Academic Senate
Minutes
May 9, 2001
Present: K. Alexander, F. Clark, A. Crigler, W. Dappen, W. Dutton, L. Friss (alternate for F. Feldman), M. Fusi (alternate for M. Apostolos), .J. Gates, D. Ghirardo, R. Goodyear, N. Hanel, C. Julienne (alternate for S. Sobel), H. Kaslow, B. Knight, B. Kosko, J. Kunc, R. Labaree, D. Larsen, W. Mack, J. Manegold, A. Mircheff, S. Murphy, P. Nosco, J. Nyquist, F. Potenza, M. Renov, E. Saks, H. Schor, B. Solomon, D. Stram, M. Weinstein, W. Wolf (alternate for M. Wincor), B. Zuckerman
Absent: D. Bohlinger, H. James, P. Knoll, M. Omar, J. Peters, B. Sarter, D. Sloane, D. Walsh
Guests: M. Levine, J. Moore, M. Safonov, H. Slucki, G. Thalmann, C. Zachary
Senate called to order at 2:50 p.m. by President William Dutton.
Meeting adjourned at 4:40 p.m.
Action taken by the Senate:
Approval of April 18, 2001 Senate Minutes (Agenda item #2)
Minutes were approved without objection and with
a minor modification.Approval of Resolution 00/01-09: Dismissal Language (Agenda item #5)
Approved by the Senate (yea=23, nay=3, abstentions=1).
Approval of Resolution 00/01-08: Personal Conflict of Interest (Agenda item #6)
Approved by the Senate after being amended
(yea=19, nay=11, abstentions =1).
Announcements by President Dutton (Agenda item #1)
1. The President thanked Ms. Liv Freihow, a Senate R.A., and Professor Ann Crigler, Administrative Vice President, for completing a report on University and Senate committees, as part of the Senate's Committee Mapping Project. This report was distributed at the meeting and is available on the Senate Web site at: http://www.usc.edu/academe/acsen/issues/committee_mapping/Committees.htm
Faculty and administrators were asked to send any comments or corrections to the Senate's Administrative Officer, Connie Roque at <croque@usc.edu>.
2. The President distributed 10 copies of the new Senate brochure to each member in attendance and thanked all Senators for commenting on earlier drafts of this flyer. He also thanked Liv Freihov for her role in managing the production of what is the first effort to convey the role of the Senate to a broader range of faculty. The Senate plans to mail a copy of the flyer to all faculty.
3. Final reports of the Committee on Undergraduate Education and the Research Committee have been distributed with the agenda and, along with other committee reports, will be placed on the Senate Web site in due course.
4. The most recent issue (2000-01, No. 2) of the Faculty Forum focused on 'Library Challenges' and was well received. President Dutton congratulated the Senate and the Executive Board for the constructive role the Senate has played in addressing issues surrounding the libraries. The Executive Board, through a series of meetings with the Dean of the University Libraries, Jerry Campbell, Provost Armstrong, and President Sample, has helped to raise the priority given the library and information services at USC. As noted at our April meeting, Dean Campbell has embarked on a strategic planning process for the libraries and information services at USC. Since our last meeting, President Dutton announced that Dean Campbell has formed a University-wide Strategic Planning Steering Committee (SPSC) for the Information Services Division of USC, which will help ensure that faculty input is channeled well into the planning process and that any strategic vision will serve the faculty as a community of scholars and teachers focused on the interests of the University-as-a-whole. As one indication of the Dean's effort to incorporate faculty and Senate input, Dean Campbell has asked President Dutton to chair SPSC, and he has accepted. The President urged Senators to encourage the full participation of their respective units in this planning effort.
5. President Dutton noted that he was aware of some confusion or uncertainty over the status of the Tenure Clock Policy (Resolution 00/01-07) passed by the Senate on 18 April 2001. He therefore reminded Senators of the process that has been followed.
A year ago, in April 2000, the Senate first voted to extend the tenure clock by passing Senate resolution 99/00-05. This was the first step in a process to change the Faculty Handbook, which incorporates policy on tenure clocks. The second stage involves the consideration and refinement of any change by either: a) the Faculty Handbook Committee, or b) a specially tasked committee, appointed jointly by the Provost and the Senate. In the case of this policy, the Senate and the Provost set up a specially tasked committee, the Tenure Clock Task Force, chaired by Professor Timor Kuran, to consider this policy and recommend a change in the Faculty Handbook, to be voted on by the Senate. In short, the Task Force played the role of the Handbook Committee, as it was designed to do, and recommended Resolution 00/01-07, which incorporated detailed changes in the Handbook. This resolution was passed by the Senate on 18 April 2001. This resolution called for the Handbook Committee to work with the Office of the Provost to incorporate this new policy in the Handbook at the earliest possible date. See: http://www.usc.edu/academe/acsen/about_senate/resolutions/res000107.htm
Professor Dutton emphasized that, with passage of this resolution, the Senate has asked the Handbook Committee simply to ensure that the will of the Senate is incorporated in the Handbook, and that they oversee and approve any detailed sub-editing of the resolution, such as in grammatical and numbering changes. They would only come back to the Senate if they saw a major unforeseen problem in the present draft that might require a change in the policy adopted by the Joint Provost-Senate Task Force and the Senate. Therefore, the Senate is not expected to vote a third time on this matter, nor should it. The process of amending the Handbook has been followed and completed in passing the Tenure Clock Resolution 00/01-07.
One Senator said that he thought he did not vote on specific wording of the Handbook, when voting on Resolution 00/01-07. The President indicated that the resolution called for the adoption of the principles embodied in the resolution, but also adoption of the detailed editing incorporated in the Task Force Report that had been circulated and which was available on the Web, and that these recommendations were only to be reviewed jointly by the Office of the Provost and the Handbook Committee for incorporation in the Faculty Handbook at the earliest possible date. Given this question, the President recommended that Senators consider what he has said and hold discussion for New Business. It was agreed.
5. The President noted that a special Senate meeting was held on 3 May 2001 with Alan Arkatov and his staff, who are charged with developing a plan for distance education at USC. The meeting was informative, leading to a suggestion that more meetings be held over the summer, since the group expects to develop a plan for distribution by late August 2001, with one targeted for the Health Sciences Campus. There was also agreement that it would be useful to present a draft of the group's proposal at the August Senate Retreat.
6. President-Elect Hilary Schor has scheduled the next Senate Retreat for 23 August 2001, from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm. It will be held off-campus at Descanso Gardens. The President-elect encouraged Senators to participate.
Report on Election Results for Senate Officers (Agenda item #3)
President Dutton announced the election results. New Senate officers are:
1) Academic Vice President
Peter Nosco, East Asian Studies
2) Administrative Vice President
Edwin McCann, Philosophy
3) Members-at-Large
Florence Clark, Occupational Therapy
James Manegold, School of Accounting
Michael Renov, Cinema-Television
Nancy Troy, Art History
Continuing on the Senate Executive Board are:
Hilary Schor, President of the Faculty
William Dutton, Immediate Past President
Jerry Gates, Secretary General
Professor Hilary Schor reminded Senators of her plan to resign her office in early September to take on the work of her new Guggenheim Fellowship. At that time, Peter Nosco will become President, and he and the Executive Board will organize the election of a new Academic Vice President.
Distinguished Faculty Service Award Recipients (Agenda item #4)
Professor Schor was most eloquent in her presentation of the Senate Distinguished Service awards. These are the Senate's highest awards for faculty service. Recipients for this academic year were:
For his "vigorous and inspired leadership of the Academic Senate."
Professor William Tierney
School of Education and served as the President of the Senate from 1999-2000.
For her "thoughtful and clear-sighted contributions for faculty self-governance."
Professor Ann Crigler
Political Science and has served for the past two years as Administrative Vice President
For his "vision and integrity in bringing the two campuses closer together."
Professor Austin Mircheff
Keck School of Medicine and has served as Member-at-Large and Chair of the Handbook Committee
Discussion of Agenda item # 5, Resolution 00/01-09: Dismissal Language
President Dutton introduced discussion of Resolution 00/01-09 by recounting the sequence of events leading to this vote. He reminded Senators of allegations circulated last spring that the administration had fraudulently altered the Faculty Handbook, changing punctuation in the dismissal language, which had substantive implications of the severity of "misconduct" that might result in dismissal for cause. These allegations led the Senate Executive Board and President Bill Tierney to investigate how and when the particular changes in punctuation were made.
President Tierney and the Executive Board found that the text, including the contested changes in punctuation, of the 1998 Faculty Handbook had been jointly formulated by the Handbook Committee, working with the Office of the Provost in 1997 and 1998, and endorsed at least twice in votes of the full Senate at meetings in April and May of 1998. These findings clearly demonstrated that the allegations of fraudulently altering the Handbook were false.
President Dutton acknowledged Senator Harvey Kaslow's letter to all Senators of 24 April 2001, which argues that the Senate did not approve the 'text in the handbook' (see attached April 24, 2001 letter from Kaslow to the Academic Senate). President Dutton explained that this interpretation is not supported for the following reasons: First, the actual text of the resolution passed by the Senate on 4 May 1998 is identical to that of the 1998 Faculty Handbook. Professor Kaslow's letter omits the actual wording of the 1998 Handbook, passed by the Senate. Secondly, as discovered by President Tierney's study, the 1998 text was adopted even earlier than May 1998. It was also voted on in April and first appeared in drafts during 1997. Thirdly, President Sample has signed a copy of the 1998 Faculty Handbook, endorsing its authenticity. Finally, the differences in language between the 1987 and 1998 Faculty Handbooks is largely irrelevant to the proposed motion because the Handbook Committee has attempted to improve on both versions of dismissal language.
Nevertheless, during the period when differences in dismissal language between the 1987 and 1998 Handbook were discovered, and shown to be approved by the Senate, Senators introduced a motion in May 2000 to restore the original language of the 1987 Handbook.
This Senate motion to change the Faculty Handbook was the first stage in the process to amend the Faculty Handbook, and led to the development of a joint Senate-Provost effort to amend dismissal language. It has been this year-long process, involving the Office of the Provost and the Handbook Committee, chaired by Professor Mircheff, that led to a joint formulation embodied in Resolution 00/01-09.
The President reminded Senators that the proposed resolution and changes have been posted on the Web and circulated since before March. During the past three months, a variety of suggestions have been made to the Handbook Committee, which has tried to consider all suggestions and incorporate constructive suggestions. We are now therefore presented with a joint formulation that makes remarkable improvements on both the 1987 and 1998 Handbooks, particularly in the now clear and more systematic statement of causes for dismissal in the operative paragraph (§3-9 (B)) of this resolution.
Following President Dutton's remarks, extensive discussion of this resolution took place among the Senators. Professor Mircheff led the discussion.
Arguments in favor of adopting the resolution included that it: 1) cleared up conflicting and ambiguous language, 2) placed language in the appropriate sections, 3) protected faculty rights while making clearer the causes for dismissal, and 4) was jointly arrived at by both the Administration and the Senate assuring acceptance by the Provost and President.
Arguments against the resolution included: 1) the resolution included major differences from what was in the 1987 and the 1998 Faculty Handbooks (assuming that language in early versions provided greater protection), 2) outside legal opinion should have been obtained, 3) that this language makes it easier to dismiss faculty, 4) that the language still is unclear in some sections, and 5) that the Senate should take more time to study the resolution.
The vote on the resolution resulted in 21 yea and 3 nay votes with 1 abstention. Immediately following the vote a senator called for a role call vote. A roll call vote was begun; however, it was suggested from the floor that we just go around the room and each senator would indicate their vote on the resolution. There was no objection to this procedure. This resulted in 23 yea and 3 nay votes with 1 abstention.
the yeas were:
Discussion of Agenda item # 6, Resolution 00/01-08: Personal Conflict of Interest
President Dutton introduced Resolution 00/01-08, noting that last month the Senate seemed to be largely in agreement on this resolution, but that a quorum was not present to call for a vote. He reminded the Senate of the sensitivity of many to issues of personal conflicts, and emphasized that we would not be considering changes in this policy if it were not necessary to consider concerns raised by many faculty not pleased with current policy and by the need to comply with government regulations concerning the conduct of federally-funded research. Finally, the language of this resolution involved wide-ranging consultation to ensure that language would be consistent across faculty and staff in the area of personal conflicts.
There was a brief but intense discussion of this resolution. Several individuals stated that the proposed statement would require faculty to reveal relationships in the distant past. A motion from the floor to strike the words "has had" from the following sentence was approved (yea 19, nay 11, abstaining 1). "For example, a principal investigator shall not hire on a grant or contract a person with whom he or she has or has had an intimate or family relationship". The Senate then approved the amended resolution (yea 28, nay 2, 0 abstentions).
Agenda Item # 7, New Business
Discussion of the status of Tenure Clock Policy was rejoined from the earlier discussion of the meeting. It was generally agreed that the two votes of the Senate on this matter have concluded the Senate's role in approving this policy change. It is now in the hands of the Provost to recommend or not recommend this policy change to the President. If the policy is approved, the Handbook Committee will work with the Office of the Provost to ensure that the principles and policy endorsed by the Provost-Senate Task Force and the Senate as a whole are brought into the Faculty Handbook at the earliest date. In light of this agreement, Vice Provost Levine noted that in the event that an unforeseen issue of tenure clock policy arises in the course of its implementation, it would be brought back to the Senate for discussion and consultation.
Handouts at the Meeting
1) Listing of USC Committees
2) Academic Senate Committee Final Reports
3) Academic Senate Minutes of March 21, 2001
4) Draft of the April Academic Senate Minutes
5) Spring 2001 Election Results
6) Resolution: 00/01-09, Changes in the Faculty Handbook: Personal Conflicts of Interest for Senate approval
7) Resolution: 00/01-09. Changes in the Faculty Handbook: Dismissal Language for Senate approval
8) Letter from Professor Kaslow dated April 24, 2001 regarding faculty, appointment, promotion and tenure
9) Report to the Senate on Non-Tenure-Track Policy Process by President Dutton
10) The new Senate brochure
Respectfully Submitted,
Jerry D. Gates, Ph.D.
Secretary General of the Academic Senate