Loyola University Chicago

FACULTY AFFAIRS UPC

Minutes of the Meeting of
September 21, 2007

REVISED

Members Present: Pat Simpson, Chair, Harvey Boller, Heather Cannon, Pamela Caughie, Donna Halinski, Gloria Jacobson, Tim O’Connell, Peter Schr aeder

Absent: Susan Mezey, David Prasse

Guests: Paul Jay, Elizabeth Coffman, Isiaah Crawford, Christine Wiseman

The Chair called the meeting to order at 8:30.

Tim O’Connell agreed to take minutes, in the absence of a recording secretary.

The Chair announced that Susan Mezey has been selected by Faculty Council to take the seat occupied by Ken Olson.

There was preliminary discussion of whether all proposals must go first to the University Coordinating Committee, for assignment to the appropriate UPC, or whether interested individuals and groups may submit proposals directly to one of the UPCs. It was agreed that this needs to be clarified. The Chair agreed to follow up on this.

The Chair proposed that discussion be as flexible as possible, but that official acts follow parliamentary procedure.

Minutes of the meeting of May 10, 2007 were approved unanimously.

Paul Jay, chair of the revision committee, provided background.

It was clarified that the revision committee has now completed its work. The document now belongs to FA-UPC, which can do with it as they please.

It was clarified that many groups within the university have contributed to the revision, but that faculty in general have not yet been invited to react.

It was clarified that, in large part, the revision has simply tried to incorporate policy developed since 1993, in order to make the document accurately reflect present practice. In a few cases the revision committee also provided text that, if approved, would go beyond current practice. This is most significantly the case in the section discussing appeals.

Members of FA-UPC noted that there are additional cases where the draft reflects past policy, but not current practice.

It was noted that the URLs in the draft are in many cases no longer current, due to the recent website revision.

It was proposed that, after correction of the URLs, the draft, along with Paul Jay’s prefatory memo, be posted on the web and that the entire faculty be invited to submit comments, with a deadline of three weeks after the posting. The motion was carried unanimously.

It was noted that in its review, the FA-UPC will further revise the text to assure that it matches current practice make changes in the text to move beyond current policy and practice.

Members were asked to review the draft text, to identify questions and concerns, and to email these to the entire committee. The focus of the review at the next meeting will be discrepancies between the text and current policy or practice, moving to action to remove the discrepancy either by change of text or a call to faithful implementation of it.

Discussion of Proposal for a School of Communication

Provost Wiseman, Dean Crawford, and Dr. Coffman, Chair of the Department of Communication, provided background.

It was noted by both the Committee and the guests that the process of consultation expected by shared governance had not occurred in this case. The guests assured that this breach of process will not be repeated.

It was clarified that the curricula incorporated within the proposal are all presently approved and active curricula. So no action is required in that regard.

The focus was thus the changes in institutional structure occasioned by the proposal. And in this regard, the major concern was the reassignment of faculty, with their tenure, to the new school.

General discussion clarified that the provost has discussed this with many members of the department, that current policy, with the availability of dual and joint appointments may well provide any needed remedies.

The possibility of joint tenure (as distinct from joint appointments) was also raised. The chair agreed to pursue this with the Provost. Who indicated a willingness to consider such a possibility.

Concerns were raised regarding the staffing approach in the proposed school. Assurances were given by Dean Crawford that the search for a new Dean would be an open one. There was no inside candidate and scholarship would be an important element of the competencies sought in candidates. Dean Crawford also affirmed that the goal was to have the majority of faculty lines be tenure-track (2/3 tt; 1/3 contract was the identified formula).

The Chair offered a proposal that was approved unanimously to send a letter to the Chair of the UUC voicing concern about the violation of shared governance protocols associated with the administration seeking approval of the proposal for a new School of Communication prior to discussing the proposal with appropriate shared governance bodies (see attachments for a copy of the letter of protest to Patricia Jung, Chair, UCC, and copied to Provost Wiseman, the Provost’ s response, and a further response from Patricia Simpson, Chair, FA-UPC).

FA-UPC will return to the proposal at its next meeting, with the hope of action at that time.

Future Meetings: The Committee committed to meetings on October 12 and November 9.

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 11:00.

Respectfully submitted.
Timothy O’Connell