Minutes of 16 March 1998
Circulated 24 March 1998
Approved 18 May 1998

ATTENDANCE
Present: Assanis, Bernal, Browder, Castle, Christiansen, Colletti, Cooney, Croxton, Curley, DeCamp, Deskins, Ensminger, M. Feldman, Francis, Hultquist, Jamerson, Julius, Kleinsmith, Kossoudji, Lafortune, Lawson, V. Lee, Lomax, MacAdam, MacAlpine, Maloy, Marshall, Olson, Perakis, Rahme, Raisler, Rosenberg, Rush, Schteingart, R. Sharp, Shotwell, Teasley, Turcotte, Wagaw, Ward, Yeo, Zorn
Alternates: None
Absent: Baker, Bartlett, Bleske, Bryant, Burdi, Burnham, Burnstein, DeWoskin, E. Feldman, Flynn, Freedman, Freese, Gull, Jensen, Kabamba, Karnopp, Keyserling, Kibbie, D. Lee, Loveland-Cherry, Malamud, Mann, Martin, Nagel, Navvab, Nolen-Hoeksema, Pastalan, Pintrich, Rogers, Schneider, Shapiro, Sharf, W. Sharp, Siebers, Steneck, Wasserman, Yeung

Chair D'Alecy convened the meeting at 3:20 P.M.

MATERIALS DISTRIBUTED
1. Agenda for 16 March 1998
2. Draft minutes of the Senate Assembly meeting of 16 February 1998
3. Proposed modifications to the January 26 minutes of the Senate Assembly by Jose Marie Griffiths
4. memorandum to ITD staff from J. M. Griffiths, dated 5 February 1998, regarding a news article in the University Record
5. Statements by Candidates for election to SACUA
6. Copy of Action Request to the University of Michigan Board of Regents
7. 3/16/98 Draft of SACUA Comments for presentation to the Board of Regents 3/20/98
8. Draft Compensation Policy Guidelines for Faculty and Primary Research Scientists, March 1998

CONSIDERATION OF THE MINUTES OF 16 FEBRUARY 1998
Consideration of the minutes of 16 February 1998 was postponed until the next meeting.

REPORT FROM THE COMMITTEE ON THE ECONOMIC STATUS OF THE FACULTY
Chair D'Alecy introduced Professor Dunn at 3:22 P.M. Professor Dunn referred to item 8, which he said was the result of 3 years of work by 3 CESF committees and great additional input and discussion. He noted that the CESF consists of 12 faculty members plus an annuitant, an alumnus, and a chair, for a total of 15 members. He said that the report had been accepted unanimously by the CESF and had won unanimous endorsement from SACUA. He pointed out that the report proposed procedural guidelines for establishing openness and fairness with respect to all forms of compensation, as is consistent with the law. He said that the report concerned compensation only, and that a second report about benefits would be forthcoming. He invited comments from Senate Assembly members, either offered from the floor, or in subsequent written communications to the committee members or the Senate Assembly office.

Chair D'Alecy asked what future actions were intended for the report. Professor Dunn replied that the report had gone to the Provost for discussion with the deans. He said that the Senate Assembly will have an opportunity to vote on the document, after which it may be necessary to establish a conference committee between faculty and administrators. Dunn noted that the CESF is granted direct access to the Regents and that he intended to present the report at the April meeting of the Regents.

Professor M. Lomax asked what impetus had produced the report. Professor Dunn replied that when he was Chair of the Senate Assembly and SACUA there had been a lot of communication demonstrating that people did not know existing procedures and that there was no way to resolve disputes in areas of compensation. He said that Provost Machen had proposed 9 points of process and that the CESF report generally follows those points.

Professor DeCamp asked if the CESF meant the policies to apply to the regional campuses, as well. Professor Dunn replied that if the faculty of the Dearborn and Flint campuses agree with the principles, and act on them in their faculty councils, they should do so, as well as having their representatives to the Senate Assembly act in favor of the report.

SACUA ELECTION
Ballots were distributed to Senate Assembly members by the Senate Assembly staff. Subsequently, Chair D'Alecy announced that the newly elected members to SACUA were Professors Deskins, Kossoudji, and Lawson.

ACTION ITEM FOR REGENTS
Chair D'Alecy referenced item 6 and noted that early in the day EVPMA Omenn had sent a message to the medical faculty encouraging discussion about governing faculty rights and faculty composition. He explained that the AAAC and SACUA had both voted in favor of asking the Regents to delay action on a proposed expansion of the executive faculty of the Medical School until such discussion took place.

Professor Colletti asked what prompted the rush to enact the bylaw change under conditions of an announced moratorium on such changes. Chair D'Alecy said that he did not know if there was more to the proposal than met the eye. Professor Ward pointed out that as the Medical School moves to larger fractions of its faculty in Clinical Track II, spending more time with patients than with academic matters, there is an increasing number of faculty who are disenfranchised in governance matters. Chair D'Alecy noted that the number of Clinical Track II faculty had increased from 20 in 1986 to between 200 and 300 at present. He asked Professor Ward if the Medical Affairs Advisory Committee had discussed the matter with the EVPMA. Ward replied that discussion occurred only at the first meeting of the committee.

Professor Shotwell asked if it would be unreasonable for the Medical School to draft a set of bylaws. Professor Ward replied that he did not think the technical aspect of bylaw existence would help the matter, which he said needed discussion. Chair D'Alecy noted that bylaws for each unit are required by the Regents' Bylaws.

Professor Raisler said that disenfranchisement was an important issue. She asked what was so wrong about granting the clinical track faculty a seat at the table of decisions. Professor Olson said that in the absence of additional information at the moment, the proposed expansion of voting ranks looks like the hospital is taking over the Medical School.

Provost Cantor asked Chair D'Alecy for permission to address the Assembly. She said that the reason for the proposed change in regental bylaws had nothing to do with Clinical Track II appointments, but rather has to do with including Research Scientists in the executive faculty. She said that the Medical School had approached the Provost's Office in the Fall with a proposal to change the Regents' Bylaws. She said that the EVPMA sent his message that morning to be sure that people understand that the bylaw change is a totally separate issue from the need for broad discussion in the Medical School. She said that the proposed action had nothing to do with stopping the discussion, but rather was codifying a common law practice. She noted that the Regents had voted last summer to provide non-tenure track Clinical Track faculty to a total of 10 schools and colleges. She said that all but the Education School had subsequently accorded the new faculty ranks with full voting rights, and that she expected the Education School to vote those rights this spring.

Professor MacAdam moved that the Senate Assembly asks the Regents to table the action item regarding a bylaw change until a future meeting so that study and discussion can continue. The motion received multiple seconds.

Professor Kleinsmith stated that the proposed action by the Regents would extend voting rights to about 400 non-tenure track people versus a total of about 600 tenure track faculty in the School. He said that the trend indicated that within a few years, the voting majority would be non-tenure track faculty.

Vote on the active motion:
Number approving- 25
Number opposing- 7
Abstentions of record- 1

Chair D'Alecy announced that the motion had been approved.

The meeting adjourned at 4:00 P.M.

Respectfully submitted,

John T. Lehman
Senate Secretary