University of Virginia

General Faculty Council

Annual Report (May 2001- May 2002)

Council Members

Frank A. Butros, Medicine (Chair)

Jan Redick, Medicine (Secretary)

Mary Abouzeid, Other Schools

Jann Balmer, Medicine

Charles J.Callaghan, Administration

Donal Day, Arts & Sciences

Rosie Dunn, Administration

James Freeman, At Large

Joe Gieck, Athletics

Carol Hunter, At Large

Bill Keene, Arts & Sciences

Aaron Laushway, Student Affairs

Maurice Lipper, Medicine

Lotta Lofgren, Arts & Sciences

Barbara Millar, Other Schools

Lynda S. White, Libraries

Ellie Wilson, Other Schools

Representatives

CCUG: Barbara Millar

Faculty Senate Academic Affairs Committee: Aaron Laushway

Faculty Senate Research & Scholarship Committee: Maurice Lipper

Benefits Committee: Carol Hunter

Review of Council Business

1. The Policy Committee continued to work actively with the Provost and General Counsel to revise the Policy on the General Faculty and to clarify several policy-related issues specific to research faculty.

• In mid May 2001, the Policy Committee met with the Provost (Peter Lowe) and his staff (Alex Johnson and Kathy Reed) to discuss the Provost’s recommended revisions to the revised draft policy. Mutually acceptable resolution of outstanding issues was reached during the meeting, and related terminology was resolved and approved in subsequent communications.
• The revised draft policy was subsequently distributed to Leonard Sandridge, other cabinet members, General Counsel, and other administrators for review and comment.
• In early January 2002, current and past members of the committee reviewed a revised version of the draft policy, which incorporated several significant changes to the previous draft that were proposed by University administrators and General Counsel.
• Thereafter, current and past members of the Policy Committee met with Associate Provost Alex Johnson to discuss the new draft and subsequently submitted a revised version that addressed several concerns raised by the Policy Committee regarding some of the proposed changes.
• Active communication with the Provost and General Council concerning both the draft policy and several related issues (primarily involving benefits) specific to research faculty continued through the remainder of the year as the Provost considered further revisions to the draft policy.
• As the year ended, distribution of the next revision of the draft policy and a follow-up meeting with the new Provost, Gene Block, his staff, and General Counsel were scheduled.
• Lotta Lofgren and Carol Hunter are engaged in an ongoing project to appeal to the University to implement health care coverage for part-time faculty employed at greater than ½ time. They devised a schedule in the spring to contact comparable institutions in the summer and gather information on their health benefits, to meet with the benefits committee in the fall, and to conduct a survey of all affected general faculty members regarding their needs and preferences once Oracle is in operation.

2. Lotta Lofgren and Lynda White of the Policy Committee met with Tonja Moore in October to discuss whether and how the General Faculty Council would be able to access the Oracle Human Resources database once it is available. They were able to verify that the information we need to identify, group, and communicate with members of the General Faculty will indeed be in place in the new system. Records for General Faculty will at last be coded so that they can be easily sorted in whatever way is need by the Council.

3. GFC Chair Frank Butros initiated a strategic planning process. The overarching goal was identified as determining how the GFC could best serve the University’s large and diverse General Faculty. Seventeen other interrelated objectives were identified and partitioned among three committees: Communication, Policy, and Data Collection. Each member of the GFC volunteered to work on one or more of these committees. Each committee was charged with developing strategies and timelines for addressing their respective subset of the objectives:

Communication Committee: Barbara Millar, Chair

· Increase awareness of General Faculty Council

· Disseminate/publicize the General Faculty mission statement

· Improve communication among General Faculty regarding Council

· Provide pertinent information to General Faculty on the Web page

· Create a “welcome” packet for new General Faculty members

· Create opportunities for social interaction among General Faculty

Policy Committee: William Keene, Chair

· Continue working with the Provost and General Counsel to revise the Policy on General Faculty until is it approved by the Provost and President [see 1 above]

· Continue working with the Provost and General Counsel in clarifying policy-related issues specific to research faculty [see 1 above]

· Propose health benefits for part-time General faculty, working with other groups as necessary [see 1 above]

· Clarify, and revise, as necessary, the grievance procedure for the General Faculty

· Work with University administrators to ensure that General Faculty are identifiable in the new Oracle database and to ensure that Council can extract relevant information that accurately details the current composition (who/what/where) of the University’s General Faculty [accomplished, see 2 above]

· Develop/implement a plan to make state legislators aware of the General Faculty category of state workers

· Advocate on behalf of the General Faculty to senior administration

· Address the salary increase discrepancies among general faculty and tenured/tenure-track faculty, and classified staff

Date Collection: James Freeman, Chair

· Organize the General Faculty into subgroups for meeting and talking about concerns and needs

· Do a statistical analysis of the General Faculty membership

· Develop and implement a survey of General Faculty needs and concerns [work was begun on the survey questions]

Outreach Activities

1. During the year, the GFC invited speakers to address and exchange ideas with the Council. Speakers included: John Casteen, President and Leonard Sandridge, Executive VP, on May 14, 2001, Anda Webb, Associate VP-Provost’s Office on July 10, 2001; and Karen Holt, Office of EEO on May 21, 2002. Rosie Dunn shared information about the activities and mission of the Northern Virginia Center of the University on April 8, 2002.

2. The GFC continued to provide guidance and information for individual members of the General Faculty on work-related issues.

3. The GFC web site was changed by introducing pictures of the GFC members.

4. The GFC participated in the New Faculty Staff Resource Fairs on November 21, 2001, and on May 21, 2002.

5. In mid May 2001, the GFC held the annual Spring Party to welcome incoming Council members and thank those going off the Council. The Council honored Kathy Reed (Associate VP – Provost’s Office) for her efforts. Kathy Reed retired in June 2001. Her replacement, Anda Webb, was also welcomed at this event.