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GP.05.03

April 25, 2005

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
URBANA-CHAMPAIGN SENATE

Committee on General University Policy

GP.05.03 Annual Report for 2004-2005
(final- Information)


The Senate General University Policy Committee (GUP) is responsible for studying, reporting and making recommendations to the Senate concerning general University policy in broad terms. The following report summarizes the activities of GUP during the 2004-2005 academic year. GUP met seven times (September 16, October 14, November 11, December 9, January 27, March 31, and April 21).

A. Items that were completed by the committee:
GP.03.02 Non-Tenure-Track Academic Staff Policy
GUP worked with USSP on a proposed amendment to the Statutes that would allow for the possibility of multi-year contracts for non-tenure-track academic staff employed in roles analogous to faculty roles (i.e., excluding academic professionals). This issue has been under consideration for years, and had been before the Senate previously, but had not been approved owing to the lack of provisions for sanctions for employees who would be given such contracts. Such provisions have now been provided.

GUP and USSP reached agreement on most aspects of the proposed amendment, but could not agree on the matter of whether a provision mandating a ceiling on the number or percentage of academic staff members who would be given such contracts should be included in the Statutes. (USSP favored the inclusion of such a provision; GUP did not.) GUP had intended to join with USSP in sponsoring this amendment, the initiating sponsor of which was USSP, but did not do so for this reason. However, GUP did support the passage of the proposal to amend the Statutes to this effect.

B. Items that are under continuing consideration:
GP.01.01 UI-Integrate (UI2)
UI-Integrate will soon go out of existence as such, since the changes it involves have all been phased into the functioning of the administrative support structures of the University. When it ceases to exist, the faculty advisory committee that has provided faculty input to it will cease to exist as well. GUP has taken an interest in the question of whether there should be any successor advisory committee at the University level to provide similar sorts of input, and has discussed a particular proposal for such a committee, to which it is favorably disposed.

It would appear to be the view of the campus and University administrations that no such additional committee is needed. GUP intends to monitor the situation, and will revisit the idea of a successor committee to the current advisory committee be formed if experience with the new arrangements suggests that this might be desirable.

GP.03.06 Review of University Administrative Structure
GUP discussed the ways in which the position of Vice President for Technology and Economic Development (as it is now called) has developed and has been repositioned in relation to aspects of the campus research mission. GUP developed a draft of a resolution calling for a review of the position itself, in accordance with the conditional approval of the creation of the position given by the University Senates Conference five years ago. When that draft was shared with the Senates Conference, the Conference decided that such a resolution might more appropriately be put forward by the Conference itself. GUP agreed, and did not pursue the matter further. (The Conference did in fact pass such a resolution, which was accepted by President Stukel, who set a review of the position in motion.)

GUP also developed and considered drafts of two other resolutions, eventually combined into one, relating to the relation of the office of the Vice President for Technology and Economic Development to intellectual property administration functions on the campuses. It proposed such a resolution to the Senate, calling for the amendment of the recently-revised section of The General Rules Concerning University Organization and Procedure dealing with these matters to remedy the exclusion of the chancellors of the three campuses (by the language of the section as it now stands) from the organization of intellectual property administration. The resolution also would invite the other two campuses and the University Senates Conference to join with our Senate in calling upon the Trustees to make this change in The General Rules.

C. Items that are being monitored by the committee:

GP.02.01 UIUCnet Funding Plan

GP.05.01 University Administration Academic Professionals
It came to GUP’s attention that academic professionals on the three campuses of the University who work in the University Administration itself are covered neither by the Human Resources policies of the various campuses nor by comparable policies devised for them as a separate group.

USSP was also considering the matter, and developed a proposal to amend the Statutes to provide that such personnel should be covered by the policies of the campus on which they work. GUP agreed that this is the outcome to be desired, but came to the conclusion that the appropriate place for such a provision is in The General Rules rather than the Statutes; and it so recommended, first to USSP and subsequently to the Senate Executive Committee, when the amendment proposed by USSP was being considered in that body. GUP’s view did not prevail; but if the attempt to achieve this outcome by way of an amendment to the Statutes proves unsuccessful, GUP will take the matter up again, and will consider proposing a change in The General Rules to this effect.

GP.05.02 Campus Master Plan
GUP has discussed the fact that there is no procedure for Senate monitoring of the Campus Master Plan, and has concluded that this would be an appropriate activity for a General University Policy committee. It intends to make this activity a part of its continuing business.


General University Policy
Richard Schacht, Chair
R. Linn Belford
Clifton Brown
Adam Cobb
Ryann Hubbard
Joan Klein
Carol Livingstone
Joanne Vining
Ruth Watkins, Ex officio