MINUTES
REGULAR MEETING OF THE REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY
OF THE DAVIS DIVISION OF THE ACADEMIC SENATE
Tuesday, June 5, 2001
3:30 – 5:30 p.m.
Memorial Union, MU II
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Chair Jeffery Gibeling began the meeting informally, a quorum having not yet been certified. A roster of members present and absent is attached as Appendix I to these minutes.
Chair Gibeling announced the following: a) The Regents have passed a resolution that effectively rescinds SP-1 and SP-2. Their actions return authority for setting admissions criteria to the Academic Senate. The Academic Senate will be busy over the summer looking at our admissions criteria and thinking about changes that are warranted. There will also be Statewide considerations as well. b) The Chancellor and I have appointed a Committee on Worklife Balance co-chaired by Emily Goldman, Political Science and Diane Wolf, Sociology. This committee has been charged with looking at integrating work and family responsibilities. The challenges of managing the competing demands of work and personal life are greater than ever before. Competing professional, personal, and family demands and their potential effects on productivity, recruitment and retention, diversity, learning and health present challenges that call for new policies and strategies. These policies and strategies must be aimed toward changing the campus climate to make it receptive and supportive for current and future university community employees (faculty, staff and graduate students) with relevant personal and family responsibilities.
2. Announcements by the President - None
3. Announcements by the Vice Presidents – None
4. Announcements by the Chief Campus Officer – None
5. Announcements by Deans, Directors, or other Executive Officers – None
6. Special orders
A. Remarks by the Chair of the Staff Assembly, Pamela Torrey
Chair Gibeling prefaced the remarks by Pamela Torrey by saying that as he mentioned at the April 16 Representative Assembly meeting a slight change has been made concerning Representative Assembly meetings by adding remarks by the Chairs of the Academic Federation and the Staff Assembly. Linda Hughes, Chair of the Academic Federation, made a presentation at the April 16 meeting; today we will hear from Pamela Torrey.
Ms. Torrey said it gave her great pleasure to have the opportunity to address the Representative Assembly. She said she was serving as the Chair of the Staff Assembly this year and that she has been a member of the Staff Assembly Executive Council for four years. She said the purpose of the Staff Assembly is to promote the welfare and interests of the staff and to provide an avenue for staff to participate in university affairs. She said they had some very key standing committees, i.e. the Diversity Awareness, Scientific and Professional Staff, Staff Insurance, and TGFS to name a few. She noted the Staff Assembly web-site and the quarterly staff newsletter. She reported that TGFS week this year was a huge success and that attendance at the TGFS barbecue was approximately 4400 people, more than double that of previous years. She mentioned the Citations for Excellence Awards noting that the recipients receive a certificate signed by the Chancellor and an invitation to a reception at the Chancellor’s residence. She also mentioned the Staff Scholarship Award based on demonstrated academic potential, community service, and financial need.
She said we are all critical to the mission of the campus and that Staff Assembly participates by providing a constituent organization to deal with various issues – staff recruitment, growth, diversity. She said Staff Assembly is represented on a multitude of campus committees, including representation on at least one Academic Senate Committee.
She then offered to respond to questions. There being none, she was thanked for her presentation and she departed.
Chair Gibeling noted that the body was still short of a quorum by two members. He reported that he has asked the Committee on Elections, Rules and Jurisdiction to look into this issue as to how the quorum rule could be slightly modified. This issue will be on the June Executive Council agenda.
He noted that most of the Annual Reports were on the Consent Calendar and asked if there were any that any member of the Representative Assembly wished to remove. Professor Landau asked that the Annual Report of the Committee on Research be removed. Hearing no other requests, the following reports were noted as having been received and placed on file: Academic Freedom and Responsibility, Academic Planning and Budget Review, Admissions and Enrollment, Affirmative Action and Diversity, Courses of Instruction, Educational Policy, Emeriti/ae, Executive Council, Faculty Privilege Advisers, Faculty Welfare, Grade Changes, International Studies and Exchanges, Senate/Federation Personnel, Preparatory Education, Privilege and Tenure, Public Service, Student-Faculty Relationships, Teaching, Undergraduate Scholarships, Honors and Prizes, and the Report of the Public Service Committee from the April 17 meeting announcing the recipient of the Public Service Award for 2001.
Discussion then ensued on the Annual Report of the Committee on Research with Professors N. Landau, J. Money, P. Hays, G. Clark, R. McDonald and others participating. N. Landau asked how this year’s process differed from last year. R. McDonald responded that three years ago at the Chancellor’s Fall Conference it was agreed that greater effort should be made to increase the number of grants from the College of Letters and Science. (He noted that he was using L&S as a way of describing the humanities/social science areas but that these areas were not exclusively in L&S.) He said this year the committee sent out a call for applications for two Faculty Research Grant programs, the 4K and 12K program, so called after the maximum allowable budget for each program. These programs replace the 1.5K, 3K, and 10K programs that were in effect in previous years. With this change, the Committee hoped to attract a larger number of high-quality applications, and to make a smaller number of slightly larger awards, thus supporting the most promising proposals.
R. McDonald said the Committee also initiated the Faculty Incentive Award Program and set aside $50,000 for this purpose. He was asked about the number of faculty who received this award. He reported that the number of applications was disappointing and that a subcommittee is currently investigating the reasons for the limited success of this pilot program. J. Money asked about the criteria for the Faculty Incentive Award and R. McDonald said there were no written criteria other than what appeared in the call.
Discussion then ensued concerning the success rate of Faculty Research Grant applications. Professors Greg Clark, Colin Cameron and others suggested that rather than the Committee on Research perhaps it would be best to delegate the decisions to the departments since they are in a better position to make informed decisions on the quality of the applications.
Chair Gibeling interjected that he had been informed that a quorum was present and he therefore wanted to move this discussion along in order to take up the other business needing action today. Chair Gibeling called the meeting to order.
1. Minutes of the April 16, 200l meeting – The minutes were noted as having been received and placed on file.
6. Special
orders
F. Annual Report of the Committee on Committees. Professor Jessica Utts, in Chair Judith Stern’s absence, presented the Annual Report of the Committee on Committees. She reported the Divisional Officers for 2001-2002: Jeffery C. Gibeling, Chair; Bruce Madewell, Vice Chair; Anita Oberbauer, Secretary. She moved confirmation of the 2001-2002 appointments to standing and special committees appearing on pages 20-22. The motion was seconded and approved.
H. Annual Report of the Committee on Distinguished Teaching Awards. J. Gibeling announced that due to technical difficulties, the announcement of the recipients of the Distinguished Teaching Award for 2001-02 will not occur until the first meeting of the Representative Assembly in the Fall.
7. Reports of special committees – None
8. Reports of standing committees
A. Report of the Committee on Elections, Rules and Jurisdiction – J. Gibeling called attention to page 76 of the Call to the Meeting and noted that the Call for Nominations for membership on the Committee on Committees (2001-2003) initiated in the Fall, 2000, resulted in three nominations. The number of places to be filled was three positions. Therefore, the election by postal ballot was omitted and all three nominees were declared elected. He said the Representative Assembly must, however, ratify this action and instruct the Secretary of the Davis Division to declare all nominees officially elected. He invited a member of the Assembly to make a motion to this affect. Philip Yager so moved. The motion was seconded and carried.
He then reported that the Report of the Committee on Elections, Rules and Jurisdiction appearing on page 77 of the Call to the Meeting does not require ratification by the Assembly; it is simply a report of the Committee on Committee’s election results for 2001-2004. He reported that those elected were: Carroll Cross, Melvin Ramey, and Vicki Smith.
9. Petitions of students – None
10. Unfinished business
B. Proposed Amendment to Bylaw 39 (Election and Term of Office – Committee on
Committees) – J. Gibeling noted a technical change necessary to the amended legislation approved at the June, 2000 Representative Assembly meeting. He said the shift in the election schedule to March rather than October presents operational difficulties because the nomination process conflicts with finals week and Spring break. The technical amendment would call for the election to be initiated during the first week in Spring Quarter each year. Also, the effective date of the appointments, immediately after their election is determined by the Committee on Elections, Rules and Jurisdiction, presents operational difficulties because the committee appointment process for the following academic year is in mid-stream at that time of year. The proposed amendment moves the effective date of terms of office from Spring quarter to September 1 following election. A motion to approve the proposed legislation appearing on page 78 of the Call to the Meeting was made, seconded and carried.
C. Proposed Amendment to Regulation 538 – Professor Charles Hunt presented the proposal to modify Regulation 538 appearing on page 79-81 of the Meeting Call. The proposal would allow mid-term exams outside of normal class time. He moved acceptance of the proposed amendments. The motion was seconded. Chair Gibeling noted that this proposal has not yet been reviewed by the Committee on Elections, Rules and Jurisdiction, CERJ, and therefore the motion should be amended to include the phrase, “subject to review by CERJ”. The maker of the motion accepted this slight modification. The modified motion was seconded.
Discussion ensued in which Terence Murphy, Chair, Committee on Educational Policy spoke against the proposal. He said CEP believes that a change in the Regulations to allow an instructor to specify a midterm time that is not a regular class time can impose an unreasonable burden on some students. There is the possibility for conflicts with other classes. He said the Registrar has also pointed out that many more courses will soon be scheduled in the hours between 5 and 7 p.m. and these will undoubtedly be the ones that utilize large lecture halls. With regard to Saturdays, in many fields there are week-end field trips that could pose a conflict. In addition, many students have jobs, internships, or religious observances on Saturdays.
Greg Clark spoke in favor of the motion citing G. Robert Redinbo’s letter, page 83 of the Meeting Call, in which he states his primary reason for using such exam situations was to control cheating and to offer the students more usable time and more space than was normally available in assigned classrooms.
J. Gibeling noted that mid-term examinations can be given out of regular class time with the mutual consent of all students and the instructor so there is some permissive language currently in the Regulations.
Associate Dean Fred Wood, College of Letters and Science and Bryan Weare, Chair of the Committee on Courses of Instruction also spoke against the proposal.
Prior to the vote being taken, it was noted that a change in Regulations requires a majority vote. A vote on the motion was taken and by a show of hands the motion was defeated.
D. Proposed Amendment to Regulation 532 regarding maximum allowed credit for internships – Terence Murphy, Chair, Committee on Educational Policy presented the proposed amendment to Regulation 532 reporting that the intent of this proposed change is to make the limitation on credit for internship and special studies courses consistent with the expectation that students will maintain an average of 15 units per quarter for normal progress. He said the limitation of 12 units per quarter is inconsistent with the new minimum progress requirement and as a precedent Regulation 533 allows students to enroll for a maximum of 15 units in the Independent Study Program. He moved approval of the proposed legislation appearing on page 85 of the Meeting Call. The motion was seconded and carried.
11. University and faculty welfare – None
12. New
business
A. Proposed revisions to the School of Medicine’s grading system. Lawrence Laslett, Chair of the Faculty of the School of Medicine presented the proposed revisions. He reported that of the five medical schools in the UC system four of them have honors/pass/fail with various small differences. He said UC Davis is currently the only UC School that has letter grades. Because of this inconsistency and also philosophically, the School of Medicine Faculty approved the proposal by the required two-thirds vote. It was then considered by CERJ. He moved approval of the proposed revisions to the School of Medicine’s grading system. The motion was seconded. Chair Gibeling reported that this proposal also required review by the University Committees on Educational Policy and Rules and Jurisdiction and then the Assembly (Universitywide) can choose to act on it or simply accept it.
Professor Laslett responded to a couple of questions. A vote was taken and by a show of hands the motion carried.
B. Approval of Bylaws of the Graduate School of Management. Chair Gibeling reported that the Graduate School of Management has had Bylaws and Regulations but that they have never been formally approved by the Representative Assembly. This fact came to light recently with GSM becoming involved in offering an undergraduate major.
David Woodruff, Graduate School of Management (GSM), presented the proposed Bylaws of the Graduate School of Management. He was asked if the GSM faculty has approved the proposed Bylaws and he responded affirmatively. He also said CERJ has signed off on them. He was asked for clarification about the Dean being eligible to be elected as Chair of the Faculty of GSM. He stated that there was recent amendment to Bylaw 50 (systemwide) that disallows the chief administrative officer of a small unit (one which is not divided into departments) from serving as the Chair of the Faculty. A motion to approve the Bylaws of the Graduate School of Management appearing on pages 91-96 of the Meeting Call was seconded and carried.
C. Comments by Professor Patricia Moran. A copy of Professor Moran’s remarks is attached with these Minutes as Appendix II.
The Representative Assembly then discussed appropriate action to be taken as a result of Professor Moran’s presentation. A subcommittee consisting of Vicki Smith, John Vohs, Winifried Schleiner, and Anna Kuhn was appointed to draft a letter of apology and to also consider the larger issues. A copy of that letter is attached with these Minutes as Appendix III.
The meeting adjourned at 5:20 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Jay Mechling, Secretary
Representative Assembly
Davis Division of the Academic Senate
Attachments