Summary Report for UIUC AAUP Policy Committee Meeting on December 14, 2009

Present: Abbas Aminmansour, Connie Caveny, Bettina Francis, Harry Hilton, Lewis Hopkins, Harry Liebersohn, John Prussing, Arthur Robinson, Robert Spitze, Leslie Struble, Donald Uchtmann, H. F. Williamson
The meeting began at about 12:15 p.m. with John Prussing presiding.

President's Report

(1) Introductory Remarks. Prussing reported that the SEC had met with incoming President Ikenberry and interim Chancellor Easter several times. The discussion included the decision to separate the duties of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (VCAA) and the Provost. Richard Wheeler will be the acting VCAA. His principal duties will concern faculty hiring and promotion and tenure actions.

(2) Review of the Minutes for November 9, 2009 Meeting of Policy Committee. These were approved. Prussing expanded on one part of the report of his Introductory Remarks in item (1). This was a summary of the content of an email from Finkin. (This email will be forwarded to the entire committee.) The “need to change our Statutes” referred to a change being proposed to protect intramural utterances. The donor issue referred to the status of the Academy on Capitalism and Limited Government Fund (ACLGF). Prussing noted that this is being investigated by GUP. [NOTE: The following is from the Case Statement on the ACLGF web site: “The Academy . . . exists to advance scholarly research and teaching about these vital principles at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Academy Foundation, an independently governed, supporting organization of the University of Illinois Foundation with offices in Champaign-Urbana supports research and teaching . . . .”]

Action Items

(3) Review of Meeting with Interim Provost Easter on November 9, 2009. There was agreement that this had been a valuable meeting for us and, we felt, for Provost Easter.

(4) Future Meetings with Campus and University Administrators. Prussing will continue to work on a having Vice President Rao meet with the Committee or, if that doesn’t work, with the officers and others who are available. It was suggested that he contact Richard Wheeler and Barbara Wilson as well.

(5) Plans for Spring Tenure Workshop. Hilton will be working with Richard Wheeler and Barbara Wilson to arrange a date. It was agreed that Latzer Hall had worked out well as a site for the last meeting. Hilton noted that he had already set up the date and place for the Annual Meeting: Tuesday, May 11, in the Illini Union General Lounge.

(6) Membership Campaign and Role of AAUP on Campus. There was an extensive discussion of these two, related issues. Methods were considered for reaching out to faculty groups such as those recently promoted. By working with younger faculty, we will be better able to decide what we can do to help them. Our web site and AAUP email list provide ways to contact them.

(7) Discussion of Possible Furlough Policy and Implementation of the Time Reporting System. The discussion continued with reference to particular issues such as these two. If we followed past procedures, we would prepare white papers and possibly hold a panel discussion on one or both of them. Regarding the time reporting, it was noted that it is in place for some staff (e.g., Academic Professionals) with mixed results.

Reports

(8) Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee Report. A faculty member had contacted Prussing about a number of problems and had been referred to Robinson and Struble who had talked with this individual. Robinson reported on what the problems were and the advice that had been provided.

(9) Chapter Web Site. Caveny reported that she has been in contact with Grohen and that the web site is being revised.