Minutes of 29 September 2003
First Circulated 14 October 2003
Re-Circulated 17 October 2003
Approved 20 October 2003
Re-Considered and Approved 17 November 2003

29 SEPTEMBER 2003

ATTENDANCE

Present:  Akerlof, Andersen, Barsky, Berent, Bradley, Cebulski, Cho, Combi, Elenbogen, 
Ensminger, Giordani, Gould, Green, Gull, Hall, Holland, Hu, Hutchinson, Johnson, 
Keller-Cohen, Koopmann (Chair), Lehman, Macoska, Meerkov, Mitani, Page, Pedraza, 
Pohl, Potter, Pritchard, Quint, Raisler, Remick, Riebesell, Ross, Ruffin, Rush, Sagher, 
Sahiner, Schwendeman, Seabury, Sension, Wechsler, Yeo, Younker, Ziff, Zorn

Alternates:  Brook (for Ohye, Medicine), Durfee (for Goldman, Engineering)   

Absent:  Alfred, Bartlett, Ben-Shahar, Boyd, Brown, Carlisle, Colas, Fishman, Frier, 
Huntley, Kim, Lithgow-Bertelloni, Liu, Moran, Norris, Orr, Robertson, Seyhun, Shelden, 
Shimp, Thornton, Tropman, Watkins, Whatley

MATERIALS DISTRIBUTED
1.  Senate Assembly agenda
2.  Draft minutes of the Senate Assembly meeting of 17 March 2003
3.  Record of Proceedings for 21 April 2003
4.  Change in Med. Insurance Practice for New Hires
5.  SACUA/Senate Assembly Planning Schedule, updated 26 September 2003
6.  2003-2004 Senate Assembly Members
7.  SACUA Membership Business List, 1 May2003 to 30 April 2004
8.  Central Faculty Governance Committees 2003-04
9.  “Parking plan rolled out to regents,” The University Record 22 September 2003
10.  Draft revision of Standard Practice Guide 201.89: Sexual Harassment
11.  Draft proposed Standard Practice Guide: Faculty-Student Relationships
12.  Teaching Principles and Responsibilities, 29 August 2003
13.  Dear Colleagues letters from SACUA on behalf of the Senate Assembly, undated
14.  Rules of the University Senate, the Senate Assembly and the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs, April 1997
15.  A framework for comprehensive athletics reform,   http://www.math.umd.edu/~jmc/COIA/Framework-Sum.html  
http://www.math.umd.edu/~jmc/COIA/Framework-Text.html
16.  American Association of University Professors membership form for new members
17.  Announcement for Davis, Markert, Nickerson Lecture, 20 October 2003

Chair Koopmann convened the meeting at 3:20 P.M.  The proposed agenda was adopted.

CONSIDERATION OF THE MINUTES OF 17 MARCH 2003
The minutes of 17 March 2003 were approved as submitted.

ANNOUNCEMENTS/UPDATES
Chair Koopmann announced:
1.    The next meeting of Senate Assembly, 20 October in the Law School Auditorium, will be followed by the Academic Freedom Lecture delivered by Professor David Cole (distributed item 17).  All remaining Senate Assembly meetings will be held in the Fleming Building.
2.  Koopmann will attend the AAUP leadership conference next week at which the theme will be athletic reform.
3.  This year Dr. J. Leu, Senate Office staff member, will support Senate Assembly and SACUA; Ms. M. Mandeville will provide staff support to committees.
4.  Committee Day lunch is slated for 30 September in the Michigan Union.
5.  Over the summer, SACUA worked with central administration to develop a Central Ombuds position.  One key provision of this new position is that outside legal counsel will be provided to the Ombuds if deemed necessary.  The job will be a posted position; candidates will be evaluated by both the provost and SACUA.
6.  Potential parking fee increases have been temporarily postponed owing to looming health benefits cost shifting from university sources to employees.
7.  The SACUA vice chair and other representatives from Flint and Dearborn can now submit travel expenses for attending Senate Assembly and SACUA meetings.
8.  Professor Yeo has ably led the Childcare Taskforce and will continue her efforts this year.
9.  Changes in health care benefits for new faculty hires have been announced (distributed item 4).
10. Two issues remain unsettled from elections last year.  The Chair is presently serving a second consecutive year, and there is an appearance that four members from LSA are serving on SACUA.  These matters require action by the Senate Assembly.

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ACTION OF SENATE ASSEMBLY 092903-1
Professor Ensminger moved that Senate Assembly ratifies the results of both SACUA chair and SACUA elections, and suspends any rules preventing the duly elected members from service in this case (multiple seconds). 

Professor Elenbogen requested that the motions be separated.  The request was accepted as a friendly amendment. 

Vote on first motion (sequential terms by SACUA chair)-
The motion was approved without dissent.

Vote on second motion (permission for four LSA members to serve on SACUA)- The motion was approved by majority vote with 4 members disapproving.
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VISIT OF PRESIDENT MARY SUE COLEMAN
        Chair Koopmann invited President Coleman to address the Assembly at 3:30 P.M.  She delivered prepared remarks (http://www.umich.edu/pres/speeches/030929StateOfU.html).  She ended her remarks at 4:10 P.M.

A member of the Assembly asked how the administration would know when it had been successful in its affirmative action goals, and what criteria are used to measure success.  President Coleman replied that there are some longitudinal studies that demonstrate that affirmative action is a useful principle. 

Professor Berent pointed out that the growing emphasis on competition for grant funding has created tension with core centers in that there is discouragement of effort for grant funding that is not credited to individual departments.  The president replied that she understood the tension and has discussed it with both the provost and the vice president for research.

Professor Zorn commented that international students are experiencing significant immigration difficulties.  The president responded that she was extraordinarily worried about the situation.  She said that INS is an organization to itself.  She remarked that she had been part of a delegation from the American Association of Universities to the office of Homeland Security in order to discuss visa problems for scholars who have been coming to the U.S. for years.  She said the delegation was given some assurances, but there have been recurring problems.  She suggested that faculty should try to work through professional organizations as well as universities. 

The guest left the meeting at 4:15 P.M.

PARKING UPDATE
        Vice president and CFO T. Slottow, as well as H. Baier, and P. Cunningham were recognized by the chair at 4:15 P.M.  CFO Slottow made some introductory remarks and then introduced Mr. Baier.  Baier delivered a prepared presentation about parking issues and statistics.  The prepared remarks ended at 4:40 P.M.

Chair Koopmann expressed his opinion that if a construction project eliminates some parking spaces, the project should also pay for replacement spaces.  VP Slottow replied that replacement did occur in the case of Life Sciences construction.  Koopmann added that he did not think the U-M administration could rightly expect employees to increase their personal contribution to health care like other employers, but then charge ever higher fees for parking, which are provided gratis by other employers.  Mr. Cunningham replied that inexpensive parking lots are available only at remote sites, whereas parking structures on the central campus typically cost $28,000 per space.

Professor Green asked if consideration has been given to charging by size of vehicle.  Mr. Baier replied that doing so was not realistic because permits are transferable among an employee’s vehicles.  Professor Yeo asked if incentives have been considered to encourage more bicycle use.  Mr. Cunningham replied that single solutions cannot fit all circumstances.  He said that more bicycle racks were being provided, but that the roads need to be more bicycle friendly, as well.

A member of the Assembly pointed out that it is impossible for faculty to van pool or car pool because they have irregular hours.  Another member pointed out that many faculty are forced to purchase gold stickers because of the need to move between locations for multidisciplinary projects.  Professor Meerkov asked about the numerical match of blue parking stickers to available spaces.  Mr. Cunningham replied that Parking has issued 13,000 permits versus 9,000 available spaces.  He said such over-selling was possible because of shift work, illness, etc.  A member of the Assembly declared that large increases in parking fees break the economic compact with existing employees. 

Another member commented that bus transportation was highly inefficient because of central routing at AATA through the Blake Transit Center on 4^th street.  Mr. Cunningham said that parking officials are talking to AATA about their route.  Mr. Slottow remarked that each time a person buys a permit, that person’s department is charged $112.  The guests left the meeting at 5:05 P.M.

AAAC TEACHING PRINCIPLES
Professor Riebesell moved that the Senate Assembly endorses the teaching principles document presented to the Assembly (distributed item 12); multiple seconds.

The meeting fell below quorum, and the chair declared that the motion would be circulated for vote by electronic mail. 

STANDARD PRACTICE GUIDE REVISIONS
        Professor Gull called attention to distributed items 10 and 11.  He said the documents have gone to the Civil Liberties Board for discussion and recommendations to SACUA regarding possible revisions. 

AdvancePCS FACULTY OPINION POLL
        Professor Pedraza reported that an electronic poll has been sent out to the faculty, and responses are awaited.

NEW BUSINESS
        Chair Koopmann called attention to changes to employee health care benefits (distributed item 4).  He invited Ms. B. Butterfield, Director of Human Resources, to comment further.  Butterfield stated that State law requires employers to obtain a positive affirmative signature from employees in order to deduct health care costs from their pay.  She said that there will be 6 communications to new employees to encourage them to sign up.  She said that there would be an appeals process, too, but that the appeal must list a compelling excuse for missing the sign-up window.

A member of the Assembly suggested that the sign-up window be extended to 90 days.  Butterfield replied that most universities permit 30 days for sign-up, whereas the U-M already permits 60 days.  She explained that retroactive enstatement requires the university to pick up medical expenses retroactively and because there is no insurance, the expenses become a university liability.  Professor Berent asked why employees cannot sign up at any time, whether or not it is the open enrollment period.  Butterfield cited the risk of adverse enrollment.  She said that in such cases a vendor would be picking up your risk when you already know you are ill.

On other business, Chair Koopmann declared that no provost had ever seen previous faculty surveys of their deans, but that Provost Courant has asked for previous survey results and has received them.  Koopmann added that Professor Meerkov has proposed to SACUA that the faculty surveys be expanded to include certain executive officers and department heads.

The meeting adjourned at 5:25 P.M.

Respectfully submitted,

John T. Lehman
Senate Secretary

University of Michigan Bylaws of the Board of Regents, Sec. 5.02: 

Governing Bodies in Schools and Colleges

September 29, 2003 Senate Assembly Meeting Agenda