Executive Committee Minutes

09/21/2006 03:30 PM - Peabody Board Room - Administration Building

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The University Council Executive Committee met on September 21, 2006 at 3:30 p.m. in the Peabody Board Room of the Administration Building. Susan Mattern-Parkes, Chair, called the meeting to order at 3:30 p.m. Standing committee chairs in attendance were Malcolm Adams, Mary Ann Akers, Jim Anderson, Robert Hoyt, David Shipley, Paul Thomas, and William Vencill (representing both the Curriculum Committee and the Committee on Statutes, Bylaws and Committees). Visitors included Larry Dendy, Fiona Liken, Bob Ratajczak and Matt Winston.

The minutes from the April 13, 2006 Executive Committee meeting were approved as distributed (attachment a).

Action Items:

1. Dr. William Vencill presented the following two proposals from the Curriculum Committee (attachment b):
   1. A proposal for a Dual Degree between Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.). The vote was called and the proposal was approved.
   2. A proposal for a non-thesis option for the major in Housing and Consumer Economics (M.S.). Following clarification of the composition of the credit hours needed to complete the proposed non-thesis option, the vote was called and the proposal was approved.
2. Dr. Mary Anne Akers presented a proposal on behalf of the Faculty Benefits Committee, addressed to Chancellor Davis and President Adams, regarding the Optional Retirement Plan (ORP) (attachment c). Following extensive discussion, the committee requested that the proposal be edited by removing item number four in the concerns section and adding a comparison of the ORP and the Teachers Retirement System. Due to the timely nature of this proposal committee members agreed to allow the Faculty Benefits Committee to re-submit the amended proposal to Rebecca Macon by the end of the day September 25 to be included on the October 4 Council agenda.
3. Discussion and vote on chair-elect for the Executive Committee since Professor Scott Weinberg had withdrawn due to his appointment as interim dean of the College of Environment and Design. Dr. Susan Mattern-Parkes provided the names of the four individuals that were eligible to serve as chair-elect. The only eligible member willing to serve was Dr. William Vencill. The committee voted to accept Dr. Vencill's offer to act as chair-elect this academic year and chair next year.
4. Discussion and vote for a replacement member on the University Appeals Committee to represent the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources due to Robert Warren's appointment as interim dean of the School effective December 1, 2006. Ballots were distributed and the votes cast. Kim Coder was selected to replace Dr. Warren as the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources representative on the University Appeals Committee.
5. Discussion and vote to elect a chair for the University Libraries Committee. The only nominee was Elizabeth St. Pierre. Dr. St. Pierre stated she was willing to serve as chair of the Libraries Committee and Executive Committee members voted to accept her offer to serve as chair.
6. Dr. Susan Mattern-Parkes made a request that the Honorary Degree Committee be allowed to make a brief statement at the October 4 Council meeting. The vote was called and the request was approved.

Information Items:

1. It was noted that the second reading of the following proposals for changes to the University Statutes and the University Council Bylaws will appear on the October 4, 2006 Council agenda for a final vote (attachment d):
   1. Motion one - Amend Article XVII of the University Statutes to include eight additional staff representatives as members of the University Council.
   2. Motion two - Add a new paragraph to Part V., Section III. E. of the University Council Bylaws and change the lettering of subsequent paragraphs accordingly to include the additional staff representatives as added in motion one.
   3. Motion three - Change the wording of the last sentence of the University Council Bylaws, Part V., Section III. B. to include the word "staff".
   4. Motion four - Change Article V, Sections 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9 of the University Statutes to include staff as members of the University Council.
   5. Motion five - Change in order to clarify Standing Committee membership sections in Part I, Sections I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV of the University Council Bylaws and Motion six (to be considered concurrently with motion five) - Deletion of Part V., IV (with re-numbering of subsequent sections) of the University Council Bylaws.
2. As the incoming chair of the Executive Committee Dr. Mattern-Parkes welcomed everyone to the first meeting of the academic year and thanked everyone for attending. Dr. Mattern-Parkes made several remarks which included:
1. Per the Office of Public Affairs all Council standing committee meetings are open meetings, except for those dealing with personnel issues or individual student issues. Committee meeting schedules should be posted to the UGA master calendar and members of the press may attend except as noted.
2. Georgia Open Records Act applies to all correspondence generated by Council standing committees.
3. When a proposal is put forth to the Executive Committee and the Council the document should be in the form of an attachment to the agenda.
4. Proposals submitted to the EC should as far as possible and whenever appropriate address the following questions:
   1. State what the problem is.
   2. If appropriate, evidence that the problem exists, other than anecdote.
   3. State the solution to the problem, i.e. the proposal.
   4. If appropriate, evidence that the proposal will work.
   5. If appropriate, method to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposal if there is any possibility it won't work.
   6. How much it will cost.
   7. Where the money will come from.

      These should be addressed in a document attached to the EC agenda. Presenters should also offer a 2-minute oral summary of these points at the EC meeting and again at the UC meeting if the proposal is placed on that agenda.

      Obviously not all questions will be necessary for all proposals; for example, sometimes a proposal may request an investigation to determine whether a problem truly exists and what the solution might be, in which case only i, ii, vi and vii would be relevant. But if there is likely to be any question or debate about any item i-vii please do your best to anticipate that and present a clear rationale. This is NOT to suggest that informal ideas for change should not be brought before the EC or before any committee. It is one of the jobs of the EC to refer such items to the appropriate committee to study them and to develop proposals for action.

5. In general, committee reports given to Council should be summarized in three minutes or less since copies of the full reports will become part of the meeting minutes online.
6. Proposals to be included on meeting agendas should be sent to both rmacon@uga.edu and dlord@uga.edu.
3. Status reports were given from standing committee chairs and will be given to Council at the October 4 meeting.
4. A demo of the new Status of Motions addition to Council web site was given. The site is a work in progress but will be made available to the public by the end of the day September 22, 2006.

There being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

• Rebecca L. Macon
• University Council Secretary

Executive Committee roster	Members represented by proxy
Anderson, Wyatt Brooks, Dwight Calhoun, Georgia Childs, Adrian Frick, Janet Harris, Ruth Harrison, Georgia Langston, David Lipp, Erin Love, Sarajane Macon, Rebecca Mattern-Parkes, Susan Momany, Cory Peper, Jamie Scott, Lindsey Scott, Shannon St. Pierre, Elizabeth Vencill, William Zinkhan, George	Hollett, Bruce Mace, Arnett