Official Minutes of the

Executive Board/Central Committee

April 2005

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April 8, 2005

Curris Business Building 323

3:30-5:00 p.m.

• Call to order

Roll (X=present):

Executive Board                              Committee Chairs

X  Frank Thompson, President                  X     Jesse Swan, Negotiations

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

X  Becky Hawbaker, Secretary                                             Dean Kruckeberg, Communications

     Lee Nicholas, Treasurer                                    X     Hans Isakson, Academic Freedom

     Melissa Beall, At-Large

     Carol Cooper, At-Large

     Barbara Lounsberry, At-Large

Central Committee Constituency Representatives

X   Barbara Cutter, History                                                          Kent Sandstrom, CSBS

X   Jeffrey Funderburk, Art/Music                                       X  Russ Campbell, CNS

      Susan Rochette-Cawley, English                              X  Jolene Tagtow, Price Lab School

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

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

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

Ex-Officio

    Chuck Quirk, Executive Director

Other Members and Guests Present:

• Announcements: Thompson reported on preparations for the visit of Frederick Gooding. The spring conference will be held at Drake, and Gooding will include a visit to UNI as part of his trip.  The national AAUP will be held in June, and members should let Thompson know if he or she is interested in attending.  We may be able to secure funding to cover part of the costs. Members brought up the issue of pre-taxing parking passes, as the administration informally agreed to pursue during negotiations.  Thompson will send a letter reminding the administration of this agreement.

• Presentation and Approval of the Minutes.  The minutes were approved with no changes.

• Treasurer’s Report: Isakson distributed a Profit & Loss statement and a Balance Sheet. 

• Grievances.  Thompson reported that there are several appeals in motion for faculty who were denied tenure, and will include one administrative hearing next week.  Several members asked about the status of the set of procedures for handling grievances. Thompson stated that he believes that a UF member in the same college as the person making a grievance should not be involved in the grievance, so there should be other members identified to be in charge of the grievance.  Several members said that this is not always a good idea since the member in the same college would be more informed about the context.  The idea of establishing a Grievance Committee was discussed, including ways to increase communication, such as having the committee present to the Executive Board and Central Committee ongoing reports including a flowchart or table of the status of various cases without naming the grievants.  Swan stated that he believes that faculty making a grievance should be encouraged come to Central Committee meetings to make their case, but Isakson disagreed.

• Elections: Hawbaker reported that she and Sandstrom have received 106 ballots for the Executive Board election, which is more than triple the number cast in last year’s election using paper ballots and more than nine times the number cast in the electronic ballot election two years ago.  There were seven members who reported that they did not receive a ballot, one of whom subsequently received the ballot in campus mail after he’d called.  She reported that one race was decided by only two votes. She recommended that next year’s election be conducted on MyUniverse, like other university elections. She reported that Thompson was re-elected as President. Funderburk was elected as Vice President, Isakson was elected as Treasurer, Hawbaker was elected as Secretary, and Lounsberry, Swan, and Breitbach were elected as At-Large Representatives.

• Budget and Dues: Isakson reported that the dues for new faculty have not changed in the last few years instead of gradually increasing.  He presented a projected budget for next year, assuming no change in dues except for correcting the dues increase for new faculty.  Swan pointed out that by approving this projection, we are not approving the expenditures in these exact amounts for all categories. Campbell asked that we stipulate that the dues will remain at $360 for full-dues-paying members. 

Funderburk/Campbell moved to accept the projected budget.  The motion was approved.

Thompson stated that the computer in the UF office is old and is not working properly, and that Quirk said that there is a campus-wide promotion for new Dell computers.

Campbell/Isakson moved to allocate as an extraordinary expense up to $1500 to replace the hardware and software for the UF Office.  The motion was approved.

• Preparations for the Visit of Frederick Gooding, Esq., National AAUP Leader on Diversity and Organizing. Thompson asked members to encourage others to come to the visit, including those who are considering joining and those in protected classes.  The visit is Wednesday April 14th from 2-4:30, dinner at Rudy’s at 6:00, Thursday morning 9-11.
• Dual Career Policy: Cutter reported that the committee has met and discussed several issues including cross-campus meetings, a dual career website, a policy for job sharing, and other matters.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:45.