The Council of Illinois University Senates
Minutes of Meeting Held at
Eastern Illinois University
March 21, 2003
Booth Library Conference Room; 9:30-12:15; 1:30-3:30
(Approved)
Senate Chairpersons/Representatives Present: Phil Beverly, Chicago State University; Nancy Ford, University of Illinois-Springfield; Robert Fossum, University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign; Winthrop Phippen, Western Illinois University; Donna Post, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale; Suzanne Willis, Northern Illinois University; Priscilla Yu, University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign; Anne Zahlan, Eastern Illinois University.
Absent: Senate Chairpersons/Representatives from Governors State University, Illinois State University, Northeastern Illinois University, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, University of Illinois-Chicago.
Visitors: Interim President Lou Hencken and Provost Blair Lord of Eastern Illinois University joined the discussion for part of the meeting. Billie Rawlings, Academic Affairs, Eastern Illinois University, served as Recorder. Daily Eastern News Administration Editor John Chambers attended part of the meeting. EIU Professors Barbara Lawrence and David Radavich sat in on brief portions of the meeting.
I. Call
to Order
Anne Zahlan,
Chairperson of the Eastern Illinois University Faculty Senate, called the
meeting to order at 9:40.
II. Approval of Minutes for 23 September 2002
Post moved and Fossum seconded the motion to approve the
minutes of the meeting of 23 September, with the following corrections:
Dr.
Post reported that the some NTT faculty at SIU-C were designated
“clinical instructors” with continuing term positions and a year’s notice for
release dates. She added that they we should support term faculty
temporarily covering a problem and that administrations should move
these individuals along because they should be in permanent positions.
The motion to approve the minutes as amended passed
unanimously.
III. State-wide Governance Issues
The CIUS has strong concerns about the current
representation of the interests of higher education in the state. Discussion
centered around the Senates having a voice on the Boards of Trustees of the
respective public universities and on faculty representation on the Board of
Higher Education.
A. Concern was expressed as to whether or
not there would be a meeting with the higher education staff in the light of
the Governor’s announcement that there wouldn’t be one. There was also concern about the possibility
that there won’t be a Deputy Governor for Education.
B. Concern was expressed about the
functioning and effectiveness of the IBHE.
1)
The IBHE has been completely ignored by the Governor’s Office in the consideration
of possible rescission.
2)
The IBHE has not been doing a great job of advocacy.
The CIUS supports having a faculty member as a voting
member of the IBHE.
The CIUS should recommend that there be a voting
faculty representative of public four-year universities on the IBHE.
The
faculty representative to the Board of Higher Education should be selected from members of the IBHE Faculty Advisory
Council and should be a voting member of the IBHE.
Post moved and Willis seconded the following motion:
The Council of Illinois University Senates strongly supports inclusion of a voting faculty representative on the IBHE, this person to be a member of the Faculty Advisory Council to the IBHE and representing one of the nine public four-year institutions. It should be the right of the Faculty Advisory Council to name this representative for a two-year term.
The motion passed unanimously.
C. Possibilities for faculty representation on the Boards of Trustees of Illinois public universities were discussed. Consensus was reached on the following statement:
The Council of Illinois
University Senates strongly recommends that the Boards of Trustees at all
Illinois public institutions include, as one of its members, a faculty senate
member selected by the respective faculty senate for a two-year term.
D.
It was agreed that disbanding the
IBHE and creating a “Super-Board” of Education that merged institutions of
higher education with K-12 schools would not serve higher education well.
Post moved and Phippen seconded the following
resolution:
The Council of Illinois University Senates opposes the
creation of a single board which would regulate all levels of education in the
state. We believe that such a board would not be in the best interest of higher
education and would not provide higher education an adequate voice in
determining educational policies.
The
motion passed unanimously.
IV. State-wide Budgetary
and Political Issues
A. Compiling
of Information as Called for at September Meeting:
1. “Comprehensive
Statement on the Impact of State Monies to Private Institutions and the Impact
of Budget Cuts”
Discussion
of whether or not to endorse this statement occurred. Post suggested a possible
electronic vote on it.
2.
“Comprehensive statement on the impact of increased health care contributions, which
would also contain the percentages of funding provided to private institutions,
comparison data from surrounding states and funding requirements for SURS.” Brief discussion took place on this item.
B. Updates on “Old Business”
1. Private Monies to
Public Institutions
Post
noted that at the last meeting she had challenged everyone to raise $1,000 to
fund public information newspaper ads on the issue of public support for
private institutions. She had raised approximately $2,500 for this cause at
Southern, and encouraged all other universities to do the same.
Fossum moved and Ford seconded the following motion:
The
Council of Illinois University Senates authorizes Donna Post to establish an
account at a bank of her choice entitled “CIUS Initiatives” for the deposit of monies
to be used for activities endorsed by the CIUS.
The
motion passed unanimously.
2. Diminishing IMAP
Willis moved and Beverly seconded the following
motion:
The
Council of Illinois University Senates strongly supports the reinstatement of
the fifth year of MAP funding because students who take more than four years to
finish their degrees tend to be our most needy students. They attend college
part-time because they need to work part- or full-time in order to support
themselves and their families. We do them a great disservice by not providing
them the assistance they need.
The
motion passed unanimously.
3. CMS Take-back
Brief
discussion occurred. Post suggested that the CIUS contact Ken Anderson at the
IBHE Faculty Advisory Board and let him know that something should be done
about this issue.
Beverly moved and Phippen seconded the following
motion:
The
Council of Illinois University Senates is greatly disturbed that public
universities were the only public entities forced to cover a significant
portion of the cost of employee health insurance benefits, during FY2003.
Further, the CIUS requests that the State of Illinois fulfill its
responsibilities to employees of public universities by placing the fiscal
responsibility of employee health insurance back with CMS.
The
motion passed unanimously.
C. Current
Political Initiatives
1. Line-Item Budgeting
The Council does not
support reinstatement of line-item budgeting for public universities.
2. Income Fund Return
to Springfield
Council members agreed
that any mandated return of income-fund money to Springfield would be
detrimental to universities.
Phippen moved and Beverly seconded the following
motion:
The
Council of Illinois University Senates urges that funds generated from student
tuition be retained by universities to maintain flexibility in providing
educational services to students. The Council believes that state control of
university tuition monies is a disincentive to increase student enrollment.
The
motion passed unanimously.
3.
Other political proposals that would affect public universities were discussed,
including possible legislation on tuition caps, state definitions of “administrative costs,” and possible changes
to the membership of the SURS Board.
D. State
Budgetary Crisis: Impact on and Outlook for Illinois Public Universities
Interim President Hencken and Vice President Lord met
with the Council to discuss recent budgetary developments. They indicated that
they had been asked on a Tuesday to prepare and submit a list of possible ways
to cut expenses by 8 percent with 12 weeks left in the semester. The report was
to be submitted by Wednesday. Hencken stated his position that a State-mandated
lay-off of employees would only make things worse, because the affected
employees would still be paid, just from another pool [unemployment
compensation]. Lord noted serious
frustration with the whole process. He added that people who do not fully
understand higher education were making budgetary decisions. Hencken and Lord
briefly described some of the measures being considered at Eastern in order to
return 8 percent to the State. Hencken noted that at this point, they had not
been informed of what would happen with the next fiscal year’s budget.
After
Hencken and Lord completed their discussion with Council members and left the
meeting, Post informed the Council that last fall, SIU had created a
university-wide task force to study the budget and to recommend what cuts could
be made if cuts proved necessary. That procedure helped the university better
prepare for this type of budgetary crisis. She recommended that other
universities adopt this process in the future because it does include faculty
in the planning process. Council
members agreed on the need for faculty input into the budgeting process.
V. Academic and Campus Issues
Afternoon discussions covered such issues
as the proposal by the IBHE Faculty Advisory Committee that a goal on Quality
of Life be added to the Illinois Initiative. Council members agreed to bring
this issue to the attention of their Senates. Notes were compared on
developments at the different campuses relative to assessment (including the
proposed pilot study of possible statewide standardized testing) and to
computer privacy policies.
VI. CIUS Organizational Concerns
Council
members who had not already done so agreed to present the CIUS Constitution to
their respective senates for ratification.
The need for formal by-laws was discussed. It was agreed that it would
be useful to include names and addresses of Senate Vice-Chairs as well as
Chairs on the membership roster posted on the web site.
A CIUS
Steering Committee, consisting of Senate Chairs who would be in office during
the 2003-04 academic year, was formed, including Phil Beverly, Chicago State
University; Lane Crothers, Illinois State University; Suzanne Willis, Northern
Illinois University. The Steering Committee was asked to arrange for
drafting and circulating by-laws, to work on funding, to coordinate with Donna
Post about funds and plans for advertisement and lobbying, and to ensure the
continuation of the Council’s work.
Ford
invited the Council to meet at the University of Illinois-Springfield in the
fall. The next meeting of CIUS was set for 19 September 2003 at the University
of Illinois-Springfield.
VI. Adjournment
The
meeting adjourned at 3:00 p.m.
Next
meeting: September 19, 2003 -
Springfield