August 12, 2003

 

Attendance:   (Those present indicated by an underline)

Officers:  President Fisher, President-Elect Schoenberger, Past President Larkin, Secretary S.Q. Williams, Treasurer: Buske

IFO Board Members:  Hill, R. C. Johnson, Kilborn

Unit Representatives:  COB P. N. SubbaNarasimha COE Hornstein, FAH Kilborn, COSE Akubue, COSS Ore, SS C. Inkster

Negotiator:   Langen

1.                  Call to order at 2:10 p.m.  President Fisher declared this meeting an Executive Subcommittee meeting, since there was not a quorum present.

2.                  Minutes – EC Meeting of July 22, 2003

Motion to approve these minutes (Schoenberger/Ore) passed

3.                  Call for new agenda items

7.j.  Suggested Changes to IFO Operating Procedures – 8/1/03

4.                  Treasurer’s Report

Motion to authorize the Treasurer to write a check to the IFO for approximately $1,000 for last year’s secretarial support.  (Schoenberger/Williams) not passed.

President Fisher will consult the IFO to clarify the reason for this overage and confirm if our budget is responsible for this sum.

Motion to table this issue until the next Executive Committee meeting.  (Larkin/) passed.

5.                  President’s Comments

a.       Welcome to Donna West, FA Office Administrative Assistant

b.      FA/MSUAASF Meeting

President Fisher notified Tom Hergert who is representing the faculty in the search for Director of International Student and Scholar Services (MSUAASF) Search Committee.

c.       Committee on Diversity, Anti-Semitism, and Social Justice

Motion to support the name change from the new committee on diversity education to Committee on Diversity, Anti-Semitism, and Social Justice.  (Ore/Schoenberger) passed.

d.      Meet & Confer Notes – July 9

As soon as President Fisher receives these notes, she will send copies to the Committee.

e.       A22/A25 Procedure Update

The intent is to proceed with the new procedures this fall.

f.        Discuss Listserv

Administration decided to support the Senate’s recommendation to remove everyone from the Discuss listserv and have those who wish to sign themselves up.  J. C. Turner will coordinate this.

g.       Committee Calls

-     President Fisher to pursue a task force on restructuring.

-     Senate approved the technology plan, so a committee will be established to study the following     from now until 7/08:

-     Electronic mail

-     E-learning: 

-     Participation needed for Democracy Committee

6.                  Old Business

a.       Meet & Confer Retreat (9/2/03) Agenda, Facilitator

- Article 22/25 Procedure on Agenda

A comment was made that this procedure does not need to be discussed, since it’s a Meet and Confer issue and the focus should be on retreat topics. It was pointed out, however, that there may be a need to discuss this procedure in order to decide how the Faculty Association will educate faculty on these issues.  Perhaps we should develop scenarios around procedures; i.e., what should be done in a certain situation.  We need to know what the university’s plan is to ensure there is understanding by all.  President Fisher was asked to invite Kristi Tornquist, Dick Lewis, Mark Nook, and Judy Foster to the Meet and Confer to participate in the discussion.  President Fisher will prepare a document to send to everyone.

-  Facilitator

Michael Spitzer suggested Dennis Cheesebrow be the retreat facilitator.  President Fisher scheduled a meeting with Cheesebrow immediately following today’s committee meeting to meet him and invited those committee members present.  President Fisher solicited the committee’s thoughts regarding a facilitator.  Questions were raised if Cheesebrow could be neutral and challenging -- as well as the importance of knowing who he has worked with on campus.  President Fisher suggested alternate facilitators: 1) Administration, 2) Faculty Association, and 3) Sharon Cogdill and Judy Foster (both trained facilitators).  It was stated a facilitator would cost $1,000 for three hours.  One opinion was that this cost should be paid for by the university since it is for the overall benefit of the university.  A third option of not having a facilitator at all was suggested – possibly having a committee member facilitating or scribing.  President Fisher will update the committee on this subject.

7.         New Business

Motion to go into Executive Session (Williams/Inkster) passed.

Motion to come out of Executive Session and report out the motions made.  (Williams/Inkster) passed.

a.  Staff Issues – Executive Session (attachments 7a)

Motion to accept the current job descriptions for the FA Office Manager and the FA Administrative Assistant.  (Williams/Larkin) passed.

Motion to request the IFO Board instruct the IFO negotiating team on the IFO staff contract to change the supervision of the FA staff that operates out of the St. Cloud State University campus to the SCSU President and then the SCSU Executive Committee. (Schoenberger/Larkin) passed.

b.   Diversity Plan – Convocation: Diversity Workshops, Faculty Meetings

President Fisher stated diversity activities are on schedule. 

c.       SCSU Survey

Could not hire anyone.  They’ll go ahead with the SCSU survey even if they cannot pay.

d.      Statewide Meet & Confer Agenda (attachment 7d)

What MNSCU plans to do about illegal standard deviations will be addressed as well as lay-offs. 

e.       IFO/SCSU Grievances/Arbitration (attachment 7e)

Steve Hornstein does not want the COE grievance withdrawn.  Past-President Larkin stated the English Department will agree to the withdrawal, since they do not concur and feels it is okay to drop.  He also stated faculty should be advised to file a grievance as soon as something is wrong .  President Fisher will write an e-mail to Frank to go ahead and drop the English Department grievance but not the College of Education one. Terms for the agreement for Highway Safety have been signed and filed at Step III by the IFO.  It was stated no one can make any more claims regarding the Highway Safety Department.  Past-President Larkin stated this subject should be discussed at the retreat as well as the relationship with faculty and administration.

f.        Highway Safety Center Audit

The audit is out – there is no money in the Highway Safety Center.  The conclusions are legal implications.  President Fisher will talk to John Asmussen about this matter.

Motion to move to agenda item 7.j. (Shoenberger/Ore) passed.

j.        Suggested Changes to IFO Operating Procedures – 8/l/03

President-Elect Schoenberger stated at the next board meeting, there are suggested changes the board members should review; i.e., eliminating an Academic Affairs staff member.  President Fisher stated the committee should discuss this subject when the entire group is present.

g.       COE TQE Grant

Teacher Development nor other departments with an interest in student teaching were included.  Departments must meet and discuss the grant.  Steve Hornstein asked us to be aware of this matter.  The current issue falls under Article 20.  The faculty are divided.  At issue is the implementation of a co-teaching model. 

h.       American Democracy Project
                        Provost Spitzer signed up SCSU for this -- students engage in civic activities.  He would like to                         talk about this at Convocation.  The Senate has already approved.

i.         Civility and Academic Freedom (attachment 7i)

This was given to the Executive Committee for our feedback.  We will take this to Senate.  This addresses a professional atmosphere and preserving academic freedom.  A concern was stated with the last line of the draft, “Consistent with these policies, disciplinary action will be taken against individuals when violations occur.”  President Fisher stated we should make this subject a regular Meet and Confer topic.

8.  Adjournment at 3:55 p.m.