University of Virginia General Faculty Council (GFC)

Minutes: Tuesday, Sept 9, 2002 Time: 12:00 -1:30 p.m.

Place: Newcomb Hall Boardroom

Members Present:, Mary Abouzeid, Donal Day, Rosie Dunn, James Freeman, Phil Gates, Robbie Greenlee, George Hashisaki, Carol Hunter, Lotta Lofgren, Barbara Millar, Chris Milner, Lynda White, Ellie Wilson

Members Absent: Jennifer Bauerle, Elaine Banner, Bill Keene, Greg Strickland

Guest: Chuck Callaghan

Meeting was chaired by Lynda White

Annual Report -

- Annual Report for 2001/02 was approved as revised.

- Ellie W. thanked Lynda for coordinating the completion of the GFC Annual Report.

- Chris M. will take pictures of GFC members during the next meeting and post pictures on the web site.

Budget Report -

- Budget currently reflects $2,200. Approximately $4,000 from previous years is projected to be added back to the current budget.

Academic Affairs Representative

- Phil Gates was elected representative to the Faculty Senate Academic Affairs Committee.

Faculty Senate Retreat

- Phil and Lynda have been invited to the Faculty Senate Retreat on 9/13/02. Other officers and chairs may also receive an invitation. [The GFC Executive Committee and representatives to Faculty Senate Committee were invited. Phil, Lotta, Ellie, Donal, and Lynda were able to attend.]

- Michael Smith, Faculty Senate Chair, has invited Lynda to the Faculty Senate of Virginia on November 9, 2002.

Faculty/Staff Resource Fair: Wed., Nov. 20, 2002

- Barbara and Phil will work the GFC table from 1-2:30 p.m.

- Robbie and Donal will work from 2:30-4 p.m.

Location: Newcomb Hall Ballroom. Lynda will check on purchasing GFC pens to hand-out. [Frank Butros has some extras and will send Lynda the address.]

[This event has been canceled due to University-wide budget cuts.]

Representative Reports

Benefits - Carol

- Carol reported on research she has been doing concerning dental plans. Southern Health Services will cease providing this service in January. The University is looking for other vendors to provide this service to employees.

Research - Donal

- Committee has not met.

Academic Affairs - Phil

- Committee has not met.

Coordinating Committee of University Groups (CCUG) - Barbara

- Committee has not met.

Committee Progress Reports

Data from Oracle - Lynda spoke to George Stovall about obtaining a list of General Faculty for GF-roster and other uses. George suggested waiting until the end of October in order to select new employees. He says he can get the data we need without waiting for the Oracle HR database. The deadline for the HR dump to Oracle (old to new) is September 27, 2002 and start date is October 3, 2002.

Lynda proposed using the current system to get the list. Barbara suggested GFC reps get specific department, school, and center lists of their constituents, with names and e-mails, and send them to Lynda. She will ask George to run a list in order to compare names. [The Council has received the list.]

Communication - Jann could not attend to report. Jann's initiative is to email a welcome letter to all General Faculty. A draft will be sent to the Council via email. [Done]

- Lynda reported that Mary proposed we hire a Webmaster for our site. Robbie and Chris will research this further, determining costs, and will interview students for the position. The Committee had also suggested we have a logo designed, which a Webmaster should be able to do.

- Donal suggested that for one of our proposed forums, we invite an administrator to discuss the financial stringency plan and how it might be applied at the University.

- Lynda would like to get the University’s Director of State Government Relations, Nancy Rivers, to discuss how the General Faculty can influence the legislature, particularly regarding salaries. Lynda asked the Committee to begin planning for these kinds of events.

- Lynda suggested a monthly email should be sent to all constituencies with a link to our approved GFC Minutes.

- The GFC minutes process was discussed. The Council decided not to try to write a executive summary of the minutes in order to post them on the Web as soon as possible. The following process was agreed to:

Minutes taken at GFC meeting

2-day turnaround for sending draft to Lynda W. and posting to Council

2-Day turnaround for GFC Members for changes

Vote to approve via email

Post on Website

Send email with URL to GF-Roster

Bylaws: Phil

This group has not met since August. Its mission is to examine the entire bylaws and investigate redistribution of constituencies among Council Members.

Elections: Ellie

This group has not met yet. However, they have identified two main goals for the year. 1) To work with the Bylaws Committee to clarify the membership of the GFC for the purposes of electing representatives. 2) To revise and document election procedures. Ellie will arrange a meeting and would like to coordinate efforts with the Bylaws Committee.

Data Collection: Jim

The group has not met pending the results of the welcome letter.

Policy: Lotta

Carol H. and Lotta discussed health care benefits for part-time employees working 50 percent or more. Lotta has researched benefits at a few in-state and out-of-state institutions in order to compare them with UVa’s, e.g., Berkeley and Washington State. Robbie provided Lotta with the AAU list of peer institutions to help focus their search. So far, research suggests that Virginia institutions of higher education appear to lag far behind their peer institutions, which do offer the same medical health insurance coverage to employees who work half-time or more as they do to their full-time employees. Once more research has been done Lotta and Carol will pitch this to the UVa Benefits Committee appropriately. Lotta and Carol will also send out a questionnaire to about 250 part-time General Faculty for their input. Barbara suggested she could bring the issue to her next CCUG meeting. Lynda can also bring it up with Michael Smith of the Faculty Senate.

New Business

Lynda stated that by spring 2003 the GFC will be 10 years old. We should try to develop a vision and broader purpose for the General Faculty Council. How can we make this a better University? Suggestions were solicited.

- Barbara suggested working in the area of professional development, such as, "How can we develop leadership skills and present ourselves well to others?"

- Phil suggested academic training/interests, such as, "How can we impact the needs of the student body?"

- Ellie suggested we post an article in the UVA Alumni Magazine and/or Inside UVA about General Faculty and what we do for the University.

- Donal commented that we do not realize the full impact we make to the University. The University needs to be encouraged to use General Faculty on committees at both the department and the University levels. Since University committee appointees are recommended by department heads, General Faculty are encouraged to approach those heads if they are interested in serving in this capacity.

- Lotta suggested we use the next GFC meeting to more fully discuss these issues.

- Barbara and Phil suggested part-time benefits could be a broader issue to pursue. Wages for students, from teaching assistants to library clerks, could also be addressed.

Meeting was adjourned at 1:30 p.m.

Next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2002 at 12-1:30 p.m in the Newcomb Hall Boardroom.