Minutes: September 10th, 2002

Minutes of the Academic

Senate Meeting

of September 10, 2002

The

Academic Senate was called to order by Chair Robert Cherny

at 2:10 p.m.

Senate Members Present: 

Senator Mitch Turitz

Spoke on behalf of faculty candidate George Diehr for PERS Board  

Senator Sandra Luft announced educational opportunities for teaching

on the West Bank in Palestinians schools.  Please contact Sandra for more information at

srluft@sfsu.edu.  President Robert Corrigan spoke about

the recent “rumor” concerning the faculty salary increase this academic year.

He asserted that in a conversation with the Chancellor that the Chancellor

asserted that the CSU is honoring all the collective bargaining agreement

for this academic year.  The President

asserted that there is no salary decrease for this year. However, the budget

process for next year is still very uncertain. A meeting on the budget will

be held in Long

Beach on September 6^th and the SFSU budget committee

will meet on the 20^th.  There

will be a budget briefing on September 24 during the Academic Senate meeting.

Johnetta Richards, announce the availability

of several openings for the position of Residence Director of study abroad

programs over seas. These positions would allow the person to direct a study

abroad program for one year in places like Spain, Italy, Israel, Zimbabwe, and many more. For more information contact Johnetta at 87589 or email at tatenda@sfsu.edu.

CHAIR’S REPORT—WELCOME!

Academic

Senate Chair Robert Cherny welcomed all new and returning

senators. He also reminded all senators that to be placed on the speaker’s

list they must raise their nameplates high enough so Vice Chair Penny Warren may see them. He welcomed

all new students representative to the senate. All senators were provided

with a new Academic Senate Hand Book which includes important dates, senate

membership, committee membership, procedural rules, taking action in a senate

meeting, how to propose policy, a copy of the faculty constitution, by-laws,

and summary of Roberts Rules of Order. Each senator was provided with a copy

of the American Association of University Professor (AAUP) booklet on the

three statements on Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, the statement

on government of colleges and universities, and the statement on faculty workload.

Senator Mitch Turitz who is also the campus president of the California Faculty Association

(CFA) provided the AAUP booklets to the Senate free of charge. Chair Robert Cherny reminded all senators to remind their colleagues to be sensitivities to

any issues of anxiety that may be associated with the anniversary of September

11^th.  There are a long list of campus sponsored events taking place on

September 11^th and they can be found on the campus website.

Chair Robert Cherny provided to all senators a comprehensive report

of his summer activities. This report was distributed by email prior to the

start of the senate meeting. It is included here as part of the recorded minutes.

Colleagues: Here's an overview of some of my activities as senate chair

since June 1. I'll not repeat this in the senate tomorrow, but please

ask any questions you may have about any of these topics. ACR 73 taskforce Senator

Gregory and I served on this system wide taskforce, formed to respond

to Assembly Concurrent Resolution 73, which specified creation of a tripartite

(senate, CFA, administration) taskforce to prepare a plan to move the ratio

between tt/T and lecturers in the CSU to 75:25.

We plan to have a report to the senate sometime during the fall semester on

this potentially highly important report. Presidential Taskforce on Inter-group

Relations: Initial Focus on the Effect of Middle East Issues on Campus

Life This taskforce, as you are probably aware, was formed in the aftermath

of the campus events of May 7. Senators Vaughn and Warren

also serve on this taskforce. Due to my own travels during the summer,

I was able to attend only two of the four meetings over the summer. The taskforce

presented an initial report at the end of July; you can review it at http://www.sfsu.edu/~news/response/prelimreport.htm

More meetings are planned for this fall. At

some point during the fall semester, I'm expecting that we shall be able to

set aside some senate time for a report by the senators who have taken part,

and perhaps by some other taskforce members. I serve on the subcommittees

on curriculum and hiring. The curriculum subcommittee has met a number

of times and continues to have regular meetings. Asilomar planning Susan

Cullers, Penny Warren, and I began to plan for Asilomar, and we

held an initial meeting of the full planning committee on July 24.

We'll have more to report to you soon on program planning and on the subsidies

available for new faculty members and lecturers. If you are not

eligible for a subsidy, you can register beginning this week. We hope

to have registration forms online through the senate's website http://www.sfsu.edu/~senate/ and we'll

also have paper forms available in the senate office. Executive Committee

Retreat On August 19, the Executive Committee held its annual beginning-of-the-academic-year

retreat. We met at the Romberg Tiburon Center and spent the day talking about the coming year. New

Faculty Orientation On August 21, I presented a power-point presentation

on academic governance to the 83 new faculty members who took part in the

annual orientation program for new faculty members. I also attended

the exhibits portion of the orientation to promote the Asilomar conference.

I was very impressed by the new faculty, who seemed both interested in governance

and curious about the state of governance at SFSU and in the CSU. In

addition, I took part with several other executive committee members in the

Committee on Committees, chaired by senate secretary Jim Edwards.

I have begun to meet regularly with Vice-president John Gemello and President Corrigan to discuss mutual

concerns.

AGENDA ITEM #1 - APPROVAL OF THE

AGENDA FOR September 10, 2002

m/s/p (Houlberg, Steier) to approve the agenda, passed unanimously

AGENDA ITEM #2 - ACCEPTANCE OF

THE MINUTES FOR THE LAST MEETING OF THE FORMER SENATE on May 14, 2002

m/s/p (Jerris,

Steier) to approve the minutes, passed unanimously

AGENDA ITEM #3 -APPROVAL OF THE

MINUTES OF THE FIRST MEETING OF THE NEW SENATE on May 14,

2002

m/s/p (Steier,

Gregory) to approved the minutes, passed

AGENDA ITEM #4 -REPORT FROM VICE

PRESIDENT OF ACADEMIC AFFAIRS JOHN GEMELLO

Vice President for Academic Affairs

John Gemello raised 4 issues: First,

Jerry Combs has agreed to be the coordinator for a SFSU series of activities entitled

A Year of Constructive Civil Discourse. Jerry Combs will be putting

together several campus events to emphasize civil discourse within the framework

of free speech. He will be asking department chairs to submit faculty that

would be willing and qualified to serve as campus resource people on the issue

of civil discourse within a framework of free speech. He has recruited Robert

O’Neil, a nationally know authority on freedom of speech and civil discourse

to speak on campus on October 17^th.

The second issue is placing a high

priority on faculty development with the established of a task force. The

Vice President will be working closely with the Senate Chair Bob Cherny in the constitution of the members of this task force. The third issue

was a reminder for Senator of the changing nature of our faculty. There were

79 new tenure-track faculty hired this year and we

have established 91 new searches for faculty this year. The bulk

(71) of the new hires are at the Assistant Professor level. Vice President

Gemello emphasized how impressed he was

with all the new hire’s credentials and are making a very positive contribution

to the university now and will continue to do so in the future. The fourth

issue is the 7% salary increase for AY chairs that was approved in the collective

bargaining agreement. All of SFSU department chairs serve for the entire academic

year; however, they do not qualify for the 7% raise because of the strict

interpretation of the contract. Vice President Gemello announced that President Corrigan has authorized that all

SFSU AY department chairs the 7% increase effective September 1. Senator Stowers asked if the increase applied to program directors?

Vice President Gemello indicated that is only applied

to department chairs.

AGENDA

ITEM #5 —REPORT FROM THE UNIVERSITY COUNSEL—PATRICIA BARTSCHER -ON THE SETTLEMENT

with PARINE CONSTRUCTION over the RESIDENCE APARTMENT BUILDING

Senator Bartscher spoke to the Senate in her role as SFSU University Council and not as a

member of the Academic Senate. She announce that

a record breaking settlement on the high rise residence apartment building

was concluded this August after more than 10 years of litigation. The high-rise

residence apartment building was constructed by Parine

in the early1990s and subsequently developed significant water leaks. Upon

further invistigaton toxic mold was found in the

outside walls and the building structure did not meet earthquake standards.

Parine made an attempt to fix the leaks in 1994 however by

1998 it was clear that the problems continued. After some investigation toxic

mold was found in the exterior wall but it was not found in any interior walls

or rooms. The building was closed in 1998. 

The University decided to move to a litigation phase and in March of

2002 the trail began. The jury was selected in June and the case for the University

was presented. At the beginning of August a settlement was reached which covered

all university expense and the University will be provided with a dorm that

is safe, free of leaks and mold. Parine will have

to tear down the building exterior and entire wall to fix the problems. Senator

Wolfe asked when would the demolition of the building begin? Bartscher indicated that they would take down the exterior and interior walls to

the main structure. They will then strengthen the building to meet earthquake

standards and then rebuild the internal and outside walls. Senator Wolfe asked what affect would the demolition have on campus life?

Bartscher indicated that we should expect that the service road

between the building and

Centennial Square

would be close and several parting spaced on the other

side of the building will be closed. Senator Houlberg asked about information on the work being done to the

Humanities building and is there any place that this information can be placed

- such as the SFSU web site? Bartscher indicated that the problems with the Humanities were

a separate litigation. Only the exterior of the Humanities building is being

repaired. There are not other problems with the building. Senator Houlberg reseated the need for some kind of information site

for all the problems with out building so that faculty concerns can be addressed.

Senator Williams asked who would be monitoring the reconstruction of

the residence hall? Bartscher indicated that there are several administrative units

that will be constantly monitoring the reconstruction. The short list includes

Vice President Morishita and his staff. Additionally

she emphasized that the Parine Construction Company

is one of the largest construction companies in the world and they want to

fix this problem so it doesn’t damage their reputation. Senator Williams asked if the reconstruction monitoring would be paid

for out of the lawsuit. Bartscher indicated that the

cost of the monitoring was included in the settlement

AGENDA ITEM #6 - REPORT FROM SENATOR

PAMELA VAUGHN ON THE COMMISSION ON UNIVERSITY STRATEGIC PLANNING (CUSP) II

Senator Pamela Vaughn reported that since being jointly

appointed by the Senate and Administration in early 2002, the CUSP-II commissioners

spent the spring semester reviewing documents pertinent to the university’s

mission - including the WASC recommendations, CUSP-I recommendations and actions,

the environmental scan (budget and facilities on this campus), the infamous

CSU Cornerstones report, and the report form the ASCSU, The California State

University at the Beginning of the 21^st Century (recommendations

to the joint committee to develop a K-16 Master Plan for California). In addition

to looking at these documents about where we are and where we should- or could

- be as a university, the commissions has also undertaken to gather information

about perceptions of SFSU from various groups. Realizing that staff has been

under-represented in all of our campus surveys, the commission (working with

staff focus groups during summer) has developed a survey that will be distributed

to all staff on this campus; future surveys are planned. Finally, others in

the commission have been reviewing current theories of strategic planning

to bring up-to-date research on university structure and long-range planning

to add to the information base of the commission. We have been planning for

planning! A summer steering committee was charged with reviewing all the materials

and suggestions to date, including the “defining questions” developed at the

commission’s January retreat (i.e. primary considerations s we enter this

phase of strategic planning). What has been done to this point is not actual

planning, but developing a framework so that planning can proceed over (we

think) the next four semesters. That same summer committee has now brought

to the commission a proposal for (1) establishing specific planning groups;

(2) involving the entire campus community in the actual planning process -

including established university and senate committees, departments, colleges,

and other units on campus; (3) setting a timeline and a structured approach

to start the actual planning process, and carry it through to a set of implement

able recommendations (with clearly established goals, strategies, and priorities).

At this Thursday’s commission meeting, it is expected that approval of the

recommendations - with or without modifications from the whole commission

- will be finalized, and we will then open the floodgates to broad based,

university-wide strategic planning - a focused planning that works with full

knowledge of the WASC and CUSP-I recommendations, as well as with an awareness

of the expectations place upon us by our state, university system, community,

or students, or staff and our faculty.

AGENDA ITEM #7 - REPORT FROM SECRETARY

JAMES EDWARDS ON THE COMMITTEE ON COMMITTEES FINAL REPORT

James Edwards presented the

final Committee on Committees report for Senate approval.

m/s/p (Edwards, Steier) to approved

the reports, passed unanimously

Robert Cherny

noted that SFSU is one of the few CSU campuses that have a committee on committees

report as oversight on the many campus committees.

m/s/p (Steier, Houlberg) to adjourn, passed unanimously

AGENDA ITEM #8- ADJOURNMENT

Senate

adjourned to Orientation for Senators at: 2:55

Respectfully submitted,

James Edwards

Secretary to the Faculty