THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs
4008 Fleming Building
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN 48109
764-0303
MINUTES OF SACUA MEETING OF 11 APRIL 1988
ATTENDANCE
Present:
Chudacoff, Dobbins, Lenaghan,
Lougee, Margolis, McClamroch,
Moerman, Olson, Reed; Haskell,
Savory
Absent:
Wulff
Guests:
President Fleming, Robin
Jacoby, Reginald Wilson,
American Council on Education,
Michael Lustig, Michi~an Daily
Professor McClamroch convened the meeting at 1:40 p.m.
MINUTES
-----The minutes of April 4 were corrected and approved.
MATTERS ARISING
1. McClamroch announced the agenda for the Assembly meeting
of April 18:
1.
2.
3.
2.
Dean D'Arms will discuss the tax on the GSA tuition
waiver.
Richard Dougherty will discuss MIRLYN.
William Birdsall will give Part I of the
Budget Priorities Committee Report.
Committee assignments for next year were discussed.
3. The Michigan Association of Governing Boards of Colleges
and Universities will have an awards convocation at MSU on April
20.
4.
Lenaghan reported that four faculty members had been
appointed to the Ad Hoc Task Force on Discriminatory Behavior
chaired by Mary Ann Swain and charged to draft a document
clarifying the policy on discriminatory behavior and harassment
as it relates to faculty and staff.
MEETING WITH PRESIDENT FLEMING
1. Revised Civil Liberties Board document on the Freedom of
Speech and Artistic Expression.
SACUA Minutes of 4/11/88
Page 2
2. Development of a Discriminatory Harassment Policy for
the faculty and staff.
3.
Non-tenure Clinical Track Appointments.
4.
Transition plans for the Department of Athletics.
The Provost's plan, entitled A Strategy for the Enhancement
of Excellence Through Diversity, which he had presented last
week, was discussed by SACUA. The committee recognized the value
of such a centrally organized effort and applauded some early
signs of success; but they also evinced concern about trading off
basic consideration of definitions and problems to achieve
simplicity and clarity.
SACUA discussed Vice President Wilson's proposals for
improving the research environment for primary research staff,
proposals which were also being reviewed by the Research Policies
Committee and the Academic Affairs Committee. The need for such
efforts seemed clear to the committee, which then endorsed these
proposals, though noting that the budgetary implications were not
clear.
Reginald Wilson, Director of the Office of Minority Concerns
of the American Council on Education, and a King/Chavez/Parks
Visiting Scholar, was a guest and talked to the committee about
the relation between diversity and excellence and about the
encouragement of new ideas of excellence among the faculty.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:05 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
R'l~
Lenagha~L
R. Thomas
Senate Secretary,
2~2_.._t.~!!!-
SACUA Minutes of 4/11/88
Page 3
APPENDIX
Olson: The Government Relations Committee meeting of March
25, 1988, included discussions of the:
Michigan Collegiate Coalition (pros and cons)
Report on the Michigan Political Action Committee
(Discussion to be continued at a future meeting)
Operation budget and capital outlay requests.
Olson: The Tri-Service Awards Ceremony was held in Rackham
Auditorium on April 5. President Fleming was the keynote
speaker, and also an awardee.
Compared to their numbers in the
three "corps of cadets," women walked off with a
disproportionately high number of awards.
At the MOEC Breakfast meeting on April 12, Lt. Col. Narbaugh
reported that 180 ROTC Scholarship winners from the regular cycle
(December high school graduates) had expressed an interest in
attending Michigan.
20 were preliminarily accepted by Army, but
ten of these were not physically qualified.
It is too early to
tell how many of the remaining 10 will actually enroll here.
Other schools offer free room and board to anyone with an ROTC
scholarship, and UM's high costs (overall) are not "attractive."
Col. Hunter and Lt. Col. Narbaugh (AFROTC and ROTC,
respectively) will be leaving the University this summer.
Replacements for both have been named, interviewed by the MOEC,
and approved.
They will report during the summer.
Dr. Ruth Barnard, Chair of MOEC, will be going on sabbatical
leave.
Her counsel and leadership will be missed.
Miller: The Financial Affairs Committee met on April 7.
The main agenda item was a report to the Committee of a study
currently underway by an Ad Hoc Committee Advisory to James
Thiry, Personnel Director of the University, that is considering
possible staff benefit program developments in the area of
dependent care. Thiry reported about the study and there was
considerable discussion.
The Ad Hoc Committee is meeting every
two weeks during April, May, and early June and will issue some
kind of report. They began by brainstorming and produced a long
list of possible programs, a copy of which we reviewed.
The main
focus was on child care, but there were a number of admonitions
about the importance of recognizing of all forms of dependent
care including aging parents and dependent spouses. The Ad Hoc
SACUA Minutes of 4/11/88
Page 4
Committee, which was originally called a child care study
committee, therefore changed its own name to dependent care study
committee. The Financial Affairs Committee, mainly brainstormed
about the list that resulted from the Ad Hoc Committee's
brainstorming. Such discussions have value, but by the end it
was apparent that the Ad Hoc Committee would need to move to a
clear focus by the end of their deliberations in June if their
report is to provide a basis for proposals.
A news release describing the newly appointed Vice
President, Farris Womack, was distributed. Miller, who had
served on the search committee, offered the opinion that Womack's
background as Chief Financial Officer at Chapel Hill and earlier
at the University of Arkansas suggests that he will view himself
as a broad-ranging leader who acts as one of the University's
executive officers rather than simply as the keeper of financial
records and the provider of administrative services. That is in
keeping with the behavior of previous financial vice presidents
at the UM. Vice President Brinkerhoff spoke positively about
Womack's appointment. The committee agreed that the May meeting
of the committee should be rescheduled if necessary in order to
permit the committee to meet with Womack during one of his
occasional visits to campus.
(Further checking after the meeting
indicates that such a meeting between Womack and the Committee
will be possible the week of May 16, although a specific day and
time have not yet been set.