Forum Meeting on April 21, 2010

Librarians' Forum
April 21, 2010
Hatcher Gallery
Attendance: approx. 38

The meeting was called to order by Forum Vice Chair Donna Hayward at 9:02 a.m.

Announcements

The next FutureLibCon event will be held Wednesday, April 29, at noon, in the Hatcher Gallery.

The Library's Diversity Celebration will be held on Wednesday, May 12, from 2-4.  This year's theme is "A Breach of Good Manners: 90 Years of Women’s Suffrage."

Election Results

Deirdre Spencer, Chair of the Forum Election Committee, reported the following results from the just-concluded election:

Member of the Committee on Funding for Librarians’ Research & Creative Projects
Marisa Conte

Members-at-Large
Sue Wortman and Lori Tschirhart

Vice Secretary
Angie Oehrli

Vice Chair/Chair Elect
There was a three-way tie among Dave Carter, Beth Strickland, and Ken Varnum.  According to the bylaws, a run-off election will be held.  It will shortly be announced to librarians by email. 

Faculty Governance

Donna  Hayward introduced this section of the Forum.  She started by defining "faculty governance" as the process by which faculty take a role in governing the institution.  At the University of Michigan, there are three tiers to this process.  The first is the Faculty Senate -- all members of the faculty at the University.  The next is the elected Senate Assembly, consisting of 73 elected members, assigned proportionally to the schools and college.  The next is SACUA, the executive arm of the Assembly, with 9 members from the Senate Assembly elected by the Senate Assembly.  Clinical faculty are not included in the Faculty Senate.  See the SACUA website for details on SACUA and its committee structure. 

The Library does not have  a seat of its own in the Senate Assembly, but we are allocated one of the School of Information's three seats.  Jim Ottaviani currently holds the library's seat.

There are about 20 Senate Assembly committees, as well as a handful of others to which the Senate Assembly assigns members.  See the list of Senate Assembly committees.  Committee service is three years, with staggered terms of service.

Donna then introduced today's speakers, in addition to herself, each of whom serves on one or more Senate Assembly committees:

• Annette Haines
• Deb DeGeorge
• Marija Freeland
• Vince Prygoski (UM-Flint)

Annette Haines serves on the Faculty Perspectives Editorial Board. Faculty Perspectives has been a feature in the University Record since 1993.  It is a venue for members of the Faculty Senate to voice an opinion in the Record.  The committee solicits and compiles submissions.  This committee has a fairly low workload; on average there are 2 submissions a year.  There is one in-person meeting per year, the rest is conducted by email.

Deb DeGeorge serves on the Michigan League Board of Governors, the Rules Committee, and the Administration Evaluation Committee. The League Board of Governors sets policies and priorities for facilities improvements at the League.  The Rules Committee meets irregularly, when there is a question about the Faculty Senate's rules.  The Administration Evaluation Committee is responsible for the annual survey of the faculty on the University's administration (the President, Provost, and Deans).  

Marija Freeland and Vince Prygoski serve on the Committee on the Economic Status of the Faculty.  This committee focuses on salary and benefits offered to faculty.  It meets monthly.  At the June Regents meeting, the chair of this committee presents a report to the Regents enumerating faculty concerns about these matters.  The Committee's report goes straight to the regents.

Big questions at the moment include the potential impact of pending state legislation that would convert university employees to be state employees.  There is some question about the constitutionality of such a change, if it were enacted.  With the potential for a constitutional convention being called in the November elections, this is a topic of some concern.

Donna Hayward serves on the Civil Liberties Board, the Government Relations Advisory Committee, and the Student Relations Advisory Committee.  The Civil Liberties Board was formed in response to student issues and once had a very active agenda.  Now, it is relatively infrequently referred issues to discuss.  It has an education role and will be creating a web site to provide information on civil liberties (as opposed to civil rights).

The Government Relations Advisory Board has monthly meetings.  It includes town/gown relations as well as University/State and University/Federal government interactions. It advises Cynthia Wilbanks on these matters.

The Student Relations Advisory Committee is very active and meets at least monthly.  In addition to faculty, two representatives of the Michigan Student Assembly also sit on this committee.  Every three years, this committee updates the "Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities", the student code of conduct.

Questions and Answers

Q:  How much interaction is there between librarians and their committee representatives?

A:  Not much in a formal sense. There used to be regular SACUA Committee updates at Librarians' Forum, but that habit has slipped by the wayside.

Q:  What about the Tenure Committee?

A:  Beau Case serves is on that committee, but was unable to attend today.  Tenure criteria vary greatly across the University; they are managed by each school or department.

Q:  What should role of Forum be in library governance?

A:  The Travel Committee is representative of what this role could be.  Forum Board with LDG set up a process by which results could be effected.  However, there has not been sufficient follow-through by Forum Board to make sure that the process is implemented expeditiously.

Q:  Do SACUA committee members serve as themselves, or as representatives of the library?

A:  Committees are not formally representational, unlike the Faculty Senate.

Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 10:30 AM.