Meeting Minutes
Minutes of March 2, 2007 University Coordinating Committee Meeting
Present: Charles Webber (Chair), Atheni Asihel, John Frendreis, Gerry McDonald, Dow Scott and Rebecca Stolz
Also Present: Donna Halinski, Rich Kennedy, Janice Rasheed, Patricia Simpson, Nellie Sires, Lorraine Snyder and Catherine Wolf
Absent: Paul Whelton
1. Chuck Webber opened the meeting at 2:00 p.m. The minutes of the December 1, 2006 meeting were approved.
2. The new UPC chairs were welcomed. The chairs briefly introduced themselves to the Committee.
3. Chuck then gave a brief overview of Shared Governance at Loyola University, and highlighted recommendations in the Shared Governance Task Force report which was submitted to President Garanzini last spring. Four highlights of the report include: Faculty Council (FC), Staff Council (SC) and Unified Student Government (USG) selection of most of the seats on the UPCs; UPC selection among their own membership of a chair; administrative liaisons serving in lieu of administrators themselves on UPCs; a review of Shared Governance during the 2009-2010 academic year.
4. The primary responsibilities of UPCs were then discussed. These include keeping the UCC fully informed of discussions taking place at the UPC level; providing quarterly updates to the UCC via email; convening meetings at least twice/semester during the academic year; and ensuring communication with relevant groups, councils and bodies on campus.
5. Patricia Simpson asked if minutes were posted and available online, and Lorraine Snyder indicated that all UPC agendas and minutes are posted on the University's governance website at www.luc.edu/governance. UPC chairs were asked to forward meeting documents in a timely fashion to Lorraine at lsnyde2@luc.edu for posting online.
6. John Frendreis highlighted that the Academic Affairs UPC is a particularly active UPC, and noted that in most instances the Committee makes its curricular recommendations directly to the Provost. For recommendations that require Board of Trustee approval, the UPC forwards recommendations to both the President and the Provost.
7. Atheni Asihel indicated that students serving on UPCs have been asked to report back to USG the Tuesday following UPC meetings in order to ensure regular communication about Shared Governance activities. John Frendreis agreed that this would be helpful, and noted that a trustee at the Board of Trustees meeting this morning indicated that it is good to have increased student involvement in the University's Shared Governance processes.
8. John Frendreis then noted that he would like to relieve Dean Isiaah Crawford of his service on the Academic Affairs UPC considering the large number of faculty searches going on in the College at this time. He recommended that Dean Sam Attoh be invited to serve on the Committee. The UCC agreed, and Chair Chuck Webber said he would issue the invitation.
9. The UCC then directed specific topics to the UPCs for discussion and recommendation. Issues directed to the Faculty Affairs UPC were: a) CAS rank and tenure revisions, b) School of Education tenure revisions, c) librarian "faculty status" proposal, d) proposal to merge Theatre and Fine Arts departments in CAS (noted as especially time-sensitive) and e) family leave policy. John Frendreis and Gerry MacDonald indicated that they would forward relevant material directly to UPC chair Patricia Simpson. Issues directed to the Research UPC were: a) graduate student workload and b) support for undergraduate research. John Frendreis noted that in the near future the Research UPC would be asked to review royalties related to patented inventions.
10. UCC members then discussed revision to the Shared Governance Charter, which was ratified in February by President Garanzini. It was agreed that the UCC would consider modifications to the charter once a semester, and Lorraine Snyder offered to track suggested changes and to bring them to the UCC twice a year.
11. Rebecca Stolz indicated that SC would be holding elections from March 12-16, and that new SC members would be announced to the University community on March 30. Newly-elected staff will serve on seats that open up on both the Budget and Finance and Staff Affairs UPCs. Gerry MacDonald added that the FC is working to fill the vacant faculty seat on the Academic Affairs UPC.
12. Chuck adjourned the meeting at 3:30 p.m.