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May 4, 2009
University Governance Roundup

By leslie king

Employee Council
Work on creating a hardship fund continued at the April 15 meeting with Council President Matt Engelhardt’s update on the project. A survey of 250 people showed 55 percent support it and would be willing to contribute; another 33 percent supported it but for various reasons, such as the loss of a spouse’s job or family illness, would be unable to contribute; and 11 percent were negative on the proposal, Engelhardt said. “There was an overwhelmingly positive reaction to having the Council continue efforts to implement” such a fund, he said, noting that it is still in rough, embryonic form. “But the word on the street is people are pretty supportive.”

From a series of updates on University programs, Robert Nadolski, from the Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response, told Council members that departments that don’t know their emergency plans should contact the fire marshal. Eddie Gammill with the Faculty Staff Assistance Program outlined ways to cope with stress, especially in the current financial environment. Vivian Bright gave a talk on executive presence for the non-executive, including how to project confidence and how to be effective in meetings.

President-elect Nina Long, IT engineer in the School of Medicine, takes over leadership next year.

Faculty Council
Input from the Faculty Council was sought, at their April 21 meeting, on the issue of an open access policy for disseminating research. A series of meetings is expected to be held in the fall to discuss this issue. “It’s the whole issue of how to walk a fine line of disseminating information. You need to do it in a way that you get credit for tenure and promotion,” said Council President Steve Culler, noting that technology is changing what that means.

Human Resources’ Katherine Hinson, who demonstrated a prototype of a University-wide Web site for news employees can use, sought input from the group. The Council, Culler said, sees the need for a calendar of scholarly presentations throughout the University.

The meeting concluded with a discussion on the aspects of conflict of interest and policies to address it.

University Senate
Music composition professor Steve Everett will lead the University Senate next year. At the March 31 meeting, alumni association staff spoke on networking and career opportunities in this economy. Steve Culler, Senate president, noted, “The Career Center is making a huge effort to improve its services.”

The Senate continued its efforts to “enhance the value of service,” Culler said, “as it relates to tenure and promotion.” Past President Nadine Kaslow led a discussion on how to put some teeth into the concept, “perhaps by creating a tracking system in PeopleSoft where people could enter their service projects and works and it would come back to the faculty chair to be weighed in the performance appraisal,” Culler explained.

The meeting concluded with small-group discussions on what the Senate could do to improve morale in light of the economic climate change the University is experiencing. These included a desire for more communication and explanation and more involvement in the early stages of change to respond to the economy.