Minutes of 16 April 2007

Circulated 17 April 2007

Approved 23 April 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 16 APRIL 2007

 

Present: Frier, MacAdam, Meerkov, Potter, Seabury, Smith (chair); Lehman; Carr, Schneider

 

Absent:  Combi, Giordani, Riles

 

Guests:  none

 

MATERIALS DISTRIBUTED:

  1. Draft agenda
  2. AAAC Endorsed "Policies for Final Exams", dated 11 April 2007.
  3. SACUA/Senate Assembly Planning Schedule, dated 16 April 2007.
  4. Draft agenda of the Senate Assembly meeting of 16 April 2007.
  5. Draft minutes of the Senate Assembly meeting of 19 March 2007.
  6. AAAC "Report on a More Flexible Tenure" endorsed by SACUA on 9 April 2007.
  7. AAAC "Faculty Response to the 2006 DoE report "A Test of Leadership:  Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education", aka the Spellings Report" endorsed by SACUA on 9 April 2007.

 

Chair Smith convened the meeting at 2:30 P.M.  The proposed agenda was approved.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS/UPDATES

 

The chair announced:

1. SACUA, AAUP, and the office of the provost will co-sponsor a forum about grievance procedures on 10 May at noon at the Michigan League.

2. Owing to the Executive Order issued by the Governor affecting state payments to universities, the Faculty Senate Office has had its budget reduced by $2000, which represents 1/24 of the annual budget.

3.  An editor of the Michigan Daily has announced his intention to file a Freedom of Information Act request for the preliminary report presented by Professor Ortega at the March meeting of Senate Assembly.

4.  U-M is currently appealing a court ruling that the U-M must supply the names and home addresses of all university employees to the American Federation of Teachers.

5.  Attorney General Cuomo from the State of New York has asked the U-M to sign a statement to the effect that it will not take gifts or kickbacks from lending institutions in exchange for naming them as preferred lenders.  The provost reported that the U-M does not engage in such practices but nonetheless declines to sign the statement because doing so would be implicit acknowledgement of jurisdiction by the State of New York over the university.

6.  Provost Sullivan provided the keynote address and acted as a panelist at the State Conference meeting of the AAUP this past Saturday in Lansing.

7.  Professor MacAdam will represent the U-M at the upcoming intercollegiate athletics conference in Palo Alto.

 

POLICIES FOR FINAL EXAMS

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ACTION OF SACUA 041607-1

Professor Potter moved that a sixth item be added to the proposed policy statement endorsed by AAAC on 11 April 2007 (multiple seconds).

 

The Action was approved by unanimous vote with one abstention of record.

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OLD/NEW BUSINESS

Professor Meerkov reported that the College of Engineering voted to announce the names of the top vote-recipients in executive committee elections; the practice has already begun.  He also said that he had been contacted by two different reporters from the Michigan Daily, one inquiring about past College of Engineering administration and the other inquiring about UMPA.

 

            Professor Meerkov inquired about the status of the University Shared Governance initiative.  Professor Smith replied that he is following up on the topic regularly with the provost.  Professor added that his efforts to develop a faculty governance relationship with the Board of Regents though the University Secretary's advisory committee has not been fruitful, and that it will be necessary to pursue possibilities of interactions with the Regents through other mechanisms.

 

The meeting adjourned at 3:00 P.M.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

John Lehman

Senate Secretary

 

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.