Minutes of the AAUP Executive Committee Meeting of September 26, 2007
Present: D. Burns (Chapter President), E. Chudacoff, M. Crichton, W. Kaplan, J. Lee (Michigan Conference Executive Director), J. Lehman (SACUA Liaison), R. Lomax, J. Maddock, C. Smith, M. Thouless
D. Burns called the meeting to order at 12:15 p.m.
Agenda. The proposed agenda was adopted by consensus.
Announcements: C. Smith reminded the Committee that the University will be holding its 2007 Fall Summit on Diversity on October 4, 2007, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., at the Michigan League. He said that attendance is by invitation only. He noted, however, that the opening presentation at 9 am in the Lydia Mendellson Theater by Ted Shaw, President and Director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, is open to the public.
Minutes. The minutes of the September 12, 2007 meeting were adopted by consensus.
Treasurer's Report. M. Crichton reported that the Chapter neither received nor dispersed funds since the last Executive Committee meeting and that the balance in the Chapter's checking account remains at $1,255.34. The Treasurer's Report was adopted by consensus. M. Crichton said that an email should be sent to current Chapter members with respect to the payroll deduction option. J. Lee offered to provide information on the current dues structure.
Active Cases. J. Lehman reported on a case of a professor who had been assigned an excessive teaching overload. He said that other faculty in the professor's department had supported the professor and that the load was reduced. C. Smith noted that no further action had been taken on a second case which involves a decision by a dean to request Regents' Bylaw 5.09 demotion and dismissal procedures for a faculty member, who a year earlier had a 5.09 procedure against him dismissed by the executive committee of his unit. J. Lehman reported to the Committee on a third case which involved a grievance filed in response to a denial of tenure. He noted that Provost T. Sullivan had sent to the grievant a ruling in that case and the grievant had provided a copy of the ruling to SACUA.
Faculty Governance. J. Lehman reported that Provost T. Sullivan had met with SACUA and had discussed a document on shared faculty governance at the University level, which was to be presented to the Senate Assembly for approval at its October meeting. C. Smith said that University President M. Coleman had sent a letter to SACUA in which she objected to a sentence in the document that stated that the President would inform and consult with faculty prior to asking the Regents to approve major expenditures that might affect the academic well-being of the University. He noted that the Provost agreed to work on a redraft of this item in the shared-governance document.
J. Lehman described a "memorandum of understanding" that SACUA member K. Riles had been asked to sign prior to being allowed to analyze data used in undergraduate admissions such as grade point averages, SAT and ACT scores. He said that Assistant General Counsel Maya Kobersy had met with SACUA and had agreed that the Academic Affairs Advisory Committee (AAAC) and SACUA could review the processed data, but only if the charts and graphs were presented during executive session, when a record is not kept of committee proceedings.
All Campus Labor Council (ACLC). R. Lomax said that he had not heard from Executive Committee member I. Perfecto with respect to her representation of the Chapter at meetings of the ACLC.
Other. The Committee discussed the possibility that clinical faculty might be interested in forming a labor union at the University of Michigan. W. Kaplan pointed out that with the assistance of the American Federation of Teachers the Graduate Employees Organization was established in 1977 and has functioned well since that time. The Committee decided to invite Julie Schmidt from national headquarters to make a presentation on the organization of clinical faculty.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:15 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
C. B. Smith
Chapter Secretary