Academic Senate
Minutes from December 10, 1997

Present: J. L. Anderson, M. Appleman, M. Breuer, K. Challoner, E. Cooper, A. Crigler, R. Curfman, R. Farley, S. Formenti, N. Hanel (proxy for Julia Johnson), P. Heseltine, H. Kaslow, William Meezan, A. Mircheff, M. Nichol, J. Nyquist, S. Ross, J. Russell, C. Silva-Corvalan, R. Sivitanidou, R. Stellwagen, W. Thalmann, W. Waugaman, M. Weinstein, W. Wolf, D. Yaden

Absent: S. Allerton, M. Apostolos, D. Bunn, R. Chase, H. Cheeseman, E. Chemerinsky, T.C. Cheng, B. Comrie, R. Guralnick, C. Hempel, Janet Johnson, P. Knoll, B. Nelson, S. Nutt, G. Schierle, H. Schor, Y. Tang, K. Wilber

Guests: S. Pratt, B. Solomon, C. Sullivan, H. Slucki

The meeting was called to order at 3:00 p.m. by President J. L. Anderson.

Agenda Item #1. Announcements. President Anderson made four announcements:

(1) The second Senate list server, which offers two-way communication, was launched on December 2, 1997. He asked the Senate members to encourage colleagues to use it.

(2) He has been meeting with Provost Armstrong and Vice Provost Mike Diamond regarding resolutions that were passed by the Senate during the Fall and the prior year. Three committees are being formed, including one each on the future of the health sciences, classroom scheduling, and review of faculty, deans, and chairs.

(3) He met with Jon Aronson, Chair of Benefits Committee. Professor Aronson explained how the committee functions and how the committee is seeking improved methods of utilizing benefit resources. Dr. Walter Wolf then talked about the importance of activating the Environment Committee. After a lengthy discussion of the issue, the Senate chose not to reactivate the committee at this time.

(4) President Anderson referred to the problem of poor attendance to the Senate meetings. Academic Senate By-Laws state that proxies, must be elected by the faculty councils. Suggestions were made on how to increase Senate meeting attendance.

Agenda Item #2. Approval of Minutes.

The Minutes were approved as presented.

Agenda Item #4. Update on the Proposed Retirement Plan.

Because there was no quorum at this time of the meeting, Agenda item #4 was moved ahead of Agenda item#3.

Academic Senate Minutes
Meeting of December 10, 1997
Page two

President Anderson welcomed Vice Provost Barbara Solomon. Dr. Solomon briefly discussed retirement benefits. The Council of Deans has not yet decided on the proposed retirement plan. She said everyone who retires within the next five years will be covered under DoughertyŐs retirement plan unless there is a new approved plan. The administration was making sure that the proposed plan will not negatively impact individual schools. Dennis Dougherty will report about the issues in January.

Vice Provost Solomon spoke on another issue, which is the policy on violence in the work place. The reason it is being brought to the SenateŐs attention is because there was an incident involving a Faculty member and a student worker from the Public Safety department. Apparently, the current policy relates to staff members only, but not to faculty. It was determined by the Advisory Committee that this policy was approved by the Administration without going through the Senate.

Agenda Item #3. Resolution 97/98-06 re AAUP Censure.

Discussion of Resolution 97/98-06 resulted in the adoption of two friendly amendments, leading to the following rewording of the original resolution:

(1) the Academic Senate expresses its concern with the causes and consequences of the AAUP censure, namely, having the University of Southern California identified as an institution of higher learning which violated academic freedom, academic tenure, and full academic due process;

(2) the Academic Senate President will invite the Provost to join him in appointing a Special Task Force to facilitate the lifting of censure by the AAUP.

Agenda Item #5. Status of Faculty Handbook Change.

President Anderson presented Section 5 of the Faculty Handbook, which the Faculty Handbook Committee proposed for deletion. After discussion, proposed deletion of Section 5 was passed unanimously.

President Anderson also reported that the Faculty Handbook Committee, which he is chairing, has met several times. The revised Faculty Handbook is to have a Web Site. Any new policy will take effect every first of August and will be on the web site by September 1.

Academic Senate Minutes
Meeting of December 10, 1997
Page three

Also presented by Dr. Anderson, was the proposed Grievance Process. This was previously passed by the Senate, but President Sample wished to have one sentence deleted. This sentence is in the first paragraph under Section "h." and reads: "The President shall assume that recommendations from grievance panel reflect the best judgment of an impartial faculty body and therefore shall generally defer to panel recommendations, subject to the PresidentŐs authority under the section to accept or reject grievance recommendations."

The Faculty Handbook Committee made a counter proposal at their meeting of December 4, 1997: "The President shall assume that recommendations from grievance panels reflect the best judgment of an impartial faculty body and therefore shall generally concur with panel recommendations. The President shall, of course, retain ultimate decision-making authority as to all grievances and the discretion to accept or reject grievance panel recommendations, except those where there is mutually agreed upon binding arbitration, as discussed above."

After long discussion, this counter proposal was passed with 15 in favor, 7 opposed, and 1 abstention.

Agenda Item #6. Information update from the Vice Provost for Research.

President Anderson introduced Vice Provost for Research, Cornelius Sullivan. Vice Provost ullivan discussed his role and pointed out the areas he wants to focus on:

(1) Stimulating faculty and their role as initiators of research projects.

(2) Intellectual property rights on campus.

(3) Dealing with complaints about federal regulations with legal violations and with scientific misconduct.

He encouraged faculty to participate actively in a dialogue with officials in Washington, D.C.

Agenda Item #7. Discussion of Newsletter

Dr. Anderson announced that the Newsletter will be published in January. He encouraged Senate members to contribute an article on any particular areas of concern, for inclusion in the newsletter. He called for help on desktop publishing.

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