EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MINUTES

 

Present:          Alloway, Bolin, Bradford, Fech, Flowers, Hachtmann, Ledder, Moeller, Prochaska-Cue, Rapkin, Zimmers

 

Absent:           LaCost, Lindquist     

           

Date:               Wednesday, April 25, 2007

 

Location:        201 Canfield Administration Building

 

Note:   These are not verbatim minutes.  They are a summary of the discussions at the Executive Committee meeting as corrected by those participating.

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1.0       Call to Order

            Bradford called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m.

 

2.0       Interview with Bruce Novak, Candidate for Dean of Arts & Sciences

The Committee interviewed Bruce Novak for Dean of Arts & Sciences.

           

3.0       Chancellor Perlman/SVCAA Couture/VC Owens

            3.1       Security Measures for UNL

Chancellor Perlman reported that UNL has plans in place should an emergency occur.  He pointed out that the plans were tested Friday afternoon and they all worked with the bomb threat that was made in the Othmer Building.  He noted that the Othmer Building was evacuated in five minutes.  He reported that it was suggested that Walter Scott Engineering Building and Nebraska Hall should also be evacuated since some people do not have a clear distinction between the buildings.  He stated that UNL is part of an integrated emergency response system.  He noted that email messages were sent out quickly about the bomb threat and evacuations and responses were straight forward and clear.  He stated that he was proud of the way people on the campus reacted to the situation and he felt that it was handled well.

 

Chancellor Perlman stated that everybody involved in the bomb threat was being debriefed and every unit that is involved with emergency situations is studying their plans.  He noted that the campus is exploring other technologies, especially in communications, to assist in emergency situations.  He stated that one question that needs to be considered is to what extent faculty members should be trained to identify students in distress.  He pointed out that Congress is looking at legislation that would make it easier to disclose information about students who were thought to be in trouble. 

 

Chancellor Perlman stated that the campus is also looking at other universities to see what security measures they are using.

 

Bradford asked if there is a way to identify real threats versus someone calling in a bomb threat just to get out of a class.  Chancellor Perlman stated that there are ways to determine this.  He noted that UNL is fortunate enough to have one of the leading experts on campus, Professor Scalora of the Psychology department, to help determine whether the threat is genuine.  Chancellor Perlman pointed out that each threat needs to be considered seriously. 

 

Ledder asked if there is a contingency plan in place if final exams should be interrupted by a threat.  Chancellor Perlman stated he was not sure but thought something would have to be worked out if that arose.  It is difficult to plan for all eventualities.

 

            3.2       Budget

Chancellor Perlman reported that there is nothing new yet from the legislature on the budget.  He noted that if the university receives a 4.1% budget increase and the Board of Regents fund everything they want to, there would still be a $7 ˝ million system wide deficit.  He stated that this would mean a $3.3 million deficit for UNL. 

 

Ledder asked what this would mean for vertical cuts.  Chancellor Perlman stated that he is not sure.  He pointed out that UNL had enrollment increases the past two years and this has helped to generate income for the campus. 

 

Bradford asked if the $3.3 million deficit would be based on a 4.4% salary increase.  Chancellor Perlman stated that it would.  He stated that if something else needed to be considered he would discuss it with the Senate.  He noted that the most likely scenario right now is that we will do a 4.4% salary increase. 

 

3.3       Strategic Plans

Moeller stated that she attended the first session on the strategic plans and noted that it was excellent.  She stated that it was exciting to see in concrete forms what the strategic plans look like and where programs intersect.  She stated that the new configurations that could come out of these intersections of programs could enrich the university. 

 

SVCAA Couture stated that she believes the strategic plans are getting better every year.  She noted that the Deans seem to be hitting their stride in terms of understanding what is required to do effective strategic plans.  She stated that there was good focus in the plans which are helping the Deans to better communicate the goals of their college to each other and the university community.  She noted that there is still room for improvements in the plans, but she is very encouraged by what she is seeing. 

 

3.4       Randy Ferlic op-ed article

Bradford stated that some of the faculty members on campus are really concerned with the op-ed article written by Regent Ferlic.  He noted that if a director of a business corporation wrote such an article they would be fired.  Moeller noted that the timing of the article is really bad given that the university’s budget is on the floor of the legislature.  Chancellor Perlman agreed that the timing was not good. 

 

3.5       Upcoming Issues

Chancellor Perlman suggested that the Senate pay attention to what the U.S. Education Department is trying to impose on the accrediting agencies.  He noted that the proposed regulations would require the accrediting agencies to gather much more accountability information.  He stated that he believes that these regulations would be beyond the scope of the power of the Department of Education but the faculty needs to be watchful of this outcome. 

 

SVCAA Couture reported that an agreement has been signed to launch a Confucius Institute at UNL.  She stated that a meeting was held earlier today to invite people from across the campus who are doing work associated with China.  She stated that there will be periodic meetings of this group and she is finding that a number of people want to get involved with the Confucius Institute.  She stated that the campus wants to develop an approach to the Institute that would provide multiple opportunities for our students, faculty, and the community.  She suggested that anyone interested in joining the China group contact her. 

 

Fech asked whether the administrators think that there would be enough Senators to support the university should the Governor veto the budget.  He noted that 30 votes would be needed in order to over ride the veto. 

 

VC Owens stated that he has heard it discussed a bit and people are hoping that we have enough Senators to support us.  He pointed out that there are people right at this moment working with Senators to gain their support.  He noted that even the Appropriations Committee proposed budget is going to leave us somewhat in the lurch.  He stated that the university is lobbying for budgetary survival, not budgetary nirvana.  He stated that faculty members may wish to use their contacts with their legislator to convince them to support the university budget request. 

 

4.0       Announcements

Bradford stated that the Committee and the Senate owed Moeller a vote of thanks for all of her work during the last year.  He wanted to formally thank her once again for serving as President of the Senate.

             

5.0       Approval of 4/18/07 Minutes

Alloway moved and Zimmers seconded approval of the minutes as amended.  Motion approved. 

 

6.0       Unfinished Business

            6.1       Safe Assignment

Moeller reported that she spoke with Dean Giesecke about the Safe Assignment policy and explained that the Senate vote on it was postponed until September because of the concerns of the students.  Moeller noted that Flowers will meet with Dean Giesecke to discuss the concerns.   Ledder volunteered to attend the meeting as well to convey the students’ concerns. 

 

6.2       Meeting with UNL Police Department

Alloway stated that he is meeting with a member from the UNL Police Department to discuss campus emergency procedures in conjunction with the university radio station KRNU.  He stated that he will suggest that the Campus Police Committee be reactivated again.  Bradford stated that he will designate Alloway as acting chair of this committee to get it functioning again. 

 

7.0       New Business

            7.1       Report on Faculty Compensation Advisory Committee Meeting

Bradford stated that the primary thing to come out of the meeting was the proposed changes to promotion increases.  He noted that currently promotion increases are a flat sum:  for nine month appointments the increase for promotion is $4,000 from assistant to associate and $6,000 from associate to full professor.  He stated with the new rate nobody would get less than the current plan but an alternative percentage could be used:  7% from assistant to associate and 9% from associate to full.  He pointed out that the new rate of increases would help deal with compression in some departments and the cost is not very high.  He stated that no one on the committee objected to this change. 

 

Bradford stated that the committee will be meeting again on May 9th to discuss how raises are going to be distributed. 

 

Bradford stated that the committee received various reports on minority and gender differences and the reports were the same as last year.  The reports showed no statistical difference in the last couple of years. 

 

Bradford stated that there was a report on the retirement contributions of other Big 12 schools.  His interpretation is that we are not doing as well as our peers but Bill Nunez, Director of Institutional Research and Planning, stated that results are mixed. 

 

7.2       Report on Board of Regents Meeting

Moeller stated that discussions at the meeting included a legislative update, discussion on the issue over the RIAA, need based financial aid, financial assistance for students, and a presentation on the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture at Curtis.  She provided a handout summarizing the meeting.

 

The Committee noted that the university’s course of action with students found to have illegally downloaded music includes expulsion from the university.  Ledder asked under what authority would this action be made and who would make the decision to expel the student.  Moeller stated that President Milliken is very firm in the legal aspect of the issue and that students are conducting illegal activity and using university equipment to do it.  She noted that he is serious about catching those students who are engaging in this kind of activity. 

 

Bradford pointed out that the only thing the President knows is that the RIAA has provided the university with a letter stating that illegal activity is occurring but there is no evidence to say that particular students are actually participating in illegal activity. 

 

Moeller stated that two of the student Regents are taking this issue on.  She pointed out that Regent Whitehouse did ask if the policing is our job and what responsibility the university has in going after people and where it stops.  Bradford noted that there are a lot of things that students could be doing illegally but he does not know if we should be policing every thing they do. 

 

Ledder stated that he does not think the university should be punishing the students.  Bradford pointed out that the Student Code of Conduct would cover some to these things and there should be a policy from the Computational Services and Facilities Committee about students being disconnected from the server if there is illegal use. 

 

Alloway pointed out that an IP number could be shared by several people and it doesn’t mean that you know who is actually downloading the material.  Bradford stated that the RIAA overreaches sometimes and he would not be satisfied with them saying that there have been copyright violations without providing more evidence. 

 

Rapkin asked if the students were given any kind of warning first to stop the activity.  He questioned whether a harshly worded warning would suffice.  Moeller stated that one of the student regents stated that there should be an effort in new student orientation to inform students about using university equipment illegally. 

 

Fech wondered whether this is an issue that will have to be supervised by Matt Hecker, Director of Student Judicial Affairs.  Bradford stated that this is correct and in some ways Judicial Affairs is already dealing with this issue. 

 

Moeller stated that the other item addressed was the need based financial aid.  She stated that a presentation was made on the efforts that the UN system is undertaking to find private funding for this aid.  She reported that Central Administration is hoping to generate $300 million to address this issue. 

 

Moeller stated that she spoke at the meeting to voice concerns about UNK and UNO not meeting their research goals yet they are getting salary increases of 4.3 and 4.2 percent.  She stated that she informed the Regents that faculty members will start to leave the university to go elsewhere if they feel that they are not being rewarded for their efforts. 

 

Moeller stated that the Senate Presidents met with President Milliken for lunch.  She reported that there was discussion on the state appropriations request and the mandatory expenses of the university.  She stated that President Milliken discussed voluntary accountability system measures and how this needs to be done or it will be thrust upon us.  She suggested that the Committee discuss this sometime during the summer.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 5:02 p.m.  The next meeting of the Executive Committee will be on Wednesday, May 2nd at 3:00 pm.  The meeting will be held in the Faculty Senate Office, 420 University Terrace.  The minutes are respectfully submitted by Karen Griffin, Coordinator and Rick Alloway, Secretary.