University of Virginia General Faculty Council

Minutes: Tuesday, May 13, 2003, Room 389, Newcomb Hall

Attendance: Mary Abouzeid, Elaine Attridge, Jann Balmer, Jennifer Bauerle, Jean Collier, Donal Day, Phil Gates, Robbie Greenlee, Bill Keene, Robin Kuzen, Lotta Lofgren, Chris Milner, Prue Thorner, Derry Wade, Lynda White

Absent: Nancy Gansneder, George Hashisaki, Greg Strickland

Also in attendance: Chuck Callahan

Minutes from the last meeting were approved prior to this meeting.

Item One. Statement of Outgoing Chair. Outgoing chair Lynda White finished up business from the 2002-2003 Council. We have not yet been able to collect data pertaining to General Faculty (salary ranges/gender/types of General Faculty). Lynda asked if the group wished to continue to ask for this information. A discussion ensued. One point made was that bringing this information together on our Website would be a "service" to the University. The decision was made to wait until fall to request the information again. Lynda also announced that she would be working on the annual report, to be ready for the next meeting. Finally, she thanked members for their help on projects during the past year, and Lotta Lofgren for her seminal role as first chair-elect.

Item Two. Statement of the Incoming Chair. Next, Lotta Lofgren, incoming chair, thanked Lynda White for her inspirational and dedicated work on behalf of the GFC during the past year. She cited, among other achievements, Lynda’s outreach and networking on behalf of the council, her visioning and attention to detail, especially her work in helping all committees articulate and reach their goals, and the creation of the GFC Manual. Lotta also articulated her vision for the coming year. She wants to continue to energize the committee structures. A benefit of this is freeing up general meeting time for discussions and visioning. She suggested that committees do reports via email. Another idea would be to schedule regular meetings for visitors to come to us with information. The idea may be to schedule every other month’s meeting for information gathering and "networking"… to extend our outreach. This may entail designating a PR person on the communications committee. Another thrust will be to continue the work on benefits for part-time faculty. Regarding the survey, we had a 50% response rate and the data is being analyzed right now (to be ready for the next meeting). We will also continue working on the General Faculty policy (now in its seventh year of revision). Bill Keene at this point added that he is in communication with Provost Gene Block regarding the possibility of reviewing the final policy draft. In addition, some of the schools are developing their own policy statements about General Faculty. So next year will be a busy year for coordinating the new policies.

Item Three. Election of new officers (secretary and chair-elect). First, Lotta described the chair-elect’s role. It is not just a titulary position but a time for the future chair to prepare for the position. In addition, she suggested that the presiding chair be designated "chair-emeritus" (past-Chair) for the year after his/her term. So the chair position should be considered a three-year position. Next, the council members introduced themselves.

Two leadership roles were scheduled for election by the group. Nominations were first opened for secretary. Mary Abouzeid was nominated and voted to the position. Next, Jann Balmer nominated Elaine Attridge for chair-elect. The vote was unanimous. The chair then reviewed committee heads: Jean Collier will work with Chris Milner on the webmaster role; Prue Thorner expressed an interest in chairing the communications committee; Derry Wade agreed to run elections next spring; Robin Kuzen will join the policy committee; Bill Keene will remain chair of that committee. All other committee members elected to stay on their present committees. Robbie brought up the suggestion that the General Faculty Council have some representatives at University standing committees (external committees). Lotta will contact those committees and ask for representatives and/or come to our meetings to speak to us.

As a point of clarification regarding University committees, the General Faculty does have representation on three University committees; each former committee rep described the committee’s work. CCUG is automatically Elaine Attridge; Benefits will be represented by Lotta Lofgren (nominated by Bill, seconded by Phil; vote unanimous); Faculty Senate research committee has been covered by Donal Day, who was on the committee last year (nominated by Jann Balmer, seconded by Phil Gates; vote unanimous); Academic Affairs has been represented by Phil Gates; he requested to stay on (Jann nominated, Elaine seconded; vote unanimous). Lynda White has agreed to chair the Data Management committee and Jennifer Bauerle will join that committee.

Lotta asked each committee to meet and have its goals, strategies and time-line (what, how, who, by when), for the upcoming year ready to present at the July meeting. We will be meeting in Ruffner 200 for the July meeting. (The June meeting will be in Newcomb 389).

Robbie told us that the University Committee on Diversity is meeting in Richmond this Thursday. There is also a new President’s Council being formed to examine diversity issues on grounds and recommend improvements. Lotta encouraged others to bring any news such as this to the council whenever they hear it.

Item Four. By-Laws Vote. The proposed changes to the General Faculty Bylaws passed in a recent general faculty-wide vote. There may be a few suggestions for continued changes in the coming year. A discussion followed about making electronic voting anonymous. There appears to be a possibility that this can be done in the future.

Item Five. Preparation for Next Meeting. Yoke San will visit the Council next month. She is a Vice-President for Finance, oversees HR, Foundations, Risk Management, ISP, among other departments. She will be bringing Tom Gausvik with her. A discussion took place about questions we will ask. Lotta will get the list to council members and asks their response.

Item Six. Feedback. Lotta asked the group for feedback throughout the year.

Item Seven. Visioning. A member expressed concern that many general faculty members don’t know they belong to that category. We need, as part of outreach, to inform all members of the general faculty of our and their existence. It was suggested that we need to improve procedures for data collection. Also, it may be important to revisit the terms of officers.

The meeting adjourned at 1:30

Next meeting June 10, noon in Newcomb 389.