Executive Committee (ECUS) Report

given to the University Senate on March 29, 2010

submitted by Karynne Kleine

Steering Committee of the University Senate and Faculty Advisory Committee to the University President

Voting Members:  President Leland, Provost Sandra Jordan, Tanya Goette (CoB), Craig Turner (CoAS), Christine Zuger (Library)

Non-voting Member: Deborah Vess (ex officio non-voting, 2008-09 ECUS Chair)

Officers:  Secretary: Dean Baker (CoHS), Vice-Chair: Ken McGill (CoAS), Chair: Karynne Kleine (CoE)

       Routine business and reports:

• The Executive Committee met on 3, 15 (joint with SCCs), and 17 of March.  In addition to work and discussion via E-mail there were also face-to-face meetings of the Subcommittee on Nominations (15 March), Standardized Review of Policy Work Group (4 March), Governance Retreat Planning Work Group (22 February and 15 March), and the Glossary Work Group (24 February).  All of these committees, subcommittees, and groups are moving forward with their work.  In both the GRPWC meetings and the ECUS meeting with SCCs desires to have Senate work become more advocacy-oriented were expressed.   
• Received report that the At-Large election was conducted with announcement that Kirk Armstrong was elected as University Senator as well as received reports on selected student and staff senators with announcements made that Jen Maraziti, Bevan Burgamy, Jennifer Graham, and Liz Havey will represent Staff Council while Zach Mullins and Evan Karanovich are to be senators representing Student Government Association.  Claire Cantrell and Megan Moss are SGA appointees while Clyde Boone and Paul Sanford are staff members who have been appointed by Staff Council to committees of the 2010-11 University Senate.
• Coordinated with Standing Committee Chairs to finalize the agenda for the 29 March University Senate meeting
• Completed the checklist for standing committee organizational meetings and determined that there will be some evaluation sought on the value of the degree of information offered
• Received report that with one addition for Assessment Day the Governance calendar for 2010-11 was reviewed and endorsed by Deans and Department Chairs
• Received report that APC’s work on the 2011-13 academic calendar is nearly complete and the draft is under final review.
• Gave feedback to Barbara Monnett regarding the new “minutes” content management system
• ECUS Graduate Assistant, Alison Prock, agreed to begin work on Senator Recognitions and possibly compile a “lessons learned” handbook to guide the next person in her position. 

Non-routine business (some discussion):

• Results of surveys for 2010-2011 elected faculty senators to express preference for committee and officer service and for faculty to volunteer to serve on standing committees of the 2010-2011 University Senate were compiled by the chair of the Subcommittee on Nominations, Christine Zuger, and she ably led the group through forming a nearly complete slate of nominees. This work will be continued and the issues of officer service will be discussed at the annual retreat.
• Preliminary work on the ECUS Annual Report was begun
• Motions for a two-tier revision process and editorial revisions for University Senate Bylaws were agreed to and entered into the database to be read for the first time at the 29 March meeting (see below):

Motions:

• Bylaws Revisions March 2010--Two-tier Process Motion:
  To replace Article VI of the University Senate Bylaws with the proposed revision as indicated in the supporting document entitled "March 2010 Two-tier Revision Process"

  • Executive Summary of the Bylaws Revisions

    • Proposed by the Elected Faculty of the 2009-2010 Executive Committee  14 March 2010

    • MODIFICATION TO THE REVISION PROCESS

    • INTRODUCE a two-tier revision process for editorial and non-editorial revisions. Only non-editorial (substantive) revisions will endure the two-meeting process. Compressed (streamlined) revision process for editorial revisions

• Bylaws Revisions March 2010--Editorial Motion:
  To approve the proposed editorial revisions to the University Senate Bylaws as indicated in the supporting document entitled "March 2010 Editorial Revisions"

  • Executive Summary of the Bylaws Revisions

  • Proposed by the Elected Faculty of the 2009-2010 Executive Committee  14 March 2010

  • EDITORIAL REVISIONS to promote consistency

    • ADD section subtitles as has been the practice with recent revisions to these bylaws

    • REPLACE “President” with “University President” once in IV.Section1

    • REPLACE “Senate” with “University Senate” three times in IV.Section1, V.Section1.C.5, V.Section1.C.16

    • REPLACE “nominee” with “appointee” once in IV.Section3.A

    • REPLACE “his/her” with “her/his” throughout

    • EDIT to Academic Policy Committee Composition in Article V.Section2.C.1

    • Specifically changing "VPAA" to "Chief Academic Officer", "which" to "whom", and "that" to "who"

    • EDIT language referencing students in Article II.Section1.A.4 and V Section 2.C.4.a

    • Specifically changing "student member" to "selected student senator"

    • Specifically changing "students to serve as university senators" to "selected student senators"

    • Specifically changing “students serving on the University Senate” to “selected student senators”

    • EDIT to University Senate Composition in Article II.Section1.A.1

    • Specifically two occurrences of "that are" to "who are”; third occurrence of "that are" to "identified as"

    • Specifically one occurrence of “from the” to “who are”

  • EDITORIAL REVISIONS to promote correctness

    • REPLACE "chair" with "officer" in Article IV Section3.A

    • To correct a remnant of collapsing two organizational meetings to one with all officers elected at once

    • CORRECT minimum size of ECUS from eight to seven in Article V.Section1.A. (editorial)

    • Minimum Size is seven members Univ. Pres, Provost, Three Officers, Two more [for five academic units]

    • Specifically change “eight (8)” to “seven (7)” and “that” to “who” in five places in V.Section1.A.