Official Minutes of the

Executive Board/Central Committee

October 2004

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October 1, 2004

Mauker Union, College Eye Room

3:30-5:00 p.m.

• Call to order

Roll (X=present):

Executive Board                              Committee Chairs

X    Frank Thompson, President                  X    Jesse Swan, Negotiations

X    Karen Couch Breitbach, Vice President                                Paul Siddens, Membership and Past President

X    Becky Hawbaker, Secretary                                            Dean Kruckeberg, Communications

X    Lee Nicholas, Treasurer                                            Hans Isaakson, Academic Freedom

       Melissa Beall, At-Large

X    Carol Cooper, At-Large

       Barbara Lounsberry, At-Large

Central Committee Constituency Representatives

X   Barbara Cutter, History                                                         Kent Sandstrom, CSBS

      Jeffrey Funderburk, Art/Music                                    X    Russ  Campbell, CNS

X   Susan Rochette-Cawley, English                           X    Lyn Countryman (alternate), Price Lab School

      Laura Terlip, Communications Studies                         X    Kurt Meredith, Curr.&Inst/OSFE    

      Hans Isakson, CBA                                                      X    John Henning, Ed Psych/HPELS/Ed.Leadership

X   Chris Neuhaus, Library                                    X    Bob Krueger, Philosophy, Religion, Languages         

Ex-Officio

X     Chuck Quirk, Executive Director

Other Members and Guests Present:

• Announcements
• October 9th meeting of the AAUP in Iowa City: Final preparations are being made for the meeting.  Thompson would like a group of 4 or 5 members to go. 
• Bargaining Listening Post: The collective bargaining listening post will be held October 25 from 3:30-5:00.
• “Smoothing the Tenure Track” will be presented in November by Barbara Lounsberry. It was originally scheduled for Monday, November 1, 3:30-5:00 p.m.  The presentation is open to all tenure track/probationary faculty.  The date will likely change due to a negotiation meeting.
• Political Action Committee: Thompson discussed the idea of forming a PAC.
• Legal Defense Fund: Thompson discussed the idea of creating a legal defense fund.

• Approval of the Minutes. Cooper raised a point about the amount of detail in minutes regarding grievances and suggested that the group should have gone into Executive Session during discussion about grievances. The minutes were approved. 

• Treasurer’s Report.  Nichols presented the Treasurer’s report.

• Membership Report—Quirk reported that one member withdrew, one retired, and five joined.  The membership form that was attached to the negotiation priorities survey was successful in encouraging new membership. 

•  Ongoing Issues
• Collective Bargaining Preparations, Quirk and Swan.  Additional surveys have been collected regarding negotiation priorities. Swan noted that there was a much better return rate on paper surveys over electronic surveys. The initial presentation to the Board of Regents will be October 21, and the Board’s response will be November 1. 

• Library Fees for Interlibrary Loans (ILL): Neuhaus reported that the majority of ILL are free, some fees are minor (copy fees for an article), and few are higher because they are available only in libraries not part of our loan agreement.  In several colleges, the Dean will cover the ILL fee for faculty in their college.  Breitbach reported that at the University Faculty Senate meeting, Provost Podolefsky assured the Senate that there would not be an undue burden on faculty for ILL.

• Academic Freedom: Isakson will be the chair of the Academic Freedom Committee this year.  Swan distributed a report of the Academic Freedom Committee’s investigation of the violation of Dr. Robert Krueger’s academic freedom.  The Committee recommended that the United Faculty send the report together with the following request to the President Koob with a copy to Provost Podelefsky:

“Public Safety personnel of the University of Northern Iowa shall not interrupt the teaching of any member of the faculty, unless an emergency situation exists that would endanger the life or property of others, if the teaching of the faculty member is not interrupted.”

Cooper shared that the above is already the policy on the books, and suggested that producing the policy should be added to the end of the report. Campbell suggested striking “if the teaching of the faculty member is not interrupted.” Krueger shared that in addition to the issue last year, this semester the UNI campus police interrupted his class to question a student, in a non-emergency situation.  He distributed a letter he sent to Public Safety Director David Zarifis.  Swan argued that student government should address the student issue and United Faculty should address the faculty issue.  Cutter stated that when campus police pull students out of class, it is a classroom environment issue, which is a faculty issue. Cooper suggested that the date and the names of the people on the committee should be added to the report. 

Hawbaker/Countryman moved that the Report of the Academic Freedom Committee be forwarded to VP for Finance Thomas Schellhardt, Public Safety Director David Zarifis, President Robert Koob, and Provost Aaron Podolefsky.  The motion passed. 

• New Business
• Grievances: Breitbach recommended that the United Faculty grievance procedures be reviewed because they have not been followed recently.  Thompson answered that David Christiansen has resigned as chair of the Grievance Committee, and a new chair must be appointed.  Thompson asked members to forward him the names of people who would be willing to fill this role, and in the meantime the contact person for grievances is the United Faculty Vice President, who is Karen Breitbach. 
• Constitution: Thompson stated that the Constitution is in need of review and possible revision.    

• Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 5:03. 

Respectfully Submitted,

Becky Wilson Hawbaker