At the April 28 meeting of the Urbana-Champaign Senate held at Foellinger Auditorium, Senators Ron Peters, professor emeritus of labor and industrial relations, and Al Kagan, professor of library administration, expressed concerns that the shortened contract period the administration has proposed for academic employees this year will adversely affect academic employees’ service dates and pay.
Chancellor Nancy Cantor responded that employees will be paid and receive service credit for every day they work. Kagan requested a statement from the administration clarifying the procedures. He said he believes they conflict with the terms of some academic employees’ contracts, which stipulate 12 equal payments for those with 12-month appointments.
Cantor said that university administration and legal counsel are still working out the details of this matter.
In other business, the Senate:
- Passed two resolutions related to the university budget. First was a recommendation that the university seek new revenue streams and public support for the library to ensure its collections, acquisitions and ranking are not eroded by the decrease in state appropriations. The second resolution recommends that the administration be judicious in centralizing support functions and gain the concurrence of faculty and administrators involved to ensure that the institutional missions are not compromised.
- Approved amendatory statutes outlining implementation of a policy on severe sanctions other than dismissal for cause in faculty discipline cases. The statutes define severe sanctions as "suspension with or without salary (full or partial) for a period not to exceed one-half of the faculty member’s normal appointment period." The statutes also stipulate that sanctions will be confined to actions "clearly related to University activities." The statutes call for establishing a seven-member hearing committee that will investigate cases after the provost has determined that cause for proceedings exists. The hearing committee will be elected by the Senate; full-time faculty members holding the rank of professor will be eligible to serve on it.
- Adopted a proposed information technology policy for the university that defines acceptable usage and outlines measures for maintaining Internet security and system security. The policy, which is subject to further revision, requires the concurrence of all three campuses. n Presented resolutions of appreciation to Robert Fossum, outgoing chair of the Senate Executive Committee, and Charles Colbert, vice chancellor for administration and human resources, who is retiring July 1.
- Passed proposals creating a department of bioengineering in the College of Engineering; establishing bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs in bioengineering; and changing the name of the department of agricultural engineering to the department of agricultural and biological engineering.
- Began discussions on a recommended policy for providing alternatives to dissection in undergraduate courses but ran out of time before a vote could be taken. The Senate will meet again May 5 to vote on the recommended policy and address the remainder of its agenda.