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Page 3978 Minutes of Senate Meeting 199 16 Sept 1993
THE SENATE OF MICHIGAN TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
Minutes of Meeting No. 199
16 September 1993
SYNOPSIS: The Senate
(1) approved the minutes of Special Meeting No. 1 (1992-93),
(2) learned that Senate representatives and the Board of Control's
lawyer had worked out a compromise wording for Section III-C
of the new constitution,
(3) received for comment a draft policy proposal from the Special
Hiring Committee,
(4) accepted the new constitution with the compromise wording of
Section III-C of the new constitution,
(5) defeated a motion to return the revised constitution to the
constituency,
(6) elected a president, vice-president and secretary for the new
academic year.
_______________________________________
I. Call to Order
The Senate met at 5:30 pm on Thursday, 16 September 1993, in
Room B37, Electrical Energy Resources Center. Secretary Keen
announced that he had just talked with President Sharik on the
telephone. Sharik had been misinformed about the meeting time
because of confusion caused by the rescheduling of K-Day, and would
arrive late at the meeting. Sharik had suggested that the Senate
could proceed with some routine business until his arrival. Keen
said that Vice-President Vilmann was absent, and the constitution
did not provide for a line of succession past the Vice-President.
Keen called the meeting to order at 5:35.
II. Roll Call of Members
24 Senators or alternates were present. Provost Dobney was
present. Senators or alternate representatives from the following
units were absent: Air Force ROTC, Humanities, IWR, Mining
Engineering, Grad Student Council, and Undergraduate Student Govt.
Absent Senators-at-large: Boutilier, Hubbard.
III. Introduction of New Senators
Keen referred to the list of senators [Appendix B of these
minutes] that accompanied the agenda, and said that several units
had not yet elected new senators, and that full introductions would
be delayed until the next meeting.
IV. Agenda Adjustments
Keen proposed altering the agenda [Appendix A of these minutes]
in a flexible manner to accommodate the delayed arrival of
President Sharik. Necessarily postponed items included approval
of the minutes, report of the President, etc.
V. Report of the Senate Vice-President
Keen said that Vice-President Vilmann had prepared a report on
the activities of the Board of Control since the last Senate
meeting, and that copies would be distributed at the next meeting.
VI. Reports of Committees
A. Elections Committee. Committee Chair Heyman said the Committee
had no report except passage of the proposed constitution in the
spring referendum [Appendix C of these minutes].
B. Board of Control Liaison Task Force. In Vilmann's absence,
Glime commented briefly on a Board meeting in which the tenure
decision of the new Dean of Engineering was tabled.
C. Ad Hoc Nominating Committee for Senate Officers. Keen referred
to the report of the Nominating Committee which was attached to the
agenda [Appendix D of these minutes], and noted that the Committee
had contacted several senators who had not accepted the Committee's
nominations. Keen said that nominations would be accepted from the
floor during the elections scheduled under New Business.
D. Constitution and Constituency Committee. Committee Chair
Heuvers drew attention to the Sharik-Dobney memo [Appendix E of
these minutes] attached to the agenda. Heuvers said the Board of
Control had found Section III-C of the proposed constitution to be
unacceptable. Heuvers said that the Board had not accepted
rewording of Section III-C as proposed in the memo. The phrase
"...no policy shall be established without the approval of the
Senate" simply was not acceptable to the Board. The Board had
approved the constitution, with the condition that mutually
suitable language for III-C could be worked out between the Senate
and the Board's lawyer.
Heuvers referred to the agenda attachment [Appendix F of these
minutes] for a compromise wording of III-C worked out with the
Board's lawyer and Senate officers and Committee members. Heuvers
said the constitution was pre-approved by the Board if the Senate
was willing to accept the language.
Keen said the Senate was presently operating in a sort of
limbo, with the Board having approved a constitution proposed by
the Senate, but with changes that had to be accepted by the Senate.
Mullins asked whether the change was to be voted on under Old
Business. Heuvers said the Senate should vote on the minor changes
proposed by the Board. Filer asked whether the Committee had
recommendations on the change. Heuvers replied that the Committee
had negotiated the change and favored it. Keen said the Senate had
to decide what to do with the change, whether to send it to the
constituency for a referendum, or simply vote on it.
E. Report of the Liaison to the Special Hiring Committee. Glime
distributed a Committee draft document titled "Special Initiative
for Hiring Under-Represented Faculty" [Appendix G of these
minutes]. Glime asked for feedback from senators and constituents
about the document, and said that the Senate will need to approve
some policy soon. Leifer asked for names of the Committee members.
Glime replied that the 12 members included McCoy, Grimm, Glime,
Byers-Sprague, Courtney, several students, and others. Keen asked
how the Committee would proceed. Glime said they were looking to
the Senate for guidance. Possible action included a Senate vote,
or an open forum perhaps sponsored by the Senate. Keen asked if
this were a case of an administratively appointed committee asking
the Senate for its next action.
Provost Dobney said that much controversy surrounded the idea
of special hiring, not only how to do it, but whether to do it,
how it was to be handled, and who had first dibs on the funds.
Dobney said that the policy introduced the idea of departmental
ownership of the positions - that if the persons hired under the
provisions of the position really were qualified, then at some
point the departments should assume responsibility for their salary
or make some other commitment. Dobney said the objective was to
diversify the faculty, but to do it so there is no adverse
reflection on persons hired under the normal process who might fit
in these categories. The goals are to ensure that the persons are
well qualified, and that departments have equal opportunity to
compete for the positions. Dobney said any help the Senate could
give in accomplishing the goals would be appreciated.
Heyman said the proposed constitution permitted proposals to
originate with the university president or representatives. He
added that given the controversy surrounding the policy, there
should be an open forum and sufficient time allowed for discussion,
followed by a Senate vote and forwarding of the approved policy to
the president. Glime asked about arranging an open forum. Keen
replied that the Committee could hold an open forum on its own,
without a Senate decision. Heuvers suggested that the Committee
send a report to the Lode before holding an open forum, since this
is a topic on which the Lode has already published a lot of
comment.
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Page 3979 Minutes of Senate Meeting 199 16 Sept 1993
F. Institutional Evaluation Committee. In the absence of Commit-
tee Chair Hubbard, Mullins distributed a report [Appendix H of
these minutes], and summarized it briefly. Mullins asked about
the final disposition of Proposals 2-92 and 3-92. Keen said these
proposals had been submitted by the Senate president to the Provost
for implementation in July. Dobney said the proposals were still
on his desk, and would be implemented. Heyman asked about the
status of the University Arbitration Committee proposed by the
document. Mullins said he thought this committee was supposed to
handle disagreements arising from implementation of faculty
governance.
VII. Old Business
A. Senate Representation on University Committees. Keen referred
to the agenda attachment [Appendix I of these minutes] which listed
the persons selected by the university president for service on
three university committees. A slate of nominees had been
forwarded to the administration by the Senate in the spring.
B. Adoption of New Constitution. Keen called attention to the
agenda attachment [Appendix F] with the compromise wording of
Section III-C for the new constitution, and asked what the Senate
wished to do with it. Keen said he thought that the compromise
greatly weakened the proposed constitution, and asked whether the
weakened document was an improvement over the old constitution.
Roblee agreed that the Senate seemed little better off with the
compromise. Glime said that under the new constitution, the Senate
could submit proposals directly to the Board of Control, which was
a major improvement. Heuvers said that the new constitution put
the Senate and the administration on an equal footing with the
Board. Heyman asked if the Senate could submit things directly to
the Board. Heuvers said the Senate could go directly to the Board
in the event of a presidential veto of a proposal. Mullins said
a major advantage of the new constitution was the definition of
procedures for taking proposals to the Board; however, he thought
the new wording did weaken the constitution. He suggested that a
return to the drawing board would be a long-winded and marginally
fruitful exercise.
Mullins asked if the revised wording needed to be taken to the
faculty in another referendum. Keen replied that the Senate had
to decide that point. Bornhorst said that the new constitution
represented advances in several areas, including the ability to
discuss financial policy. Heuvers said the Senate had a two-part
task; the Senate first had to approve or disapprove the new
wording, and then had to decide the next step after approval or
disapproval. He proposed that the second step be delayed 90 days
to allow any ballot initiative to be generated by the constituency
that might overturn the Senate decision.
Dobney said that the wording was as strong as the Board would
allow, so the question for the Senate was "Is this good enough?"
Dobney said that the compromise wording provides the Senate with
assurance that normally the Board would not make policy in the
listed areas without Senate input. Dobney said that "normally" is
interpreted to mean "except in dire emergencies". Dobney added
that the administration had to work hard to get the Board to accept
the change. He said that the Board values the opinion of the
faculty expressed through the Senate, and now wants that opinion
before making policy. Dobney said that acceptance of the original
wording could be interpreted as an abdication of legally mandated
responsibility by the Board.
Heuvers moved that the Senate accept the changes in Article
III-Section C negotiated by Senate representatives and the Board's
lawyer. Glime seconded the motion. The motion passed, without
opposition.
Keen asked for the Senate's next action, noting that a 90-day
wait for constituency reaction would mean that the non-academic
groups would not have Senate represenatation before 1994. Grzelak
moved that the revision be submitted as a referendum to the consti-
tuency that originally voted on the constitution. The motion was
seconded. Heuvers asked if the motion referred to the whole con-
stitution. Grzelak said the referendum would be only on the
change. Keen said a negative referendum vote would leave a
confused situation. Bornhorst said a positive vote on the motion
would mean the change was substantial enough to send the matter to
the constituency, and a negative vote would leave the new consti-
tution in place unless the faculty produced a ballot initiative.
Heyman asked whether the Board considered the new constitution
to be binding currently. He asked whether a referendum rejecting
the new wording would be a symbolic or an effective vote. Dobney
replied that the new constitution was approved except for a proviso
on the one piece. If the piece were rejected in a referendum, then
the piece is in limbo and would have to be re-negotiated with the
attorney. Dobney added that the new constitution was in effect,
assuming the piece was taken care of. Mullins said the
Constitution and Constituency Committee had made provision in the
proposed constitution for editorial changes. Further, the changes
do not alter the reality that the Board has the authority to do
what they want to anyway. Heuvers said the compromise wording was
done carefully to preserve the rest of the constitution as much as
possible.
Heyman directed a question to the Provost and the Committee
members, asking whether it might be possible to obtain a more
precise wording than "normally", adding that the Board sort of
"normally" created Ventures. Heuvers replied that "normally" was
directly from the university lawyer, who insisted on it. Dobney
added that the lawyer's interpretation means "under extreme circum-
stances", but that the lawyer gets to define those anyway.
Heuvers commented that elections of representatives from non-
academic groups can proceed under the new constitution, since it
had been approved by the Board. Bulleit said that the compromise
wording was done under legal constraints and did little to change
the intent of the constitution. Most faculty would not understand
why it was being resubmitted as a referendum, and that any sort of
bizarre vote might be returned. Filer said that a referendum vote
seemed to be beating a dead horse. Keen said that this dead horse
had been bruised a lot already.
Grzelak said that the simple statement of "no policy shall be
established without the consent of the Senate" was being taken
away, and that this constituted a major change. Heuvers said that
the Board had voted not to grant that authority to the Senate, so
the issue was essentially dead. The motion failed 1-20.
Keen said that, barring a ballot initiative from the consti-
tuency, the new constitution was in effect.
VIII. New Business
A. Election of Senate Representative to the Selection Committee
for the Dean of Business Administration. Keen said that Sharik
had placed the item on the agenda with a phone call, and had not
specified the number of Senate representatives needed. Davutyan
said that one person was needed from the Senate. Dobney said that
the Committee was chaired by Dean Max Seal and included six elected
faculty from the School of Business, an alumni representative, an
undergraduate and graduate student elected from within the school.
Dobney added that it was desirable for the Senate to select its
representative from outside the School of Business, and as soon as
possible. Keen said that the individual might come from the whole
constituency, and added that the Senate had bobbled its previous
assignment to elect two members to the Selection Committee for the
Director of Information Technology.
Mullins suggested asking for a volunteer. Heyman reviewed the
election procedures for Senate representatives to the Special
Hiring Initiative Committee, as well as the presidential and
provostial search committees. Heyman suggested selecting any
volunteers, or appointing a senator as a temporary Committee member
until the next meeting. Keen called for volunteers. With none
forthcoming, Keen suggested that senators find volunteers in their
departments, and bring back names to the next meeting.
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Page 3980 Minutes of Senate Meeting 199 16 Sept 1993
B. Election of New Officers. Keen gave the floor to Elections Com-
mittee Chair Heyman to conduct the election of Senate officers.
Heyman referred to the report of the Ad Hoc Nominating Committee
[Appendix D] and confirmed Bornhorst's acceptance of the nomination
for president. Heyman called for nominations from the floor; there
were none. Heyman distributed ballots for president and stated
that the ballots contained a line for write-in votes, that the
secret-ballot procedure was proper even with a single nominee, and
that the election of officers would take place in sequence.
Provost Dobney said an announcement of the new policy of 25%
release time for the president should have been made before
nominations closed. Heyman reported that Ted Bornhorst was elected
president, 21-0.
The floor was opened to nominations for vice-president. There
were no nominations other than the three reported by the Nominating
Committee. A motion to close nominations was seconded and passed.
After balloting, Heyman reported that Patricia Moore was elected
vice-president. The floor was opened to nominations for Senate
secretary. Keen stated that he had accepted the nomination of the
committee. A motion to close nominations was seconded and passed.
After balloting, Heyman reported that Bob Keen was elected Senate
secretary. Heyman thanked all the individuals who had volunteered
to stand for election.
C. Meeting Dates for the Senate. Keen introduced a discussion of
Senate meeting dates by noting that two options were available.
Sharik had proposed meeting every first and third Wednesday of each
month, where possible. An alternative schedule circulated with the
agenda [Appendix J of these minutes] provided a meeting every two
weeks. Bornhorst suggested that only the next meeting be
scheduled, and that the Executive Committee consider the subject
of meeting dates.
Mullins asked whether the 5:30 meeting time would be retained.
Keen replied that it would; the 5:30 time was the best compromise
if the 7:30 adjournment was firmly maintained. Grzelak asked about
the results of the spring survey, stating that more frequent
meetings were not a problem if they were held to two hours.
IX. Recess and Reconvention
With the arrival of President Sharik at 7:00 pm, Keen declared
a five minute recess.
President Sharik reconvened the meeting at 7:08. Sharik said
he wanted his timeliness to go on record, because the meeting
announcement and agenda he had received indicated a 7:00 meeting
time. Keen confirmed the notice. Sharik called for a return to
several agenda items that had been bypassed.
X. Approval of Minutes
The minutes of Special Meeting No. 1 (1992-93), held on 21
April 1993, were accepted and corrected. Heuvers asked whether
the results of the roll call vote for the four-year Technology
Proposal should be included in the minutes. Keen said that prece-
dent existed in previous minutes for omitting roll call results by
name, citing two votes for the constitution. Heyman asked whether
it was worth the effort of redoing the minutes. Heuvers said it
would be more consistent to include roll call vote results by name
in future minutes. Grzelak moved that the minutes be approved as
corrected; Roblee and Heyman seconded the motion. The motion was
approved without opposition.
XI. Report of the Senate President
Sharik distributed a summary list of topics he wished to share
with the Senate [Appendix K of these minutes]. He reviewed some
recent Senate accomplishments, noting especially that the teaching
honor roll needed to be revisited. As new areas of involvement,
Sharik listed the faculty handbook, faculty recognition, and
teaching effectiveness.
In some personal reflections on critical issues for the future,
Sharik said that tenure and promotion policy needed particularly
to be brought under Senate auspices. He also indicated that salary
equity for faculty and professional staff was a continuing problem,
with some full professors earning less than middle managers.
Sharik also said it was vital for the Senate to continue bettering
its working relationship with the Board of Control.
Sharik said that staffing of Senate and University committees
was a continuing problem, and the process needed to be coordinated.
Sharik said that he would like Michigan Tech to become a leader in
the matter of hiring minorities and women, exceeding the national
averages in this area.
Sharik mentioned that scheduling of university holidays needed
to be examined for its effect on the academic mission of the uni-
versity. Sharik said that in his own and his colleagues' exper-
iences at other universities, many of the events similar to home-
coming, winter carnival, K-day, etc., are held on weekends, not
during the week. The problem is acute for courses with multiple
lab sections.
Sharik said that the Senate could take the lead in implementing
Total Quality Management (TQM) across the university by incorp-
orating TQM in its own business. He also said that the
administration was supporting shared governance by financing
release time for the Senate president and secretary, and by pro-
viding a half-time secretarial position to the Senate.
Sharik called for questions. Heyman said that he had spoken
with Carol MacLennan, chair of the University Tenure and Promotion
Committee, who had expressed interest in coordinating their review
of policy with the Senate. Sharik said that cooperation was also
expected with the new Ad Hoc Committee for a Conflict of Interest
Policy. Heuvers said the new constitution specified tenure and
promotion policy as Senate business.
XII. New Business (continued)
A. Meeting Dates for the Senate (continued). Sharik distributed
a list of proposed meeting dates [Appendix L of these minutes],
based on the preferred option of two-hour meetings held twice
monthly. Sharik said that scheduling meetings for the first and
third Wednesdays worked best through the academic calendar, but
that the Senate could decide between Sharik's list and the list
furnished with the agenda.
Leifer moved that the next meeting be set for September 29,
that the new officers meet to decide a schedule, and that the
schedule be presented to the Senate at the next meeting. The
motion was seconded. Glime proposed as an amendment that the
motion include a twice monthly basis for meeting. Grzelak proposed
as another amendment that the meeting times be limited to two
hours. Both amendments were accepted as friendly. TV studio
personnel said that studio would be available on the 29th.
The motion passed without opposition in a voice vote.
XIII. Announcements
Glime inquired about the Board of Control Liaison. Bornhorst
said the new Executive Committee would handle the appointment.
Sharik offered a general thank you to all individuals who had
worked in and with the Senate in the preceding year. He announced
that he was leaving the university in late November, having
accepted the headship of the Department of Forest Resources at Utah
State University. Sharik said he would be happy to provide
historical perspective on some of the issues that would confront
the Senate in the future.
XIV. Adjournment
Leifer moved to adjourn. There were many seconds. President
Sharik declared the meeting adjourned at 7:40 pm.
Submitted by Robert Keen
Senate Secretary
.