General Faculty Council Meeting

Tuesday, March 12, 2002

12:00 noon- 1:30 PM

389 Newcomb Hall

 

 

Members Present: Frank Butros, Chuck Callaghan, James Freeman, Bill Keene, Lynda White, Jann Balmer Ellie Wilson, Donal Day, Joe Gieck, Mary Abouzeid, Aaron Laushway

 

Members Absent: Lotta Lofgren, Jan Redick, Barbara Millar, Rosie Dunn, Carol Hunter, Maurice Lipper

 

Frank Butros chaired meeting.

 

  1. Minutes of the February 12, 2002 meeting were approved with the following changes
    1. Barbara Miller is spelled Millar
    2. Max Salinas was not scheduled to attend the meeting

 

  1. Clarification of the Minutes – Section on the Policy Committee was requested. Communications with Alex Johnson from the Provost’s office indicated that the revised document would be sent to the President’s office. After some discussion, the Policy Committee reiterated that the group had mutually agreed that any changes to the policy would be reviewed by the Policy Committee of the GFC prior to being sent to the President’s office.
  2. Complaint regarding Parking and Transportation. A former chair of the GFC forwarded a complaint to the GFC regarding a clerical error in Parking and Transportation affecting the monthly payment of parking fees and the subsequent request from P &T for the full amount of payment as a lump sum. The general consensus of the GFC is that this issue is most appropriately handled by the individual faculty member. The GFC recommended that this individual contact Becca White in Parking and Transportation directly to resolve the issue.
  3. The New Faculty Staff Resource Fair scheduled for April 17 in Newcomb Hall. Frank Butros has 300 pens for the GFC table. Ellie Wilson and Lynda White will create flyers on colorful paper for distribution.
  4. Elections – Ellie Wilson provided a report on the progress in the elections process for new representatives to the Council. Currently there are a number of interested candidates, many of whom have submitted their statements for the ballots. The numbers of candidates by area were as follows: Administration –2, Athletics –1, Engineering –0, Medical School – 7, and Student Affairs –2. There are several other candidates who are not currently eligible due to their affiliation. Ellie will communicate with these individuals and indicate that they will be put on the ballot when a position becomes available in their area. The criteria for classification were drawn from a 1997 document outlining where specific units were classified for purposes of election. It was recommended that this classification system be added to the GFC website as general information.

Additional issues related to the elections process were the logistics of coordinating the voting process and the feasibility of the current email system to access only those general faculty members in areas where representatives were needed. Ellie Wilson will talk to the UVA postmaster for the email systems and investigate the logistics further. No date for the elections has been finalized at this time.

  1. GFC Survey- James Freeman provided an update on the status of the survey. The committee is moving forward with the draft of the survey, and will need to convert it to a website for implementation and analysis. The survey will not be distributed until summer when an updated list of general faculty at the university can be collected.
  2. Implications of State Budget- Donal Day identified some issues that have surfaced as the result of budget cuts and had some questions regarding the situation of “financial stringency”. His questions included “who determines the functional unit? What are the criteria – the funding or the title of the position? The salient points of the ensuing discussion were as follows: if the position is abolished, then the individual is terminated; if the position is retained but not funded, the university has a responsibility to attempt to final an alternative position if the individual has been at UVA for 6 years. The general consensus was that in this particular financial crisis, the Provost was actively involved in the decisions regarding the financial cutbacks and decisions regarding positions.
  3. GF Policy- the Policy Committee has had no contact from the Provost’s office. The GFC asked Bill Keene to contact the Provost’s office for an update on the status of the GF policy.
  4. The Politics subcommittee will now be affiliated with the Policy Committee so that both those activities can be coordinated.
  5. The GFC Reception is scheduled for May 21. The date and time are set. Ellie Wilson and Jan Redick are working on this event.
  6. Election for Chair of the GFC- Lynda White has agreed to be nominated as chair for the GFC. There was some discussion about the status of the bylaws changes regarding the election of the Chair and Chair-elect. Apparently, the GFC has approved the bylaws change but the general faculty need to approve the bylaws change for it to go into effect. The vote requires 2/3 of the members who actually vote for the change to be passed. Joe Gieck will coordinate the distribution of the bylaws change and the voting process.

The new Chair will be elected at the next GFC meeting in April. Any other nominees can be forwarded to Frank Butros.

  1. Secretary for the GFC- A Secretary for the GFC will need to be elected at the next meeting in April. Hopefully the new members will be in attendance so they can be considered for this position as well.
  2. Invitation to Karen Holt from the EEO office. Jann Balmer will invite Karen Holt to speak to the GFC at the May 2002 meeting.
  3. Meeting Adjourned at 1:30 PM

 

 

Submitted by

 

 

Jann T. Balmer