MSU FACULTY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
April 26, 2000
PRESENT: Hatfield, Sherwood, Kommers, Neff, Leech, Benham, Howard,
Larsen, Harkin, Nehrir, Mooney, Weaver, Amend, Locke,
Lansverk, Levy, Bogar, Jelinski, McKinsey, Lynch, Fisher,
Prawdzienski, Butterfield, Scott, Griffith.
ABSENT: Ag Econ, O'Neill, McDermott, Burgess, Anderson, Peed,
Duncan, Jost, Bond, Francis, Carlstrom.
The meeting was called to order by Chair John Amend at 4:10 PM. A
quorum was present. The minutes of the April 19, 2000, meeting were
approved as distributed.
Chair's report - John Amend.
- John and Ron Larsen met this morning with the President,
Provost and Vice Provost.
- Three commodity groups have requested Extension be moved
back into the College of Agriculture. A task force will
consider the issues, and a decision will be made soon, but
not necessarily by July 1.
- President Roark will set up a workload task force. Five
nominations are requested from Faculty Council and
nominations are being solicited from academic deans. A
Faculty Council member asked if there will be nominations
from department heads.
- The university system will request from the legislature
$500 additional funding/student/each of the two years of the
next biennium.
- The President is requesting five nominations for a faculty
position on SPBC.
- A meeting of Faculty Council will be held next Wednesday (May
3).
- Vice President Yarnell was to attend Faculty Council today, but
a budget meeting has been called, so he will not be here.
University Governance Council Nominating Committee report - George
Tuthill.
- Nominations for Faculty Council positions and faculty positions
on various university-wide committees were distributed.
- Three Faculty Council members will be elected to UGC
Steering Committee.
- As mentioned in the Chair's report, five nominations are
requested for a position on SPBC.
- Faculty Council members are to vote for nominees they
think are acceptable for SPBC, and the nominations will
be forwarded to the President, listed in order of the
number of votes received.
- It was asked whether Gwen Jacobs would be eligible to
be appointed to the faculty position, as it is expected
she will be head of the neurobiology department.
- Ed Mooney was nominated for UGC Steering Committee.
- As there were no further nominations, Faculty Council
members voted (with results announced later in the meeting).
Faculty Affairs Committee report - Jack Jelinski.
- Changes to Faculty Handbook Section 1314.00 - 1323.00
(Conciliation) were distributed.
- During Faculty Council discussion, concern was expressed
for keeping a written record of the conciliation agreement.
The procedures for conciliation exclude keeping a permanent
record of the proceedings, so what wording should be used to
make it clear the written record is of the conciliation
agreement, only? Who would keep this information?
- After further discussion, Bill Locke moved tabling discussion
of amendments to the conciliation procedures. The motion was
seconded and carried.
Results of the Election.
- Chair, Faculty Council - Ron Larsen
- Chair-Elect, Faculty Council - John Sherwood
- UGC Steering Committee - Jack Jelinski, Alan Leech, Wes Lynch
- Chair, Faculty Affairs Committee - Jodee Kawasaki
- Long Range Planning Committee - Ken Bruwelheide, Jon Wraith
- Strategic Planning and Budget Committee (nominations submitted
to the President in order of number of votes received) - Kay
Chafey, Rich Howard, Ed Mooney, Gwen Jacobs
- Chair, Committee on Grievance Hearings - Martin Frick
- Chair, Conciliation Committee - Alanna Brown
- Conciliation Committee - Nancy Dodd
- Conciliation Pool - Janis Bullock, Brad Coon
- Salary Review Committee - Susan Capalbo
- Intellectual Property Committee - Marty Hamilton, Rocky Ross
- Equipment Fee Allocation Committee - Jack Hyppa, Chris
Yakymyshyn
- Affirmative Action Advisory Committee (nominations submitted to
the President) - Amy Thomas
- University Facilities Planning Board (nominations submitted to
the President) - Lauren McKinsey
- Traffic Appeals and Regulations Committee (nominations
submitted to the President) - Amy Carver
- University Marketing Committee - Kim Scott
- Council Liaison to Core Curriculum Committee - Greg Francis
- Council Liaison to Undergraduate Studies Committee - Harry
Benham
- Council Liaison to New Core (Hewlett) Task Force - Marvin
Lansverk
Budget issues and SPBC.
- At Friday's SPBC meeting, the Provost distributed a 9-page
revised budget. (Page 9 was distributed to Faculty Council
members). The 4/17 Draft FY2001 budget is balanced. However,
the bulk of the balancing has been done by deleting salary raises
for faculty, professionals, and GTA's/GRA's.
- At today's meeting with the President, Chair Amend said in
budget decisions, the mission of the university must be kept
in mind, staff needs to be preserved, and expansion must be
balanced by removing less necessary programs.
- MSU received an increase in state funding so there is
additional money for the university, not a budget cut.
- At Friday's SPBC meeting, Peter Kommers was able to again air
the principles and concerns that he has stated before about the
proposed budget. Through e-mail, there has been discussion of
reducing faculty and professional raises and funding no new
requests.
- If there is no meaningful strategic planning, faculty will
give up raises and there still will be no progress toward
developing a budget that can be balanced over the longer
term.
- Vice President Stump recently stated publicly that the
legislature authorized 3% raises but only funded 1.5%. The rest
of the funding is to come from tuition increases, which were
authorized.
- The question was again asked why the budget problem has arisen
again this year. In both years of the biennium, state funding
has increased, and MSU has known for more than a year that the 3%
raises were authorized. How can accountability of the
administration be insisted upon? Trust in the administration
doesn't happen when budget data is incomplete and faculty raises
are continually used to balance the budget.
- Because of concern expressed for the ability of PEC to make the
necessary budget decisions, it was suggested a vote of confidence
may be appropriate.
- There seemed to be agreement that for now, a resolution would
be a logical place to start.
- After discussion, John Sherwood moved the following motion be
approved and forwarded to the President. UGC Steering Committee
will refine the wording at its meeting tomorrow, if necessary.
The motion was seconded and carried.
WHEREAS the legislature and regents approved and provided funding
for 3% raises and the money was apparently used for
other purposes, Faculty Council resolves raises should
not be used to balance the budget.
As there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 5:15 PM.
Joann Amend, Secretary