Meeting Minutes
University Coordinating Committee Meeting
Minutes of March 6, 2006
Present: Charles Webber (Chair), Anthony Barbato, John Frendreis, Dow Scott, Lorraine Snyder and Rebecca Stolz
Absent: Gerry McDonald
Chuck Webber opened the meeting at 11:05 a.m. and laid out his vision as the new UCC chair. Chuck said that he’d like to develop a UCC wherein trust and information flow are at the heart of its functioning. One way to do this is to convene UCC meetings every six weeks, and to invite UPC chairs to attend twice a year and Father Garanzini to attend four times a year. He added that he’d like the UCC to take a greater role in managing and providing oversight to the University Policy Committees. Additionally, he’d like to see and promote greater collaboration and communication between the Lakeside and Medical Center campuses. Lastly, he noted that the shared governance system is a dynamic and evolving structure, and that he’d like the UCC to play a central role in implementing the recommendations of the Task Force on Shared Governance System Evaluation, who will provide their final report to President Garanzini and the UCC by the end of April.
Lorraine then provided an update on the Task Force’s efforts. She emphasized that the Task Force members have sought input on what is working and what is not from across our campuses - - consulted groups include the Cabinet, the Deans Council, the Faculty Handbook Revision Committee, the UCC and each of the UPCs, Faculty Council, AAUP, Unified Student Government at LUC, Staff Council LUC, Faculty Senate at LUMC, Executive Faculty Group at LUMC, Staff Council, the Medical School Council, and the Graduate Student Council at LUMC, among others. The Task Force plans to send an online survey to students, faculty and staff both at Maywood and the Lakeside campuses on March 15th, and the survey will be closed on April 5th. John Frendreis and others expressed a desire to talk with the Task Force co-chairs regarding their recommendations and a meeting will be set up at the end of March to this end. Additionally, Chuck suggested inviting Father Garanzini to meet with the UCC after he’s reviewed the report in order to have a discussion on the recommendations and plans for implementation.</P>
Moving on with the agenda, Tony asked for clarification and consistency in the manner in which policy questions get routed to the UCC. Recently, the Chicago Clean Indoor Air Ordinance was discussed at a Cabinet meeting, and went from there to the Staff, Student and Faculty Affairs UPCs requesting their recommendations on how best to comply with the ordinance. Their recommendations are to be forwarded to the UCC and then to Faculty and Staff Councils for their input. There was concern expressed over the manner in which certain policy questions/issues are routed to the UPCs while bypassing the UCC. Additionally, in the past there has been confusion when routing one issue to more than one UPC at a time, and in the past, the UCC sought to end run this type of confusion by directing an issue to one UPC and asking that UPC to consult with other relevant committees. </p>
John noted that the charter states that all issues should be routed through the UCC, and members agreed that it is important for the UCC to serve as a sort of clearinghouse so that issues can be tracked and effectively and efficiently acted on. It was suggested that the UCC chair could propose via e-mail the UPCs to whom specific issues would be delegated, and UCC members could register their agreement or disagreement in that manner. Members agreed that this would be an effective way of keeping all UCC members in the loop. Members added that it would be helpful to have a document sent to them in advance of each UCC meeting noting what issues have been routed to UPCs and noting any action that has been taking.
Future agenda items that were proposed include inviting Fred and Linda in to discuss the recommendations of the Task Force evaluating shared governance; defining a process of orientation and leadership development for new UPC members and chairs; determining a process for appointments/elections for individuals to fill vacated UPC slots this spring; and developing a way to recognize and reward service on UPCs.
Chuck adjourned the meeting at 12:05 p.m.