Minutes of the AAUP Executive Committee Meeting of September 23, 2009
Present: D. Burns, E. Chudacoff, K. Kearfott, J. Lee, R. Lomax, C. Smith. Visitors: A. Borisov, D. Smith.
C. Smith called the meeting to order at 12:18 p.m.
Agenda. The proposed agenda was adopted unanimously as submitted.
Announcements. C. Smith announced that Philip Hamburger, the Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, will deliver the Sixteenth Annual University of Michigan Senate's Davis, Markert, Nickerson Lecture on Academic and Intellectual Freedom. The lecture will take place at 4 p.m. on Monday, November 9, 2009, in the Honigman Auditorium of the Law School. Professor Hamburger's title will be "Galileo's Ghost: Seventeenth Century Censorship in Twenty-First Century America". He has written an important article on Institutional Review Boards in Universities being possible censors through prior constraints on topics to be researched. His article, The New Censorship: Institutional Review Board, appeared in Supreme Court Review in 2004, and is available at his website:
http://www.law.columbia.edu/hamburger.Minutes. The minutes of the September 9, 2009 meeting were adopted unanimously as submitted.
Treasurer's Report. No report was submitted, due to continuing medical indisposition of Secretary M. Crichton.
Active Cases. The Committee met with Doug Smith and Andrei Borisov, both former colleagues in the UM Medical School. Most of the discussion centered around details of an impending lawsuit, and their experiences with administrators in the Medical School and their interaction with the campus Department of Public Safety. These events highlight the need for adequate transparency and accountability in the actions of the DPS. D. Smith summarized his presentation to the Regents in their September meeting on this point, and his attempts to discuss with the student government (MSA) what they would or should do about the pending choice of a new DPS Oversight Committee. The sense for the Committee was that it would be preferable if the selection were democratic. Doug Smith and Dan Burns were asked to present something on the current state of this situation at the October 14 meeting. They will invite guests form the MSA to join the Committee the 14th.
Faculty Governance. Former Committee member Michael Thouless sent a note reporting what had happened in Faculty Governance (SACUA) since the previous AAUP executive committee meeeting. See Appendix below. SACUA Liaison John Lehman was absent from the meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:15 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Daniel M. Burns, Jr.
[substituting for Gina Poe, Chapter Secretary]
Appendix:
Since your last AAUP meeting:
SACUA met with the President and vice-President of MSA.
They met with the Provost.
They developed a charge for CESF
They have approved a document that describes recommended procedures for SACUA and the Tenure Committee to conduct a future 5.09 hearing, if one were to ever be initiated.
They discussed the results of a re-apportionment of seats for Senate Assembly (which hasn't been done since 2003, and should have been done in 2006). This will move on to the Rules Committee, before going to the Assembly.
They passed a resolution to be presented to the Assembly concerning Assembly representatives who persistently fail to attend Assembly meetings without appropriate notification to the Senate Office.
Best wishes,
Michael