Oakland University Senate
Thursday, October 15, 1981
Second Meeting
128, 129, 130 Oakland Center
MINUTES
Senators Present: Akers, Appleton, Arnold, Briggs-Bunting, Brown, Burdick, Champagne, Chipman, Copenhaver, Coppola, Cowlishaw, Dawson, Downing, Eberwein, Eklund, Eliezer, Feeman, Frampton, L. Gerulaitis, R. Gerulaitis, Ghausi, Gregory, Grossman, Hammerle, Heubel, Horwitz, Ketchum, Kurzman, Lambric, Mallett, Miller, Otto, Pine, Rhadigan, Russell, Sakai, Scherer, Schwartz, Sevilla, Stanovich, Strauss, Stokes, Swartz, Tripp, Witt
Senators Absent: Bieryla, Boulos, Christina, Gardiner, Hershey, Hetenyi, Hightower, Hildebrand, Howes, Kleckner, Lindell, Maloney, Pak, Pino, Somerville, Wilson
President Champagne called the meeting to order at 3:06 p.m. Upon motion of Mr. Gerulaitis, seconded by Mr. Strauss, the Senate approved the minutes of its September meeting without discussion.
Attention turned directly to the first order of business, a resolution from the Committee on Academic Standing and Honors (Moved, Mr. Feeman; Seconded, Mr. Miller):
MOVED that a student holding a baccalaureate degree cannot have his or her undergraduate GPA modified by additional work; however, a student who holds a baccalaureate degree and who qualifies for an additional baccalaureate degree may receive departmental and University honors provided that consideration for honors shall be based only upon the additional credits- presented for the additional degree, such additional credits to total at least 62.
Mr. Feeman introduced Mr. Ring, now chair of the sponsoring committee, as the Senate's best source of information on this proposal. Mr. Miller suggested that the resolution might prove unnecessary if the Senate merely deleted the final clause, "nor can the student be a candidate for University or departmental honors," from the existing policy of March 13, 1975, as quoted in the comment section of the agenda. Mr. Ring worried that problems could develop if the legislation referred only to students holding Oakland University baccalaureates; he observed that the comment attached to the previous legislation in Senate records included students from any university. Replying to Mr. Miller's doubts about this proposal as misleading in that it suggests a non-existent discrepancy in policy, Mr. Ring cited recent discussions about Nursing students returning for second degrees which indicated ambiguity in the wording of current legislation; read literally the existing policy would differ from the interpretation offered in Senate records. Mr. Feeman argued that the new statement, by dividing the issue into two distinct parts, makes the whole situation much clearer. There was no further debate; the final vote on this proposal will occur at the November meeting.
Mr. Copenhaver, seconded by Mr. Downing then moved approval of amendments to the Constitution of the College of Arts and Sciences:
MOVED that the following amendments be approved in the Constitution of the College of Arts and Sciences (new language underlined):
1. That Article III, section i, subsection 2, be amended to read:
There shall be fourteen members of the Assembly who shall be elected from the full-time non-visiting faculty members holding primary appointments in the College of Arts and Sciences. The electorate shall consist of all faculty members holding primary appointments in the College of Arts and Sciences with one of the following academic titles: Special Instructor, Instructor Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor. These members shall be elected at large from the electoral groupings as determined in Article III (ii), below, provided that the number of elected representatives from each electoral grouping be proportional to its number of faculty members in the College as a whole, and provided further that:
a. elected members shall serve two-year terms, staggered as to term,
b. the College Elections Committee shall implement this provision.
2. That Article III, section ii, be amended to read:
For all electoral and appointive purposes specified herein, the Executive Committee, with the approval of the Assembly, shall determine representational groupings of departments which share, as nearly as possible, similar disciplinary and scholarly traditions. These groupings may be reviewed at any time by the Executive Committee to assess their continued representational adequacy, but they must be so reviewed during the Fall Semester of every second year.
3. That Article IV, section i, be amended to read:
All full-time faculty members holding primary, non-visiting appointments in the College of Arts and Sciences shall be eligible to serve on its standing committees, except that members of the Executive Committee of the Assembly shall be members of the Assembly and members of the Committee on Appointment and Promotions shall be bargaining unit faculty members. All Standing committees of the College shall report to the Executive Committee of the Assembly. Unless otherwise specified by the Assembly, the faculty term of office of all standing committees shall be three years, with members serving staggered terms. Nomination and ratification of members to standing committees, except where elective, shall take place in the winter semester, with service to begin the subsequent academic year.
4. That Article IV, section ii, be amended in its introductory paragraph, that a new subsection 8 be added, and that subsections previously numbered 8 through 11 be renumbered as 9 through 12:
The Assembly shall have an Executive Committee composed of the Dean of the College, who shall be chairman ex-officio and voting, and five College faculty members of the Assembly elected by it, and one student member of the Assembly chosen by the University Congress by its own procedures. There shall be one faculty member from each of the electoral groupings determined under Article III (.ii) , above, the remaining members(s) to be elected at-large, provided further that at least four members be tenured. Faculty members of the Executive Committee shall serve two-year terms, staggered as to term; the length of student member terms shall be determined by the University Congress. The Executive Committee shall:
1. Call all meetings of the Assembly.
2. Prepare the agenda for the Assembly, including the call of all matters from committees.
3. Present to the Assembly for its approval nominees for the chairmanship and membership of all the standing committees of the College.
4. Create such ad hoc committees as it judges necessary and designate the membership and fix the terms of such committees.
5. Refer measures to the standing and ad hoc committees.
6. Receive reports and recommendations from committees to be placed on the agenda of the Assembly, with authority to request reconsideration; after reconsideration, a second recommendation from a committee must be placed on a subsequent Assembly agenda, with or without the endorsement of the Executive Committee.
7. Have authority to introduce independent motions to the Assembly.
8. Have authority to approve on behalf of the Assembly the graduation list and the departmental honors lists of candidates for the degrees offered by the College.
9. Appoint replacements for such Arts and Sciences seats in the University Senate as may fall vacant in the course of a Senate term, as well as for vacated seats on all standing and ad hoc committees of the Assembly.
10. Advise the Dean on all matters he wishes to bring before it; place before the Dean such matters as it deems necessary.
11. Transmit to the University Senate such matters as concern it, and receive communications from the University Senate.
12. Request the Provost of the University to invite up to four faculty members whose primary appointments are not in the College of Arts and Sciences to seats in its Assembly, serving terms of one year, and to inform the Assembly of such invitations.
5. That Article IV, section iv, paragraph one, be amended to read:
The College shall have a Committee on Instruction composed of six faculty members, one of whom shall be chairman, serving two-year terms staggered, at least one from each of the electoral groupings as determined under Article III (ii) and the remaining member(s) to be at-large, and two student members selected by the University Congress. The Dean of the College (or his deputy) shall be a voting member ex-officio. The Committee on Instruction shall:
6. That Article V, section 2, subsection 4, be added to read:
Operate in accordance with and fulfill all duties specified in the current Faculty Agreement between Oakland University and the Oakland University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
7. That Article V, section iii, be amended to read:
The membership of the Committee on Appointment and Promotion shall comprise the Dean as the non-voting member and six tenured bargaining unit faculty members holding full-time non-visiting primary appointments in the College of Arts and Sciences, at least one from each of the electoral groupings determined under Article III (ii) except that no two members of the same department may serve concurrently. The membership shall be elected by those members of the electorate as specified in Article III (i) , (2) who are also members of the bargaining unit. The terms of office of elected members shall be three years staggered as to terms. Elections shall be held in the winter semester for service in the subsequent academic year.
8. That Article VI, section i, subsection 2, be amended to read:
The seats shall be apportioned among the electoral groupings as determined in Article III (ii), proportionately to the percentage of the total Faculty of Arts and Sciences in each grouping. Within each grouping there shall be at least one tenured and one non-tenured delegate.
9. That a new Article VII be inserted, to read as follows, with the previous Article VI I renumbered as VIII:
In the event of any conflict between this Constitution and the current Faculty Agreement between Oakland University and the Oakland University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors, the Faculty Agreement shall take precedence.
Like Mr. Feeman, Mr. Copenhaver provided the Senate with a qualified consultant; he introduced Mr. Simmons as one who understands the governance of the College the way Sam Rayburn used to understand the United States Congress.
The first question, raised by Mr. Frampton, referred to Article III, section iii of the current Constitution which stipulates that "student members of the Assembly shall be elected from an electorate composed of all undergraduate and graduate students officially enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences in any semester during which an election is held." He pointed out the difficulties of carrying out such an election and asked that the passage be reworded to stipulate student members selected by the Congress according to its own procedures. As this suggestion refers to a section of the Constitution not modified by the proposed amendments, it can not be implemented without going through the constitutionally specified amendment procedures, cumbersome though they may be. Mr. Copenhaver thanked Mr. Frampton for his concern and promised to work with the University Congress to resolve this problem.
Mr. Ketchum then noted an apparent conflict between Article IV, section i, which limits membership on the Committee on Appointment and Promotions to bargaining unit faculty members, and Article V, section iii, which lists the Dean as "the non-voting member" of the same committee. Mr. Simmons replied that Article IV, i, stipulate' faculty members elected to the CAP and does not pertain to the Dean who serves on the committee as Oakland's contractually allowed appointee. Mr. Copenhaver thought that the term "non-voting" qualified the Dean's position, and Ms. Burdick suggested that the word "elected distinguished the remaining members.
Mr. Heubel, seconded by Mr. Gerulaitis, then asked the Senate to waive the second reading of this proposal and to consider this debate in the light of a second session in order that the College might conduct CAP elections on a timely schedule to be ready for necessary personnel actions. He felt the need to get these amendments to the Board as soon as possible for its approval. Calling upon his knowledge as Senate Parliamentarian, he noted that the body could waive a second reading with the consent of three-quarters of the members present. When that vote revealed unanimous support for proceeding to a final vote. President Champagne called for a vote on the main motion, and the amendments were approved without dissent. The President then took advantage of the Good and Welfare portion of the meeting to wish Mr. Copenhaver good fortune in always being able to get off so easily.
President Champagne then proceeded to several information items. He observed that annual reports of the Academic Conduct Committee and University Admissions Committee had been distributed to Senators with the agenda. He then announced his appointees to the Executive Committee on the Budget which will soon begin working on the 1982-83 budget; when this committee makes its recommendations to the President, he will air the proposals publicly to invite community response from the Senate and other groups. Members of the Executive Budget Committee are Mesdames Lindell and Ray-Bledsoe and Messrs. Bunge, Catton, Copenhaver, Eklund, Harris, Horwitz, Kendall, Kleckner, McGarry (Chair), Pine, Swanson, and Wilson. The group includes a goodly number of deans to provide strong representation for academic interests.
Regretting that he had nothing encouraging to say about the budget, President Champagne divulged that he had heard only the afternoon before that the governor has called for an additional three percent cut for higher education, taken this time from our 1981-82 budget base. If approved by legislative committees, this cut will mean a severe loss to Oakland University especially if followed (as seems likely) by a third cut in the winter or spring. The University risks losing its total increase over last year's budget despite contracted salary adjustments, rising fuel costs, and general inflation. The problems are compounded by an unexpectedly drastic loss of tuition revenue in the summer and fall terms, caused largely by diminished graduate enrollments; even though undergraduate enrollment has risen, revenues decline. No tuition increases are under consideration because of the hardships such action would impose on students. President Champagne commended the students for efforts to make their voices heard in Lansing through responsible use of the political process. He felt it unfortunate that higher education takes a significant burden of every funding cut in Lansing but took some comfort from the governor's decision not to push for immediate property tax reductions.
With no additional cuts, President Champagne expected that the University could survive by calling upon its contingency plans and budgeted reserves. Exercising fiscal caution, however, in view of continuing possible losses, he has announced to the Board an immediate two percent expenditure reduction across the board, to be imposed within each division as its officers direct. He hoped that the community would bear with these continued reductions, as no alternative yet exists without the endowment reserves he intends to build through development efforts.
In the question period that followed presidential remarks, Mr. Heubel inquired whether the University had not anticipated this cut and held expenditures in line. He learned that it had planned thus astutely; although budget projections did not anticipate so great a tuition shortfall. Ms. Tripp requested a definition of across-the-board in this situation. President Champagne replied that it included general fund monies only and that he was asking each vice president to figure out the best response for her or his division: savings from lapsed positions, supplies and services funds, travel allocations, or whatever. He is not yet talking about a University-wide hiring freeze.
Mr. Russell asked whether the now defunct budgeted reserves included scientific enrichment funds. They did, although some scientific equipment was already included in the main budget and will be bought. Mr. Russell thought this arrangement would be fine if the main budget was adequate, but President Champagne made no attempt to argue its sufficiency for scientific equipment or library acquisitions.
Mr. Eklund indicated that the Extension Office has been operating this year on the implied assumption that it should hold the line on enrollments; he now wondered whether his people should go out and beat the bushes. When President Champagne deferred to Mr. Beards lee for a report on enrollment prospects, Mr. Beardslee noted that enrollments are now down in graduate programs, especially in the School of Human and Educational Services; he felt that OU might be able to reverse the trend slightly in the winter but will face trouble in the spring because that term draws an upper-level student body wanting specialized, small courses.
Mr. Sevilla inquired whether, given recent legislative funding levels which make no allowance for actual enrollment, we lose anything but tuition revenues when student numbers decline. President Champagne agreed that the state has abandoned its official formulas in recent years and is now substituting across-the-board increases for all higher educational institutions. He worried that increased dependence on tuition, perhaps up to half the cost of each student's education, would drive universities into discount marketing' offering anything just to maintain numbers. Mr. Ketchum then inquire' what schools with declining enrollments now say at Lansing to maintain their funds. Observing that such institutions are faring reasonably well so long as losses come gradually, the President indicated that they justify continuing high levels of funding on the basis of program complexity. He was willing to concede this argument to Michigan Technical University but not to most others; yet Oakland still ranks twelfth among the fifteen state institutions in per-person: allocations. Lansing evidently judges that this University grew too rapidly, and he sees this funding dilemma as an impetus to reconsideration of Oakland's present complexity in relation to its revenue base. With no further questions from the floor. President Champagne welcomed Mr. Gerulaitis' call for adjournment at 3:50 p.m.
Respectfully submitted:
Jane D. Eberwein
Secretary to the University Senate