2. OPEN SESSION

Senator Andy Silverman – Senator Silverman reported that one of the responsibilities of the Senate Task Force for Monitoring Labor and Human Rights Issues has been to monitor the 1999 Commitments between President Likins and the Students Against Sweatshops. The Task Force has made periodic reports ending with the final deadline in the Commitments of February, 2001. The Task Force has also taken on other activities besides monitoring. In Fall 2000, the Task Force sponsored visits from Sam Brown, the Executive Director of the Fair Labor Association, and Richard Appelbaum, a board member of the Worker Rights Consortium. In Spring 2001, the Task Force helped to sponsor the Labor in the Americas Conference offered by Latin American Studies. It also helped to sponsor a forum on a workers’ strike at the Kukdong factory in Puebla, Mexico which produces UA apparel. The Task Force hopes to begin sponsoring research dealing with sweatshop-related issues, and is looking into alternative licensing options and factory models through Borderlinks.

Senator Frank Romer – Senator Romer expressed his gratitude to the faculty advisors who will be on campus twelve times this summer to facilitate new student advising. Since these twelve dates fall between May 14 and August 16, the exact three months that professors on nine-month contracts are not paid, Senator Romer proposed that faculty advisors be paid for this time if summer advising is to become a regular demand on faculty members’ time. He also hopes that the University-wide Task Force on Advising will make more visible and more inclusive efforts to improve the general advising situation next year.

Senator Quintero introduced a new student Senator, Amy Armstrong, who will serve as ASUA’s Director of Academic Affairs. Angelle Judice, who was unable to attend today’s meeting, will also serve on the Senate this year. ASUA is continuing its work on the Academic Advising Task Force and is formulating a student survey on how to improve advising. The survey will be conducted on the mall as well as on-line during the Fall semester.

3B. GPSC President Kirsten Price

Outgoing GPSC President Auxier thanked the Senate for its openness and for allowing student input and participation into policy changes and other affairs. He introduced law student Kirsten Price, the new GPSC President who will serve in the Senate this year.

3D. Secretary of the Faculty Robert Mitchell

The Committee on Faculty Membership met in April and has formed a study group to consider some of the issues developed by last year’s committee. Any recommendations from the committee will come to the Senate in the Fall.

3E. Chair of the Faculty Jory Hancock

Chair Hancock also welcomed the new Senators and officers. He asked Jacqueline Sharkey, who was a UA representative to the statewide Evaluation Committee that was charged with negotiating the healthcare benefits for 2001-2002, to describe the process and explain how the CIGNA contract was finally accepted. Ms. Sharkey explained that the Evaluation Committee was given criteria to provide all state employees and their families in both urban and rural areas with quality healthcare at a reasonable cost. The legal criteria included 1) acceptability of providers with performance on the current state contract, 2) the track record and reputation of each company that submitted an offer, 3) the ability to enhance employee choice, 4) the plan design 5) funding arrangements, 6) financial stability, and 7) cost. The RFP’s originally asked for proposals for three regions: Maricopa County, Pima County, and all other counties. Initial offers came from CIGNA, Health Net, United Healthcare and Pacificare, the same four companies that are providing healthcare benefits under the current contract. Only two offers made provisions for the rural areas of the state, Health Net and United Healthcare. United Healthcare’s proposal depended on a self-funded funding arrangement, which was outside the contract’s legal parameters. Health Net’s cost estimate was more than $10 million above the state estimate and did not meet the legal provider standard in seven rural counties. With no viable option for the rural employees, the committee asked the four bidding companies to submit offers to be the sole carrier for the entire state. The committee hoped that the larger pool of employees would bring in reduced rates. Only CIGNA submitted a new offer. HealthNet and United Healthcare left their offers the same and Pacificare did not submit any offer. Since United Healthcare’s offer was outside the legal parameters for the state, it could not be considered. The committee then compared the two companies and offers and found that CIGNA had the strongest urban and rural network, had met or exceeded all standards in the current state contract, had the highest satisfaction rate among employees (over 90%), had the lowest complaint-to-employee ratio, had the lowest number of appeals, had financial stability, and had the lowest-cost HMO and PPO plans for all three regions, whereas HealthNet would have cost $300/mo more for individual coverage and $800/mo more for families. She referred questions and concerns to Ted Evers, ADOA Benefits Manager for the Arizona Department of Administration. Chair Hancock also extended his personal thanks to outgoing Chair of the Faculty Jerry Hogle for mentoring him and the new faculty officers during this transition period, for supporting the Faculty Center staff, for making Shared Governance even more inclusive, and for his involvement in some of the major actions and polices that were developed during the past four years including an Agreement for Extending Shared Governance, an Enhanced Review Board, a Revised Policy on Conflict of Interest and Commitment, a Policy on Corporate Relations, a new Code of Research Integrity, a Regents’ Whistleblower Protection Policy, a sexual harassment policy, a faculty grievance policy, and an initial draft of a new research integrity policy. Chair Hancock also thanked the faculty members who have worked on each of these policies. He presented outgoing Chair Hogle with a plaque for extraordinary service to the faculty of the University of Arizona. Chair Hogle expressed his gratitude for all of the Senators, committee chairs and members, and faculty officers who have served with him in the past four years. He also thanked Provost Davis and President Likins for their commitment to shared governance and their sensitivity to and respect for faculty viewpoints. He expressed gratitude to his wife and to the Faculty Center staff for their continuous support and said it has been an honor for him to serve the faculty.

3F. Provost George Davis

Provost Davis identified the new academic degrees, programs, and units that have been approved this past year through the faculty, colleges, and Senate, as well as proposals that are currently going through the approval process. He does not yet have a summary of recruitment and new hires for this year but he hopes to announce the new Vice-President for Undergraduate Education and the new Vice President for Health Sciences within two or three weeks. Arizona International College’s Dean Rosenblatt is stepping down and a search has begun for his replacement. Dave Gnagy is serving as Acting Dean in the interim. The search committee for the Dean of the new College of Public Health will probably make its recommendations in June. This summer, Provost Davis will bring a consultant to campus to do a needs assessment on how UA can move forward with greater effectiveness in the area of diversity. In particular, the NCA identified faculty diversity as a challenge for the University. He hopes to invest more funding and to create an extraordinarily welcoming environment for recruiting and retaining faculty from diverse groups. An NCA report on what has been done and what is planned is due in 2003. The question of whether to hire for a Chief Information Officer/Vice President of Information Technology has been an ongoing search challenge for some time. Last year’s national search was terminated to allow the University to develop a greater understanding of the investment required for market and start-up costs while considering the value derived. Provost Davis also thanked Jerry Hogle for his loyal service to the General Faculty.

3G. President Peter Likins

President Likins reflected on the past four years. Upon his arrival in 1997, his main concern was the fragmented community. He has worked hard to develop good working relationships with the faculty, the students, the administration, the University community, the Regents, the external community, the business community, and the legislature. He thanked Jerry Hogle for easing the process of developing associations with the faculty, and for enabling him to understand the culture and to respond to the needs of the faculty. He also thanked the Faculty Senate for providing an opportunity to discuss issues and differences. He commented that the student leaders in recent years have made effective contributions and valuable differences. He thanked the Provost for becoming an instant partner. The team composed of the President’s Cabinet, the University Council, the Vice Presidents and the Deans has really begun to function effectively in the past year. All of these collaborations are having a positive effect as University personnel are beginning to feel valued by the governor, the legislature and the external community, largely as a result of Janet Bingham’s efforts in the Office of Advancement. Some of the legislature’s response to higher education priorities is a consequence of the dialogue between business community leaders and legislators. Proposition 301 and some of the newly elected pro-education legislators indicate constituents’ greater commitment to education and to the University’s mission. Although some things are still dependent on such externalities as the accidents of politics or the economy, he feels that these coalitions and collaborations are truly a new beginning for the University that will only improve with time.

Substitute Senator D. Jones inquired about the status of Proposition 301 funds. Provost Davis said UA’s funds will amount to about $16 million and expenditures can begin July 1. A structure is in place with checks and balances for budget preparation and approval for the six areas designated to receive the funds; BioTechnology, Information Technology, Water, Optics, Access, and Workforce. He expects to receive faculty-generated proposals for appropriate and optimum expenditures from leadership teams of deans and directors.

Senator D. Davis inquired about handling inappropriate classroom behavior. Senator Romer replied that most disruptive behaviors are addressed by the Code of Conduct violations and can be handled directly with the student or by informing the Dean of Students. He also suggested that faculty should discuss citizenship in the classroom and fair treatment of both students and faculty at the beginning of each semester. The Student Affairs Policy Committee has also been discussing plagiarism and intends to put an electronic link about plagiarism on the University-wide General Education Committee’s WebPages.

The minutes of April 2, 2001 were approved as distributed.

Votes were cast using written ballots. Secretary Mitchell and Parliamentarian Volgy served as tellers. Within the General Faculty Bylaws, those elected were: