Faculty Senate Members Present:
Harriet Abe, Tod Aeby, Belinda Aquino, Krystyna Aune, Andrea Bartlett,
Robert Bley-Vroman, Ronald Bontekoe, Thomas Bopp, Glenn Cannon, James
Caron, James Carpenter, Michael Chopey, Joel Cohn, Bonnie Cramer, Martha
Crosby, Ruth Dawson, Michael DeMattos, Patsy Fujimoto, Gary Fuller, Robert
Gibson, Susan Johnson, Nanette Judd, Richard Kasuya, Roberta Lamb, Lenora
Lee, Bruce Liebert, Kem Lowry, Roger Lukas, Lorenz Magaard, Gregory Moore,
Dawn Nishida, Jill Nunokawa, Marvin Ortel, Joan Peters, David Ross, Michael
Salzman, David Sanders, Thomas Schroeder, Amarjit Singh, Jim Skouge, David
Stegenga, Norma Jean Stodden, Glenn Teves, Mary Tiles, Janice Uchida,
Robert Valliant, Steven Ward, Paige Wilmeth, Kelley Withy, Lesley Wright.
Excused:
Barry Baker, Linda Cox, Daphne Desser, Linda Duckworth, William Haning,
Thomas Hilgers, Merle Kataoka-Yahiro, Brian Popp, Paul Singleton,
Absent:
Richard Allen, Rebecca Cann, Rosita Chang, Hong-Mei Chen, Donna Grace,
Michael Graves, Misty Johanson, Kenton Kramer, Yuanan Lu, Paul McKimmy,
Marian Melish, Michael Mottl, Torben Nielsen, Halina Zaleski
Others in Attendance:
Monica Stitt-Bergh, Sandy Davis, Michael Forman, Carolyn Brooks-Harris,
Karl Kim, Denise Konan, Eric Matsunaga, Wendy Pearson, Brent Sipes, Helene
Sokugawa, Myrtle Yamada
Chair Mary Tiles called the meeting to order at 3:05 pm.
AGENDA
Adoption of Minutes
The minutes of the October 15, 2003 Faculty Senate meeting were approved with the addition of Michael Salzman to the list of members present.
Chair Mary Tiles announced that given the large number of resolutions that needed to be presented, her report and other items would follow the presentation of resolutions.
David Stegenga Chair of the General Education Committee provided introductory comments on the status of General Education at Manoa and at the System level. For the GEC, procedural concerns developed after a meeting held on October 18, 2003 with Vice President of Academic Affairs David McClain and the Community Colleges. Chair Mary Tiles also provided a few introductory comments. The Resolution was read and the following points were raised.
Joel Cohn questioned whether the second paragraph would weaken our position and David Stegenga noted that this paragraph is included to clearly separate these items (UHM Core Requirements and Special UHM Graduation Requirements) as they are being confused by the Community Colleges and others.
David Ross noted that in the past there were disagreements with the core and now there are more disagreements with the focus courses. David Stegenga explained that the "E" (Contemporary Ethical Issues), "O" (Oral Communications) and "H" (Hawaiian Asian and Pacific) requirements are all in the Manoa Graduation Focus requirements but that these requirements were broadly described in the BOR policy. This allows the Senate to make changes in this category without going through the BOR for approval. A friendly amendment to insert a word in the 11th paragraph was made.
Decision: The Resolution was supported unanimously with 38 votes for the resolution and no abstentions.
Norma Jean Stodden, Chair of the Committee on Professional Matters provided background for this resolution. In 2001 it was decided that the maces used for Commencement be changed. The students in the art department were given the responsibility to design and make the new mace by 2002. It was not completed by 2002 and the deadline was extended to 2003. As time progressed, the idea of the mace changed into a ceremonial ko'o. A smaller duplicate was made to represent the faculty. The Resolution was read and the discussions were as follows:
Steven Ward wanted a clarification of what was a mace and a ko'o. Norma Jean responded that the original mace was a lightweight instrument that was used to point to sections for students to sit. The ko'o is much larger, heavier, and cannot reasonably be used to "point" to seating areas. Karl Kim, Interim Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs provided more background as his office shared the responsibility of producing a new mace.
The original faculty mace was a gold painted dowel that did not have of the high quality that a faculty symbol should have. A faculty committee was organized and this group designed a new symbol which was a torch connected to a paddle. This was not considered culturally appropriate by other faculty and a new committee was assigned this task. The new mace became much bigger and "took on" a new meaning. It's use, coincided with the arrival of the new chancellor and the formulation of the Manoa Strategic Plan to be "the place of Hawaiian Learning".
Many new things occurred at the last commencement. Commencement is a volunteer effort; Problems resulted from the groups effort to "capture the spirit of the new administration". However, given feedback, they are working to improve the next commencement.
3) Wendy Pearson also shared some historical information. The students who constructed the ko'o were not the same students who designed it. The original design was that of a weapon and the new students did not agree with the choice.
Thomas Schroeder noted that in the SEC meeting with the Chancellor on November 18th, the issue of the mace and the procession order used to enter the Stan Sherrif Center was discussed. The Chancellor said there would be no problem in addressing these items.
Decision: The question was called for and the votes were: 28 yes, 6 opposed; 5 abstained; The vote on the Resolution: 28 approved; 1 opposed; 10 abstained.
Ronald Bontekoe, Chair of the Committee on Academic Programs and Policies read the Resolution and the following discussion occurred. Several faculty and administrators (Denise Konan, Joan Peters, others) wanted clarification on soft money issues, qualification of non-tenured faculty to teach, and the department from which the degree will be issued. Norma Jean Stodden discussed the Certificate proposal in greater detail. She reviewed a handout that identified the program as large, had a 15 year history, has been and is well supported (faculty consistently supported for 15 years with core extramural and training grants), and has large number of students in their program.
Jim Skouge, who is on the faculty for the Center of Disability studies noted that 3 faculty were core funded and not on "soft money". Tom Bopp noted that this was a certificate program and not a proposal for a Masters degree.
Several faculty members continued the discussion with concerns over the "soft money" issue, dependability of the program in the future, whether College of Education faculty could teach the same course if "soft money" was not received, and other similar issue. There was general agreement that while this program would meet Senate approval, precedent for approval of future programs should not be set at a minimum level.
A number of friendly amendments were offered as the faculty recognized that the program is well funded, funding appeared to be good for the future, and that this has been a successful program for many years. Chair Mary Tiles reminded the Senate that minor changes could be made but substantial changes would require that the proposal go back to the committee.
Decision: The Resolution was amended and approved by a unanimous Senate decision. Approve, 42; oppose 0; abstain 0.
Ronald Bontekoe, Chair of the Committee on Academic Programs and Policies, directed the Senate's attention to two documents that provided the criteria and procedures for granting the posthumous degree. These degrees are for seniors or graduate students who have competed all requirements for graduation. The Resolution was read and a vote was taken.
Decision: approved unanimously; Approve, 38; oppose, 0 and no abstentions.
Robert Bley-Vroman, Chair of the Committee on Administration and Budget read the resolution and a short discussion followed.
David Ross noted that while these are excellent points, but asked whether we can we make anything happen by this Resolution?
Roger Lukas pointed out that all Senate Resolutions go the Chancellor, the President and to the Board of Regents.
Joel Cohn noted that an amendment was needed in the 4th paragraph. The word "then" was moved within the sentence.
Decision: Approved unanimously; Approve, 37; oppose, 0; abstain, 0.
All Resolutions and background information presented to the Senate are attached.
Chair Mary Tiles has been attending the Management Leadership Team Meetings. Budget has been a major topic of discussion in the light of the Governor's restrictions of $6.1 million (for Manoa) and subsequent lifting of the restriction. The UH system is returning only $5.1 million to UHM. The original plan for Manoa involved a $3.4 million float but, after further investigation Rodney Sakaguchi determined that projected carry over balances would support at most a 1.1 million float. The net result is that only $3.7 million will be returned to units.
She noted that anytime funds are restricted and subsequently restored, there is a multilayer opportunity for part of the funds to be redirected, by the System, Chancellor, College Deans and Depts, and thus funds rarely find their way back to exactly where they came from.
A New Budget Advisory Committee is being assembled. This team will have 5 people from the MLT group (Deans and Directors), 5 people from the Faculty Senate (Mary Tiles, Robert Bley-Vroman, Tom Bopp, David Sanders and Lorenz Magaard, representing the SEC, CAB and CAPP), APT member(s) and Student(s). The committee will be working on the next biennium budget. There are moves to use "Performance Indicators" in the budgeting process. Our senators or Chair Mary Tiles will report back to the Senate after every meeting. No meetings are scheduled at this time.
Chancellor Peter Englert has welcomed CAB's formation of a sub- committee on Capital Improvements and Auxiliary Services. He is looking forward to receiving faculty ideas through this committee.
Chair Mary Tiles noted that across the entire UHM/Community Colleges/UH System, there is potential for discord as the administrators of the System appear to be stressing the needs of the System or giving higher priority to the System rather then developing each campus. In her meetings with the MLT, MME, UH faculty senates, GEC, SEC and others, she notes that the role and independence of UH Manoa is being challenged. This has happened with the articulation issue, diversion of funds from Manoa to other the System units through the failure to return all of the money levied to accommodate the Governor's restriction, the loss of ITS faculty from Manoa to the System and other issues.
The Academy of Creative Media is being proposed as a System wide entity and each campus will be able to award degrees. How will this new "program" be funded? How will it function across the System? This is going to present a number of challenges. There will be further discussion of this proposal at the next senate meeting.
The Chancellor has asked for faculty volunteers interested in serving on a Distance Education Committee, especially faculty with experience or knowledge about Distance Education or Technology Mediated Education. Interested faculty should call the Committee on Faculty Service (Chair Susan Johnson; susanj@hawaii.edu). Note that there has already been a Manoa Strategic Plan for Distance Education (2001) and that previous version of this committee accomplished a significant amount of work.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:50 pm.
Mary Tiles, as UHPA President reported that the union is actively negotiating with Sam Callejo, Ted Hong, Ed Yuen, and David McClain over salary. It is highly encouraging that they are willing to negotiate on this point. Nothing firm as yet and she will keep the Senate informed.