UNL ACADEMIC SENATE

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MINUTES

PRESENT: Past-President Bleed, President Ford, Japp, President-Elect Kennedy, Latta, Mayo, Sartori, Scheideler, Shoemaker, Williams

ABSENT: Albrecht, Bender, Baum Kuska

DATE: April 22, 1998

PLACE: 201 Canfield Administration Building

_____________________________________________________________________________

1.0 Call to Order

Ford called the meeting to order at 3:03 PM.

2.0 Announcements

3.0 Chancellor Moeser

Chancellor Moeser read the statement he wrote regarding the Daily Nebraskan article on the Political Science Department. Although he could not comment on any specific case, he stated that the issue is of grave concern to him and that he is appealing to the academic community for assistance in changing and improving the environment on campus. He stated that there will be zero tolerance for behavior that interferes, restricts or inhibits the educational process.

3.1 Reallocation and Restructuring

Chancellor Moeser stated that he envisions a reallocation committee which would include Senior Vice Chancellor Edwards, the President of the Academic Senate, chair of the Academic Planning Committee and others to develop a set of priorities. For restructuring Chancellor Moeser stated that he envisioned a committee divorced from administration and composed of distinguished faculty, community members and stakeholders, possibly some of them alumni, to take a look at the University and review how it is structured. He asked the Executive Committee to think about possible members for this committee.

3.2 Professional Ethics Statement Follow-up

Chancellor Moeser stated that he reviewed the document and felt that it is a well intentioned document but that it is too long and needs to be more concise. He stated that dialog, such as that conducted in the Post Tenure Review process, between faculty and Academic Affairs could take place to work on this statement. Chancellor Moeser enunciated that academic duty and the responsibility of teachers was very important and needs to be expressed in the document. Kennedy stated that she would be happy to work on the document and suggested that the work on the document should begin this summer. Senior Vice Chancellor Edwards stated that the document combines both policy and ethics statements but that it does not necessarily distinguish between the two.

3.3 Childcare with Recreation Center Follow-up

Senior Vice Chancellor Edwards reported that he spoke with faculty on East Campus who are concerned with the protection and security of the research facility but he stated that there may be some possibility to work out an arrangement in the future. He stated that there are licensing and liability concerns involved which need to be addressed. Scheideler suggested that Senior Vice Chancellor Edwards talk to Stan Campbell, Director, Campus Recreation, to see about being able to set up a program similar to the Husker Kids summer program and she encouraged Senior Vice Chancellor Edwards to continue discussions on this matter.

3.4 Safety and Administrative Discretion

Item postponed until next meeting with the Chancellor.

3.5 Progress on Improving Recruitment of Outstanding Nebraska Students

Item postponed until next meeting with the Chancellor.

3.6 Food Service

Item postponed until next meeting with the Chancellor.

3.7 Employee Benefits

Item postponed until next meeting with the Chancellor.

3.8 Lotus Notes

Chancellor Moeser reported that he has received numerous email messages from faculty concerned with the eventual migration to only one email system for UNL. He stated that he is sympathetic to the concerns of the faculty but that the decision was made at the highest levels, with input from the appropriate advisory committee, and that he is convinced it is an economically sound plan for the University. He acknowledged that the major drawback of the Lotus Notes platform is that it requres a large amount of memory to run. Mayo stated that it is very difficult for many faculty to upgrade their computers to keep up with the continual new programs being used. Latta reiterated Mayo's comments and stated that there are significant complications in using Lotus Notes. She stated that many of the people on campus will not have the system resources required to run the program. In addition, the distance course management module of Lotus Notes does not compare favorably with other software packages available in terms of capabilities or pricing schemes. Latta also questioned which committee had provided input to the decision-making process. Chancellor Moeser acknowledged that it was not the Senate Computational Services Committee, but an administrative committee in information services which provided input. He agreed that the provision of adequate servers and hardware are important issues and suggested that they should be given consideration in the reallocation process.

3.9 AAU Membership

/The Executive Committee discussed AAU Membership with Chancellor Moeser and Senior Vice Chancellor Edwards.

3.10 Issues on the Horizon

3.10.a Affirmative Action and Diversity Office Audit by the Office of Civil Rights

Chancellor Moeser stated that the overall tone of the audit of the Affirmative Action and Diversity Office was positive and that the Office of Civil Rights which conducted the audit felt that the University is working towards improvement. He stated that areas cited for improvement were 1) amending grievance procedures by setting a time line for handling grievances and 2) the need to tighten up procedures for handling harassment complaints.

4.0 Senior Vice Chancellor Edwards

4.1 Senior Lecturer Positions

Ford reported that Jim McShane, Chair of the Academic Rights and Responsibilities Committee met with the Executive Committee to discuss the Guidelines for Faculty Appointments document that was recently distributed to Deans, Directors and Chairs. Ford stated that McShane and the ARRC were concerned with the possibility of tenure lines being minimized for Senior Lecturer positions. Kennedy, who is a member of the committee to review part-time positions, stated that she informed McShane that the reason behind this document is to provide these people with benefits. Bleed stated that he was not comfortable with adding another position and that there should be an easier mechanism to provide these people with the benefits they deserve. Senior Vice Chancellor Edwards stated that past data has indicated no change in the number of tenure track lines and that people should review new data to see if any changes occur. He stated that there are currently 1200 tenure track lines and 300 non-tenure lines. Senior Vice Chancellor Edwards stated that the proposed document does not have any intention of changing the balance of these positions. He stated that the Senior Lecturer position will hopefully allow for more accurate reporting of personnel and that there would the opportunity to compensate these people for their work. Ford asked if the data will be available each year. Senior Vice Chancellor Edwards stated that it will be available. Latta stated that she understood the motivation for wanting a way to recognize and reward outstanding lecturers, but that the language used in the document to describe how the senior lecturer designation should be applied did not address this concern. Rather it states qualifications for this position in terms other than outstanding service to UNL. Ford stated that the Academic Senate Executive committee discussed the qualifications of this position and asked if it will be written into the job description. Senior Vice Chancellor Edwards stated that it will be written into the document and that the document that was distributed is a draft document only. He stated that many departments use the same position title but in many different ways and that this could create a potential problem in the future. He stated that the creation of this position will hopefully eliminate this problem. Senior Vice Chancellor Edwards stated that as people become more lined up with positions and benefits there will be some status lost and that the creation of the Senior Lecturer position may ameliorate this situation.

4.2 Second Draft of Undergraduate Discussion Paper

Mayo asked what was meant by the term fast track in the paper. Senior Vice Chancellor Edwards stated that this is actually the advanced or challenging track but that they are open to any suggestions for a more appropriate term. Ford stated that the terms accelerated and differentiated are used in high school but Senior Vice Chancellor Edwards stated they were trying to avoid high school terminology.

4.3 Diversity Workshop

Kennedy reported that she has received feedback from people who have stated that the Diversity Workshop was incredibly boring and that it was a repeat of information that has already been provided. Senior Vice Chancellor Edwards stated that he was worried that people would find it boring and that it was very difficult to get good facilitators to discuss this issue. Kennedy stated that more advanced training is needed, not another introductory workshop.

4.4 Issues on the Horizon

4.4.a. APC Strategy Document

Latta asked what Senior Vice Chancellor Edwards' response was to the APC strategy document. Senior Vice Chancellor Edwards stated that the document indicated that we need a better definition of what we need to do and that there were a lot of suggestions on focusing resources on specific programs. He indicated that there would be a second draft of the "Focusing Our Resources" paper, and suggested that it might be helpful to separate the discussion on strategies from the data on resources. He anticipated that the APC discussions would be helpful in defining particular mechanisms.

5.0 Approval of 4/15/98 minutes

Mayo moved and Kennedy seconded the approval of the minutes as amended.

6.0 New Business

6.1 Daily Nebraskan Article on the Political Science Department

The committee discussed the recent article in the Daily Nebraskan on the Political Science department.

6.2 Appreciation of President Ford

Mayo, on behalf of the Executive Committee, formally thanked President Ford for his service during the past year.

8.0 Unfinished Business

No unfinished business.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:05 PM. The next Executive Committee meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, April 29, Nebraska Union. Respectfully submitted, Julie Albrecht, Secretary.