Council of University System Faculty

Executive Meeting: Monday, August 4, 2008

A. Chairman Bill Chapin called the meeting of the Council of University System Faculty (CUSF) Executive Committee to order at 12:35 p.m. on Monday, August 4, 2008 at the University System of Maryland (USM), Adelphi, in the Chancellor’s Room. Those in attendance were: Chairman Bill Chapin, Vice-Chairman Martha Siegel, Secretary Joyce Shirazi, Past-Chairman John Collins, 2008-2009 At-Large Officers Joyce Tenney and Bill Stuart, 2007-2008 At-Large Officer Arthur Alcott, and 2007-2008 Past-Chairman David Parker.

B. The June 2008 CUSF Executive Committee Meeting minutes were unanimously approved with corrections to the list of attendees. (Moved by Bill Chapin, seconded by Martha Siegel;unanimously approved).

C. Presidents’ Meeting Report. Bill Chapin presented the key highlights from the Chancellor’s Council and distributed various related materials.

  1. The Charges of the Presidential Task Forces: (distributed): [Competitiveness: Mote; STEM; Courette];
  2. 2010 Capital Budget Hearings: maintaining a high credit ratings places some limits on how the system can plan and borrow; the apparent tendency to connect high priorities for new buildings on campus with the availability of donors to share the cost could lead to erosion of the state’s responsibility in this area;
  3. Proposed Board of Regents (BOR) Slots Resolution (distributed): loyal support of slots may be closely related to fiscal support of the USM in times of trouble; while there are many advocates for the slots proposal, it would seem that there are campus administrators and faculty who are not very enthusiastic about the idea. There are also some donors to the campuses who are opposed to the initiative. USM political support may be critical if the vote is close. If we are supportive, then we could have a high priority on the Governor’s list. The BOR will vote on this advocacy.
  4. Joint Chairmen’s Report (JCR) draft report on funding of comprehensive institutions (distributed): this will provide us with useful data in our concern for per-student funding at these institutions; Bill Chapin encouraged us to read through the document.
  5. USM Tele-working Policy (distributed): this applies to non-faculty employees and may lead to complications when collective bargaining is involved since not all employees have jobs that make tele-working a likely possibility; Dave Parker added that the concern is space while Bill Stuart added equity as a possible concern.
  6. Bohanan Commission update (distributed): this may also be relevant for consideration of BRAC, the regional centers – Bohanan was involved in the situation at Hagerstown last spring – and articulation, especially if there is to be a new center of some sort in Harford County for Towson to assist with BRAC concerns there;
  7. Legislative issue update (distributed); The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) is currently visiting some USM campuses.

E. Discussion of high-priority items for CUSF action this fall revealed that all of the following are important and need to be dealt with as early as possible

  1. Early preparation for the Regents Awards work (especially getting the campuses moving – the Chancellor supported this at the meeting with the Presidents – and getting the secure website ready for viewing the documents) and for the New Chairs Meeting;
  2. Working for improvement in ORP retirements benefits (additional faculty and system contributions), health benefits for spouses (the wait-25-years problem), fixing tuition remission rules (especially matters like punishing students for earning too much income over the summer), domestic partners’ benefits (indication at the Presidents’ meeting that this might take place this coming legislative session for same-sex domestic partners); Request a presence in the group who are working on the ORP benefits.
  3. Support for avoiding legislative interventions like the one attempted again the Hagerstown campus last spring;
  4. Academic matters, such as readjusting system entrance requirements (especially in mathematics), ways of demonstrating student success (instead of having these imposed externally), text-book issues, program “duplication” questions and the OCR visits;
  5. Assistance is USM-wide initiatives, especially STEM, closing the gap and green issues;
  6. Assisting in the BOR review of policies for self-consistency and for consistency with practice (and a similar adjustment of our own Constitution and By-Laws to fix discovered inconsistencies about who are officers are and what committees we must have).

F. We considered possible appropriate chairs for our internal committees and possible representatives of CUSF to other bodies:

  1. Bill Chapin will report to the Chancellor at the President’s Council and to the full BOR; he will conduct the Executive Committee and full CUSF meetings;
  2. Martha Siegel will attend the AAAC meetings (except for the retreat);
  3. Joyce Tenney will continue to attend the BOR finance meetings and to chair the Faculty Regents Awards Committee;
  4. Bill Stuart will continue to attend the BOR educational policy meetings and to represent our interests at PreK-20 meetings;
  5. John Collins indicated his willingness to attend the MHEC FAC meetings, but reminded us that Patti Cossard had been elected to do so. [A later check of the MHEC FAC by-laws showed that such appointments are for three years and Patty has indicated her willingness to continue, so she will represent us there.];
  6. We did not pick a representative to the UMATS council;
  7. Bill Stuart is willing to continue leading our own Academic Affairs committee;
  8. Alcott Arthur is willing to continue leading our Rules and Membership committee;
  9. Paul Flexner was recommended for continued leadership of our Faculty Affairs committee – he later confirmed his willingness to do so;

10. Patti Cossard was recommended for continued leadership of our
Legislative committee – she later confirmed her willingness to do so;

  1. The special committee dealing with faculty complaints of procedural unfairness currently has J. Zimmerman, A. Arthur, and J. Cohen as members. [An election is in order because their terms are staggered.];
  2. Responsibility for the New Chairs’ Meeting will probably be shared by Deloris James and Martha Siegel;
  3. Joyce Tenney will take leadership for dealing with the Regents’ Faculty Awards;
  4. We agreed to decide at the September Ex Com meeting about the continuation of the Student Research Day in Annapolis, particularly considering the difficulties in earlier years in obtaining suitable facilities. Patti Cossard has provided leadership in this area;

G. Bill Chapin noted that we need to make plans for possible common meetings with CUSS and with the students, and also possible visits by Joe Vivona, Regents Kendall and Florestano, and Secretary of Education Lyons to our meetings.
The meeting adjourned at 2 p.m.