Council of University System Faculty
CUSF Meeting of February 14, 2005
Council
of University System Faculty
Minutes - February 14, 2005
Coppin State University
Present: Lee Richardson (Chair); Martha Siegel
(Immediate Past Chair); Alcott Arthur (CSU); Linda Day Clark (CSU); Marci
McClive (FSU); Anjali Pandey (SU); David Parker (SU, ExCom); Harry Womack (SU);
Patricia Alt (TU); Douglas Pryor (TU); Jay Zimmerman (TU); Steve Jacobs (UMB);
David A. Hardcastle (UMB); Paul Thut (UMB); Joyce Tenney (UMBC); John H. Collins
(UMBI); Frank Robb (UMBI); Ray Morgan (UMCES); Court Stevenson (UMCES); Frank
Alt (UMCP); Vincent Brannigan (UMCP, Vice Chair); William Stuart (UMCP); E. W.
Chapin (UMES, Secretary); Emmanuel Onyedzili (UMES); A. Deloris James (UMUC);
Joyce Shirazi (UMUC); Irv Goldstein (USM).
The meeting was called to
order at ten o'clock. Linda Davis Clark, the CSU Senate Chair, introduced
CSU President Battle, who brought greetings from the campus
The agenda was approved
as distributed. The minutes of the January meeting were approved as
distributed.
CUSF Chair Lee Richardson
reminded us that the tuition increases in detail for all the campuses are now
posted on the web. We need to be sure that all students on our campuses are
familiar with the changes.
Details of possible
health benefit cuts (and possible shifts of the burden of paying for health care
to employees of up to $900 per person per annum) are not clear, but bear
watching. It may well be a better strategy to let our local legislative
representatives know that we oppose such changes (rather than having extended
debate about which particular plan we would prefer to be hurt by).
Proposals about academic
freedom and its preservation on our campuses were referred to committee for
discussion during the lunch period.
CUSF Vice Chair Vince
Brannigan announced that the meeting of the Senate Chairs with the CUSF
Executive Committee was now postponed until May 6.
CUSF Executive Committee
Member Pat Alt reported that work is continuing on the question on a drug-free
workplace and on questions of substance abuse policies for faculty. The
good news here is that there is agreement that policy for faculty does not have
to mirror policy for staff, given the differing roles of the two groups.
It may be possible to have a system-wide policy that provides general
definitions and requires campuses to have policies consistent with these
definitions (particularly since some campuses seem to have policies in place).
Questions of the punitive vs. rehabilitative aspects of any such policy require
more attention.
CUSF Past President
Martha Siegel reminded us that the Student Research Days with the legislators
will be conducted on March 1st through March 3rd. The selection process is
working well. It will be important to insure that students who agree to
participate actually appear on the day assigned. It would be good if a
sufficient number of CUSF members could also be present.
USM Vice Chancellor for
Academic Affairs Irv Goldstein reported that there will be a 4.8% increase in
operating expenses from the state, if the Governor's budget is approved as
proposed: the rest of the publicly-reported increase is mostly in set-asides and
pass-throughs. Proposed cuts in the Sellinger formula (which gives a
certain amount of state support to private institutions in Maryland) are not
clear in their effect, since many of these private institutions have hitherto
provided political support for the USM budget since their state support is tied
to the USM support. It does appear, however, that there is more
general understanding in the legislature that past cuts to the USM budget have
resulted in quality erosion, and that the BOR E & E measures can be viewed
as a positive indication that the USM is taking its cost-saving responsibilities
seriously. The actually results of all this will not be known until the
end of the legislative session. Since Campus presidents do presentations
before the legislature and many campuses have special daysin Annapolis, there
may be opportunities for some CUSF presentations there.
The presentation at the
New Chairs session last month by Bill Spann on calculating faculty workload was
sufficiently impressive that the Executive Committee will consider having him
repeat it for us at one of our later meetings.
The situation at the
regional centers is diverse and complex. While there are questions about the
status of UMCP faculty teaching at Shady Grove, it would appear that FSU faculty
members teaching there have come from the regular ranks for many years. Irv
Goldstein will check any discrepancies. Shady Grove is growing in student
numbers and in demand for its programs. The Hagerstown Center's spring launch
seems to have strong support from it locally-staffed advisory boards, but
student numbers and eventual demand for programs will only become clear in later
semesters. There are difficult questions for all the centers about
staffing, particularly concerning what institutions are eligible to take part
(e.g. out-of-state institutions?) when the USM institutions are not able to
provide desired programs.
The chart now available
comparing pension programs for USM faculty is helpful but will require some
adjustments before it is complete. Suggestions in this area should go to
Frank Alt.
Distance Education
Reports form the campuses are mostly in and will go to a USM committee run by
Joe Vivona and Irv Goldstein. There is still concern that, although some
of these reports came from committees with some faculty as members, the shared
governance process was not carried out on some campuses. [Similarly, several
campuses reported little to no faculty input and little to no shared
governance input in recent E & E work.] Marci McClive reported that those
working on distance learning questions are most interested in learning what is
going on now, how distance learning can be managed for the benefit of
institutions, faculty and students and not in establishing mandates. Questions
arose suggesting the need for a state-wide council in this area. We passed a
motion, proposed by Marci McClive, recommending the addition of distance
learning as a category for the annual faculty teaching awards.
Frank Alt moved that CUSF
strongly recommends that the Office of the Chancellor of USM investigate the
feasibility of creating for all faculty a bank of sick leave. The sick leave for
this bank will be created from the unused sick leave of those faculty who, upon
retirement, are enrolled in optional retirement programs and from those retiring
faculty in state pension systems with unusable sick leave. The motion passed.
All members were
encouraged to submit to Alcott Arthur or to Bill Chapin nominations, including
self-nominations, for the CUSF officer positions for the next academic year.
Nominations for President will be acted upon and closed at the March meeting.
Elections for Chair, followed by nominations for the other offices will take
place at the April meeting, with elections for the other offices at the May
meeting.
All members were also
encouraged to send to Lee Richardson any addition suggestions for his Friday
talk at the BOR meeting
The meeting was adjourned
at about two o'clock.