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Council of University System Faculty

General Body Meeting: Tuesday, December 16, 2008

A. Chairman Bill Chapin called the meeting of the Council of University System Faculty (CUSF) to order at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, December 16, 2008 at the University of Baltimore (UB), in the Bogomolny Room of the Student Center.Those in attendance were (28): Chairman Bill Chapin (UMES), Vice-Chairman Martha Siegel (TU), Secretary Joyce Shirazi (UMUC), At-Large Officers Joyce Tenney (UMBC) and Bill Stuart (UMCP), Past-Chairman John Collins (UMBI); other CUSF members Joan Langdon (BSU), Alcott Arthur (CU), Robert Kauffman (FSU), Meg Johantgen (UMB), Richard Zhao (UMB), Zane Berge (UMBC), Jeff Leips (UMBC), Rodger Harvey (UMCES), Sylvester James Gates Jr. (UMCP), Patricio Korzeniewicz (UMCP), William Montgomery (UMCP), Arthur Popper (UMCP), Dave Parker (SU), Thomas Krause (TU), Jay Zimmerman (TU), Stephanie Gibson (UB), Lee Richardson (UB), Frank Robb (UMBI), Robert Johnson, Jr. (UMES), Deloris James (UMUC); Senior Vice Chancellor Irv Goldstein; UB Interim Provost Susan Zacur.

B. Welcome from the University of Baltimore: Stephanie Gibson introduced Dr. Susan Zacur, the Interim Provost of the University of Baltimore (UB), who welcomed CUSF on behalf of President Bogomolny. She noted that the Bogomolny Room in the Student Center was named in the memory of President Bogomolny’ s parents, in recognition of his support to UB. The Student Center is the central place for students, housing the bookstore, food services, student government and organization offices, and study lounges. Dr. Zacur noted that Senior Vice-Chancellor Irv Goldstein has been very helpful to her, as an interim provost, and she also acknowledged CUSF Vice-Chairman Martha Siegel for her excellent representation of CUSF at AAAC meetings. She noted that UB is in the process of moving toward the construction of a new law school building, which will be an architectural landmark for central Baltimore, just south of Pennsylvania Train Station, at the northeast corner of Charles Street and Mount Royal Avenue. In addition, UB received a grant from the Sloan Foundation to help faculty life, which includes new faculty, mid-career faculty, and faculty transitioning to retirement. A site visit by the Sloan Foundation is coming up in the spring and deliverables must be ready. The Officer for Faculty Work Life & Personnel Initiatives, Karen Drake, is now in the Office of the Provost, and is helping with the Sloan Foundation grant. The Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching is receiving funding from Bank of America. Dr. Zacur noted that it has been suggested that one of the first seminars for this project pertain to “the first class meeting”.

C. Joyce Shirazi moved for approval of the November 18, 2008 CUSF meeting minutes; seconded by Bill Stuart; approved unanimously.

D. Report from USM Senior Vice-Chancellor Irv Goldstein:
1. Budget
a) There was a straight analysis of salaries, and we ended-up with a $15.9 million furlough problem. Indications are that the $200 million shortfall for this budget year is actually worse. It may double the problem. Fortunately the Governor considers Higher Education a priority. They expect a new federal stimulus package to cut down on the magnitude of the problem, and to help. They seem to be pretty confident that they are not coming back to USM for more cuts beyond the present problem. The Governor is currently negotiating with the State unions. For USM, the issues up in the air are 1) graduate students (all agreed not to include) …because we need to treat them better as students not as employees, 2) tiers … the Presidents are all in the mix for furloughs and people who make more money should take more furlough days. At work is the question of what salary levels equate to how many days? Each campus is basing it on how much money they owe and that is how it will be tiered. Therefore UMCP is hit particularly hard because their salaries tend to be higher than other campuses. Other concerns are if the tiers are comparable, are we going to say anybody earning less than $30,000 for example will have to take no days, the total number of days, and trying not to reduce instructional time. The BOR Student Regent emphasized at the BOR meeting the student concerns that there should not be a loss of instructional time.
b) The Federal Management Circular A21 - Cost Principles for Educational Institutions http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars/a021/a021.html
did not exist during the previous furloughs, and there were no State unions. There are many grant issues. It also states that you have to take the furlough days as close as possible to the pay cut and not spread them out. Vice-Chancellor Joe Vivona is working on this. We are totally focusing on trying to make it through this year. The Governor is coming up with a strict policy for State employees, but not USM. Legally, USM does not have to do what the State does, but politically we have to share the pain being felt by other state agencies. We have an extreme problem because we do not want equity issues by campuses doing extremely different things. Robert Kaufmann added that at FSU, faculty are anticipating cuts and are working with the administration, which includes lots of leeway for the President. Irv Goldstein continued noting that we are trying to give each campus a lot of leeway. They do not have to be identical on each campus. Bill Stuart noted that the Chancellor has mentioned that shared governance should be involved and that they have to do some background work before taking it to shared governance. He asked if the issue of 9-month pay periods make a difference. Irv Goldstein responded that the pay furloughs will be annualized. Arthur Popper added that post-doctorate students are employees in training and on soft money, but still students. Deloris James asked how UMUC is impacted, and Irv Goldstein responded that it will be the opposite of UMCP, which is minimal. Stephanie Gibson questioned what we need to spread the cuts over many weeks to minimize the impact on employees. We are also looking at spring break. He also added that unemployment benefits can be impacted, as well. Lower earning brackets with two days of furloughs in one week may possibly kick in unemployment benefits, which is really remarkable. So many rules have come up since the time of the Fair Labor Standards Act http://www.dol.gov/compliance/laws/comp-flsa.htm. EachH-1B visa is an issue. Richard Zhao voiced concern about the medical school, taking care of patients during the furloughs. Dave Parker asked about contractual instructors who do not get benefits, and if the furloughs will include the academic school year plus summer school earnings. Irv Goldstein noted that it will be just the base pay, and that the details are still being worked out for soft money “grants”, with 50% of pay from grants handled differently from all grant money. Precedents were set when years ago merit pay was given to all 100% grant people. Later they were told that it was not the best thing to do. It does not affect benefits or health care. There are no signals that this will be permanent and on July 1, 2009 we will revert back to normal pay. Martha Siegel noted that we are getting down to the wire, and it worries her, not knowing which days. She added that CUSF representatives need to be actively involved and that we may have to ask to get that audience with them because they may not come to us. Irv Goldstein stated that we expect to solve it this week… all of it, grants, visas, etc., and that the Presidents may not come to us, but maybe to the Faculty Senate. The Chancellor has emphasized the need for
shared governance input and the Presidents are committed to it.
c) We are consumed by FY09 and we have not had a chance to deal with FY10, but hopefully it will be over. Lee Richardson asked if there have been any investigations into where the remaining funding will come from for o9, and Irv Goldstein noted there have been no discussions, but there are clearly lots of different pots of money that that may be needed. Martha Siegel asked how adamant is the Governor about a tuition increase, and Irv Goldstein responded that it is clear that there is an opening given next year’s problem but it is still too early to determine if tuition will be involved. Stephanie Gibson added that tuition is clearly too high, because UB students are saying that they should go to Johns Hopkins University. Martha Siegel asked if he heard anything regarding health benefits for retirees, and he noted that a committee was formed previously and the report is not due for a year; also, our State is fairing better than some others. Stephanie Gibson asked if increasing contributions to the State retirement plan will probably not come to fruition and Bill Stuart asked about the Domestic Partners Benefit. Irv Goldstein responded that increasing contributions will probably not come to fruition and that the Chancellor is carefully watching the process for the Domestic Partners Benefit. Irv Goldstein responded that increasing contributions will probably not come to fruition and that the Chancellor is all over the Domestic Partners Benefit. Martha Siegel noted that as for the federal stimulus package, the Chancellor, Senators Mikulski and Hoyer are heavily involved. We can produce more jobs with more research, space, etc. The Chancellor’s USM website keeps us up-to-date http://www.usmd.edu/usm/chancellor/ .
2. Office of Civil Rights (OCR) Lawsuit; We are responding to discovery requests for data going back 15 years. Depositions will start in the spring semester. Likely, some members of the Board of Regents and the Presidents will be deposed. There are parallel issues. The OCR is trying to determine if we met our obligations to desegregate. We filed a report two years ago with no response, except they have been visiting our campuses.
3. UB-TU MBA Program; Morgan State University (MSU) did not protest it, but others did, and the lawsuit was initiated. Shortly thereafter, the lawsuit has halted due to firing of their attorney. They re-filed on the last day of the waiting period and the lawsuit is now moving along, even with some UMES alumni names added. It appears to be headed for a trial. UB and TU reached out to MSU, but they did not accept. The lawsuit is from the “Friends of Morgan”, not Morgan State University. In response to a question about anything programmatically that we should or should not be doing, Irv Goldstein noted that the Fordice case outlines it and that he will bring it to the next meeting. We try to tailor our programs to fit the Fordice requirements. We never send a new program out without our review. Regarding a questions about MSU and furloughs, Irv Goldstein noted that he is not sure how MSU and the privates will affect the furloughs and money.
4. DeVry University (for profit); We lost and were told that across the country they have been approved and we have no grounds to keep them out.
5. Bohanan Commission; The draft is out, and it clearly is talking about resources that do not exist. It could not have had a more positive outcome. It is a lot better to understand than our previous model. It is really a good thing. It is a plan for the next decade. Regent Chair Norman Augustine did a good job and our people are very pleased, but we can not do anything. We have a governor who cares about us and there is no money.

E. Action on Motion from Committee: Alcott Arthur provided a briefing on the Bylaws Adjustment Proposal which was previously discussed at the November CUSF meeting.
1. The motion by Alcott Arthur for the Bylaws Adjustment was read and seconded by Bill Chapin.
2. Discussion; John Collins stated that we should have “immediate” added for Past Chair. Irv Goldstein and Martha Siegel noted that we should not and gave the rationale. The Past Chair is ex officio and the others are elected.
3. There were no further questions and the proposal was unanimously approved. The proposal as approved is shown in Appendix I.

F. Vice-Chair’s Report: Martha Siegel presented the following highlights.
1. AAAC
a)Martha Siegel stated that the Provosts urged us to look at retention strategies. If interested, CUSF can look at this. Email Martha Siegel if you want this information. Vice-Presidents for Students, supervisors and Provosts were included. Most Provosts felt they could do this without major changes.
b) Juicy Campus http://www.juicycampus.com/posts/ is a gossip website where students can slander any student they want and some of the campuses are trying to block it.
c) Some changes in the Intellectual Property Policy went to the BOR on Friday. There were some changes in the human subjects area.
2. Textbook Affordability Summit; The Textbook Conference got a lot of press. We need to be aware of what textbooks they are ordering and order on time, because it is going to come back to us unless we monitor ourselves. CUSF has sent documents around and there is legislation in Annapolis. We do not know what is in it, but Senator Rosapepe is very supportive. It requires that the institution announce the textbooks well in advance. Bill Stuart added that he thought that the conference was inclusive, yet complicated. Publishers were out numbered and got the worst of the deal.
3. Teaching Difficult Classes; We need to carefully watch faculty who are teaching courses that are difficult. They are looking at how their students do in the next sequential course. This is being done by people who do not know what they are doing. Since dollars are tight, we need to be more conscious than ever. There is a shift from STEM to STEEM (to include the English component).

G. Other Business: Bill Stuart noted that the February CUSF meeting will be an IVN meeting, so hopefully others who can not attend face-to-face, will be there via IVN. Martha Siegel noted that we should invite someone from the BOR to a CUSF meeting. Bill Chapin said that he invited the BOR Chair and he is waiting on a response from him. Bill Stuart added that we should encourage our Presidents to be forthright and to announce the furlough details immediately, because it makes for differences and divisiveness otherwise.

H. The meeting adjourned at noon.

I. Lunch

APPENDIX I
By-Laws Adjustment Proposal

1. In order to bring the CUSF By-Laws into consistency with the CUSF Constitution and current practice, we change section 4.1 of the By-laws from “Officers of the Council shall consist of the Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, the two at-large members of the Executive Committee, and the Past Chair, elected . . .”

2. In order to bring the CUSF By-Laws into consistency with the CUSF Constitution and current practice, we change section 6.1 of the By-Laws from “The Council shall establish appropriate standing committees. These shall include, but are not limited to, committees charged to deal with i. Academic and Educational Policy; ii. Faculty Rights and Welfare; iii. Research; iv. Membership, Rules, and Organization; v. Legislative Activities; and vi. Fiscal Affairs”

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