Minutes of the AAUP Executive Committee Meeting of October 22, 2008

Present: C. Smith (Chapter President), E. Chudacoff, M. Crichton, W. Ensminger, K. Kearfott, J. Lee (Conference Executive Director), R. Lomax, T. Moore, G. Poe

C. Smith called the meeting to order at 12:15 p.m.

Agenda. The proposed agenda was adopted by consensus.

1. Members were reminded that the 2008 Fall Meeting of the UM Chapter of AAUP will take place on Friday, October 24 at 3:30 p.m. in the Great Lakes South Central Room at Palmer Commons. Robert M. O'Neil, Founding Director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression at the University of Virginia, former president of both the University of Virginia and the University of Wisconsin, will be the speaker. His subject will be "Is Diversity Legal?"

3. The annual CIC (Committee on Institutional Cooperation) Faculty Governance Conference will take place in Ann Arbor on Friday, October 31 in the Pendleton Room of the Michigan Union. Those portions of the meeting which are open to visitors include Professor Robert M. O'Neil (University of Virginia) speaking at 9:15 a.m. about Academic Freedom and First Amendment Rights, and in particular, "The Hong Case," an academic freedom case in which a California professor was fired for criticizing his University's administration, an action upheld in federal court, and University of Michigan Professor Edie Goldenberg (University of Michigan) speaking at 10:45 a.m. on the Changing Composition of the Faculty, including the decline in the number of tenured and tenure-rack faculty and the corresponding growth in the number of non-tenure track faculty.

4. Professor Cass R. Sunstein will be giving the 2008 Davis-Markert-Nickerson Lecture on December 4. The lecture will take place in the Honigman Auditorium at the Law School at 4:00 p.m. The title of Professor Sunstein's talk is "My University.com, My Government.com: Is the Internet Really a Blessing for Democracy?"

5. C. Smith has sent a letter to Provost Sullivan requesting salary data. (The text of that letter is attached to the end of these minutes.)

6. C. Smith reported that the Michigan Healthy Community Advisory Committee has discussed use of salary brackets for determining employee health benefits premiums.

7. The University of Michigan Diversity Summit will take place at the Michigan League on Tuesday, October 28 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The keynote speaker is John Payton, the new president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. The lecture, which will take place at 9:00 a.m. at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre, is free and open to the public.

Minutes. The minutes of the meeting on October 8, 2008 were adopted.

Treasurer's Report. M. Crichton, Chapter Treasurer, reported that since the meeting on October 8, there have been no receipts and no expenditures; thus, the chapter's checking account balance remains unchanged at $1,136.32.

Active Cases. C. Smith reported that he was contacted by a person with a clinical faculty appointment whose contract is being canceled. The person asked whether AAUP could offer any help and was advised to contact J. Lehman.

Faculty Governance. SACUA has had meetings with Laurita Thomas (Associate Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer) and Robert Winfield (Chief Health Officer) to discuss any changes in health benefits costs being considered by the University.

There were no reports on State Conference Developments or on National Headquarters Developments

The meeting was adjourned at 1:20 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Edward Chudacoff

Chapter Secretary pro tem

I am writing you on behalf of the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). Our AAUP Chapter is carrying out a study of the benefits offered faculty and staff at our university to evaluate our benefits programs with respect to those of our peers. On October 8, our Chapter's Executive Committee voted to ask your office for data which would allow us to understand the University's payroll distribution, estimate the

financial effect a benefit change could have on individuals across that spectrum and convey that analysis to our constituents.

We request an Excel file containing the following four data fields for each university employee as of December 31, 2007:

1. 2007 total compensation (i.e. the dollar amount reported to the IRS)

2. The coverage code for health care (e.g., Employee Only, Employee + Adult)

3. The job family classification

4. The job code

We request that these data reflect the entire university and health system workforce. No personal identifiers should be included as part of these data.

From previous experience, I realize these data are easily accessible through M-Pathways. If any clarification of our request is necessary, I look forward to communicating with whomever you feel would be the appropriate individual or individuals.

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