MUSC's
Faculty Senate meeting minutes, June 6
The meeting was called to order by Dr. Adrian Reuben at 7:45 a.m.
on Tuesday, June 6.
The meeting was held in Library/Administration room 107. The May minutes
were discussed and approved.
Senators Present:
Basic Sciences: Daniel Knapp, Ed Krug,
Philip Privitera, Michael Schmidt, Jerry Webb
Clinical Sciences: Peter Carek, Dennis
Cope, Thomas Gettys, Lyndon Key, Mark Lyles, Timothy Lyons, Maria Lopes-Virella,
Adrian Reuben
Dental Medicine: Luis Leite, Jon Rampton
Health Professions: Richard Hernandez,
Gail Pashek, Andrea White,
Library Science and Informatics: Jennie
Ariail, Elizabeth Connor
Nursing: Elaine Amella, Francine Margolius,
Sally Stroud
Pharmacy: Deborah Carson, Kurt Lorenz,
Ann Spencer
Parking fees
The senate discussed their dissatisfaction with the increase in parking
rates effective July 1. Several comments were directed at some users not
being subject to the same rate increases as other parking users. Knapp,
who serves on the Parking Committee, stated that increased parking fees
would ultimately help our bonding abilities to build new parking
structures in the future. The following parking resolution was read, discussed,
voted upon and passed:
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The Faculty Senate wishes to express its concern about the sudden announcement
of a significant increase in faculty and staff parking rates without prior
discussion with the campus community. While an increase in parking rates
is not unexpected in that there has not been a general increase in
several years, the large projected sequential increases during the next
four years constitute a very major change which has not been clearly
justified.
Of greatest concern is the fact that the proposed changes, while projecting
major increases for the university community, do not in the first two years
include any increases for validated parking for patients and visitors.
As a result, faculty, staff and students will effectively be subsidizing
the parking expenses of two separate entities, the UMA and the Hospital
Authority. The Faculty Senate calls upon the administration to discuss
further the issue of parking rates with the campus community and
reconsider the appropriateness of the proposed increases.
Time of Faculty Senate meeting
Reuben raised the question of changing our regularly scheduled meeting
to a different time to allow for more discussions. A motion was made and
voted on to leave the current meeting time at 7:45 a.m. Many felt
the current time accommodates those getting families off to school.
Date change for July meeting
Due to the July 4th holiday, the regularly scheduled Faculty Senate
Meeting has been changed to July 11th at 7:45 a.m. Due to unavailability
of our regular meeting location, the July 11 meeting will be held in room
100 of the Admin/Library Building.
Term of appointment
Knapp distributed copies of the draft Term of Appointment Section from
the Faculty Handbook. On May 31, Knapp, Leite and Reuben met with Deans
Keefe and Cormier to discuss prior misunderstandings about proposed changes
to the term of appointment section of the Faculty Handbook.
The two misunderstandings included disagreement over a final sentence
referring to tenured faculty, and the prior impasse that followed that
disagreement.
The deans recognized some inadequacies of language in the previous
draft and by mutual agreement, it was mutually decided by deans and
senate representatives to further modify the text as follows:
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Draft Term of Appointment Section of the Faculty Handbook May 31, 2000
(Additions to existing Faculty Handbook are in bold print.)
Start of Draft
6.2.3 Term of Appointment
Appointment of faculty members with respect to term is of three types:
1. A twelve (12) month appointment
2. A nine (9) month appointment
3. Appointment for other specified periods of time
Appointments are made on an annual basis: Twelve (12) month appointments
usually begin July 1. Appointments for time periods other than twelve (12)
months span the academic year of the college of primary responsibility.
The initial letter of appointment and/or contract and subsequent written
notification of reappointment specifying the salary, rank, term of appointment,
and tenure status, is given by the department chairman or other
responsible administrative officer with the approval of the vice president
for academic affairs and provost.
Any change in term of appointment for non-tenured faculty must be based
upon documented evidence of financial exigencies or impending financial
exigencies or of need for program redirection to insure the viability of
a department or college.
Efforts to make suitable reassignments of affected personnel will be
made by the responsible administrative officers should the
faculty desire to retain his or her original term of appointment. The recommendation
and rationale for faculty term of appointment changes must be written by
the dean or responsible administrative officer and submitted to the provost
for approval.
Following approval by the provost, written notice of the intention
to change the term of appointment of a non-tenured faculty member shall
be given, to the extent that appropriated funds are available and legislation
permits, as follows:
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A. At least (3) months prior to the expiration of the contract for faculty
under his or her initial faculty appointment.
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B. At least six (6) months prior to the expiration of the contract for
faculty appointed under a second-year contract.
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C. At least one (1) year prior to the expiration of the contract for faculty
under a third (3rd) year or subsequent-year contract.
End of Draft
This draft revision will be sent out to the faculty for their
comments and approval.
Additonal discussion about the Term of Appointment section
During the discussion of the text of section 6.2.3 (see above),
a motion was made and a vote was taken to change the title of the section
(Term of Appointment) in which the document was found but it was
realized before the end of the meeting that this motion and vote were inappropriate
because this would change the format of the Faculty Handbook.
The senate recognized that the revised document that was discussed (see
above) affords more protection to non-tenured faculty, but at the same
time the senate recognized that the section leaves unaddressed the issue
of term of appointment of tenured faculty.
Proposed addition to the Term of Appointment section
A statement was proposed in connection with voluntary change in term
of appointment. Despite considerable discussion, this addition was defeated
and deferred for future discussion.
Senate elections
Reuben reminded senators of this year’s upcoming election directed
by Margolius. Nominations and balloting will take place on the web.
The call for nominations will take place from Aug. 15 through
Aug. 22. Elections will take place from Aug. 23 through Aug. 31.
The timing of the elections process will allow newly elected
senators to join meetings before their new terms begin.
Senate website
Reuben and Connor are discussing improvements and enhancements to the
Faculty Senate website. The changes will include appearance, navigation
and formatting of the Faculty Handbook.
The meeting was adjourned at 9 a.m.
The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 11, at 7:45 am. in room
100, Library/Administration Building.
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