FACULTY SENATE MINUTES
FOR AUGUST 25, 1998
(Vol. xxviii, No. 1)

I. Call to order by James Tidwell at 2:00 p.m. (Conference Room, Booth Library)

Present: J. Allison, J. Best, J. Coons, C. Eberly, P. Fewell, G. Foster, N. Furumo, B. Irwin, N. Marlow, J.Tidwell, M. Toosi, L. Walker, A. Zahlan. Excused: R. Gholson, G. Lockart. Guests: T. Abebe, K. Franken, T. Sloup.

Chair Tidwell welcomed new and returning members to Senate.

II. Approval of the minutes of July 28, 1998.

Motion (Walker/Allison) to approve the minutes of July 28, 1998.

Yes: Allison, Eberly, Foster, Furumo, Irwin, Marlow, Tidwell, Walker, Zahlan. Abstentions: Best, Coons, Fewell, Toosi.

III. Communications

A. Memo on international student testing from Kathy Ford, Coordinator, Intensive English Language Center.

B. Memo from Provost Abebe regarding task force recommendations on Graduate School.

C. Staff Senate Minutes­July 8, 1998.

D. CAA meeting dates for 1998-99 : August 27; September 3, 10*, 17, 24; October 1, 8, 15, 22, 29; November 5, 12, 19; December 3, 10; January 14, 21, 28; February 4, 11, 18, 25; March 4, 11, 25; April 1, 8, 15, 22, 29. Meetings will take place in the Arcola/Tuscola Room of the MLK Union with the exception of the September 10 meeting, which will be held in the 1895 Room. All meetings begin at 2 p.m.

E.1998-99 CAA members: William Addison (Chair), Douglas Bock (Vice Chair), Mary Anne Hanner, Timothy Mason, Frank McCormick, Godson Obia, Jill Owen, Kenneth Sutton, Ron Wohlstein, Teshome Abebe, Students (3), and Charles Evans, Mary Herrington-Perry, Sally Dolson (Academic Affairs)

F. CGS meeting dates for 1998-99: September 1, 15; October 6, 20; November 3, 17; December 1; January 19; February 2, 16; March 2; April 6, 20. Meetings will be held in the Arcola/Tuscola Room of the MLK Union. All meetings begin at 2 p.m.

G. Letter from EIU alum regarding botany-zoology merger

H. Memo from Lankford Walker regarding Open Meetings Act.

IV. Faculty Senate Orientation--Chair Tidwell distributed a packet of information to each senator, including the Constitution (A) and Bylaws (B).

A. Operating Principles. Faculty Senate follows Robert's Rules of Order. Official communications to the Senate must have a name attached. At some point debate on some issues may be limited.

B. Meeting Dates: August 25; September 1, 8, 15, 22, 29; October 6, 13, 20, 27; November 3, 10, 17; December 1, 8. If needed: December 15, 1998­2:45 p.m.

January 12, 19, 26; February 2, 9, 16, 23; March 2, 9, 23, 30; April 6, 13, 20, 27. If needed: May 4, 1999­time TBA. All meetings, unless noted, will begin at 2 p.m. in the Conference Room of Booth Library.

C. Faculty Senate Committee Assignments and Explanations.

1. Nominations and Liaison Coordinator: John Best, Gail Lockart, Lankford Walker

2. Elections: Bonnie Irwin, Ann Zahlan, Mori Toosi, Gary Foster, Ron Gholson

3. Student-Faculty Relations: Charles Eberly, Janice Coons, Nancy Marlow

4. Faculty-Staff Relations: Norbert Furumo, John Allison, Pat Fewell

Article II of the Bylaws specifies the committees and duties.

Motion (Zahlan/Foster) to approve appointments to Faculty Senate Committees. Yes: Allison, Best, Coons, Eberly, Fewell, Foster, Furumo, Irwin, Marlow, Tidwell, Toosi, Walker, Zahlan

V. Old Business

A. Vice President for External Relations. The Senate decided to have foundation restructuring, including fund raising and lobbying as a future agenda item. Questions were raised regarding what constitutes an "official" communication as indicated in Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution.

B. Panther Card. Although the process went smoothly, there were concerns about the security of the cards.

C. Committee Reports

1. Presidential Search Committee. B. Irwin reported that an ad will be placed in theChronicle in the first September issue and the one immediately following. Janet Greenwood will be on campus September 9. The Search Committee will probably meet following that. Senator Irwin assured Senate that the Committee wants to do the right thing in regard to the Open Meetings Act. The announcement of the summer meeting did not get out of the appropriate office in time. This led to a discussion of the Open Meetings Act. One area of concern is the minutes of committees. They should be informational and summarize discussion. The real question is what is a public body. Chair Tidwell's opinion is that public bodies are those that are university wide.

2. Associate VPAA Search Committee. G. Foster reported that the first meeting was an orientation. At the next meeting (Friday), they will divide into subcommittees. It was questioned whether the Senate selected a member for this Search Committee. This committee was not appointed in the normal way because of the need to get it together before the semester began and because VPAA was new to the campus. The committee did havethe necessary approval from Cynthia Nichols's office. Abebe assured the Senate that faculty will have ample opportunity to provide feedback.

Motion (Zahlan/Walker) to confirm Gary Foster as Senate representative to this committee. Yes: Allison, Best, Coons, Eberly, Fewell, Furumo, Irwin, Marlow, Tidwell, Toosi, Walker, Zahlan. Abstentions: Foster.

3. Executive Committee. The Executive Committee met Monday with Jorns and Abebe; meetings are every two weeks. Three issues were discussed.

* Sick leave buy-out. $691,000 was budgeted; $1.2 million was needed. The President found money to cover the deficit and forgave $400,000 borrowed by Academic Affairs last year. In the future a unit may not be able to replace someone who leaves until they have covered the sick-leave buy-out. Over the long run Abebe would like to accrue these costs as they are incurred. Concern was expressed about departments with a large number of retirees. Deans may move positions around within their colleges.

*General education funding. Abebe is committed to spending as much as necessary on this. His concern is about the philosophical view of general education as an appendage. He wants general education funding to be a priority.

*Memo from Walker, Allison, and Zahlan requesting that the executive committee ask the President to retract his remarks about their service. The President had no response. The Senate's discussion of this raised the following issues:

Concern that there was no response.

Role of Faculty Senate and the best way to accomplish that role.

The discussion degenerated too quickly before intervention could take place.

The motivation for calling the meeting was not a pre-judgment but to discuss the issue. If we have a meeting, we should assume that those who request it have a good reason for doing so.

A. Other Committee Reports

1. Elections Committee. There may be a need for 4-5 replacements on committees, including CAA, COTE, UPC, and Enrollment Management. Most will be replaced without trouble because procedures are in place to do so.

2. Nominations Committee. Replacements will be needed on the Library Board (Arts and Humanities), CFR (Allied Health), and Parking Appeals.

VI. New Business

A. General Education funding was discussed.

B. Staff morale will be addressed by the Faculty-Staff Relations Committee.

C. Charge back costs will be addressed by CUPB.

D. Faculty participation in graduation. After some discussion, it was decided to let the Faculty Student Relations Committee discuss this with Student Senate and Mark Haines to develop specific recommendations.

E. Agenda Items for 9-1-98

1. Fall Forum

2. Circulation of Senate Minutes

3. Role of the Senate and Need for a Retreat

4. Applicability of Open Meetings Act to Campus Committees

VII. Adjourn at 3:50 p.m. (Walker)

Respectfully submitted,

Nancy D. Marlow, Recorder