ALUW WINTER QUARTER MEETING, 1999
MARCH 3, 1999
3:00PM-5:00PM--OUGL 220
The meeting was called to order by ALUW President Charles Lord at 3:15pm.
Business meeting
1. Secretary’s report. Richard Jost, ALUW Secretary, reported that the minutes from the Autumn Quarter Meeting were available on the ALUW web site, as well as the November 1998 and January 1999 Board minutes. He also told the group that the handout from the Internet Service Provider Brown Bag had been posted on the web site.
2. Treasurer’s report. Charles Lord gave the Treasurer’s report for Alex Wade. As of March 3, ALUW has $936.00 in the checking account and $2194.00 in the savings account.
3. Betty Bengston gave a report on the discussions concerning revisions to the faculty salaries policy. There have been discussions across campus on proposed changes to the faculty salary policy to achieve the goal of having a more formal faculty salary policy. This policy would have guidelines for an established system of faculty salary disbursements. Some of the discussions have taken place at the Faculty Council and there is also an ad hoc committee on faculty salaries, which has made recommendations to the President on setting up guidelines.
One goal that these proposals are trying to achieve is that merit faculty should expect regular salary increases, based upon a regular schedule of evaluations. This would be true for tenured faculty as well as non-tenured. Another concept under review is the idea of providing differential allocations of salary dollars to units based on the strategic goals for that unit.
Once a plan has been decided upon, new faculty code language will need to be drafted and voted on by the full faculty.
4. Elections Committee report. Charles gave the Elections Committee report for Kari Anderson. A full slate of candidates for the next year has been put together and will go out to the membership at the end of the month. Members can submit names in addition to the prepared slate through the 15th of April.
5. Legislative Committee. Andy Johnson, Chair of the Legislative Committee, gave the report. According to Andy, at this point, there has been much discussion but little action so far in Olympia. The state financial projections are due to be released on March 18th, followed by the House budget bill on March 22.
Other issues:
1. Tuition increases. Tuition increases have been proposed which may be used partly for salary increases. The Governor’s budget recommends a 2% raise per year while the University is advocating a 4.5% increase per year.
2. Suzzallo renovation. The decision on financing the Suzzallo renovation will be delayed until the end of the legislative session due to the need for the legislature to amend the state law to allow the University to issue bonds. The bonding bill is usually the last piece of legislation to be passed during a legislative session.
3. Legislative Session. It is unlikely that the session will end on schedule due to the split leadership in the House and the need to pass budget bills.
4. WLA legislative day. Seven campus librarians attended the Washington Library Association Legislative Day activities and met with representatives to discuss ALUW legislative priorities.
5. ALUW Lobbyist. Andy expressed his concern about the ability of ALUW to maintain a lobbyist in Olympia as the legislative fund does not have enough money to cover the salary ($700.00 per month) through the expected end of the legislative session. ALUW has paid the lobbyist (Tom Bristow) through February but will need an additional $1500.00 to cover the current session plus additional funds to pay him a retainer for the second year of the biennium. If the legislative session goes through June, ALUW may need even more legislative funds.
Andy feels that ALUW has made a commitment to the lobbyist for this session and it would have a negative impact on the organization’s reputation if ALUW were forced to cancel the services of the lobbyist in the middle of the session.
The importance of having a lobbyist working for the organization is to make sure that librarians are included in the faculty salary bill. Unlike the librarians at the other state colleges and universities, UW librarians do not have faculty status and therefore need to have librarians specifically included in the language of the bill.
Charles posed the question of whether another letter should be sent to the membership soliciting more funds for the lobbyist or whether we should use some of the funds from the operating expenses for lobbyist support. Former boards have used the operating funds in the past to pay for the lobbyist when necessary.
After discussion, the consensus was to send out another letter to the membership requesting donations for the legislative funds and to consider using the operating funds if no other funds become available.
PROGRAM
Anne Zald, ALUW Vice-President/President-Elect, introduced the program and speakers on distance learning.
Speakers:
Angela Lee, Social work library
The speakers provided an overview of distance learning on campus, primarily the efforts of the Social Work School with a distance learning program at Peninsula Community College.
Program highlights:
- Pilot courses were first offered in 1996-1997 with 20-25 students.
- The program uses web technology and video conferencing but students attend classes on Saturdays at the community college facility.
- At the present time, the cost of offering distance learning programs is actually more expensive than providing similar resources on the Seattle campus.
- The curriculum offered for the distance learning classes is exactly the same as offered in Seattle and is taught by senior faculty.
- The average age of enrolled students is 45.
- Email has been extensively used to build a sense of community among the students.
- The delivery of library services is time consuming due to a high percentage of technology related questions.
- Libraries may need to offer extended hours and services to distance learning students.
- Libraries need to have decided on document delivery mechanisms for distance learning students.
- Libraries may need to have duplicate sets of materials to serve distance learning programs and need to resolve copyright issues.
- Libraries may need to do more customization for services to distance learning programs as students have individual learning styles and backgrounds.
- The campus has had a task force investigating distance learning but there is no central plan at the present time. The task force is working on a report to the Provost with suggestions for a strategic plan.
- Cost is very difficult to ascertain for distance learning programs. The task force staffing recommendation is for one FTE librarian and one FTE staff person to monitor distance learning programs and provide assistance to library units with distance learning needs.