Meeting Minutes

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Present:     Bates, D. Betz, P. Betz, Brown, Campbell, Cole, Cooper, Dretchen, Fink, Fisher, Glazer, Goldfrank, Haramati, Jacobs, Kellar, Kelly, Kopac, Kromer, Lawton,S.J., Martire, McFadden,S.J., Moran Cruz, Morris, A. Myers, Noyes, O'Connor, Owen, Rameh, Scribanu, Soudee, Spiegel, Subramanian, Walsh,S.J., Wiesel.

Excused:   Alatis, Arend, Barth, Gerli, Nichols, Schwartz, von Arx,S.J., Vroman, Walter, Witek, S.J.

Absent:     Areen, Breall, Cohan, Da Silva, Davis, Cover, Fasold, Ferdows, Fekrat, Finkel, Fort, Gallucci, Harter, Hirsh, Lieber, McCabe, Mujal-Leon, Mujica, K. Myers, Nelson, Pinkard, Richardson, Sara,S.J., Schuelein, Stent, Terrio, Tracy,Wientzen, Viksnins, Young

Guests:     Richard Calderone, Jack Chirikjian, Ronald Cihlar, Mark Danielson, Herbert Herscowitz, Arthur Raines, Leonard Rosenthal, Joy Sturtevant (all from Medical Center)

The meeting was called to order by Professor Bates in the Program Room, Leavey Center at 4:21 p.m..

Minutes of the Wednesday, January 21, 1998 meeting: Professor Bates requested that any corrections to the minutes be e-mailed to Michael Cole (secretary) with a copy to Julie Goffe. A motion to accept the minutes subject to corrections was accepted unanimously.

Announcements:

1.  Extreme displeasure has been expressed at the fact that a proposed change in benefits for the Medical Center faculty and staff had been passed in a different form than had been discussed with the Senate and strong objection has been raised.

Professor Bates carried this forward to Father O'Donovan and a letter was provided under Sam Wiesel and Ken Bloem's signature that indicated that what was going forward was what had originally been discussed with committees including the Senate, and not what had been approved by the Benefits Advisory Committee.

2. There was a motion passed in the Senate requesting that Professor Bates write to Father O'Donovan and request that the President of the Faculty Senate be made a member of the Cabinet and the Board of Directors. Father O'Donovan responded indicating that he didn't think a was a good idea, or possible, since there is already faculty representation on the Administration Working Group (AWG). This is an issue that will continue to be discussed.

The President of the Senate and the Vice-Presidents of each of the campuses have a meeting with Father O'Donovan on Thursday, February 19 to discuss some concerns that have been discussed in the Senate and will be discussed further today.

4. The Faculty Senate has approved a modified version of the Faculty Handbook. The administration has approved the changes but made two counter suggestions, one dealing with language for non-tenure track appointments of long-term instructors and the second dealing with modification of the language regarding the ability of faculty members to consult. The administration would like to retain the language that is in the current handbook.

Agenda Items

1. Professor Bates turned the floor over to Professor Adam Myers to introduce the major agenda item which was Medical Center administration issues. Each senator was provided with a copy of a letter written by Professor Myers and addressed to the Faculty Senate that laid out the three major concerns to be discussed viz. Fringe Benefits,  Mullen Committee recommendations for productivity formulae and consolidation of basic science departments.

Professor Myers commented that, since the previous Senate meeting, a number of events have taken place that have caused considerable turmoil on the Medical Center campus. Professor Myers has received dozens of visits and e-mails requesting that the Senate consider the issues raised by Medical Center faculty. Professor Myers felt that a crisis was developing in the Medical Center in the academic and administrative processes that are not working properly at the present time. Professor Myers outlined the concerns that were described in his letter and invited Dr. Wiesel to comment on them.

Dr. Wiesel commented on proposed consolidations to basic science departments. He said that any discussions about consolidation had been initiated by certain chairs and not by him. These involved consolidation of two specific departments. Although the administration has considered consolidation, no action would be taken without consulting all the chairs, the Medical Center Caucus and the department faculty. Questions were asked as to possible cost savings of consolidation. These would be in administrative savings and the need for one chair instead of two. Dr. Wiesel's approach would be to combine departmental administrations and chairs but to keep the disciplines separate. Dr. Wiesel was asked if there is a plan to merge basic science departments. He replied that there is no plan to do so. Concern was expressed that the Medical Center Administration does not understand faculty governance and that decisions are made simply on the basis of the 'bottom line' without regard to impact on the academic mission.

Dr. Wiesel then discussed meetings between the basic science chairs, Dr. Dretchen, Julie Adelson, Greg Raymond and Ms. Heffernan (lawyer from Hogan and Hartson) to discuss faculty productivity. The purpose of these meetings was purely for information gathering - what do individual faculty do, what income is generated from their activities, and how does this match up with what the individual actually gets paid. There is no hidden agenda. Because the topics being discussed with the chairs could include grievances, benefits, contracts and early retirements, it was considered useful to have a lawyer present. Professor Rosenthal objected to the presence of lawyers because it denied the faculty member, who was not present at these meetings, due process.  It was suggested that the Medical Center dispense with the services of Hogan and Hartson because they have such a bad reputation among academics. It was asked whether any Hogan and Hartson lawyer retained by the Medical Center had been involved in tenure issues at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Wiesel replied that there had been one lawyer !hat had been involved at the University of Minnesota. It was questioned why lawyers are necessary to simply gather information about department faculty. The process of going to chairman to obtain information on their faculty was questioned and regarded as unacceptable and unethical by main campus Senators. This information is already available in annual faculty reviews. Dr. Wiesel undertook to remove lawyers from these meetings with the chairs.

There were several questions from the floor about how Medical Center administration defines faculty. It was brought to Dr. Wiesel's attention that research track faculty that are supported 100% on soft money should not be considered faculty. Dr. Dretchen undertook to do a better job protecting faculty rights and to take the lead in the meetings with the chairs.

Regarding the benefits problems, Dr. Wiesel remarked that immediately following the Retiree Benefits Advisory Committee meeting Dr. Dretchen expressed concern that what had been presented and voted on at this meeting was not what had been anticipated and the error was rectified. He went on to explain that Alien Abrahamson, head of Human Resources for the Medical Center, could not attend the Benefits meeting and Julie Adelson made the presentation to the committee. Following Julie Adelson's presentation, Lee Snider commented that the way Ms. Adelson had presented it was incorrect and the only way to achieve the savings that the Medical Center had planned was to eliminate retiree benefits, not just for early retirees but for all retirees. Dr. Dretchen remarked that he should have tabled the vote but a vote was taken.  On a split vote the Retiree's Benefits Advisory Committee approved the changes to the retirees health benefits. Elimination of benefits for all retirees would save $2.3 million while elimination for early retirees would save $0. 98 million. The question was asked as to whether there was debate after Mr. Snider presented his proposal. Dr. Dretchen responded that there was considerable discussion and a vote was taken. There were only nine voting members present.

2. NTA Report (Mark Jacobs): The NTA committee met with Mr. Lee Snider to get his views.  There is significant concerns by NTAs that if the proposed policies are implemented it will be difficult to retain and recruit NTAs.

The meeting adjourned at 5:56 p.m.

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