Minutes March 22, 2021

UC members present: Halverson, Masters, Papp, Sandgren, Tracy, Wolf (chair)

Michaela Aust, Greg Bump, Erik  Dent, Maureen Durkin, Gideon Elliott, Lesley Fisher, Patricia Kiley, Paul Lambert, Michael Newton, Yvonne Kim, Kelly Meyerhofer, Jane Richard, Jake Smith, Bill Tishler, Deneen Wellik, John Zumbrunnen 

Chair Wolf called the meeting to order at 1:30.

Kevin Jacobson, ASM Shared Governance Campaign Director, and Ellen Santos, ASM Vote Coordinator, presented a proposal to give students working as election officials be given special consideration, much like religious observances, to be excused from class. The UC expressed their support and the first reading will go before the April Senate, with a vote in May.  

The minutes for the meeting of March 15, 2021 were approved by consent.

Congratulations to Eric Sandgren for being elected chair for next year, beginning June 1, 2021. This motion was set forth by Wolf and seconded by Halverson; all in favor.

Karl Scholz, Provost, expressed his reservations about the proposed policy to allow students to be excused from class for election days. He believes it might cause too much disruption to spring classes because there are two election days every spring semester. In-person instruction is planned for fall. Everyone is being asked to document what lessons were learned during the pandemic (e.g. what virtual learning might continue, how space can best be used). A remote work policy is being crafted, likely to include decentralized decision making.

Adrian Treves, Chair, Committee on Disability Access and Inclusion; Ruben Mota, ADA Coordinator; and Mari Magler, Director, McBurney Disability Resource Center, presented the CDAI annual report, a resolution, a revised Faculty Document 1071 and a policy proposal on funding accommodations. Faculty document 1071 contains much needed updates, including a new title: Access for Students with Disabilities. This student-centered policy now covers non-credit activities, and clarifies that the role of faculty is not to decide on, but to implement accommodations that are recommended by the McBurney Center. Appeals are moved to the Office of Compliance and the ADA coordinator. In regards to the proposal, currently some accommodations are paid through campus, but media captioning (chiefly sign language interpreting, media captioning and real-time captioning) is billed back to schools and colleges. The proposal would be to pay for those services through a central funding mechanism.

Francisco Pelegri, chair, Department of Genetics, and other basic science chairs from School of Medicine and Public Health, presented their concerns about the proposed Faculty Policies and Procedures section on promotion of associate professors to full. They would like to see the process tied to post-tenure review, while keeping the option open for the associate professor to request consideration at any time.

Sandgren moved to go into closed session. Seconded and approved at 3:22.

Tracy moved to go into open session. Seconded and approved at 3:41.

Chair Wolf adjourned the meeting at 3:58.