FRAUHM SENATE LIAISONS
NOTES AND REPORTS
Ashton (CAPP); Fuller (CSA); Kleinfeld or Campbell (GEC); Little (CA); Riggs (CAB); Simson (CFS); Wang (CPM); and Zane (COR). Chai (open)Appointees: pursuant to a Senate Resolution, the following persons have volunteered to serve on these Senate Committees:
Geoffrey Ashton (CAPP); Academic Policy and Planning: academic goals, policies, and programs with respect to standards of professional ethics; establishment and modification of degree programs and curricula, admissions and graduation requirements, and ways of supporting and encouraging improvements in faculty performance; and planning for changes in academic goals and in academic programs.
Gary Fuller (CSA); Student Affairs: issues related to the improvement of quality educational and co-curricular experiences for students. These include, but are not limited to: registration, advising, dismissal, withdrawal from courses, student government, and both undergraduate and graduate student publications.
Ruth Kleinfeld or Bob Campbell (GEC); General Eduction: develop policies and procedures for implementing and monitoring General Education at UHM, and undertake regular assessments of the effectiveness of General Education.
James Little (CA); Athletics: intercollegiate athletics, including standards for admission, retention, and graduation; the reporting of graduation rates; academic counseling; ethical standards; and ways of supporting and encouraging the academic performances of the student-athletes.
Fred Riggs (CAB); Administration and Budget: review administrative policies and procedures, proposals for reorganization, the responsibility of major positions, and the procedures for filling positions... The Committee shall monitor the administration's actions to ensure that they are open and give ample opportunity for faculty consultation and shall review University policies regarding academic decision making and policy development and propose modifications as required.
George Simson (CFS); Faculty Services: all nominating and final elections for members of the Senate & its Executive Committee, selecting members for subcommittees, boards of the GEC, ad-hoc committees, and task forces, conducting the balloting on resolutions submitted to the Congress, seeking out candidates for committee seats to which faculty are appointed and nominating persons for those seats, and seeking out candidates for faculty positions on committees appointed by or responsible to the Manoa Chancellor or the President.
Jaw-KaiWang (CPM); Professional Matters: protecting the academic freedom of all scholars, and shall review and evaluate such topics as classified research, sexual harassment, gift giving, and the like
Larry Zane (COR). Research: matters relating to the planning, direction, initiation, development, and coordination of faculty research. The Committee shall review policies and procedures for the support of the research enterprise, both for externally funded research and for internally funded/faculty-funded research. The Committee shall review proposals for improvements in research infrastructure, new research initiatives or restructuring existing research programs.
Dennis X Chai may be called upon as an alternate
REPORTS AND COMMENTS
By FRAUHM appontees, plus responses and suggestions from others, will be posted below:
I have been struck by the old adage that “What goes around, comes around” Indeed, most of the topics considered during my brief membership of CAPP were acted on during my tenure as Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs in the period 1972 to 1978. For example, the establishment of a program in Women’s Studies, the role of Summer Session, program assessment, admissions policy, articulation between Manoa and the community colleges, and the value and justification for certificates.
My views on the role of retirees on Senate committees? Ambivalent. On the one hand we can provide a historical perspective on matters arising, if asked. But on the other hand, this may no longer be relevant in today’s world. I was able to suggest that CAPP might want to examine the whole question of certificates and I believe that it will now do this. Rather than ask us about our views on the value of retirees on Senate committees, we should ask the chairs and members if they think it’s valuable.
The committee addressed the following issues during the 2006-07 academic year:
1) the Auburn football scandal,
2) work with the administration to address possible copyright violation in the
performance of the haka.
3) important issue was student athlete academic performance.
4) reviewed the Administration's Academic Plan for Athletes and brought
a resolution to the Senate to endorse the plan.
5) discussed the quality of education that we are offering our student athletes
including possible majors.
We met with the Chancellor and discussed issues related to academic performance. We will continue work on academic performance issues such as the possibility of raising the minimum GPA to compete to 2.0.
AT UHM NOW. The Senate Executive Committee on 19 June 2006 discussed ... approaches and problems to develop an updated faculty handbook. The SEC believes the old handbook, last updated in the 1970s, is too outdated and inconsistent with the Collective Bargaining Agreement to use as a starting point. The task is complex and too large for the Committee on Professional Matters. The SEC decided to ask VCAA Smatresk for his ideas and possible resources. No information about the old Faculty Handbook is available on the Web, but we do have several up-to-date faculty handbooks for some units at UHM. Here are some links for them:
OUTSIDE UHM: Some of our UH colleges have up-dated faculty handbooks. See:
OTHER UNIVERSITIES: Some examples of computerized faculty handbooks on other campuses:
FACULTY COMMITTEES often produce material that should be reported or linked in the FACULTY HANDBOOK. Since UHM Faculty Senate is represented on a wide range of faculty and administative committees, it is well positioned to collect data from them for use in the Faculty Handbook. It would save time if all the linked committees could be identified and their Senate links identified on the Senate's Web Site. Sadly, however, our UHM Senate appears not to be represented on quite a few UH faculty committees and boards, as one can learn from the incomplete data posted at: Committees. Although the heading reads Non-Senate Committees With MFS Representation, checking their web sites (when available) shows that many do not list a Senator as a member. There a link to the Academic Procedures Committee but it fails to list its members. However, there is another site for this Committee which identifies its members, but none are marked as senators. By contrast, the Council on Sustainability lists 4 members as senators. Other lists of some faculty committees are posted on the Web: for example, in the Office of Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, there's a list of Councils, Boards and Committees. However, no comprehensive listing of Manoa faculty committees seems to be available. By contrast, HCC provides a Faculty Committee Guide that not only lists faculty committees but also offers guidance to faculty members who might be interested in volunteering their services.
Since many faculty committees prescribe or administer rules and procedures applicable to faculty performance, establishing ready access to their sites and membersip lists would surely facilitate the compilation and updating of the UHM Faculty Handbook. If the UHM Faculty Senate would sponsor a page with information about all faculty committees, this data would surely be a useful addition to the contents of the Faculty Handbook. An automatic link between faculty committees and the Senate is suggested by this note posted in the SEC minutes for Sept. 23, 2003. It specified that while there are many ways to constitute committees, only committees whose membership is appointed by the Senate are true faculty committees. Again, we read on the Minutes of its May 23, 2005 meeting, that The SEC believes that appointees to "Manoa faculty" committees come through the Manoa Faculty Senate. If this be true, then surely the Senate should have a list of all faculty committees, whether or not they include a Senate representative, and the relevant rules should be included in the Handbook..
POSTING. This is a preliminary test to see whether or not reporting comments here on questions coming before our Faculty Senate committees will be useful.
SUBJECT; SUMMARY OF FACULTY SENATE COMMITTEE ON RESEARCH
The committee met throughout the academic year and short summary of each meeting are attached These are my opinions only and not necessarily that of the chair or the committee.
This is what I learned.
1. Members of the committee are highly talented and dedicated individuals.
2. Our University of Hawaii at Manoa is carrying out amazing and interesting R and D by faculty.
3. The name of UHM is often confused with community colleges, our 2-four year colleges and the UHM system.
4. There appears to be a general lack of understanding and appreciation of the value of research and Development at UHM and the community at large.
Key points
1. A large proportion of our meetings were spent on classified and proprietary research policies of UHM and reviewing other like institutions in preparation of a draft UHM policy for the Faculty Senate and UHARI to review. This will continue next year.
2. There are extramural contract and grants that have been executed by UHM PIs that have not been invoiced or have been invoiced but not paid to the University.
Recommendation
That UHM consider the appointment of staff to improve the public information of research and development past and present done by depts and faculty.
PS. Thank you for appointing me to represent you on the Faculty Senate Committee on Research.
NOTE: Larry has forwarded a list of 100 UH PI Grants and Contracts for Oct.1, 2000 to Sept. 30, 2005. The total funds received at UH amounted to more than $1 billion, for 100 listed principal investigators. UHARI, the Association of Research Investigators at UH, maintains a web site but the latest report posted there is for 2004!
LINKS
FACULTY RETIREES ASSOCIATION at UHM
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII, MANOA