AALUW Fall Quarter Meeting: 12/09/09

Introductions Treasurer's Report - Deb Raftus

Dues announcement sent out via email. 27 have submitted dues for a total of $440.
Savings balance = $3,031.41
Checking balance = $535.29
Will send out dues reminder.

Faculty Council Committee Reports

For full reports, see http://www.washington.edu/faculty/committees/fcas/reports.html

Academic Standards - Cynthia Fugate
Working on code revisions. Some current practices (e.g. inviting guest speakers for a class) are not reflected in the code.

Benefits - Charles Chamberlin
Working on office space and advisory role for retired faculty.

Faculty Affairs - John Vallier
Some highlights:

  • There was discussion of giving the Provost a vote. FCFA opinion was in favor of status quo, i.e., President of the University may appoint to the Senate with the right to speak but without vote Vice Presidents and the Provost or other administrative officer(s) who qualify as voting members.
  • College Council chairs have been added to the Senate membership without vote to further closer interaction between the College and University shared governance process. Making them ex officio with vote was considered, but it created too many unelected votes in a smaller Senate.
  • This portion remains unchanged: Deans of schools and colleges and the Dean of University Libraries who are not elected members of the Senate, and the presidents of the Associated Students of the University of Washington and the Graduate and Professional Student Senate shall be ex officio members of the Senate with right to speak but without vote.
  • The other members of the Senate shall be voting members of the faculty who are elected in conformity with the following principles:
    • These senators shall be democratically selected with care that small or minority groups are assured a voice in University affairs.
    • Each school, college or campus shall elect one senator for each 40 voting faculty, or fraction thereof, in the school, college or campus.

Most relevant for us, and thanks to Charles W. Wilkinson, former Chair of Faculty Council on University Libraries, there was some discussion about extending the eligibility for regular Senate membership to Librarians (that is, becoming voting members). This discussion occurred early in the quarter, before a restructure draft was completed, so the council members felts that although this was something that should be considered by Faculty Affairs or another Faculty Council, it was not something that should be melded into restructure legislation due to time considerations.

Multicultural Affairs - Harry Murphy
After several months of inactivity and without a functioning chairperson, FCMA has been reconvened. Council members agreed that it is very important to keep FCMA a vital and active council to address concerns of multicultural faculty and staff, including:

  • Recruitment and retention
  • The value of diversity in educational settings
  • Fostering cultural sensitivity
  • Oversight of data collection regarding careers of faculty of color and international faculty
  • Reconsideration of a University-wide cultural diversity requirement

Student Affairs - Jill McKinstry
Elizabeth Higgins, Community Standards & Student Conduct, provided an overview of how alleged student misconduct is handled at UW. The most grievous examples of misconduct are forwarded to a faculty appeal board (in 2008-09, 132 cases were forwarded).

Phil Ballinger, Undergraduate Admissions, shared recent undergrad admissions statistics. Applications were up 6.8% and the admit rate was down 3.1%. 28.3% were first generation college students. Of concern, African American acceptances were down for the first time in 20 years (this was true at UMich as well). Think possibly because can't compete with financial aid packages from private colleges. Working to improve the application process and be more up front about policies (e.g. children of alums do not get preferential treatment unless a tie). Pleased with holistic application review process. Each app is read by 2-3 people but 90% congruence rate.

Tri-Campus Policy - Charles Lord
Major discussion topics covered in the first meeting:

  1. Update on UW Faculty Senate priorities for 2009-10. Priorities include adjusting the faculty salary policy to meet current policies and budget environment, faculty participation in the assessment of proposals for a new budget model, encouraging faculty participation in the Two Years to Two Decades process, pursuing proposals for restructuring the Faculty Senate and Senate executive Committee; and increasing the information flow between the faculty Senate and School/College/Campus faculty councils.
  2. Update from Administration on Issues and Priorities pertaining to Tri-Campus Governance. Update included a discussion on independent accreditation for the branch/affiliate campuses, funding and budget situation, activity-based budgeting, and 2Y2D.
  3. Reviewed an overview of a draft report from the working group on tri-campus relations. The report reviews the development of Bothell and Tacoma campuses, notes organizational and developmental issues that have been raised over time, including the most recent accreditation report, makes a few specific recommendations, and identifies useful resources.
  4. Faculty Council on Tri-Campus Policy priorities this year include undergraduate cross-campus enrollment, and coordinating student issues with Faculty Council on Academic Standards and ASUW.

University Facilities & Services - Paula Walker
October meeting was an update on the UW climate action plan. Strategic vision was forwarded to the provost. November meeting addressed campus building security. Without night custodians, who responsible for locking building. Also discussed new construction projects: 4 new campus residence halls and the HUB renovation (both student-funded). The Libraries may offer space for the HUB UW Bookstore and food services during renovation.

University Libraries - Deepa Bannerjee
Library staff (Tim Jewell, Cynthia Fugate) shared information on budget reductions, serials cancellation, branch consolidations, and Open Access week activities. Will be working with the Faculty Council on Research on scholarly communication issues.

University Relations - John Bolcer
Committee has been dissolved. The remaining work of the group will be carried out by the Committee on Honorary Degrees.

Women in Academia - Deb Raftus
Finishing up report on career cycle of female faculty. Found lower levels of satisfaction with availability of child care, mentoring, and flexibility of policies. Next step to meet with Provost Wise.

President's Advisory Committee on Women - Elaine Jennerich
Because ad hoc, lost support of graduate research assistant. Previous reports have been used by campus but no one want to take up doing report every other year.

Benefits Subcommittee - Dottie Smith
Putting out an RFP for consultants to analyze funds in retirement programs. Most other institutions have consultants do a regular review. Will be interviewing 5-10 consultants for the contract.

The following faculty council reports were not available at the ALUW meeting:

  • Educational Outreach - Lauren Ray
  • Educational Technology - Anjanette Young
  • Instructional Quality - Amanda Hornby
  • Research - Susanne Redalje

Results of ALUW Survey - John Vallier
The ALUW board asked members to rank the four objectives of ALUW listed in the ALUW bylaws by importance. Results were:

  1. To act as an advocate for librarians' rights, privileges and conditions of employment (highest for about 50% of you)
  2. To serve as a means for the membership's participation in the governance of the University and of the Libraries (2nd highest for about 38%)
  3. To provide an interactive forum for consideration of matters of professional concern to members (3rd highest for about 33% of you)
  4. To foster collegiality among members (last for about 55% of you)

Would you like ALUW to advocate for UW librarians to become voting members of the Faculty Senate?
42 yes (88%)
6 no (12%)

Discussion: voting rights for librarians

Faculty affairs has been discussing the bylaws about who besides faculty gets to vote. Faculty response to idea of librarians getting voting rights has been why not just become faculty?

In discussing if and how ALUW should proceed in advocating for librarians to become voting members, many emphasized that a survey vote in support of becoming voting members was not a vote for librarians to become faculty. If faculty status was a condition of voting rights, many would want to reconsider.

Instead of a faculty issue, it was suggested that this should be redefined as a shared governance issue. Librarians should be at table since impacts how education is done at the university and discussions are pertinent to what we do and impact us.

The group agreed to move forward with a proposal for voting status and the date would be the second half of winter quarter.

Some things to consider:

  • AAUP has always welcomed librarians
  • Faculty are different (medical, law, architecture)
  • Librarians look at the breadth of the university (not just discipline/dept.)

Discussion: ranked results

ALUW as advocate for librarian's rights

Without a union, AAUP=faculty advocate and ALUW=librarian advocate. ALUW has performed this role (e.g. race & gender survey). Discussion touched on improving/increasing relationship with AAUP. Need a lobbyist to track salary increases, etc. so not left out.

Legislative issues: Currently not allowed to unionize (University does not have to bargain) in current legislation. Do we want to get that right?

Need someone to track legislation at a minimum. Need to come to terms ourselves with the rights we want or what conditions of employment.

Unionization could be complicated. For example, would managers in the libraries be included in the union?

Voting rights in the senate would give voice on salary issues.

Provost asked why librarians were not faculty.

Would the ALUW Board be interested into looking what faculty status would mean for librarians?

Librarians have a strategic weakness, we are a small group. Faculty status and/or union gives us larger numbers.

What would librarians faculty salaries look like if faculty status (or not). Linda Whang did comparison of other peer institutions re: salary.

What could librarians do re: advocacy? ALUW could help members understand what is going on and help advocate for broader library concerns, offer instructions on the appropriate way to advocate. Track ALA advocacy efforts? Need to advocate on campus (to Provost)? WLA serves as a good source of advocacy/legislative info. Louise Richards (past-chair, ALUW) is chair of legislative committee and will ask for volunteers.

Some suggested that ALUW have longer terms (difficult to see through issues that may take more than one year). Others pointed out that president is essentially in the position for two years, offers some continuity.