Attendance: (Those present indicated by an underline)
Officers: President Fisher, President-Elect Schoenberger, Past President Larkin, Secretary: Williams, Treasurer: Buske
IFO Board Members: Hill, Johnson, Kilborn
Unit Representatives: COB SubbaNarasimha, COE Hornstein, FAH Condon COSE Akubue, COSS Ore, SS C. Inkster
Negotiator: Langen
Guests: Provost Michael Spitzer; Pat Arseneault – IFO; Robert Lavenda; Judy Foster; Mark Nook
1. Call to order at 3:15 PM
Motion to skip the Treasurer’s Report ; and after Call for New Agenda Items, move to New Business (in the interest of time) (Larkin/Buske). Passed
2. Call for new agenda items
6.f. COE Fact finding audit
Motion to move the agenda to item 6.d. (to accommodate Pat Arseneault’s schedule) (Subba/Kilborn). Passed
Pat Arseneault explained that a motion was filed in federal court by Geoffrey Tabakin to enforce the Zmora agreement and to request that the court maintain jurisdiction over the results (this oversight expired on February 10th). A hearing has been scheduled for July 12 to determine if SCSU is in contempt of court by not mandating diversity training for all faculty.
Provost Spitzer joined the discussion at this point and offered additional information. We have no choice but to offer mandatory training this semester. We will probably schedule a series of training events during final exam week. We could offer 75-minute sessions 12 different times over three days and faculty could choose the one to attend that best fit their schedule. We could investigate also making the training available over WebCT or D2L. After we’ve done that, the Provost would like to take this information to the court in June and suggest that the July hearing be cancelled.
This is an opportunity for professional development and should be ongoing. We will offer similar programs during new-faculty orientation in the fall and have some activities that continue throughout the year. We can discuss this at Thursday’s Meet & Confer to develop some strategy. Some faculty committees have made significant progress addressing diversity education, and we need to continue our efforts. The Provost asked for the assistance of the Executive Committee in gaining full attendance and letting faculty know that this is just the beginning. We need to do more and we recognize that.
The agenda was moved to 6.e.
President Fisher noted that there are concerns with Article 22 on p. 86 of the contract. No other state university gives the PDR comments to the Dean automatically except for Metro, where it’s done both ways. President Fisher would like to take this to the IFO Board and if they agree with the interpretation, we should be fine.
Mark Nook and Judy Foster said that Deans have the right to come talk to anyone in the department, and what can happen is that strictly verbal conversations can be taken into account and there is no record of any of this. There can be under-the-table dealings. Requiring that department comments go to the dean is a way of formalizing the process and puts everything on top of the table. As the contract appears to read now, comments on the PDP must be given to the dean, while it is not mandatory for PDR comments to go forward. The goal is to protect faculty members from informal off-the-record discussions with deans. We need to treat all faculty members alike.
It was mentioned that faculty might find it helpful to have Mark and Judy and Kristi Tornquist to hold some general meetings for EPT members to clarify issues now that the procedure has been in place for one year. We also need to update the policy on the web site.
6. New Business
a. Negotiations (Langen)
Negotiator Langen gave the committee an update on the current negotiations. The negotiations have broken down.
b. Administrative VP Search (Meet & Confer Issue) –
President Fisher reported that President Saigo that he would like to do an instate search for this position and it should start immediately. He has requested two faculty for the committee and it will meet over the summer. The faculty will be paid for their days.
We’re required to do national searches for faculty and this is a helpful and healthy requirement.
The committee agreed for FA President Fisher to ask the Administration if they wish to place this issue on the Meet and Confer agenda.
c. Internal Audit
President Fisher reported that there will be an informal audit regarding the $11 million less that Mankato spends per year, yet they pay their faculty better and we have the large class sizes. We just need to get some questions answered.
Other
In order to complete some work in a timely manner, Monica and Donna were willing to work late on a few occasions. Theresia ordered food trays.
Motion to pay the bills for the food. (Williams/Kilborn) passed
7. Adjournment at 5:15 PM.