EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MINUTES
Present: Bryant,
DiMagno, Fuller, Logan-Peters, Miller, Peterson,
Sawyer, Siekman, Spann, Whitt, Wolf, Wunder
Absent: King
Date:
Location: City
1.0 Call to Order
Miller called the meeting to
order at
2.0 Announcements
2.1 Academic Planning
Committee Meeting
Miller announced that President-Elect Wunder would be attending the APC meeting on Friday, March 14th to answer questions on the administrative cost report done by the Academic Senate Office last summer.
3.0 Approval of
Wunder moved and Peterson seconded approval of the minutes as amended. Motion approved.
4.0 Changes to Teaching Council Syllabus
Peterson asked why the section
dealing with the approval of small grants is being deleted.
Peterson pointed out that the
Chancellor had stated that the Teaching Council would pick up some of the
functions of the
5.0
Unfinished
Business
5.1 Nominations for Executive
Committee
The committee discussed nominations for the office of President-Elect and Secretary. The committee agreed that an email message should be sent to all senators asking to contact the Senate office if they are interested in running for a position on the Executive Committee.
5.2 Committee to Review
ES/IS Courses
Peterson stated that he liked the
charge written by DiMagno for the Committee to Review
ES/IS Courses but that he prefers to have more flexibility in the courses that
students can take for this requirement.
Fuller stated that she is unsure whether the IS courses should be
kept. Wunder
noted that he revised the charge to the committee and suggested that the
committee review the changes at the next meeting.
6.0 New Business
6.1 Meeting
with Faculty of Museum Studies
The Executive Committee met with the faculty members of the Museum Studies Program the Chancellor proposed to fire. Faculty members of the Museum indicated that there are 9 tenured faculty members in the program; eight are scheduled to be fired. They noted that the faculty members are scheduled to receive a termination letter in a week or so. They pointed out that faculty members are being given one year notices but that managerial/professional staff and support staff are receiving only 90 days notice. All nine faculty members have their tenure home in the museum.
The Museum faculty members stated
that they have all taught, and some are currently teaching, undergraduate
courses. They noted that the Museum
Studies program was listed as a priority program in the UNL Campus Report dated
The Museum faculty members stated that without the expertise of the curators and their staff, many of the collections will deteriorate. They noted that 1.9.3 of the Board of Regents Bylaws stated that the “State Museum shall be the depository of the University for specimens and related literature documenting the natural history and cultural heritage of Nebraska, the Great Plains, and whatever other areas are deemed suitable. Said specimens shall be maintained as a public trust and curated and preserved in an appropriate Museum division.” They pointed out that two of the Museum’s collections are to be sold. The Executive Committee questioned whether this would be a violation of the Regents Bylaws.
Some Museum faculty members stated that there is not sufficient time for them to either negotiate with another department for a position, or to opt for the retirement phase-out package because the deadline date for the retirement package is April 30th. Logan-Peters suggested that the Executive Committee could ask that the deadline date for the retirement option be extended. She pointed out that the retirement option was developed for this fiscal year’s budget cuts. She noted that the Museum personnel are being cut from the next fiscal year budget.
The faculty members of the Museum stated that they are to submit their written response to the Academic Planning Committee by March 24th. They noted that they will be given an hour to testify to the APC during the budget reduction hearings. Wunder stated that the March 24th deadline was not fair given that spring break is next week. He noted that one hour would not be enough time for the Museum people to present their case. He moved that the Executive Committee officially request the APC to extend the deadline date for submission of written responses and that the Museum faculty members have more than one hour to give their testimony. Motion approved.
6.2 Press Statement of
Bryant moved that a copy of the open letter to the Board of Regents, discussed in the press statement made on March 11th, be sent to the Board of Regents. Wunder seconded the motion and stated that a cover letter should be sent along with the statement. DiMagno pointed out that in the cover letter it should be noted that the university has a social contract with the state; low tuition rates are predicated on state support. Peterson stated that, in effect, the state subsidizes the cost of students’ education, and state mandated budget cuts reduce that subsidy. Motion approved.
6.3 Meeting with Vice Chancellor Paul
Wunder
stated that the committee should meet with Vice Chancellor Paul to discuss the
decision to fire the tenured faculty of the Museum.
6.4 Meeting with ASUN and UNOPA
Whitt pointed out that it is
important during these difficult economic times for the Executive Committee to
meet with members of ASUN, UNOPA, and UAAD.
The Committee agreed that meetings with these groups should be scheduled
sometime in the near future.
The meeting was adjourned at