Minutes of 22 January 2007

Circulated:  29 January 2007

Approved:  29 January 2007

 

 

THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs

6048 Fleming Administration Building

Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1340

Phone: (734) 764-0303

Fax: (734) 764-6564

Internet Address:  http://www.umich.edu/~sacua/

Approved minutes:  http://www.umich.edu/~sacua/sacmin/sacuaminutes.html

 

MINUTES OF THE SACUA MEETING OF 22 JANUARY 2007

 

Present: Combi, Giordani, Riles, Seabury, Smith (chair); Carr, Schneider

 

Absent: Frier, MacAdam, Meerkov, Potter; Lehman

 

Guests:  Robert Ortega, Chair, Committee for a Multicultural University

 

MATERIALS DISTRIBUTED:

 

1.            Draft SACUA Agenda

2.            Draft  Agenda SACUA/Senate Assembly Planning Schedule, updated 19 January 2007

3.            Senate Assembly Distributed Materials

a.       Draft Senate Assembly Agenda

b.      Draft minutes of the Senate Assembly meeting of 18 December 2006

c.       Memorandum to Charles B. Smith from Teresa A. Sullivan dated 19 January 2007 regarding Faculty Ombuds Position and selection procedure

d.      Classification Description/Posting of Faculty Ombuds Position

e.       Targeted electronic mail message calling for committee volunteers sent to faculty

f.        SACUA Election Procedures Guidelines

g.       SACUA Nominating Committee Ballot

h.       14 December 2006 Report of the Faculty Grievance Procedures Task Force

i.        January 2007 Faculty Governance Update to the Regents

j.        01-22-2007 Senate Assembly Resolution on Diversity

k.       01-26-1998 Senate Assembly Statement:  THE VALUE OF DIVERSITY

l.        10-27-1997 Senate Assembly Resolution in Support of Diversity

m.      05-20-1996 Senate Assembly Statement on Diversity

n.       Electronic mail message from C. Lucier, Director of Recruitment and Operations in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, to T. Schneider and

        C. B. Smith regarding Undergraduate Conversion Events

o.      Presentation by Robert Winfield, Chief Health Officer of the University, regarding the Michigan Healthy Community Initiative

p.      Presentation by Robert Winfield, Karen Gibbons, and Kelly Cunningham regarding University of Michigan Preparations for Pandemic Influenza

q.      University of Michigan Campus Commitment by the Office of Institutional Equity

 

Chair Smith convened the meeting at 2:35 P.M.  The proposed agenda was approved.

 

CONSIDERATION OF MINUTES

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

  1. Chair Smith met with Regents McGowan and Darlow within the past two weeks.  Both discussions revolved around the need for improved communication between the Regents and members of faculty governance.  The only remaining Regents with whom Chair Smith has yet to meet are Regent Taylor and Regent Newman.
  2. Provost Sullivan has posted the Central Faculty Ombuds position.  The posting will remain open until the end of January; then there will be a tiered process to review the applications.  By consensus, it was agreed that Professor Giordani will be the SACUA liaison on the initial selection committee and will bring the short-list of applicants to SACUA.  SACUA will be involved with interviewing the short-listed individuals. 

Training for departmental faculty ombuds was conducted on Friday, 19 January.  Jane Leu, SACUA Support Staff, attended.  Since Professor Giordani also attended as a participant, he gave a short report on the training session, which included UM Mediation Services. The participants of the training session had varying views of the duties and responsibilities of an ombuds.

  1. An e-mail was sent to all Senate Assembly members requesting names of volunteers and nominations for important executive officer advisory and key issue committees.
  2. Dr. Robert Winfield, Chief Health Officer, will be presenting today at the Senate Assembly meeting on two topics – "Michigan Healthy Community Initiative" and "University of Michigan Preparations for Pandemic Influenza".  Chair Smith has been asked to be a member of the Michigan Healthy Community Advisory Committee (MHCAC) and its Steering Committee.  MHCAC will have several subcommittees – one of them Mental Health, which is of interest to Professor Giordani.  Professor Giordani has particular concerns that value behavior options will be used.
  3. Chair Smith and Professor Lehman are scheduled to meet privately with Provost Sullivan on Wednesday, 24 January, 2007 @ 8:00 am.

 

PREPARATION FOR SENATE ASSEMBLY

SACUA reviewed the Action Items and order of business for the Senate Assembly meeting.

 

RESOLUTION FROM COMMITTEE FOR A MULTICULTURAL UNIVERSITY

Professor Ortega, who is scheduled to speak at the Senate Assembly meeting, discussed the diversity resolution and the topic of undergraduate "conversion" events per the e-mail from Christopher Lucier, Director of Recruitment and Operations, Office of Undergraduate Admissions.

 

Professor Ortega was informed that SACUA unanimously endorsed the resolution via e-mail prior to today's meeting.

 

SACUA unanimously ratified the resolution.

 

OLD/NEW BUSINESS

There was no other business.

 

The meeting adjourned at 3:05 P.M. 

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Linda Carr, SACUA Support Staff

 

University of Michigan Bylaws of the Board of Regents, Sec. 5.02: 

Governing Bodies in Schools and Colleges

In each school, college, or degree granting division of the University, including those at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and at the University of Michigan-Flint, the governing faculty shall be in charge of the affairs of the school, college, or division, except as delegated to the executive committee, if any, and except that in the School of Graduate Studies the governing board shall be the executive board, and in the Medical School shall be the executive faculty.