A-5
Faculty Welfare Committee
Committee Members
Elizabeth Abel, nursing
Patrick Brocket, management science and information systems
Wallace Fowler, aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics
Hillary Hart, civil engineering
Julia Mickenberg, American studies
Joan Neuberger, history
John Sampson, law
Faculty Council Appointees
Douglas Burger, computer sciences
Martha Hilley, music
The full committee met six times during the 2004-05 year. The schedule
and the issues discussed were the following:
September 2, 2004
Martha Hilley convened the committee. Hillary Hart was elected chair.
October 1, 2004
Benefits, primarily health—committee wanted
to follow up on the previous surveys developed by Mark Alpert (former
chair of faculty welfare) and administered with the help of Kyle Kavanaugh.
Since Professor Alpert would not be administering the survey again,
decision was to postpone any action on this item.
Modified Instructional Duties’ Policy—two
members wanted to survey departments to see whether this policy is
being used and how.
Langlois Report on Status of Non-Tenure-Track Faculty—decision
to follow up on this with provost.
Faculty Travel Grants—These are scandalously
low at UT. Two members offered to survey peer institutions.
October 28, 2004
Met with Charles Roeckle, deputy to the president, to discuss the
recommendations and language of the Langlois report. Decision made
to act on penultimate recommendation of report and set up an implementation
committee. As a first step, committee agreed to meet with Provost Ekland-Olson
to assess administrative support for report’s recommendations
and for suggestions on membership of implementation committee.
November 30, 2004
Planning meeting for subsequent meeting with provost.
December 1, 2004
Met with Provost Ekland-Olson to walk through the Langlois report
and determine which items were actually already being done, which could
be done through policy memos from the provost’s office, and which
were likely to be somewhat controversial (in spite of the report’s
having been accepted by the Faculty Council on March 17, 2003). Suggestions
made for members of the implementation committee.
Other issues raised: inadequacy of travel grant money. Provost agreed
and promised to pursue avenues for increasing.
February 17, 2005
Met with VP Kyle Cavanaugh to discuss health plans at UT. Apparently,
UT system has better “deals” for employees than do other
state agencies. Health care management industry is undergoing change,
and we will keep our eye on what is best for UT faculty and staff.
Mark Alpert and Kyle will conduct Faculty Benefits Survey again in
2005-06. Kyle will return to the committee to present data on health
plans at peer institutions. This was the final 04-05 meeting for the
full Faculty Welfare Committee.
March 22, 2005
Meeting of Implementation Committee with Provost Ekland-Olson. Members
included four members of the Faculty Welfare Committee: Hillary Hart,
Martha Hilley, Doug Burger, and Elizabeth Abel. The committee also
included Deans Richard Lariviere and Mary Ann Rankin. The Langlois
report was combed through for acceptability, especially to the two
deans. Suggestions for revision were made and then forwarded to Hillary
Hart for incorporation into the final document.
May 23, 2005
Hart met with Provost Ekland-Olson to finalize Langlois report. Plans
made for publicizing the report to the faculty in Fall 2005. Hart then
reformatted report and sent it to Provost Ekland-Olson on June 21,
2005, to be forwarded on to President Faulkner. Ekland-Olson accepted
and promised to send on.
Hart also sent to provost, at his request, a table prepared by committee
member Neuberger comparing UT’s travel grants with our peer institutions’.
Provost agreed to work with committee in the future to address this
serious lack of adequate financial support for faculty travel.
Hillary Hart, chair
|
