MINUTES
of AAUP Executive Board meeting,
Wednesday
9 November 2017, 3:30-5:20pm
Communications
202
Three priorities in this cycle’s strategic plan:
1. the escalating division of insecure academic labor
2. reductions and restructuring of public funding and budgeting processes
3. the increasingly hostile environment affecting students and faculty
Items we’re monitoring
Faculty Regent bill
Freedom Foundation request for emails
Dental School deficit
Lecturer job security
Higher ed finance
Hate crimes on campus &
The shooting and UW Police Department issues
The use of the UW’s “workplace violence” rule to pursue faculty
Agenda:
Agenda
3:35: Announcements
Plans for Annual
meeting. Jan 26, 2018.
Rob Wood asked to
serve on Faculty Senate Initiative committee on Dispute Resolution
UW Faculty Forward
annual meeting Nov. 17, 4-6, HUB 145
3:40 to 4:40 Discussion Items
3:40 to 4:10 Dental
School Issues (Invited Guests: Stuart Taylor and Mark Draggsholt)
4:10 to 4:40 UW
Master Plan and U District Alliance (Invited Guest: David West)
4:40 to 4:50 New Items:
Discussion Salary and
Budget Issues (What is the role of “restricted assets?”)
4:50 to 5PM Good of the Order
5PM adjourn
Minutes
Announcements
Faculty Forward annual meeting is scheduled Friday, 11/17, 4 to 6, HUB 145 (Note the Faculty Senate conflict was rearranged).
Amy and Jay attended Theo Myhre’s talk on Academic Freedom (Oct. 20); it was great. Amy will ask whether it’s available on video.
Dental school
Stuart Taylor and Mark Drangsholt came to update the AAUP board on the situation in the School of Dentistry. Finances have been declining for the school since 2010. The total debt is now $36 million. For FY ‘17 the annual budget deficit was $7 million, but for FY ‘18 it will be $10-15 million—so we’re going in the wrong direction. The UW Office of Planning and Budgeting says the deficit was calculated after considering all grants and contracts. Apparently it was recently discovered the-recently resigned Dean Berg had hidden some of the deficit.
At the Board of Regents today, Faculty Forward members stood up to support the dental faculty.
In 2015, the Board of Regents considered closing the pediatric dentistry clinic when it was in financial trouble, but that didn’t happen. In March of 2017 the school went into receivership. Nonetheless, in late August, Provost Jerry Baldasty recommended Dean Berg be reappointed to the dean position. Under pressure from faculty, Berg resigned in October. The new dean is Jim Johnson, who comes from the ranks of the faculty.
In March, a “Financial Executive
Committee” was formed to provide guidance and leadership over finances; the
committee includes Jeff Scott (vice president
for finance and administration
Since Nov. 2016), John Coulter (Provost F&A Director), Provost Jerry Baldasty, and one Dental Faculty Council rep (Avina Paranjpe). The committee
produces no minutes and Avina doesn’t/won’t report on
what it does.
To solve the budget problems, Baldasty recommended five clinical programs for
elimination, seemingly skirting the Faculty Code on Procedures
for Reorganization, Consolidation, or Elimination of Programs is 26-41 B, which requires a full review of program changes that result
in any of the following:
a. The removal of tenured faculty or of untenured
faculty before completion of their contract;
b. A significant change in the terms,
conditions, or course of employment of faculty;
c. A significant change in the overall
curriculum of a college, school, or campus, or of the University as a whole;
or
d. A significant departure from the
stated mission of a college, school, or campus, or of the University as a
whole.
The RSEP process is critical here, and the process needs to be followed. If they are trying to skirt that in hopes of squeezing the program until it dies, that’s not ethical.
Dentistry faculty worked with a legislator who is a dentist (Michelle Caldier, R-Port Orchard), who got 43 signatures from fellow legislators opposing the clinic closures. Caldier may be interested in legislation authorizing specific line items to support the school. As a result, Baldasty suspended the closures Monday morning. He’s given SOD 6 months to come up with a plan.
SOD has a $50 million loan internal from the UW, but it’s not being serviced.
What is the role of shared governance here? This is a poster child for what happens when faculty aren’t involved in the governance of the school. Dean Berg’s goals were to centralize power and make all the decisions; he curried a group of cronies and poisoned the administration’s view of the faculty.
What’s the story on the children’s clinic? A noble intention that didn’t pencil out? Or what?
Faculty Senate Secretary Mike Townsend sees clear faculty governance issues here. Jerry apparently doesn’t agree.
The Dental School Faculty Council has really revived in the face of recent events. It now has 15-16 members, and has met weekly since start of the year. Does the Council have an official position statement? They have voted on several statements. We could craft a message for the AAUP list server summarizing the faculty’s position.
Seattle Times reporter Katherine Long is interested and has spent time with Mark and Stuart. She’s now interested in the Berg story (too little too late, though).
At the Regents today, dental faculty were surprised how they gave the Dean of Medicine such a pass on his debt. (It was reported the School of Medicine deficit is 1.5%, out of a $3.5 billion budget.) So a number of units are in fiscal trouble, not just Dentistry.
The Provost on his way out has permission to do all sorts of reckless things, so it’s a potentially dangerous moment.
AAUP conclusion: think about outcomes, what is desirable and doable from the faculty’s point of view? How can we get this school back on its feet? AAUP can help document what the Council wants, and help consider how publicizing things might help (or not). We could do a survey, write letters to individuals, post things on the list server. Let’s keep the conversation going.
UW Master Plan discussion
David West came from the U District Alliance for Equity and Livability to invite the AAUP chapter to join the coalition.
The Upzone, which was approved by the City Council in February, applies to territory outside the boundaries of the campus. The UW owns about 8 acres in the U district though, including the light rail station area. In any case, the coalition is no longer focused on the Upzone, since it’s done.
The Master Plan coalition organized to express concerns. A white paper came out last spring, produced by Devin Kelly, which David brought copies of.
The UW Master Plan expands the campus buildings by 1/3, adding 6 million sq. ft of space, and the UW employee/student population by 20%. The UW wants an “innovation district” by University bridge, in partnership with tech companies and industry. Also it wants to expand the SW corner by 3 million sq feet, expand the buildings around the med school and Medical Center, and construct an office park along Montlake Blvd. Clearly, the fiscal plan relies on renting space to these big companies.
Traffic and growth impacts will be significant, with lots of intersection traffic gridlock. Neighborhood organizations and small businesses are worried. University-run food and drink concessions are to be in the buildings, translating to less business for small vendors. The UW is now the 2nd largest employer in the City, with lots of low-wage workers. The UW announced it would create 150 units of low-wage employee housing by University bridge just as the City was beginning to review the Master Plan to get the City’s attention. (Although those units will be likely built without UW money, using tax credits.) The light rail connection to SE Seattle means UW expansion will affect those communities, too, as people seek cheaper housing in that area. Frank Chopp is eager to do something about the housing issue. He wants to replace the golf driving range with affordable housing (like it was after WWII).
The process to approve the Master Plan is quasi-judicial—the city council is the decider. The 2004 City-University agreement didn’t address child care, and did not require much from the University on housing and transit . The State Supreme Court this summer clarified that City of Seattle has full authority over the UW on all land use issues, which should have an influence on the project.
T. Ryan Durkan (of the firm HPMC) is the attorney representing the UW. Durkan is the sister of the new mayor. City staff should be making a recommendation to the hearing examiner on Nov. 16, who makes a recommendation to the city council. They’ll start discussing this in February, March.
The coalition meets monthly. Each organization gets one vote. David is employed 15 hours a week, with unions providing the financial support.
Decision: We agreed to join the U District Alliance for Equity and
Livability. Diane agreed to be the representative.
Dispute resolution
Faculty Senate feels we need a new process to resolve disputes. Rob Wood has been invited to serve on a Faculty Senate Task Force on the Faculty Disciplinary Code and Process. There is a charge letter (dated October 24, 2017). A Values and Principles workgroup will be established (to be chaired by Zoe Barsness), along with a Legal and Regulations workgroup (chaired by Mike Townsend).
Rob’s view is the current process in the Code is fine, it just isn’t being followed. Duane may have some thoughts that would be helpful. The workplace violence statute is being invoked in fairly egregious ways, two cases that we know of. Faculty should know their rights under 25-71. A speech act is not violence, but 25-71 is being used to punish faculty for things they are saying in meetings or exchanges. Invitations to have an attorney present are very burdensome financially.
Advice to Rob: Lots of things could go sideways in this effort. Set the agenda quickly, and stick to our principles.
Annual Meeting of AAUP chapter members
The UW Chapter AAUP Annual meeting is now set for Friday, January 26, 3:30 pm, with Chris Newfield and Michael Meranze. We hope to stir a lot of conversations, perhaps to engineer exploration activities to examine how the UW is on the cutting edge of the privatization drive. Individual privatization projects include the GIX project with China, the digital evening degree, privatized master’s degrees. We could identify fruitful lines of inquiry around characteristics of these projects, failures of faculty governance, roles of donors.
Dan would like to organize some conversations out of this talk regarding critical university studies, including Master Plan critique.
Remaking the Public University blog http://utotherescue.blogspot.com/
Eva will organize dinner with our speakers on Wednesday 1/24.
We will have about $2K contributed from other sources to support the trip.
Treasurer’s report
Bert said we have $5,550 in our treasury.
THURSDAY Nov. 30 (UW Club)
December: none
THURSDAY Jan 11 (UW Club)
FRIDAY Jan 26 annual meeting (details to come
on location)
MONDAY Feb 5
MONDAY March 5
MONDAY April 9
THURSDAY May 10