009
Present: C. Smith (Chapter President), E. Chudacoff, J. Lee, K. Kearfott, D. Burns, D. Smith, G. Poe
C. Smith called the meeting to order at 12:15 PM.
Agenda. The proposed agenda was adopted unanimously as submitted.
Announcements. C. Smith informed the committee that J. Calhoun, the former AAUP chapter Secretary, has resigned from the Secretary position. The chapter needs a new Secretary. The committee voted to approve CDB's nomination of G. Poe for secretary in J. Calhoun's place for the year. D. Burns agreed to act as secretary for those meetings G. Poe would miss.
C. Smith informed the Committee that the Senate Assembly meeting will be Sept 21st.
J. Lee informed the Committee that the Chair of the CESF, Fred Askari will be testifying before the Michigan House Committee on Public Employee Health Care Reform.
Minutes. The minutes the June 24, 2009 meeting were adopted unanimously as submitted.
Treasurer's Report. No report was received.
Active Cases. D.S. will speak at the next Regent's meeting about DPS and the DPS oversight committee and details of the case of Andrei Borisov. There was some discussion about the unusual circumstances surrounding the offer of a year's salary settlement in the case.
Committee members expressed concern over the actions of the DPS over the past year regarding their being given responsibility to get faculty members to sign resignation letters, etc., and there was a lengthy discussion of the DPS oversight committee, with committee members noting that the DPS acting without a valid, elected oversight committee is operating in violation of the Regential mandate of the DPS. The oversight committee is to consist of elected staff, students and faculty, but the MSU records show that they have never elected any members to the committee and the records from SACUA show the last election (for a 2 year term) of faculty was in 2000 (or 2002?). There was much discussion as to the history of the establishment of the DPS in 1992, since prior to that there were no armed police other than the Ann Arbor police on campus. There were many protests, especially from students, against the creation of the University of Michigan's DPS. The committee agreed that the DPS oversight committee need not, and indeed should not be adversarial to the duties of the DPS, rather it should be able to identify and suggest solutions for the resolution of procedures followed, among other duties. Thus the oversight committee should be valued by all members of the university, including the DPS itself, since the committee should function to optimize their effectiveness.
The committee voted to appoint a subcommittee (D.S. and D.B.) to look into the resolution of the problems that have plagued the DPS oversight committee over the past 8 years.
Faculty Governance. The special Task Force on Faculty Grievance Procedures was discussed regarding the task force's suggestion that faculty have only 90 days (instead of the former 180 days) to file a grievance, except in the case of notable exceptions, such as delay so the part of the administration in due process prior to the filing of a grievance (such as putting off meetings designed to avoid a grievance submission). It was noted and discussed whether it is the administration's duty (out of the office of Jeff Fromkin) to accept the grievance and start the procedures. If so, there may be a conflict of interest in allowing exceptions for the 90 day limit if it is in the best interest of the administration's office to not allow such an exception, and if it was the administration who delayed proceedings in the first place that caused the delay in the grievance submission.
Ways to increase the effectiveness of both the AAUP on campus and of the Faculty Senate were discussed. One idea discussed was whether SACUA and the AAUP would need (and could afford) to have counsel on retainer to keep records of legal actions and to guide these committees through the legal issues that arise. It was noted that the university administration, which co-governs the university, has such guidance on staff in the form of the General Counsel's office. The lack of time (among law faculty) and monies in the chapter for enlisting such profession legal services on retainer were noted as formidable circumstances blocking the realization of the idea of retaining legal counsel for AAUP and SACUA.
Other faculty governance issues were briefly discussed, and the offer of SACUA chair to provide the AAUP with reports on faculty governance was enthusiastically received. The committee voted to accept the offer.
Michigan Conference News. No report was received.
AAUP Chapter Meeting. It was agreed to ask the Executive Secretary of the National AAUP to be speaker at the Fall AAUP chapter meeting. He is coming from Oct 22-24 and we may be able to take advantage of that trip if we schedule the Fall meeting to concur with his visit to Michigan.
National Headquarters News. The invitation to National AAUP secretary was discussed and voted upon (above under Actions).
The meeting was adjourned at 1:15 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
G.R. Poe
Chapter Secretary