University of Virginia General Faculty Council (GFC)

Minutes: November 11, 2001 12:00-1:30 PM, Room 389 Newcomb

Hall

Members Present: Jann Balmer, Frank Butros, Chuck Callaghan, Rosie Dunn, James Freeman, Joe Gieck, Aaron Laushway, Maurice Lipper, Lotta Lofgren, Jan Redick, Ellie Wilson

Members Absent: Mary Abouzeid, Donal Day, Carol Hunter, Bill Keene, Barbara Millar, Lynda White

The meeting was chaired by Frank Butros

1. Minutes of the October 9, 2001 meeting were approved as corrected.

2. Chair’s Report:

Room 389 Newcomb Hall has been booked for General Faculty Council meetings through December 2002, except for two dates when Newcomb Hall is not available: January 8 and July 9, 2002. Frank Butros will check into availability at the medical school and Ellie Wilson will check into availability at the Curry School for alternative meeting sites for these two dates.

Frank Butros, reporting on the Faculty/Staff Representatives Legislative Briefing (November 13, 2001), noted that about eight different UVA faculty/staff constituencies are represented. Issues that will be taken to the legislature include: salary increase parity; lack of health care benefits for part-time employees; spousal benefits; and parking fees. Included in a handout on the topic of the legislative briefing (published by UVA's Office of State Governmental Relations) is a tentative schedule of the 2002 General Assembly meeting dates. Frank Butros indicated that the website for the University of Virginia Office of State Governmental Relations is excellent. That URL is: www.virginia.edu/~govrel. Finally, Frank urged council members to attend the Legislative Forum on 1/04/02 in Newcomb Hall Ballroom.

3. Other business:

A. Lotta Lofgren provided some updated information on the question of the Oracle list /general faculty database, etc. The target date for this list to be ready is August 2002.

B. Policy Committee: Lotta Lofgren requested adding Carol Hunter as a member of the Policy Committee. This was voted on and approved. In addition, Chuck Callaghan volunteered to assist the Policy Committee as needed.

C. Resource Fair: Aaron Laushway and Barbara Millar reported that approximately two hundred people, mostly classified staff, came by the table. This information generated general discussion about the value of GENFAC Council continuing to maintain a presence at these fairs. The general consensus was that we should continue for two reasons: to keep our slot/spot and the fact that in this effort we may reach someone. Further, if we are going to continue this effort, we need to somehow enhance our display/presentation at these fairs. No specific suggestions were made.

D. University Committee on Information Technology (UCIT): Jann Balmer gave a report on her recent interaction on this committee. Reproduced below is a summation of the information which Jann Balmer has submitted for inclusion in these minutes:

Membership of University Committee on Information Technology:

Chair - Ian Harrison

Chair, Academic Computing Advisory Council- Mitch Rosen

Chair, Administrative Technology Council - Yoke San Reynolds

Past Chair- Catherine Kane

At-Large Members:

Laurie Pohl

David Gies

Charlie Grisham

Penny Rue

Don Brown

Jann Balmer

George Hornberger

Peter Low

John Payne

Lynda Phillips-Madson

William Quandt

Chair, Student IT Advisory Committee - Chris Husser

Chair, Network based Info systems - Louise Dudley

Liaison to Univ. Libraries - Martha Blodgett

Health Sciences CIO - Barbara Baldwin

Liaison to Health Sciences - Linda Watson

Representative, Fac. Senate - Ellen Contini-Morava

VP & CIO - Robert Reynolds

Committee Staff :

Alice Howard

Melinda Church

Chip German

Pat Graham

Jim Jokl

Terry Lockard

Deb Mills

Tim Sigmon

Tom Spraggins

Nancy Tramontin

Other Exofficio:

Diane Walker

George Stovall

Clo Phillips

The Charge to the UCIT committee is to:

1) Summarize the major practices and initiatives in distance/distributed learning being pursued by "leaders" across the country with an eye towards the cost/benefit

analysis.

2) Frame the key questions that UVA needs to address to map out its decision points and future directions for distributed learning.

3) Conduct a survey of UVA faculty to determine their level of interest in

distributed learning and requirements for active participation.

4. Goals and Objectives:

It was decided that the list of goals/objectives defined in recent meetings is a large and ambitious one, and it is impossible to tackle each item. General discussion followed and, in an effort to simplify and organize the numerous goals into realistic groupings, Lotta Lofgren offered the following assessment: if the data collection items and “busy work” items (communications for example) are placed in separate groups, then those items which are left (hiring security, salary discrepancy, health benefits, grievance procedures, and research faculty issues) are all essentially policy issues. Lotta emphasized her feeling that this latter grouping (“policy issues”) represents the most important goals facing the General Faculty Council. Following all the discussion on goals and objectives, Frank Butros asked that each council member to make a priority listing of the five issues/items which he/she feels is most important. This will be discussed at the December meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:30.

NEXT MEETING: December 11, 2001 12:00 noon, Room 389, Newcomb Hall

Submitted by: Jan Redick