UNL ACADEMIC SENATE MEETING MINUTES
Room 127 Architecture Hall
April 8, 1997
President Peter Bleed Presiding
1.0 Call to Order
*President Bleed called the meeting to order at 2:40 pm.
2.0 Announcements
2.1 Slate of Nominees. Bleed announced that the nomination
process for seats on the Executive Committee and Committee
on Committees is now complete. Bios of nominees will be
mailed to all senators on April 15, two weeks prior to the
April 29 Senate meeting election.
2.2 NBC Reception. Bleed announced that the National
Bank of Commerce has agreed to host a reception for new
and returning senators directly following the April 29th
senate meeting, in conjunction with the reception to honor
the recipient of the Academic Freedom Award.
2.3 UAAD/UNOPA/UNL Human Resources Professional
Development Seminar. Bleed announced that D'Vee Buss,
President of the University Association for Administrative
Development, and UAAD Senate Representative, had brought
information to the meeting regarding a two half-day seminars
presented by Ian Percy. The seminars will be held April 22
and 23. Faculty members are welcome and encouraged to
attend these seminars.
3.0 Chancellor Moeser
3.1 Ledbetter Report on Campus Climate for Women
Athletes. Chancellor Moeser announced that Dr. Ledbetter,
Brown University, who was contracted as an outside
consultant to conduct a study concerning the climate for
women athletes, has completed her report and will present it
today at 4:00 p.m. at a public media conference.
3.2 North Central Association (NCA) Accreditation Team.
Chancellor Moeser announced that UNL is currently
undergoing the accreditation process and faculty will have an
opportunity to meet with the NCA team members on April
15. There will be simultaneous sessions on both City and
East Campuses at 4:00 p.m. He thanked the faculty who
have worked hard to write this report.
3.3 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)
Certification. Chancellor Moeser said that a first draft report
is expected in early May regarding the NCAA certification
for the athletic program.
3.4 Sigma Chi Incident. Chancellor Moeser stated that the
Sigma Chi fraternity cross burning incident, although
unfortunate, has served as a catalyst for improved
communication and interaction among the university and
Lincoln community. Chancellor Moeser encouraged faculty
to find ways to weave into their class lectures topics about
human rights and respect for minority groups and to take
advantage of opportunities to foster understanding among our
diverse campus staff, faculty, and students.
3.5 Nebraska State Legislature. Chancellor Moeser briefly
reported that there were indications for a positive outcome to
the university budget appropriations process currently before
the legislature. However, he declined to comment further
until the process is complete.
3.6 Faculty Compensation Advisory Committee. Chancellor
Moeser stated that he will be meeting with this committee
concerning salary increases, which are expected to be an
average of three percent.
3.7 Budget Reallocation Process. Chancellor Moeser stated
that he will meet Wednesday, April 9 with the Budget
Advisory Committee and the Academic Planning Committee
concerning the budget reallocation determination. He noted
that the process has been very collegial and demonstrated
shared governance at its best.
3.8 Board of Regents. The Board of Regents has accepted
the new student technology fee, which will begin at $2 per
credit hour and gradually increase to $5 per credit hour over
time. The increase is in response to students' requests for
24-hour access to library computer service as well as
compatible computer software campus-wide and computer lab
service and support. The new fees are expected to generate
over $1 million at the $2/credit hour rate.
Discussion. Bleed asked about the status of the Nebraska
Research Initiative (NRI) funding. Chancellor Moeser that,
in the past, both UNMC and UNL have received the lion's
share of these funds and he is confident that this will
continue because of their primary research roles. However,
NRI grant funds cannot be considered as any type of
entitlement and competitive proposals will be submitted and
approved on an ongoing basis. Faculty on tenure-track lines
who currently are supported with NRI funds will be moved
to regular state funded lines.
4.0 Approval of 3/4/97 Minutes
* Hostetler, Curriculum and Instruction, moved to approve
the minutes from the March 4th senate meeting as amended
from a request by Swenseth, Management. Bryant,
Educational Administration, seconded. Minutes approved as
amended.
5.0 Committee Reports
5.1 Employee Benefits. Chair Adams, Libraries, distributed
the Employee Benefits Committee report and highlighted
their current issues. These included the tight timetable for
the medical, dental, and pharmacy bid process, developing a
parental leave policy, and long-term disability requirements.
Tuition remission for dependents and hiring a benefits
counselor are both current and future priorities. Another
future priority is to oversee mental health parity
developments.
Discussion. Hallbeck, Industrial and Management Systems
Engineering, inquired about the $2 million cap over a
lifetime for employee health insurance. Hallbeck stated this
amount is too small and it should be unlimited. Adams
stated that it had just been raised from the previous $1
million amount and negotiating an unlimited amount over a
lifetime is unlikely at this point.
5.1.1 Recommendations from the Employee Benefits
Committee for implementation at UNL. Bleed introduced
McGarvey, Economics, and a Employee Benefits member,
and stated that this committee had two proposals that now are
brought to the senate as a seconded motion. McGarvey, on
behalf of the Employee Benefits Committee, introduced two
separate proposals regarding disability leave and parental
leave.. The first is in reference to a disability leave policy
from section IV.H of the Faculty Handbook. The committee
recommends that the following paragraph be removed: b)
The amount required, if any amount be required, to pay any
substitute who has performed all or any part of the work of
the incapacitated staff member. Substitutes shall be selected
by the President or the Chancellor, as appropriate. Whether
such a substitute shall receive pay for such work performed
or be permitted to substitute gratuitously for the incapacitated
staff member shall be determined by the President or the
Chancellor, as appropriate.
Discussion. Jose, Agricultural Economics, asked how long
this disability policy had been in place. McGarvey was
uncertain as she had heard conflicting reports with regard to
the actual implementation of the policy. However, the intent
of the committee is to eliminate it entirely from the
document as this qualifier is an infringement of the disability
leave benefit.
The second issue is the creation of a parental leave policy for
academic employees. Their proposal allows for eight weeks
with pay for a female employee (two weeks for child rearing
and six weeks for recovery associated with the birth); two
weeks leave with pay for male employees who are adopting
or whose partner is giving birth; and two weeks for a female
employee who is adopting.
Discussion. Jensen, Psychology, took exception to some of
the wording. McGarvey explained that they had used a
document from the University of Minnesota as a model.
Sartori, Physics and Astronomy, asked if it was the intention
of the committee to offer the parental leave only to married
academic employees. McGarvey stated that no, the leave was
not meant to be exclusive. Ferguson, English, stated that
paragraph two did exclude lesbians by the wording for
eligibility. McGarvey stated that perhaps combining the last
two paragraphs might be appropriate and they will have a
revised proposal to present to the senate during the April 29
meeting. Bhattacharya, Computer Science and Engineering,
asked if the proposed leave would be a benefit requested or
automatically granted. Adams answered that the idea is to
provide a minimum leave amount for employees.
5.2 Graduate Council. As a representative of the Graduate
Council, Associate Dean Ortega stood for questions regarding
a previously distributed report from the council. Sartori
inquired about the progress of the Executive Graduate
Council to implement a separate graduate degree for the UNL
campus. Dean Ortega stated this issue had unanimously
passed and was now before the Academic Planning
Committee.
5.3 Academic Freedom Award. Chair Wise, Law, reported
that the Academic Freedom Award committee had received
two nominations for the 1997 James A. Lake Academic
Freedom Award. The committee was bringing one name
forward for a vote of the senate. Parsons, Agricultural
Education Communication and Leadership, inquired about the
criteria used by the committee to ascertain suitable nominees.
Wise stated that there are four criteria the committee uses as
a guideline, which she did not have with her at present.
However, Wise stated the committee views the nominee's
acts in support or defense of academic freedom as a whole
over time to demonstrate ongoing significant support of
academic freedom.
6.0 Academic Freedom Award Nomination
* Wise distributed the confidential ballot for the 1997
Academic Freedom Award nominee. The senate was asked
to endorse the committee's approval of the nominee. Ballots
were collected after the voting process and will be counted
after the meeting.
7.0 Recognition of Senators with Term Completions
* Bleed distributed certificates of appreciation to those
senators who have completed their terms on the senate. He
noted that some senators would be returning and that others
who are serving on the Executive Committee and will
continue service until April 23, will receive their certificates
during the April 29 meeting.
8.0 Unfinished Business
8.1 Pending Motions: Committee on Committees.
Motion #1: The CoC shall make the necessary changes in the
Syllabus of Senate Committees to reflect: 1) the name change
of the College of Home Economics to the College of Human
Resources and Family Sciences, and 2) the number of
colleges from "eight" to "nine" to include the College of Fine
and Performing Arts.
Approved by senate.
Motion #2: To permit a member of the Employee Benefits
Committee to be reappointed for a second consecutive term.
Approved by senate.
Motion #3: To increase the number of alternate members
serving on the Dismissal Appeals Committee membership
from three to six.
Approved by senate.
Motion #4: The Faculty Salary Advisory Committee shall be
renamed the Faculty Compensation Advisory Committee.
Chouinard introduced a substitute amendment concerning the
use of the term compensation and maintaining the word
"salary" in the syllabus description. Chouinard added a
sentence under the responsibilities section; For these
purposes, each faculty member's compensation shall be
regarded as including salary and those benefits where that
faculty member actually receives clear and well defined
monetary value from the benefit. Motion was seconded by
Jensen.
Discussion. Zorn, Economics, took exception to the
qualifier, "well-defined" as not being arbitrary. Leonard,
Southeast Research and Extension Center, a chair of the
Committee on Committees who brought the original motion
forth during the March 4 meeting, stated she and some other
CoC members had misgivings about the original motion
which they had been charged to bring forward from Ford,
Chair of the Faculty Salary Advisory Committee, regarding
striking the word "salary" and the connotation of
compensation to benefits. Parsons stated he felt
uncomfortable when the senate was not heeding the advice of
an economics expert regarding the broad term
"compensation" as including both salary and benefits.
Ferguson stated that many people do equate compensation
with benefits and consider salary as a distinctly separate
issue. Hallbeck moved to amend Chouinard's substitute
motion to include the word "total" before the term
"compensation" whenever it occurred in the motion.
Chouinard accepted this suggestion as a friendly amendment.
Pederson, Conservation and Survey Division, moved to
postpone a vote on the Chouinard motion. Parsons seconded
Pederson's motion. The senate voted not to postpone and the
discussion was continued. Swenseth asked what the
difference would be between the Employee Benefits and
Faculty Compensation committees. Mayo, Entomology and
member of the Employee Benefits committee, explained that
their committee is for both faculty and staff and is concerned
with more detailed benefits. Jose moved to amend a sentence
from the Chouinard motion. Seconded by Lingren, Family
and Consumer Sciences. Motion failed. Members voted on
the Chouinard motion with the friendly amendment by
Hallbeck. Motion passed.
8.2 Status of Post Tenure Review. Latta, Libraries, a
member of the Chancellor's drafting committee for a policy
of post tenure review, stated that a nine-member committee
has been formed and they have met once. During that
meeting, they agreed that their draft would amend the
existing guidelines for review and they are currently
reviewing a plan from the University of Kentucky. Another
meeting will soon be scheduled and they hope to have a draft
by the 4/29/97 senate meeting.
Discussion. Jensen asked if the senate would be able to act
on the draft at that time and Bleed stated the intent was to do
so. Jensen suggests that every effort be made to get the draft
document out to senators prior to the April 29th senate
meeting. Zorn asked if the group was looking at supervisor
recommendation guidelines to avoid the possibility of
arbitrary recommendations. Latta stated that is the case.
Bleed stated that this committee is being chaired by Dean
Darrell Nelson, IANR Agricultural Research Division, and a
member of the previous drafting committee.
9.0 New Business
The meeting adjourned at 4:20 p.m. The next Senate meeting will
be April 29, 1997 in the Great Plains Room of the East Campus
Student Union. Respectfully submitted, Julie Albrecht, Secretary.