MINUTES OF THE FACULTY HANDBOOK REVISION COMMITTEE
APRIL 21, 2006 – Mason Hall,
room D5; 10:00 – 11:30 a.m.
Present: Kevin Avruch, Professor of Conflict Resolution and Anthropology, ICAR; Lorraine Brown, Professor of English (CAS) and President of the AAUP Chapter of George Mason University; Rick Coffinberger, Associate Professor of Business and Legal Studies, School of Management, Chair; Dave Harr, Senior Associate Dean, School of Management; Marilyn Mobley, Associate Provost for Education Programs; Suzanne Slayden, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Absent: Martin Ford, Senior Associate Dean, College of Education and Human Development; David Rossell, Associate Provost for Personnel and Budget, ex-officio.
Approval of Minutes of April 10, 2006:
Any revisions
received from members of the committee will be resubmitted for approval. In absence of revisions received, minutes
will be posted as approved.
Announcements:
·
Congratulations
to the Faculty Task Force on Salary Issues (chaired by Rick Coffinberger)
preliminary report presented at a special called Faculty Senate meeting on
April 19th.
·
As Martin Ford
is not here today, discussion about Institutes to be deferred to our next
meeting, April 24th.
Short List of Topics to review in the near future:
·
Post Tenure
Review
·
Outside
Employment/Business 2.11.8 draft distributed at last meeting
o
Suzanne
Slayden will ask COS to comment upon the draft as pertinent to their operations
o
appropriate to
see that it does not restrict faculty: not just a matter of university benefit,
but also to identify things faculty may be doing wrong
o
need to better
articulate “one day rule”, what does it mean precisely?
o
as policies
are developed by the Research Council, Matt Kluger has promised to send them to
the Faculty Senate
Text of recommended revision: LAU Professional Development Leaves
Tenured faculty who have been employed in full-time
instructional positions at the university for at least ten years may apply for
a LAU Professional Development Leave.
Local academic units are responsible for establishing the procedures,
criteria, and deadlines for submission and review of leave proposals as well as
obtaining approval of such by their Dean/Director and the Provost. The timing of a leave may be delayed if in
the judgment of the LAU administrator, the faculty member’s services are needed
for a particular semester. Leaves are
for one semester at full pay and benefits or an academic year at half pay with
full benefits. Faculty who receive
these leaves are not eligible to apply for another LAU leave for at least seven
years but remain eligible for the Faculty Study Leaves administered by the
Provost’s Office.
Discussion re
whether such a program should be in Handbook or FIG:
o Some members supported inclusion in Handbook.
o Concern expressed about equating professional
development leave with study leave.
o Others do not wish to include in Handbook
because it would not be overseen by the Provost’s Office although he must
approve it. Provost’s program applies
to tenure-track faculty. Upon receiving tenure, faculty would be eligible to
apply for professional development leave. Should granting of provost’s study leave have the ability to affect
opportunity to apply for department leave?
o How to enforce return for a subsequent
academic year?
o LAU (department or school) would have to
develop procedures for review by dean/provost for approval – deadlines,
criteria written out in advance.
o Issue of favoritism by chair: LAU procedures would involve a group of
tenured faculty for approval, not one person’s decision.
o Faculty Study Leave is competitive. Under Provost Study Leave program at least
part time FTE money goes to department.
Provost provides matrix support for teaching load which is lost as a de
facto funding source for faculty (adjunct monies); timing up to person and
area, then sent to Provost’s office for approval.
o Argument in favor of departmental leave as a
way to give some authority and flexibility at the local level. Ideally a tradeoff – if you want to support
departmental leave, go ahead, but you will not get extra support; to do away with
departmental leave would be bad for governance at the local level.
o Another option: to increase Provost Study Leave program, which the Faculty Senate
has supported in the past.
o When a department chair goes on leave after
five years’ service, where does the money come from?
o Other kinds of leaves which faculty may
take: military leave, sick leave,
sabbaticals, IPAs . For example, sick leave policy for instructional faculty is
very clear but Banner is not issued to track instructional faculty in HR beyond
pay alone. Military leave call-up not
addressed in the Faculty Handbook.
o How does sick leave intertwine with stopping
the tenure clock? Management of Family
Medical Leave Act?
o Definition of “day” as Human Resources states “day per day”?
Those present agreed that we need to consult with David Rossell as this is his area of expertise. Some of these questions are addressed in the FIG. Input from University Counsel may be needed as well. The governor of Virginia also announced policies regarding state employees on military leave. To review policies with HR, Rick to rewrite and bring back for discussion at our next meeting.
EMERITUS Discussion
The Faculty Senate passed a motion May 5, 2004 with extensive recommendations on how faculty would receive emeritus status:
What constitutes emeritus status? Some departments feel it is their right to approve it. Some term faculty have been here for almost 20 years but are not eligible for emeritus status because as is presently limited only to tenured faculty.
Emeritus to be removed from 2.2 Faculty Rank into (a new) section entitled “Designations”
Respectfully submitted,
Meg Caniano
Clerk, Faculty Senate