Mānoa Faculty Senate Committee on Administration and Budget Minutes of October 27, 2009

PRESENT: Members: Betsy Fisher, Robert Cowie, Doug Vincent, Robert Bley-Vroman, Torben Nielsen, David Chin (Chair), Shirley Daniel (SEC Liaison) Denise Antolini, David Ericson, Weilin Qu, David Duffy, John Casken (Sec).

The meeting opened at 1:30 PM

1.       The minutes of September 22 were approved on a motion by Nielsen seconded by Antolini.

2.       The minutes of October 13 to be recirculated by Casken for approval at the next meeting.

3.       There was considerable discussion on the composition and the charge for the budget task force. Finally the committee recommended the following charge: that the budget task force should examine a number of scenarios that might help fill the fiscal gap in Manoa’s budget including retirements, retrenchments, reorganizations, and enrollment changes.   The task force should not be limited just to these four  scenarios.

The CAB will preface this work with a statement that sets a general scenario of the budget situation in the state and at UHM. Prime writers for that will be Nielsen and Daniel.  It will then be circulated around the CAB members.

It was also suggested that there should be a preamble which indicated that the budgetary crisis was also a result of political decisions. Nielsen especially wanted this section to indicate that the budgetary situation has not happened overnight and  is the result of a long-term drop in general funds and increase in tuition funds.

The CAB suggested the following faculty should be approached by Chin to ask them to serve on this committee.  Deane Neubauer was suggested as chair, with Denise Konan as the alternate. Other members might include Joana Cooper, Jon Osorio, Karl Bonham, Sumner LaCroix, John Wendell and Neal Milner. Also to serve as liaison would be Daniel and Nielsen.

Task force would report back to CAB, hopefully by the end of November. At the worst a preliminary report would be sought at the end of November.  The overarching goal in selecting these members was to seek expertise and trust.

4.       The November dates for the CAB to meet were changed to November 10 and November 24.

5.       After a discussion, VC Dasenbrock’s enrollment report was forwarded on to the CSA noting that the members of the CAB in general approved the plan.

Chin was asked to invite VC Dasenbrock to meet with the CAB on November 10. Members of the budget task force, who were available, would also be invited to attend if Dasenbrock can or can’t make it.

6.       There is still confusion on the work of the Budget Prioritization Workforce in spite of the charge and the web postings. Key items for faculty are that faculty appointments to such committees and workforces should be done through the SEC and not by the Chancellor or other administration officials. The current two member s of the BPW will be reappointed by the SEC. Antolini, Duffy and Chin will report back to the CAB on the BPW after the meeting on October 30.

7.       VC Dasenbrock will be asked to urge Deans to share fiscal data with their faculty.

8.       There was discussion on how agendas can be changed at meetings . Because of the time it was agreed , on a motion from Duffy seconded by Vincent that Bley-Vroman should circulate a motion on this item by e-mail for members to review it and vote on.

Meeting adjourned at 3:20 PM.

Minutes submitted by Casken.