The first meeting of the Faculty Senate for 1999-00 was convened in the Whiting Proscenium Theatre, Minneapolis campus, on Thursday, September 30, 1999, at 3:15 p.m., as a joint meeting of the University Senate, Faculty Senate, and Twin Cities Campus Assembly. Coordinate campuses were linked by telephone. Checking or signing the roll as present were 112 voting faculty/academic professional members, 3 ex officio members, and 5 nonmembers. Vice Chair Roberta Humphreys presided.

Other 1999-00 meetings of the University Senate, Faculty Senate, Student Senate, and Twin Cities Campus Assembly are scheduled as follows:

Members are also asked to hold Thursday, December 9, as another possible meeting date.

Faculty Senate

Amendments to Faculty Tenure

Approved by the:

Faculty Senate April 22, 1999 Administration PENDING Board of Regents PENDING

Interpretation of Faculty Tenure

Approved by the:

Faculty Senate April 22, 1999 Administration July 1999 Board of Regents PENDING

Amendment to the Judicial Committee Rules of Procedure

Approved by the:

Faculty Senate April 22, 1999 Administration PENDING Board of Regents PENDING

Intellectual Property Policy

Approved by the:

Faculty Senate May 20, 1999 Administration July 1999 Board of Regents PENDING

Professor Fred Morrison, Chair of the Senate Consultative Committee (SCC), said that these committees will have a large agenda for the coming year. The Faculty Consultative Committee (FCC), has been busy through the summer and now the Student Senate Consultative Committee (SSCC) has started to meet. There are several main issues that the committees will be dealing with this year.

Health Care: there is a task force looking at the health care options available to University employees. One of the issues, which might be included on the December 2 meeting, is a discussion of the option of separating the University from the state employees' system.

Task Forces: two task forces have been created over the summer to deal with issues that were raised by, but are not totally related to, the athletic allegations. The first is dealing with Student Academic Integrity and is headed by Regents' Professor Tom Clayton. It will be examining how the University should deal with issues of academic misconduct. A preliminary report is expected at the December 2 meeting. The second task force, appointed by the President, is dealing with issues of sexual misconduct and procedures for dealing with sexual assault cases at the University. It should be making a report to the President in the near future. Some of these issues may require Senate action at the December meeting. The Twin Cities Campus Assembly Steering Committee will be looking at the entire athletics issue with some care as soon as the report is released by the President.

Joint Task Forces: two task forces, which are joint ventures between the faculty and administration, are also continuing this year. The first one is handling academic appointments, which was addressed by a joint Senate subcommittee last year. The second task force is addressing budgeting and other processes associated with IMG.

Additionally, Senate committees, such as Faculty Affairs, Educational Policy, Research, and Finance and Planning, will also be addressing various issues as the year progresses.

Agenda Items 7. through 11. are considered to be non-controversial or "housekeeping" in nature and are offered as a "Consent Agenda" to be taken up as a single item with one vote. Any item will be taken up separately at the request of a senator. (A simple majority is required for approval.)

The University Senate, Faculty Senate, Student Senate, and Twin Cities Campus Assembly minutes are available on the Web at the following URLs:

The chairs of the University Senate, Faculty Senate, Student Senate, and Twin Cities Campus Assembly recommend the following officers for 1999-00:

Faculty Senate committee memberships for 1999-00:

FACULTY AFFAIRS - Faculty: Richard Goldstein (chair), Josef Altholz, Avner Ben-Ner, Carole Bland, Daniel Feeney, John Fossum, Roland Guyotte, Andrea Hinding, Cleon Melsa, Larry Miller, Marcia Pankake, James Perry, Geoffrey Sirc, Thomas Walsh, Carol Wells. Academic Professional: Charlene Mason. Ex Officio: Carol Carrier, Robert Fahnhorst, Harlan Smith, Sheila Warness, 1 to be named. Students: 2 to be named.

JUDICIAL - Faculty: George Sheets (chair), David Born, William Brustein, Edward Cushing, John Dahler, Amos Deinard, Timothy Dunnigan, Arthur Erdman, Ilene Harris, Joan Howland, Cynthia Jara, Sharon Neet, Takashi Okagaki, Phyllis Pirie, Michael Sadowsky, Alan Sinaiko, T. Michael Speidel, Roderick Squires, Billie Wahlstrom, Robert Yahnke.

FOR INFORMATION:

FACULTY CONSULTATIVE - Faculty: Fred Morrison (chair), Linda Brady, Susan Brorson, Mary Dempsey, David Hamilton, Mary Jo Kane, Joseph Massey, V. Rama Murthy, Paula Rabinowitz, Jeff Ratliff-Crain. Ex Officio: Lester Drewes, Richard Goldstein, Stephen Gudeman, Roberta Humphreys, Len Kuhi, Judith Martin.

SALLY GREGORY KOHLSTEDT, Acting Chair
COMMITTEE ON COMMITTEES

DISCUSSION:

The Consent Agenda was approved with no discussion.

APPROVED

MOTION:

For the Faculty Senate to approve the following resolution. (A simple majority is required for approval.)

Decisions about hiring, retaining, and dismissing members of the faculty have long-lasting effects. They shape curricular and scholarly agendas of both departments and colleges. They confirm or modify, strengthen or weaken, their values and standards. They exercise a long-lasting influence upon the quality of work done by the faculty, individually and collectively. In addition, the practice of making principled decisions in these matters creates an ethos of choosing and rewarding excellence that serves well the University as a whole. This ethos is imperiled when lines are withdrawn from departments that initiate the denial of tenure to a probationary faculty member or proceed to remove a tenured faculty member for cause.

Therefore, be it resolved that departments terminating probationary faculty, or dismissing tenured faculty for cause, should retain the line vacated by such action. The lack of such assurance weakens the collegiate units that do not follow this practice, and the weakening of these units weakens the University as a whole.

COMMENT:

This resolution was adopted by the Senate Committee on Faculty Affairs on June 3, 1999, without dissent and with only four members not voting. SCFA recommends that the Faculty Senate adopt this resolution as a "sense of the Senate" statement.

Denials of tenure by departments are few and dismissal for cause rare. This is all the more reason why departments should not be disadvantaged for taking these actions. To be sure, it is equally important that departments should not disguise arbitrary actions under the cloak of principle by terminating good people for bad reasons. The processes of review and appeal carefully built over the years, however, make it possible for deans and faculty review committees to distinguish good departmental decisions from bad ones--and in most instances to correct the bad ones. In this way the University quite properly protects worthy members of the faculty from arbitrary or mistaken actions by departments. It should protect as well the integrity and future well-being of departments that act responsibly and upon principle in terminating the employment of members of their faculty. Many collegiate units of the University already provide such protection. The others should follow this example, for the good of their faculties and a better future for the University.

The needs of administrators for flexibility in shaping a department or college can be served in other ways than by damaging an ethos of choosing and encouraging excellence.

KENT BALES, 1998-99 Chair
FACULTY AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

DISCUSSION:

Professor Kent Bales, 1998-99 chair of the Faculty Affairs Committee (SCFA), said that this matter was brought to the committee last year. Following committee discussion, it was decided that there were two parts to this problem: action by deans and the problem faced by department not knowing if their actions would result in losing a faculty line. SCFA is proposing this resolution as a sense of the Senate, rather than a policy since the committee felt that this problem could not effectively be handled by a policy and that the Regents would not be open to a policy on this matter.

With no discussion, a vote was taken and the motion was approved.

APPROVED

The meeting was adjourned at 4:38 p.m.

Rebecca Hippert
Abstractor