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