ALL CAMPUS COUNCIL OF FACULTY SENATE CHAIRSFebruary 20, 2003 113 Bachman Hall

Present: Ron Bontekoe (UHM Arts & Science), Nina Buchanan (UHH-Congress), Nancy Bushnell (Kauai CC), Bill Chismar (UHM – College of Business), Robert Fox (UHH-College of Arts & Sciences), Mike Forman (UHM Faculty Senate Chair), Mary Goya (Hawaii CC), Lynn Hodgson (UH – West Oahu), Warren Imada (for James Goodman, Leeward CC), Vicky Lebbin (UHM-Libraries), Marge Kelm (Maui CC), Floyd McCoy (Windward CC), Neghin Modovi (Kapiolani CC), Jerry Saviano (Honolulu CC), Mary Tiles (UHM Faculty Senate Vice Chair), Lois Weiss (UHM School of Medicine Senate Secretary), Halina Zaleski (UHM CTAHR)

Guest: Linda Johnsrud

Meeting called to order at 4 pm by N. Buchanan.

 January 16-17, 2003 Minutes distributed and approved.

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Linda Johnsrud briefly discussed the three chapters given for review[1] and how little has been written about faculty governance and academic senates – some of the sources she was able to find were more than 10 years old. Faculty did find the reading helpful in describing the reality of their senates. Linda then facilitated discussion of shared governance

  • The function of the body is an important value and form follows function
  • Do we have legislative authority or do we need to go back to individual senates? Are there standards for approving academic programs at the system level (would be legislative function)? No
  • Of the three functions of academic senates (advisory, legislative and forensic), we currently serve in the advisory and forensic roles and desire a more effective advisory role. May need to assume some legislative function in the future.
  • Individuals representing their faculty do not present a problem but can this group make decisions without going back to their senates? We are currently serving more in a communication and facilitative role.
  • Timelines are a huge issue and perennial problem. So far Evan has not asked for advice from this group. What system level issues do we need to be involved with as a matter of course? Distance education and system evaluation were examples.
  • Feel a need to have someone in administration looking out for issues as they come up. There is frustration with VPAA because we seem to need to catch up with decisions already made. Most of the time when we find out about issues, it is after the fact. Need advisory to be two-way and more effective. Need mechanisms in place. To facilitate.
  • Need to decide quorum and what happens when key people can’t attend. Need to clarify unit definition, our relationships to different units and how representative we are and how representative we wish to be. It is important for council not to turn over all at one time (as it did September 2001) and at this point each unit has different lengths of office for chairs.

Linda was thanked for her effective facilitation of the the discussion and was asked if she would be available for other meetings.

Minutes submitted by Marge Kelm

ACCFSC MeetingFebruary 21, 2003 Honolulu CC

Present: Ron Bontekoe (UHM – Arts & Sciences), Nina Buchanan (UHH-Congress), Nancy Bushnell (Kauai CC), Bill Chismar (UHM – CBA), Linda Currivan for James Goodman (Leeward CC), Michael L. Forman (UHM Senate), Robert Fox (UHH-College of Arts & Sciences), Mary Goya (Hawaii CC), Lynn Hodgson (UH-West Oahu), Vicky Lebbin (UHM-Libraries), Marge Kelm (Maui CC), Floyd McCoy (Windward CC), Neghin Modovi (Kapiolani CC), Jerry Saviano (Honolulu CC), Mary Tiles (Vice Chair UHM Senate), Halina Zaleski (UHM CTAHR)

Guests: Kristin Blanchfield (President’s Office), Evan Dobelle (UH President), Chris Li (UHH), Dean Neubauer (UHVPAA), Bill Pearman (UH-West Oahu), Ramsey Pederson (HCC), Mike Rota (UH Community Colleges), Colleen Sathre (AA Policy & Planning),

Meeting called to order by N. Buchanan.

  • Linda Johnsrud facilitated discussion of governance at meeting yesterday which focused on advisory apacity – consensus was that we are not a “legislative-down” body. We are concerned with how we interact with administration so they have a way to put information on our agenda and we can alert administration about our issues.

Evan Dobelle

  • David McClean (Dean UHM-CBA) has been appointed Interim VP Research effective 03/01/03. He will be the liaison with RCUH and will oversee ORS reorganization.
  • Search Committee for VPAA will go ahead without the use of a search firm because of financial constraints. The add goes out electronically this afternoon. The Chief of Staff search committee will be put together. Will discuss VP International Affairs and at what level position will be in the organization following Joyce Tsunoda’s retirement.
  • Will not transmit 1 % across the board raise and bonuses for administrative salary increases because they gotsame raise as faculty. This will save $350,000.
  • Union negotiations: rumors only at this point. The governor is holding firm on salary increases for everyone: 0% first year/1% second year. It is important for me to know if the anger level is getting to strike capacity. I have never crossed a picket line – if faculty walk, everyone walks. I can counsel never to strike when student’ graduation will be affected – better to do at beginning of school year. Would like to know sentiment of faculty before gets to strike stage; prefers long multi year contracts with indexes/
  • Feels communication is important with this group so information can be passed on to campuses. Tuition waiver program is unfunded (lots of federally mandated waivers for Pacific Islanders plus merit, band, athletes, etc) and currently costing UH 31 million dollars. Will e-mail info from Doris Ching’s presentation to BOR yesterday and info memo to Regents today.

Deane Neubauer

  • BOR was very surprised yesterday about the cost of tuition waivers. Need to share this information more widely, especially back to campuses. Tuition income is currently 74 million – an additional 31 million in revenues is lost to waivers.
  • UH is the most accessible state university in the nation.

Evan Dobelle

  • Need to find out how military pays private institutions. Reluctant to raise tuition (especially in light of need to evaluate waiver system) because it is a tax increase. Might want to use Hope scholarship model which identifies scholarship money in the general fund. May want to consider merit scholarships to all in Hawaii with a certain GPA or SAT.
  • There are also legal pressures related to waivers. The West Coast Office of Civil Rights is looking into waivers for Hawaiians because it is race-based.. Sometimes federal categories don’t reflect local condions so we want them to visit to evaluate. Also need to wait to see how the Michigan Case with the Supreme Court comes out because a lot of these issues hinge on the outcome. Kamehameha supports significant numbers of students at UH.

Deane Neubauer

  • Lots of people in the legistature and government do not have historical perspective. UH is working with them to help them get that perspective at least as far back as the beginning of the last biennium. Working with Budget & Finance on net purchasing power for what we need to do and predicating that on bench mark case: FY92 to 2004/2005. Will at least have consensual set of facts to work with. Will distribute information to system that we have been 50 to 70 million dollard underfunded since 1992. UH Costs have increased (collective bargaining) and there has been decreased funding for everything else.

Evan Dobelle

  • Need to have full autonomy discussion based on % of state budget with UH having own bonding. UH funding used to be 13.4% and now is 8% of state budget. If UH had 11% of budget we could inplement strategic plan and give faculty raises. Current autonomy is not real autonomy and UH is looking to 2004 election for referendum. Judiciary has funding category that would work well for UH – the governor cannot restrict their budget.
  • Currently dealing with operating budget not CIP. CIP request is modest. Unfortunately, we are not able to take advantage of the low interest rates at this time for CIP due to the governor’s restrictions.
  • Will send Wick Sloane’s budget presentation.
  • New governor is working off of Cayatano’s budget and the governor’s administration is new. We need to give them slack at this point – if constant, it will be addressed. 21 million restriction over 3 years for the state but instructional for DOE & UH was taken off the table. Republican governors will not increase taxes per the White House. State legislature needs to go to the governor with tax increase for public education – maybe $1-2/night hotel tax. Randy Roth is UH liaison on the governor’s staff. Governor may need Hurricane Relief Fund in the future if economy gets really bad.
  • Discussed how instructional money is designated in a special budget category and that leads to confusion with the legislature because other categories affect instruction as well. The legislature is being educated and sent a strong message about the impact on instruction of cutting other categories such as instructional support. There is no discretionary spending in this budget so any cuts will affect instruction. As a result, the instructional support category has been taken off the table for cuts. Input from campuses was very important in making the case to the legislature. No one in administration is going to argue that these are not instructional cuts. Our message to the legislature was clear: Do not cut our general fund budget.
  • In response to a question about how we make hard decisions about cuts in which some faculty suggested developing criteria, some were uncomfortable about even discussing the possibility of cutting programs: Wick and Deane are working to develop data – how data is used and for what and the interface between tuition account and general fund account. Looking at comparative institutions and trying to determine how many students can be absorbed before increased funds are needed for staff. Need to look at past practice of UH absorbing programs who are no longer funded by grants – there is a pattern of continuing without input from faculty senates. There is also a problem of discretionary spending which involves 1) grabbing a vacancy and not filling it and 2) using operating budget R&M which results with historic imbalance and lack of transparency. The Regents will not want to make cuts and will look to the president to do.
  • Need to look at budget capacity (burden, algorithms, resources) and develop relationship between CIP and operating money. Also need to identify programs that cost more (professional schools) and discuss relationship to fees. Asked what response might be for increasing fees for these programs. Faculty responded: 1) Faculty have been kept out of the budget loop in the past and more involvement would be helpful; 2) Concerned about any talk about budget and wondering what the president is up to; 3) MBA increased tuition 20% X2 and enrollment increased each time; 4) Professionals have the opportunity to make higher salaries after graduation so should be able to pay more for education; 5) It is essential to get budget information to faculty to have intelligent discussion – there is lots of data but not comprehensible or accessible; 6) Need to put budget information into context when giving info to understand the purpose; 7) John Morton at Kapiolani CC did budget seminar with deans and department chairs that was very helpful and a powerpoint tutorial is available. Asked if faculty would be upset if tuition increased. Faculty responded: increased tuition ok if scholarships and financial aid made more available. Deane suggested renaming waivers as scholarships so students feel like they are actually getting something. Need to also look at market based tuition and looking at comparable schools as well as getting analysis of current funding (example: Athletics has a 16 million dollar budget but only gets 1.2 million from general fund). Research is currently floating the system with overhead subsidies.
  • Asked faculty to go to UH Home Page on the Web and put MAPS into the search to find IRO Home Page expenditure report unit cost study. Request that we critique the information in terms of understandability.
  • Prefer getting beneficiaries to support the college instead of raising tuition. Need expenditure study. Faculty questioned where retirement and vacant positions go as they seem to disappear (450 less faculty lines at Manoa, there are FTEs all over the system without money to fill or computer tacking, fear of losing positions has kept people from retiring and forces retaining faculty in order to save positions). It was noted that there is written policy that if tenure is denied, the position will not be lost. E,D. response: faculty need to be involved in making decisions instead of advisory role.
  • No reorganization of the CC until WASC visit in March and substantive change is approved. All titles remain the same until WASC completes.
  • At the next meeting requests assistance with how we present the budget and hold conversations with the community. Faculty suggested we also discuss standards for evaluating administrators. E.D. responded that students want a say in concerning faculty. The reality is that promotion and tenure are peer eval with student input but the students want more say. Always need to look at any evals that are either overwhelmingly bad or good.
  • Faculty reminded E.D. that administration is paid to do administrative work and faculty has to do it on top of their normal load. E.D. responded that reassigned time should be made available for faculty with limited terms to keep from getting entrenched.

Guests departed.

Debriefing followed:

  • Need to find out what evaluations are done now. Page 8 of the Strategic Plan addresses Administrative Evals.
  • Need systematic way for faculty to be involved with the budget and requests to the legislature– how new initiatives go through and standards for the processes.
  • Get nominees for VPAA search – administration will be cultivating inhouse applications. Should be looking to train interested members of the faculty for administration.
  • Continuing issues/concerns: 1) Standards for Administrative Evals and follow-up; 2)Budget & Planning; 3) Be force for minimal standards of governance at campuses; 4) equity release time for chairs; 5) Tuition and fees increases and waivers; 6) Systemwide Ids; 7) Follow-up on account from VPAA for reimbursing travel expenses last semester; 8) Faculty representation on committees– what does ACCFSC represent vs campus; 9) Status of Transition Team.
  • Lynn Hodgson will follow-up on administrative evals: how they are done now.

The majority of faculty senatesin the system passed the followingACCFSC Resolution on Committees: Be it resolved that the appointment of faculty representation to any of the following committees shall only occur through appropriate faculty governance bodies: a) search committees for academic administrators above the department level; b) academic planning and policy committees; c) budgeting planning and implementation policy committees; and d) student-faulty relations policy committees. The appropriate faculty governance body in each case is the primary campus faculty senate. Where a campus possesses more than one senate, it is presumed that, in the case of issues arising the impact of which is felt most immediately at the level of some subunit, the primary faculty senate defer to faculty governance body of the unit most immediately affected.

Next meetings: Thursday, March 13 at Manoa Bachman Hall: Budget discussion

Friday, March 14 at Leeward CC: 1) Follow up on governance; 2) Administrative evals; 3) Budget (ask for campus input on tuition waiver/professional fees)

Minutes submitted by Marge Kelm

[1]Chapter 2: “Role of Academic Senates”by Kenneth P. Mortimer inSharing Authority Effectively(1978); “The Governance of Higher Education” by Edward R. Hines in Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research (2000); and Chapter 19: “The Latent Organizational Functions of the Academic Senate: Why Senates Do Not Work But Will Not Go Away” by Robert Birnbaum reprinted from Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 60, No. 4, July/August 1989.