Academic Senate
Minutes from October 15, 1997

Present:  J.L. Anderson, S. Allerton, M. Appleman, M. Breuer, T. Cheng, E. Cooper, B. Comrie, R. Curfman, R. Farley, S. Formenti, K. Glennan, R. Guralnick,  N. Hanel, C. Hempel, P. Helseltine, Janet Johnson, Julia Johnson, H. Kaslow, P. Knoll, W. Meezan,  J. Nyquist, S. Ross, G. Schierle,  C. Silva-Corvalan,  R. Stellwagen, W. Waugaman, W. Wolf, D. Yaden, E. Albrecht (proxy for K. Challoner)
Absent: M. Apostolos, D. Bunn, R. Chase, H. Cheeseman, E. Chemerinsky, W. Dutton, A.Mircheff, M. Nicholl, S. Nutt, J. Russell, H. Schor, R. Sivitanidou, S. Tang, K. Wilber
Guests:  J. Pisano, S. Pratt, H. Slucki, C. Sullivan

The meeting was called to order at 2:59 p.m. by Senate President, J. Lawford Anderson.

Agenda Item #1: Announcements

President Anderson announced that President Sample and Provost Armstrong would not be able to attend the Senate meeting. President Anderson also announced the list of nominees for positions in the Senate Executive Board:

For Two Members-at-large: Ann Crigler (Associate Professor of Political Science, College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences), Jerry Gates (Associate Professor of Family Medicine, School of Medicine), Patricia Riley (Associate Professor, School of Communication), William Weber (Professor of Chemistry, College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences)

For Academic Vice President: Greg Thalmann (Professor of Classics, College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences)

He then encouraged the members of the Senate to send their nominations to the Nominating Committee especially for Academic Vice President since there must be at least two candidates for the election to take place.

Agenda Item #2: Approval of the Minutes of September 17, 1997 Senate Meeting

The minutes were approved as presented.

Agenda Item #3: Presentation of Neighborhood Campaign

President Anderson introduced Jane Pisano, Vice President for External Relations. Vice President Pisano briefly discussed the on-going activities of the USC Good Neighbors Campaign, and announced that President Anderson has agreed to represent the Senate in the USC Neighborhood Outreach organization. Two handouts, giving more detailed information about the Program, were distributed. In addition, Dean Pratt, who was last year’s representative, spoke in support of the campaign. At the end, Vice President Pisano asked for more support from the Senate members and asked them to encourage their colleagues to contribute generously to the Good Neighbors Campaign.

Agenda Item #4: Resolution 97/98-04. Faculty Review of Deans, Chairs, and Faculty, was presented. Following discussion, the motion was passed unanimously.

Agenda Item #5: Resolution 97/98-05. Archiving Documents Relating to the Governance and Administration. Discussion of Resolution 97/98-05 resulted in the adoption of one friendly amendment, the re-phrasing of the fourth paragraph numbers two and three of the Resolution: "2. The University prepare, with consultation with the University Library, a plan with a budget sufficient to carry out this responsibility." "3. The plan provides not only the archiving and safe-keeping of written documents, but also for the posting of documents in electronic format." Resolution 97/98-05 was passed unanimously.

Agenda Item #6: Discussion of the Charge to the Athletic Tickets Committee

After discussion of the issue, this item has been forwarded to the next Senate meeting in accordance to the Academic Senate Constitution and Bylaws.

Agenda Item #7: Discussion of Faculty contracts

There were two handouts, one from Medicine and one from Engineering, distributed at the meeting, relating to the issuance of Letters in lieu of Faculty contracts by the Administration. During the discussion, most Senate members expressed their views over the Administration’s decision to send Letters instead of Faculty contracts. Several suggestions were made on how this problem could be resolved. Dr. Wolf of Pharmacy briefly talked about the history of the Faculty contract and Faculty Handbook, and about how they became legally binding documents for the Administration and the Faculty. Members of the Senate also expressed their concern about the lengthy process of completing the new Faculty Handbook. Professor Carrie Hempel of Law, expressed that the current Faculty Handbook is still a valid binding document, even though some of the contents are obsolete, between Faculty and Administration.

Agenda Item #8: Provost’s Remarks

As mentioned at the beginning of the minutes, Provost Armstrong could not attend the meeting.

Agenda Item #9: New Business

President Anderson asked Professor Slucki of Medicine, to bring up the Academic Senate resolution that was tabled during the January 15, 1997 Senate meeting regarding the AAUP censure of USC.

After the meeting, the following individuals have agreed to run:

1) Julie Nyquist (Associate Professor of Clinical Medical Education, School of Medicine) for Academic Vice President

2) Carrie Hempel (Assistant Professor of Law) for Member at Large

3) Najmedin Meshkati (Associate Professor of Civil Engineering) for Member at Large

The meeting was adjourned at 4:30 p.m.