I.       Approval of minutes
II.      President's Report
III.     FASO -- Provost McDavis
IV.     Research Faculty Appointment and Compensation  Policy [attachment]
V.      Contingent Appointments and the Academic Profession [Attachment] -- G. Sarkozi
VI.     Legislative & Statewide Relations Committee  -- R. Andrews & P. Cummins
VII.    Announcements
                Just Say Hello Committee -- R. Andrews

Present: Abell, Abbott, Adera, Adyemi, Anderson, Andrews, Beardsley (Jackson as alternate), Bogacki, Boothby (Hoban as alternate), Briceland, D. Brophy, G. Brophy , Brookman, Carpenter, Certosimo, Cooper, Cramer, Cummins, Dent, Dery, Dewey (Ingrof as alternate), Donnell, Ghosh, Guidarelli, Hague, Harvie, Heller,  Holmes, Ingersoll , Iuorno,  Jeter, Johnson, Kester, Kinney (Overvold as alternate), Korzun, Kuemmerle, Lamb, Lewis, McCain, McDonnough, McMahon, McVoy,  Moon, Murphy-Judy, Nicholson, Olds, Pitts, Poynor , Putman, Pyles, Ream, Sarkozi, Seago, Sholley, Simons, Thoma, Turman, Welleford, Wynne

Absent: Chessin, Corey, Hutchinson, Mays, McCreary, Munoz, Salandro, Sutherland, Tait, Taylor, Thompson.

President Judy Lewis called the meeting to order at 4:05 p.m.

1. The minutes of the November 11th meeting were approved without revision.

2. President Lewis reported on the revision of the Bylaws of the Faculty, which is now undergoing legal review by University General Counsel David Ross. It will then go to the entire VCU faculty for vote.

3. Lewis reported that the Faculty Senate Executive Committee is participating in interviews with candidates for the Dean of Students position.

4. Lewis reported on the new committee formed to finalize the Data Ownership Policy, which met for the first time on November 10th. The committee consists of four academic campus faculty, four MCV campus faculty, and four administrators. They expect to bring a final draft document to the March Faculty Senate meeting for review and if approved, to the May, 2004 VCU Board of Visitors meeting for final approval. Lewis asked that faculty with questions about data ownership submit them to her by e-mail jalewis@hsc.vcu.edu by December 9th so they can be addressed in a FAQ document being prepared on this policy.

5. Vice President for Research Marsha Torr spoke about the proposed Research Faculty Appointment and Compensation  Policy [attachment]

She wants VCU to be competitive in retaining researchers in years when there are no state raises. VCU was returning money to NIH when raises could not be given. The University of Virginia and Virginia Tech now have policies  which allow salary increases with grant money. VCU needs a category of employee to enable pay increases with soft money. These  research faculty are not tenure-track—they are very mobile and likely to relocate elsewhere for better salary. A VCU committee studied UVA’s and Virginia Tech’s similar policies and attempted to improve upon both. There will be five levels of hiring and promotion opportunities within each level.
A question was raised concerning benefits for these employees—four weeks of advance notice of severance and post-docs can acrue annual leave-unlike at present.
Another question concerned whether current collateral faculty would automatically be switched over to these new categories and the answer was given that this would not be done across the board—but on a case-by-case basis. President Lewis noted that the Faculty Senate Executive Committee reviewed this policy proposal two weeks ago and enthusiastically supported it. The full faculty Senate will vote on this at the January 27th meeting.

6. Provost Roderick McDavis announced that the Faculty Alternate Severance Option (FASO) program had been reopened for 2004 and 2005, but administrative faculty are not eligible this time.

Deans and Vice-Presidents have been informed of this. Last year 153 faculty applied, 130 were approved, and 115 finally accepted the FASO package offer. Of these, twenty-six  faculty were in the Arts, twelve in Business, six in Humanities & Sciences, three in Social Work, and three in Pharmacy- 94 of the 115  faculty were tenured. Deans retained faculty lines for those positions that took FASO. January 21, 2004 is the deadline to apply and faculty will be notified by February 13, 2004 if approved. A question was raised about why administrative faculty were excluded this time and McDavis explained that administrative faculty are not replaceable. Although all administrative faculty are  not administrators (as in VCU Libraries and the School of Medicine) all are excluded from the FASO program. A question was also asked about the difference between FASO and FERIP- FASO is a university-initiated program that can have many participants, FERIP is a statewide program with a very limited number of participants.

7.    Senator Gary Sarkozi of the School of Education discussed the AAUP document  on “Contingent Appointments and the Academic Profession”.

He suggests that a  committee review the document carefully and bring it back to the full Senate for a fuller discussion. Chris Turner noted that Dean Gottfredson in Humanities &  Sciences is asking for development of guidelines to protect contingent faculty in   times of financial stress. Senator Pat Cummins noted that in moving from tier 3 to tier 2 the percentage of tenure track faculty at the university is considered and at   VCU the percentage has declined over the past decade. It was suggested that the  question of adjunct, part-time, and collateral faculty can be addressed by President Trani in the faculty meeting with him on February 3rd. Blue Wooldridge  and the Academic & Professional Status Committee of the Faculty Senate will address this issue and report back to the Senate in March. President Lewis will also  discuss this with President Trani in advance of the February 3rd meeting with the full  faculty. Chris Turner volunteered to e-mail the latest edition of the AAUP document  on  this topic to the full senate.

9. Bob Andrews, Co-chair of the VCU Faculty Senate State Legislative and Statewide
      Relations Committee offered the following motion:

“The VCU Faculty Senate endorses seeking General Assembly approval of a bill to  place nonvoting faculty on boards of universities throughout the state” The motion was seconded and approved by vote.

9. Pat Cummins, the other Co-chair of the VCU Faculty Senate State Legislative and Statewide Relations Committee, described planning for legislative Day at the General Assembly on January 15th. The Faculty Senate of Virginia, the AAUP, Virginia 21 (a student advocacy group) are all participating. Anyone with a close relationship to a legislator should let Pat’s committee know.

10. Dianne Simons, Chair of the Faculty Senate Credentials and Rules committee, announced that the School of Medicine reviewed Bylaws of the Faculty document changes that struck out sections regarding the VA Medical Center. Dianne moved to reinstate the terms VAMC and INOVA to the revised document. She will ask University Counsel to review this change.

11.  Bob Andrews announced that the African-American Studies program wants to send books to Haiti. Bob will send out an  e-mail describing pickup locations and soliciting donations. Children’s and adult books, as well as school supplies, are needed.

12. President Judy Lewis announced that Faculty Senate Vice-President Fred Certosimo has been appointed interim chair of the General Practice Department of the School of Dentistry. He will continue as Faculty Senate Vice-President.
 

The meeting was adjourned at 5:20 p.m.
 

_____________________
Dan Ream, Secretary
 

Posted by Neil W. Henry
January 23, 2004