Meeting
Tuesday, April 22, 2003
9:00 AM, Gilbert (west) 201
Committee Members Attending: Robert Davis (RD), Romance Languages; Susan Fagan (SF), Retired-English, Peter Gilkey (PG), Mathematics, Lynn Kahle (LK), Sports Marketing (co-chair), Business; Jim Long (JL), Chemistry (co-chair), Jeanne Wagenknecht (JW), Business; Greg McLaughlan (GM), Sociology (Senate President 2002/3).
Reports: GM presented on employment practices and rights. He will send the handout around electronically so that it can be added to these minutes. His written document summarized the categories to be included in the final Senate report. A discussion followed: Should our report address philosophical questions concerning the role of NTTIF in the university as a whole? SF and PG related historical information about NTTIF in English and Math departments at the UO, respectively. JL reminded the committee that Romance Languages now hires some of its instructors term-by-term, requiring all new paper work every quarter. This seems both wasteful of resources and not nice to the instructors, especially if enrollment patterns don't demand that.
PG refocussed the discussion to our report: We should work for small but significant changes that are doable. Johnson Hall is supportive of solid methods and procedures and will likely sign on enthusiastically to our recommendations. It is good for an organization to have good, codified procedures and practices.
GM: Given that administrators and department heads change frequently, it is especially important to have well-documented policies.
PG pointed out the value of the stated policies on personnel matters like department heads dealings with NTTIF. LK and SF confirmed that SF will compile the report draft sections into a final draft for the Senate report.
PG and LK confirmed that Gwen Steigelman will come to our meeting next week (4/29). We should give her a copy of our draft before that meeting.
Various members (JL/PG/GM/LK) strategized about how to present the report to the Senate on 5/14. We should prepare an executive summary (one page) along with a web link to the complete report. JL reported on the preliminary results of our surveys. PG pointed out that eventually a lot of the survey data should be posted on the web for public consumption. The committee should review the data and reports first.
JL pointed out the salient facts of summaries of data on NTTIF salaries and FTE sent to him by Andrea Larson. PG questioned the numbers for the Math department and JL agreed to recheck the data for accuracy.
JW asked whether the survey results were being processed by a competent researcher. JL (and GM) assured her that Vikas Gumbhir knew what he was doing.
LK asked for clarification on data previously presented. That was a comparison of UO salaries with the averages from the eight UO AAUDE peer institutions. It turns out that the Senate has been using AAUP data instead, so the AAUDE data would not serve the Senate Budget Committee's purposes.
PG said that the committee is not ready for a town hall meeting in fall 2003, but might be ready in Winter 2004. LK reminded us that we will probably use the summer to formulate recommendations from the survey results. GM recommended that whatever we produce should be in the format that is adoptable by the Senate. SF asked whether we should include the information on taxonomy gathered in Fall 2002. GM suggested that this would be useful. JL agreed to write up any remaining issues relating to salary for the final draft of our report.
Drafts of each person's part of the final report draft should be in by Monday, April 28, in time for them to be sent to Gwen.
The committee discussed possibilities of meeting in early May to polish the final version of the Senate report.
Meeting adjourned at 10:43 AM
Minutes by Robert Davis.