Minutes
University Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
4:30 � 6:00 p.m.
316 Day Hall

I. Call to Order

C. Walcott called the meeting to order at 4:35 p.m.

II. Roll Call

The UA members went around the table and introduced themselves.

Roll was taken via sign-in sheet.
Voting Members Present: A. Brokman, W. Candell, J. Feldman, E. Cortens, E. Strong, M. Walsh, K. Baier, J. Blair, L. Lawrence, C. Walcott,
Voting Members Absent: C. Cunha, N. LaCelle, M. Hatch, W. Ghiorse, E. Loew, R. Wayne
Non-voting Members Absent: B. McKinney, A. Craig, N. Evensen

Also In Attendance: A. Epstein, A. O’Donnell, Y. Zhang

III. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

There were no late additions

IV. Approval of the Minutes from May 5, 2010

E. Cortens made a clarification concerning what A. Epstein said about the UA charter changes. The minutes were changed to read “A. Epstein said the charter has not changed in 20 years.” The minutes were moved and seconded. The UA unanimously approved of the minutes.

V. Report on Caucus from Chairs of Delegations: Undergraduate, Graduate and Professional Students, Faculty, Employees

E. Strong asked for updates on what happened over the summer. E. Cortens said there was discussion on the roles of voting and non-voting representatives. J. Blair said the EA is looking to expand and become more visible and is striving to find ways do that. C. Walcott said he does not have any information from the Faculty Senate since they have not yet had a meeting.

VI. Convene Committees and Appoint UA Committee Liaisons

E. Strong said the committees have to start running as soon as possible and everyone should volunteer to be liaisons. He will e-mail the members about the meeting times of the committees so they can see what fits in their schedules.

W. Candell asked what the functions of the liaisons is. E. Strong explained his role on the Transportation Advisory Committee. C. Walcott said the key task is communication, to relay information to and from the committees and the UA.

M. Walsh volunteered to be the liaison to the Sustainability Committee. J. Feldman said he would be interested in the Childcare Committee. W. Candell said he might be interested in the CJC. A. Epstein said the liaison to the CJC is an important and busy position. J. Blair added it requires some time commitment each month.

VII. Discuss Charter Revision Progress and Plan Forward

C. Walcott explained the work that had been done over the summer. He said the UA should discuss the draft charter that was written. E. Strong said the draft from the summer was just to hit the ground running this semester. It is open to suggestions, input and changes from UA members.

E. Cortens said he sent in some suggestions by email earlier this week. One was instead of a set number of members from each constituency, the member number could be determined by the size of the constituencies. For example, for every thousand employees, there could be a certain number of employee representatives. The second one was that he thought it might be redundant to have assemblies both appoint delegates to the UA and have their chairs serve on the UA.

E. Strong said that the first suggestion was considered during the writing of the draft and right now the set numbers are based on a rough equation (one employee representative for every 2000 employees).

J. Blair suggested a regular review of the membership breakdown and change it to reflect the size of the constituencies in time for elections. L. Lawrence suggested a fixed number of representatives for each constituency.

A. Brokman questioned why there should be equal representation on the UA and why the number of members was reduced. J. Blair said the equal representation becomes important if the UA is ever divided on an issue. As to the number reduction, E. Strong said even now the UA has vacancies. M. Walsh said the smaller number would be more valuable to discuss how the UA should more forward. The UA is a cooperative extension of each assembly and should be a partnership between all the constituencies, which is why it would be helpful to have the assembly chairs on the UA to help lead the discussion on campus-wide issues. J. Blair said this would allow the leaders to know what is happening, but the drawback is only a small number of core people attend meetings when more voices would be helpful.

A. Epstein said changes to the number of UA members would need the President’s approval. E. Cortens said it makes sense to have a formula written down so the numbers can change with any population changes. A. Epstein pointed out that different constituencies will need to have different formulas. Formulas for students and employees wouldn’t work for the faculty because the faculty is such a small population. C. Walcott said he felt that faculty were overrepresented in the current model.

W. Candell asked if the composition of the university actually changes that much from year to year. He didn’t think the populations would be dynamic enough to necessitate a written clause. E. Cortens said he felt the rationale for how we arrived at these numbers should be noted for future reference.

VIII. Resolution R1. “Resolution to Amend the Charter and Bylaws of the University Assembly”

J. Feldman asked about the status of possible new committees. E. Strong said they reached out to the leaders around campus and asked which committees would like to be more involved (or stay involved) with the UA. He reported that so far the feedback has been positive. In some areas, such as budget, there may just be a presentation/discussion, not a true committee meeting. The UA will be likely be involved in an ad-hoc committee suggested by Lynette Chappell-Williams from HR, and that is diversity and inclusion.

J. Blair asked if there is an objective deadline for the charter revision and who we should send our suggestions to. E. Strong replied to e-mail the executive committee or the general body, though he reads the executive committee e-mails more immediately and more closely. C. Walcott said he hoped to get the revision done by the end of the fall semester. He was happy to report that so far no one has wanted to strike the whole thing and start over.

J. Blair said past members thought well of the revision as well. He suggested the UA members e-mail any desired changes to the executive committee and we can go over them at the next meeting.

C. Walcott noted that the new charter omitted the UA’s authority over academic matters and that R. Wayne disagreed with this, and felt it should not be removed. E. Strong said though there are some delineated authorities, it will not be that restricted and the UA can still discuss academic matters.

E. Strong said the revision should be done by the end of the semester at the latest, but earlier would be better. He asked when the new charter should be implemented. J. Blair said it would depend on when the President approves it.

M. Walsh said the number of members may change due to the staggered terms the members have. A. Epstein said that no one’s term would be terminated prematurely to fit the newly designated number of representatives for each constituency. He also noted an error in the draft of the charter, where the IT charges and the diversity charges should have been removed because Resolution 1 contains requirements for ad-hoc committees for these areas.

J. Blair made a motion for all members to review the charter and bylaws in the next 2 weeks. Comments and suggestions are due September 15, the executive committee will release compiled comments by September 22, and member will have further discussion at the September 29 meeting. L. Lawrence seconded the motion. The motion passed by a vote of 10–0−0.

E. Cortens asked if the President has seen or knows about the revision. C. Walcott said he had discussed it with Jim Mingle, who is positive and supportive. E. Cortens said the assembly chairs should be advised also.

IX. Additional Items from the Floor

A. Brokman said he is working on a resolution that would make the university release the compensation packages of the top 50 administrators listed in the annual finance report. L. Lawrence asked what would be done with the information. A. Brokman then read the resolution and asked for feedback.

J. Blair said he would need time to consider the issue and take it back to the EA to get their opinions. C. Walcott said he will also need more time, but he is initially against it. J. Blair said these statistics could be misused and could cause discord within the university. L. Lawrence said different colleges and disciplines would have different compensations. W. Candell added there would be differences between state and endowed colleges also.

J. Feldman said these make the resolution controversial but at the end, in this financial crisis, it is good to have full disclosure. A. Epstein pointed out this will not be full disclosure because it will immediately raise the question of the rationale behind the compensations, which may be private information. A. Brokman said a lot of public institutions already do this without any problems.

K. Baier asked about the Bain report. She was told it does not relate to the compensations directly.

A. Brokman said he would e-mail the members the resolution with links and more information.

X. Adjournment

E. Cortens moved to adjourn the meeting. J. Feldman seconded. C. Walcott adjourned the meeting at 5:52 p.m.