More than a year's worth of discussion and a series of conflicting and inconclusive campus votes on the future of the Institute of Aviation could end today with an up-or-down vote by the UI Board of Trustees at its meeting in Chicago.
But the local debate over the process leading to the board's consideration continued at the July 18 meeting of the Academic Senate's executive committee.
General University Policies Committee chair Mary Mallory called the process "unfair" and said the SEC's abandonment of the issue now represented a voluntary erosion of shared governance.
"From the word 'go' this was unfair," she said. "We are setting ourselves up as a body where we won't have a leg to stand on."
The Institute of Aviation's future has been discussed for years, but in 2010 the question was handed to a Stewarding Excellence @ Illinois review team, which made a recommendation last fall to close it. This spring, in a 57-54 vote, the full senate turned down its Educational Policy Committee recommendation to save the institute's master's program but jettison flight training and the undergraduate degree.
At the July 18 SEC meeting, chairman Joyce Tolliver called the senate's vote an "incomplete" message.
"There was no explicit adoption of any proposal at all," said Tolliver, who at the start of the meeting summarized the institute's procedural journey to the present.
She spoke about the fairness of the process.
"It's the careful listening that is only possible through mutual respect," she said. "This is in fact the process that has been followed. It's been emotional and difficult; there have been few comfortable moments in this process."
Abbas Aminmansour, chair of the Educational Policy Committee, said the process could not have been fairer and that all who wished to be heard were.
"We've been called all kinds of things," he said, adding it was the most complete and transparent process he's been a part of in seven years on the committee.
"I find it rather unfortunate that we criticize the process because some may not agree with the outcome."
He said interim vice president and chancellor Bob Easter had no choice but to make a decision and recommendation to the board.
"We never really received anything concrete or not concrete," Aminmansour said. "We didn't give an alternative."
Senator Nick Burbules also defended the Institute of Aviation process and Easter's decision to bring the matter before the board.
He said institute leaders had still not made an official proposal to continue the master's program through another college, a fact supported by Richard Wheeler, interim provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, who sat in at the senate meeting for Easter.
"It's not true," Burbules said of the claim that institute officials were close to finalizing a new academic arrangement.
A regular defender of shared governance concepts, Burbules said the institute issue was not an example of an erosion of academic influence in decision-making.
"I feel I need to make a distinction here," he said. "I'm not saying the process is flawless, but the spirit ... is completely different in this instance."
Added student senator David Olsen, "We want this type of consultation, but there's a point where someone has to make a decision. This is the chancellor's decision and he's putting it forward in the best interests of the university."
Wheeler said the "countless exchanges" over the institute and the fact that "we tried to find the people to give the expert advice we needed" supported a transparent process.
"I believe this recommendation is appropriate," he said. "The board will make up its own mind."
OTHER BUSINESS
In other business, Michael Corn, the UI's chief privacy and security officer, reported his department is finalizing an email policy that will help legally protect the university and give employees a blueprint in which to navigate the "gray area" that is current Illinois law.
According to Corn, the state law is so ambiguous that many current practices - for example innocently receiving emails on state-supported equipment or even viewing them from a non-university account - could be considered a breach of the law.
"We have innumerable stories like this," he said. "It's an incredible burden to the university."
Corn said the new university policy, which he is shopping around campus for more input before offering a final version, would put the burden of following the law on the individual through a limited-personal-
use clause. He said the move would provide legal protection in the event of a state audit.
He said his department isn't capable of monitoring every email sent and received through the university, though it does monitor and address serious breaches - such as using a university account to conduct a private business. But there are additional concerns, such as an employee who takes a trip on university business and uses a university laptop - but who still wants to check personal email on his own time.
Harry Hilton updated SEC members on the progress of the Chancellor's Committee on Adjunct Professors, which he chairs.
Hilton said the committee's final report is now available and includes survey results of how various campus units define adjunct, clinical and other ancillary professorships.
He said the report recommends better defining the adjunct structure to ensure it is evenly identifiable and defined through all units.
"These positions have very little definition - I think that's the concern," he said.
