Present: G. Albrecht, J.L Anderson, M. Bolger, A. Crigler, D. Crockett, F.
Feldman, R. Guralnick, V. Henderson, P. Heseltine, B. Jansson, H. Kaslow, B.
Kosko, R. Labaree, D. Leary, A. Mircheff, J. Nyquist, N. Petasis, M. Safonov,
G. Schierle, H. Schor, C. Silva-Corvalan, H. Slucki (proxy for R. Jelliffe),
P. Starr, N. Stromquist, C. Synolakis, W. Thalmann, W. Tierney, L. Wegner,
M. Weinstein, M. Zeichner-David
Absent: E. Accampo, M. Apostolos, H. Cheeseman, J. Gates, T. Gustafson, S.
Hamm-Alvarez, M. Kann, B. Knight, L. Miller, W. Petak, D. Polan, K. Price,
R. Zimmer
Guests: N. Hanel, A. Levine, M. Levine, S. Pratt, W. Wolf
The meeting was called to order at 2:50 p.m. by President William G. Thalmann
Agenda Item #1: Announcements
President Thalmann made the following announcements:
(a) There will be an open meeting of the Academic Senate on April 28, 1999 from 3:00 -
4:30 p.m. at the Faculty Center Main Dining Room. A cheese and wine reception will follow.
All faculty will be notified through e-mail via the Senate listserver and through flyers.
(b) The contract documents recently issued issued to tenured faculty in the
School of Medicine have raised a number of important issues which must now be addressed.
In response to a letter by the President of the Medical Faculty Assembly (MFA), the
Provost has indicated that if faculty that believe the document issued to them is not
correct, then they should send a letter to Associate Dean Leslie Bernstein, who will
address each case individually. In the mean time, while this process is given time to
work, a task force consisting of Professors William Thalmann, William Tierney, Victor
Henderson, Peter Starr and a Law School faculty member, was formed to consider the
contract issues. The goal of the task force is to identify all relevant issues related to
the contracts received by the HSC faculty and to report to the Senate at the next meeting.
Senator Harvey Kaslow (Medicine), and President of MFA, then took the floor to discuss this issue further. He distributed a packet of letters and other materials related to the contract documents received by HSC faculty and voiced his concerns regarding the administration’s actions on this matter. He said that we need to know if the administration is asserting that these contract documents supersede other agreements. He pointed out that since a contract is between two parties, and previous contracts between faculty and the University state the contract can only be changed by mutual written agreement, it cannot be changed unilaterally. Indeed, he said, faculty build their lives around the meaning of these contracts and they rely on them. He pointed out that a key part of the contract is the amount of salary designated as "Total USC funding," which is the salary guaranteed by the university. In some of the contract documents just issued to some tenured faculty, the amount of salary designated as "Total USC funding" is small or zero.
Another senator tried to analyze this matter differently by saying that
tenure and faculty compensation are two separate issues. While tenure should be judged
solely on the quality and performance of the faculty member, it is not unreasonable for
certain faculty to have low or zero guaranteed salary, particularly in cases of other
sources of income or other special circumstances.
(c) The Information Services Division, which includes the University
Libraries, has announced a series of discussions with the faculty. Senator
Lucy Wegner of ISD announced a series of focus group lunches with various
constituencies at USC. The first focus group lunch will be held on April 1,
1999. She said that the invitation is first being extended to the Senate
members and afterwards to faculty at large. She agreed to send e-mail to
all Senators for further details.
Agenda Item #2. Approval of Minutes
President Thalmann said that the minutes of the February 17, 1999 Senate
meeting will be approved at the April meeting.
It was then decided to consider Agenda item #5 before items 3 and 4.
Agenda Item #5. Report of the Nominating Committee
President Thalman, chair of the Nominating Committee has not received any write-in
nominations. He then presented the Committee's nominations for the six open seats in the
1999/2000 Senate Executive Board election as follows:
Nominees for Academic Vice President: Florence Clark (Occupational Therapy, Health
Affairs) Greg Davis (Earth Science, College of L.A.S.)
Nominees for Administrative Vice President: Ann Crigler (Political Science, College of
L.A.S.) Ann Lynch (University Libraries, Information Services Division)
Nominees for Members at Large: Jody Armour (School of Law) Sandra Ball-Rokeach (School of
Communication) Michael Cody (School of Communication) Roberta Diaz Brinton (School of
Pharmacy) Philip Ethington (History, College of L.A.S.) Victor Henderson (School of
Medicine, School of Gerontology, and Psychology/ L.A.S.) David Marsh (School of Education)
Austin Mircheff (School of Medicine) Michael Nichol (School of Pharmacy) Hilary Schor
(English, College of L.A.S.)
In addition to the Nominating Committee Report, the following documents were distributed
at the meeting: a schedule of election deadlines, a list of the current and open Executive
Board membership for 1999/2000, and a list of eligible voting members of the Academic
Senate.
President Thalmann thanked the members of the Nominating Committee for their efforts and
the candidates who agreed to run at the Spring Senate Executive Board election.
A concern was raised about the absence of candidates from the School of Engineering.
President Thalmann responded that there were faculty who were nominated but turned down
the invitation to run.
Agenda item #3. Update on Senate Task Forces
President Thalmann gave an update regarding Senate Task Forces:
(a) The Task Force on Retirement has been meeting with the administration to develop a new
retirement plan. An external law firm hired by the administration drafted a new version of
a proposed retirement policy based on the Retirement Task Force's proposal. There are
still a number of major issues to be resolved and any new policy would take some time to
be completed, not before early next year.
(b) The Task Force on Review of Faculty and Deans/Chairs has submitted its final reports
last summer. These reports are available at the Senate's web page. The Provost has
forwarded these recommendations to the Deans for comment and to the Faculty Councils for
input. The new policy is currently at the final stages prior to implementation and will be
discussed at the Senate's next meeting. President Thalmann also said that there is a
steering committee on Academic Leadership which is being chaired by Professor William
Tierney.
(c) The Task Force on Teaching Assistants was formed and is being chaired by Professor J.
Lawford Anderson.
(d) The Task Force on Probationary Faculty and Tenure Clock issues is being chaired by
Professor Victor Henderson.
(e) The Task Force on Family Leave Policy is being chaired by Professor Mary L. Dudziak of
the Law School.
President Thalmann thanked those serving in the various Task Forces and Committees. The
interim reports of the various Senate Committees were also distributed at the meeting.
Agenda Item #4. Senate Faculty Service Award
President Thalmann said that the Senate will be giving its Annual Award in recognition of
service to the university. Last year this award was given to Professor Tim Gustafson for
faculty service and to Professor Barbara Solomon for her administrator service. For this
year President Thalmann invited the Senate's involvement in the selection process. He
asked volunteers to serve on a three-person committee/task force to be in charge of the
selection process. The following senators agreed to serve: Margarita Zeichner-David of
Dentistry (Chair), Nelly Stromquist of Education, and Michael Safonov of Engineering.
President Thalmann will send a call for nominations to all Senate members.
Agenda Item #6. Resolution 98/99-09 re: Introduction to Faculty Handbook
The following resolution was distributed to the senators:
"WHEREAS, the 1998 Faculty Handbook contains as Section 1 an introduction authored by
the President of the University, hereafter termed the "President's letter,"
AND WHEREAS, the Academic Senate welcomes the President's contribution of an introductory
letter to the Handbook,
AND WHEREAS, Section 1, unlike the remainder of the Handbook, was authored solely by the
President and was not discussed or voted upon by the Academic Senate,
AND WHEREAS, Section 2-2(E) of the 1998 Handbook calls for the collegial process of
consultation and review as a stage in amending the Handbook, and a resolution of May, 1998
by the Board of Trustees affirms the necessity of this collegial process,
BE IT RESOLVED THAT, The Academic Senate go on record as stating that the President's
letter was not jointly formulated through the collegial process by which policies are
incorporated into the Faculty Handbook after endorsement by the Academic Senate and
adoption by the President, that therefore Section 1 is not an amendment to the Faculty
Handbook; and that therefore the contents of the President's letter are not to be
considered as forming part of the standards, policies, and practices that compose the
substance of the Faculty Handbook and to which the faculty contract refers."
President Thalmann explaind that he believed that with the President's letter there was no
suggestion for an amendment to the Handbook, which he could not have accepted. While the
President was invited to write a letter introducing the Handbook, he responded that such a
letter will only be seen by current faculty. He preferred instead to place it in the
Introduction, where it will be always there for the future. In his writing the President
quoted a resolution by The Trustees that states that "the President bears the final
authority and responsibility for ammending the Faculty Handbook." Prior to this
resolution, the Past President of the Senate L. Anderson had a rare presentation to the
Trustees regarding the Handbook and the collegial process. In fact, along with reiterating
the President's authority The Trustees had also for the first time recognized the
collegial process and the important role of the Academic Senate. This process was followed
during the revision of the Handbook. Indeed, in areas of disagreement the old version of
the Handbook was kept in effect until these issues are resolved. President Thalmann
explained that this resolution attempts to clarify the origin of this section of the
Handbook and it will allow us to move on.
A senator raised the concern that since the President has the right to change the Handbook
and since the Faculty Contract refers extensively to the Handbook but the Contract cannot
be changed unilaterally, this creates a serious catch 22 situation. It was also noted that
the Handbook is a form of a contractual document itself and it should very clear who can
change it. It was suggested further that in order to avoid future complications, this
resolution should be attached to the Handbook as an Appendix.
Another senator said that there are two issues with the President's letter: the process
for inserting it into the Handbook and the content of the letter. The senator then pointed
out that the signed version of the Handbook, while being the same version presented at the
December meeting of the Senate, it is different from the web version which also contains
the Introduction by the President. He noted that the only true evidence is the signed
document and we should go back to this to avoid further confusion and conflicts.
Other senators expressed additional concerns with the President's letter and suggested
that it should be placed elsewhere and not in the Introduction. It was also stated that
despite our feelings with the President's letter, he was in fact quite up-front, reporting
merely a decision by The Trustees. The senator also quoted the General Counsel of the
AAUP, whom he had contacted on this issue and had indicated that as long as the Senate's
position is properly documented there should not be any future problems. He further noted
that it would be more important to try to improve our relationship with The Trustees. It
was also mentioned that it is clear that The Board of Trustees has "the final
institutional authority".
Another senator pointed out that while the resolution clarifies the issue and presents the
reality of the situation, it may just be that we do not like this reality. It was further
suggested that any push for changing the introduction will not accomplish much.
After additional discussion and several suggestions for possible amendments to the
resolution, the Senate moved a motion to table the issue until the next meeting. The
motion was approved with 16 in favor and 11 opposed.
Agenda Item #7. Resolution 98/99-10 re: Proposed changes to Senate Bylaws, and Agenda Item
#8. Discussion re: Program Review were not discussed due to the lack of time.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:40 p.m.