University of Virginia General Faculty Council Board Meeting

Minutes: Tuesday, June 10, 2003, Room 389, Newcomb Hall

Members Present: Robin Kuzen, Jean Collier, Robbie Greenlee, Jennifer Bauerle, Prue Thorner, Jann Balmer, George Hashisaki, Bill Keene, Lotta Lofgren, Lynda White, Derry Wade, Phil Gates, Mary Abouzeid

Members Absent: Elaine Attridge, Greg Strickland, Donal Day, Nancy Gansneder, Chris Milner

I. The meeting was opened by Chair Lotta Lofgren. She made the following general announcements:

A. Budget: we have $200 left in our account and are receiving the annual infusion of $2500 next month.
B. Lynda and Lotta are still working on analyzing the health benefits questionnaire data and will report on this at the July meeting.
C. Lotta would like meetings to begin at noon sharp except that we need to meet early on July 8 to have our pictures taken.
D. She suggested posting minutes of the last meeting and the upcoming agenda together one week before the next meeting.
E. Lotta will meet with Anda Webb in July to talk about the Women’s Leadership Council.
F. The July meeting will be in Ruffner 200. Pictures will be taken for future PR. She asked people to come at 11:30 for the photographs.

II. Goals for 2003-2004 (Committee Reports)

Policy Committee Report. Lotta passed out a written summary of goals from the Policy Committee. The first goal involves how the Council will proceed when the new General Faculty Policy is approved. The committee felt that the Council needs to be poised to disseminate the policy once it is in place. The committee will prepare a document explaining the differences between the old and new policy documents and use this information in all future presentations. Lotta suggested that representatives should set dates for Town Hall meetings for each constituency group before September’s meeting. The second goal involved continuing the pursuit of benefits for part-time general faculty. We need to keep the topic in the forefront of all discussions and university committees. In all cases, we need to keep our position public and available for all constituencies. A third goal is to advocate for salary equity throughout the institution. For example, it is unclear whether the current proposal for a 2.25% pay raise is across the board (which is what the state says) or based on merit; it is also unclear whether the Board of Visitors’ plan to improve faculty salaries includes administrative and professional faculty. The fourth goal involves job security and uninterrupted benefits coverage for research faculty. A fifth goal is to investigate grievance procedures across the University and to recommend a uniform grievance policy. Finally, this group will suggest a professional development policy for general faculty.

Communications Committee. Prue Thorner reported that this committee met and discussed several issues they would like to work on this year. They want to continue building a communications "layer" for the General Faculty. The committee has already updated the information brochure and decided to create an archive of stories on General Faculty. Prue suggested the following objectives: to have one feature article a month on some member of the General Faculty in Inside UVA; to highlight award-winning general faculty; to set up an information table at the University of Virginia Art Museum on the fourth Friday of a fall month (perhaps the fourth Friday of October); to plan a General Faculty evening at the Colonnade Club; to create a welcome activity and an award, as the WFPA used to do; to make a calendar on the web to be linked to the University calendar; to have a fall welcome forum at Carr’s Hill; to have a spring forum. The communications committee requested help with these activities from other members of the Council. This committee wants to ask Yoke San how we can identify general faculty through Oracle and to attempt to communicate with other general faculty in the state.

Data Management. Lynda White gave this committee’s goals report. The main goal of this committee is to continue working on identifying general faculty and making sure e-mail lists are updated so that elections are conducted correctly. They want to collect data to create a profile of who the general faculty are so we can design a web site showing this profile. Some suggestions for items to be collected are money returned to the University from grants (this should be available on Oracle). Data Management also would like to develop guidelines for what we would like to keep in archives for the future and to work with the Policy Committee on analyzing part-time benefits.

By-Laws. Phil Gates reported that the by-laws were just revised. He reminded us that it takes agreement by 2/3 of those voting to amend the by-laws and we hope not to have to do that again this year. He urged all of the council to become familiar with the by-laws and for the committees to be mindful of the bylaws when formulating their goals. He thought that if we institute an award, we may have to amend the by-laws to reflect that.

Elections. Derry Wade reported that the Elections committee did not meet but the chair contacted last year’s chair Ellie Wilson. Ellie said she has written an outline of the procedures, which will help. (These are on the Website.) The goal will be to figure out how to ensure one vote per person while also ensuring anonymity. Another major job of this committee would be to recruit future General Faculty Council members.

III. Strategies for sharing goals across the University. Lotta asked if everyone could be involved in perhaps more than one committee so that we all share the work of the Council equitably. Lotta asked all to think about whom would we disseminate these goals to (administration, website, deans of every school).

IV. Report from HSC members. Jann Balmer made this report. Benefits, etc., of employees of Medical School/Health Sciences Center differ according to the accounts by which faculty and staff are paid (two separate state agencies). Some people are paid through Carruthers, and some are paid by different accounts (Research Education, clinical, teaching, etc.) Jann reported that people in the Health Sciences are more concerned with these titles than with their position on the general faculty or regular faculty. It’s not easy to describe and not easy for these people to meet as groups because of their different and demanding schedules. Many top-level administrators at the hospital are new, so things are not totally in place yet. Faculty at the Medical Center are preoccupied with responsibilities related to day-to-day survival. Lotta asked how the four reps can represent the general faculty in the Health Center and how the Council can serve these members of the general faculty. A discussion ensued.

V. Selection of speakers for the year. Since time was running short at this meeting, Lotta asked that members email ideas to her about future invited speakers and to Jean about web page content.

Meeting closed at 1:45.

The next meeting is at noon in Room 200, Ruffner Hall, on July 8th, but arrive at 11:30 to have your pictures taken for the GFC web site.

Submitted by:
Mary Abouzeid, Secretary