Communicate with the Senate

Manoa Faculty Senate Executive Committee Minutes of March 31, 2003

Present: Denise Antolini, Meda Chesney-Lind, Martha Crosby, David Flynn, Michael Forman, Frank Sansone, Mary Tiles, and Charlotte Mitsutani.

Chair Mike Forman called the meeting to order at 3:02 pm.

1. The minutes of the meeting of March 24, 2003 were approved as corrected.

2. Chair's Report
VP-AA Search Committee - The first meeting laid out procedures for the search. Approximately 30 applications were received; they were evaluated using the first four minimum qualifications for the position, and about 15 candidates remained after this first cut. The next meeting is this Saturday.

CTAHR Workshop - This two-day meeting (with many MME members present) aimed to improve communication skills.

MME - Issues included the WAC reprimand (Herman Frazier described the details of the issue); commencement (a few changes are possible for the Spring 2003 commencement); implementation of the Manoa strategic plan (alternative priorities were discussed).

3. Committee Reports
GEC - Martha reported that the GEC/SEC Memorandum of Understanding needs to be signed, using the original language. Mike will sign for the SEC and send the memo around for the remaining signatures by the GEC and Board Chairs.

CAB - Frank reported that an addendum to the Chancellor's RTRF memo of 3/14 has been developed by an ad-hoc group composed of Robert Bley-Vroman, Kathy Cutshaw, Jim Gaines, Rolf Kudritzki, Rodney Sakaguchi, and Frank Sansone. The purpose of the memo is to explain the following aspects that were not spelled out in the original memo: the type of carry-over funds that need to be justified (only discretionary funds need to be justified), definitions of "unit" and "discretionary funds", and faculty-approved RTRF allocation policies for units. The memo will be reviewed by CAB members before it is presented to the Chancellor for signing early next week. Robert Bley-Vroman (Chair of CAB) will be asked to make a report on this subject at the next Senate meeting.

The Chancellor is apparently disbanding the Manoa Budget Advisory Committee and will henceforth use CAB to get faculty review of budget matters. CAB should propose a policy on how this will work; the SEC will forward this to the Chancellor.

CFS - David reported that the CFS Chair has obtained faculty for the Charlot House Committee and the Aquarium Director Search committee. A faculty member will also be identified for the Food Service Committee, although it is not clear that the MFS should be involved. The administration's list of committees is several years out-of-date and urgently needs to be updated.

4. Old Business
Workplace Violence - The need for a Crisis Management Team has been discussed by several groups on campus. There is a lot of work that needs to be done to establish the proper set of contacts and the processes to be followed in workplace violence situations. CPM was charged to study the problem and to come up with a resolution addressing faculty needs.

Articulation - Concern was expressed by the SEC about the potential lack of faculty input into articulation agreements being formulated by the system administration. The latter appears to circumvent ongoing faculty-to-faculty dialog on articulation. The SEC proposed that the present members of the Gen Ed boards serve as Manoa representatives on the University Council on Articulation's Interim Faculty Working Groups.

Agenda Items for next meeting with Peter Englert 4/8/03, 5 pm
-- Senate and GEC FY2004 budgets
-- Strategic Plan implementation process
-- Promotion of faculty development of new Focus courses
-- Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCOR)
-- Proposal to increase faculty parking fees
-- List of university committees requiring faculty participation
-- Commencement

Senate Elections - All of the ballots are in, but processing is not yet complete. Mike will call the CFS Chair to inquire on this; the SEC will help, if necessary.

Commencement - Many questions have arisen, including: is commencement a celebration for the students' families, or is it for the institution to show academic achievement? However, most of the proposals for changing commencement will not be considered for the Spring 2003 commencement. The SEC felt that the faculty should take the lead in suggesting speakers, as they do for honorary degree recipients. CSA could consider this issue and make recommendations; the SEC will discuss this with Peter Englert next week.

Understanding Student Affairs Committee - Denise (Committee Chair) is continuing to work with the SEC on the four faculty appointments to this committee

Senate Office - The Senate may be able to use the existing conference table and chairs in Bachman 110 for the new Senate office in Hawaii Hall; Mike and Charlotte will look into this. The SEC will try to have its next meeting with Peter Englert in the new Senate Offie.

5. New Business
Earth Day - The SEC discussed Dobelle's recent memo on "Earth Day 2003 Energy Teach-In and Expo". It is not clear if the memo's requirement for an "Energy Teach-In in all classes across campus" can be issued because of academic freedom considerations. Instead, voluntary discussions in class could be encouraged as appropriate and relevant. In addition, teach-ins could be conducted at the Campus Center. The SEC's concerns will be relayed to the administration

The next SEC meeting will be held on Monday, April 7, 2003 at 3:00 pm.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:30 pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Frank Sansone

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Social Sciences/Business Librarian, University of Hawaii at Manoa
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