Council of University System Faculty
CUSF Meeting of September 16, 2003
Minutes
Council
of University System Faculty Meeting
University
of Maryland College Park
September
16, 2003
Present:
Francis Alt (UMCP), Pat Alt (TU), Alcott Arthur (CSC), Zane Berge (UMBC), Don
Boesch (USM), Vince Brannigan (UMCP, ExCom), Bill Chapin (UMES, ExCom), Joel
Cohen (UMCP), John Collins (UMBI), Gertrude Eaton (USM), Robert Gardiner (UMCES),
Mike Garner (SU), Stephanie Gibson (UB), Irv Goldstein (USM), Art Huseonica (UMUC),
Steve Jacobs (UMB), Rosemary Jagus (UMBI), John Lombardi (FSU), Marci McClive (FSU),
John Organ (BSU), Anjali Pandey (SU), Dave Parker (SU), Doug Pryor (TU), Lee
Richardson (UB), Martha Siegel (TU), William Stuart (UMCP), Joyce Tenney (UMBC),
Jay Zimmerman (TU)
The meeting was called to order shortly after ten o’clock. After all
members present had introduced themselves, the minutes of the June meeting were
approved as distributed.
Because of conflicting schedules, greetings from the campus occurred at various times
throughout the meetings. They are summarized here. The budget cuts that occurred
during the last academic year and during the summer have left all the campuses
with budgetary problems not resolved by the increases in tuition.
The first priority of all of the campuses has been to preserve academic
programs, but it is not clear how that will be possible next year.
There is a scheduled 2.5 percent merit raise (but no extra funding to
cover it), an anticipated increase in the cost of health insurance and other
benefits, coupled with the ever-present problems of credit creep, extended time
to graduation and the public perception that educational costs are gratuitously
increasing much faster than inflation.
We need to be documenting the effects of the current budget cuts on our
work with students.
The
Chair announced that Lee Richardson will be representing CUSF at the AAAC for
the coming year. Mike Garner will represent us at the BOR Finance Committee.
Our own committee chairs will be Lee Richardson (Legislative Affairs),
Pat Alt (Academic Affairs), Francis Alt (Faculty Affairs), Mike Garner
(Administrative/Financial Affairs) and Art Huseonica (Elections).
In reports on the meetings of other bodies, we learned that the Board of
Regents is in the process of changing some of its committee structure,
reflecting the presence of six newly selected Regents. The Chancellor's Council
has been concerning itself with the questions of handling military leave for
faculty and staff and with policy for drug and alcohol abuse.
The AAAC is concerned with questions of faculty workload/courseload and
the idea of trimesters advocated recently by a member of the Board of Regents.
The BOR Finance Committee meeting was dominated by discuss of the budget cuts.
In particular, there seems to be some thought toward saving another 2% of
the state-supported operating budget through efficiency measures. It is not
clear how OCR formula funding will fit into the overall picture.
From the report of the USM (Boesch, Eaton, Goldstein), we learned that,
even if the legislature finds additional funding through slot machines, there
will be no cost of living raises again next year. We all will need to be
proactive in getting the public to understand how our workload is considerably
greater than our classload (doing good documentation may help), and to
understand that the coming baby boom bump in our enrollment is incompatible with
the recent decreases in state funding. Similarly, we need to get across the idea
that the No Child Left Behind legislation will require the stronger preparation
of more teachers, something difficult to do in a time when the budgets to
support higher education are constantly being cut. There will be an orientation
this year for new department chairs. Marci McClive and Gertrude Eaton will be
organizing the activities for this orientation.
The agenda for the September 19th meeting of the Senate Chairs with the
CUSF Executive Committee is still sufficiently flexible that Vince Branigan, who
is organizing the meeting, encourages us to send him relevant items. He also
reported that he, together with Lee Richardson, is continuing the process of
organizing faculty to service as legislative liaisons.
The details will become available after the matter has been discussed
with the Senate Chairs at the September 19th meeting. We will also need to be
constructing FAQs on the topics about which we wish to communicate with the
legislature so that we can all be speaking with one voice (and in a way that is
suitable to our audience).
Under old business, it was announced that a draft of the proposed
document on Appeals to the Chancellor and to be Board of Regents (for incorrect
actions of the Presidents) is available.
It will be discussed with the Senate Chairs and then brought back to us
for further discussion.
We approved in principle the proposal for the development of Legislative
Liaisons to work in cooperation with the USM, the Presidents and the Senate
Chairs. We also approved the formation of an ad hoc committee for 'propaganda'
to work on the materials needed for our spring legislative campaign.
Under new business, Martha Siegel encouraged us to look carefully at the
AAAC Workload document and to send comments to her. Dave Parker will be
presenting a full version of the ART Policy clarification proposal later and is
also soliciting suggestions. We should all scan the Financial Exigency policies
of our campuses so that we know how they might be applied to faculty positions.
John Organ reported on the general faculty dissatisfaction (at Bowie State
University) with the actions of the President there in his appointments and in
his dealings with the faculty. Alcott Arthur reported that the Coppin State
University Senate will be meeting to discuss the difficulties with the graduate
program in Criminal Justice there.
During lunch, the CUSF committees met.
Legislative Affairs will be concentrating on developing fact sheets and
FAQs for the legislative effort.
They recognize the necessity for coordination with the Presidents and
others who might be concerned with the consistency of the UM voice. Academic
Affairs will consider K-16 and Thorton Commission questions, MHEC, workload
questions, and the responsible conduct of research.
Faculty Affairs will consider appeals of presidential actions, the
workload/teachingload question, the ART document, salary comparisons and the
selection of peer institutions. Administration and Finance will consider
resource development, efficiency/effectiveness and calendar questions. We also
recognized the need for good written descriptions of the general work and duties
of each committee.
The meeting was adjourned shortly after two o'clock.