Faculty Governance Committee

Minutes of April 25, 2007

Regular members present: Cope, Gilliland, Jones, Justiniano, Martinez, Morrison

Ex-officio members present: Horns, Maggean, Rigsby, Smith, Taggart

Absent: Anderson

Others present: Lori Lee, Paul Zigas

I. The minutes of the April 11, 2007 meeting were approved.

II. Martinez commented on the meeting held on April 23 among the Committee officers (Jones, Justiniano, and Martinez) with Chancellor Ballard and Vice Chancellors Horns and Mageean. The message that was taken away from the meeting with the Chancellor was for the Committee to keep proceeding as it has been with respect to comprehensive review of administrators. Chancellor Ballard had not read the proposed document prior to the April 23 meeting. After the April 23 meeting the Chancellor met separately with Taggart and encouraged the Committee to make some of the language in the document appear as less confrontational than it currently reads so it might receive a more favorable review from the Board of Trustees.

The revised Appendix L should be ready for distribution to Deans by April 30.

Martinez and Taggart made a brief presentation before the Chancellor’s cabinet the morning of April 25. Martinez, Taggart and Mageean commented on the meeting. It was noted that the Deans had not had prior opportunity to review the document before that meeting as Martinez was asked to make this presentation very soon before the meeting began. It was also noted that neither Chancellor Ballard, Provost Smith, nor Vice Chancellor Horns was able to attend the Cabinet meeting, and that their presence could have made a positive difference as they had a better working knowledge of the document than most of the Cabinet members in attendance.

III. Most of the meeting was devoted the proposed Appendix L revision. Section A. The first question was whether fixed term faculty should be allowed to make recommendations on the content of unit codes. The fixed term task force had recommended that such be allowed. The Committee agreed that fixed term faculty could be allowed to make recommendations but not allowed voting rights on code content.

The Committee voted to remove all reference to “5 year” evaluations in the proposed document, voting instead to replace with “Comprehensive Faculty Evaluation of Administrators.”

The sentence in Section A “The School of Medicine may define voting faculty for the purpose of this code in accordance with their unique structure…” was deleted.

Section B. Appointment of Administrative Officials, the question of Center Directors will be addressed during the summer.

IV. Other business. Per the request of Ken Wilson, Sociology, the Committee was asked for clarification on whether unit personnel committee members could examine the files of faculty employment applicants or just those selected for interviews by search committees. The Committee clarified, stating that personnel committee members have that right.

Subcommittees for next academic year, the joint appointment subcommittee will include Justiniano, Rigsby, and Taggart. The annual survey of administrators subcommittee will include Ken Wilson from Sociology.

The question of letters sent to external reviewers for promotion and tenure applications was addressed. In one College a Dean had modified the content of a letter template from Academic Affairs that was sent to an external reviewer. After reviewing Appendix D, the Committee stated that Academic Affairs has say over the format and contents of such letters and that Deans cannot deviate from what is sent from Academic Affairs.

Meeting adjourned

The next meeting is scheduled for April 30, 2007 at 3:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Mark Jones, Professor