Wednesday, October 10, 2001, 1:15 p.m.
Present: Mary Abrums, Dan Jacoby, Carole Kubota , Kevin Laverty, Ray Lou, Kelvin Sung, Linda Watts.
Retreat Follow Up
Dan Jacoby and Carole Kubota will be meeting with Don Whitney and Natalie Lang to look at materials generated from the staff/faculty retreat. Many good ideas were generated at the retreat. They will organize the information, try to prioritize and see what is feasible, what is already being done, etc. Kelvin Sung felt that one of the highest priority items was the faculty reward structure.
Stipends for Retreat Committee
Given the amount of unpaid summer time required to plan the staff/faculty retreat, Dan Jacoby suggested that the GFO provide each person on the retreat committee, Linda Westbrook, Arnie Berger, and Bruce Burgett, with a $150 gift certificate for the University Book Store. Mary Abrums so moved; Kelvin Sung seconded. The motion passed unanimously. In response to a question about where we get the money, Professor Jacoby said that the GFO budget is for six course releases divided as follows: the GFO chair is provided with three course releases; the GFO Vice Chair is provided with two course releases; the funding for the last course release may be used to compensate faculty for specific responsibilities.
Administrators (Associate Directors) on Faculty Committees
The EC discussed the appropriateness of Department Associate Directors serving on faculty committees. The concern was potential conflicts of interest and the possibility of "double voting" in matters like promotion and tenure. The members of EC made it clear during the discussion that they were confident that the current Associate Directors were fair, but that this policy had to do with the future and the EC needed to avoid potential conflicts. The EC faculty also made it clear that for some committees, conflict of interest would not be a significant issue and voting membership by an Associate Director posed few difficulties. But for committees such as Faculty Affairs, the potential for conflict of interest was more significant. In accordance with the UWB Handbook rules regarding administrators, the EC decided that unless there were extraordinary circumstances, Associate Directors should NOT serve on faculty committees. With these points in mind, the EC faculty voted on the following statements submitted by Carole Kubota:
There are extraordinary circumstances to include an Associate Director on the Faculty Council. The EC vote was 5 "no" and 1 "abstain."
There are extraordinary circumstances to include an Associate Director on the Research and Instructional and Research Support Committee. The EC vote was 1 "no," 3 "yes," 2 "abstain."
Forum Topics
Dan Jacoby proposed several forum topics for GFO meetings. Possible topics include:
· Assessment: what, why and how?
· Faculty rewards structure
· Distance learning
Accreditation
Ray Lou stated that the #1 item for UWB campus for the next 1.5 years would be the Northwest Accreditation. The visiting team is scheduled for April 2003. This will be a three-campus accreditation. UWB will engage in its own self study. Vice Chancellor Lou suggested that we organize around the theme of "transformational learning community" - for students, for faculty, for staff. Around this we could ask several questions: Who are we? Where are we now and how did we get here? Where do we want to go? He suggested that answering these questions will engage the campus in deep self reflection. He will be talking to the Academic Council on October 11 about this.
Senate Election
Dan Jacoby reported that UWB's senate election last spring has been declared null and void by the UW Senate because we did not follow the faculty code. We will have to redo our elections according to the code, and also we cannot have senior lecturers elected to the Senate. We had elected Patricia Kelly who, according to the UW faculty code, is not eligible. We are awaiting word from the Senate secretary.
GFO Dates
Dates for GFO fall meetings were set for Oct. 31, 1:30 - 2:30 (changed to November 7, 1:30-3:00 p.m.), Dec. 13, 4:30 p.m. (changed to 1:00 - 3:00 p.m.)
Other
Kevin Laverty expressed concern about admissions and students services. Professor Laverty felt the topic encompasses several issues such as more advertising, a better job recruiting new students, the hiring of an admissions director, etc. Professor Jacoby suggested that this topic might be suitable for a forum. We will continue to explore this issue.
Minutes submitted by Carole Kubota
