Senate Source

August 2006

John Oakley

NOTES FROM THE ACADEMIC SENATE CHAIR

JOHN OAKLEY

Dear Colleagues,

Please join me in congratulating members of the Academic Assembly and Academic Council for their success in representing the Senate voice in a number of controversial University issues and facing unusual challenges within the Academic Senate this year. It has been a great honor to serve out the remainder of this year as Chair of the Academic Senate and I look forward to a full year of service in 2007-08 rebuilding a strong and vital Senate presence within the Office of the President and continued goodwill with The Regents. Since this is not my farewell issue of the Senate Source, I would like to highlight a few issues of particular interest to faculty, accomplished by the Academic Assembly and Academic Council within just a few short months:

 

The University Committee on Academic Personnel (UCAP) has completed the first phase of a major effort on behalf of the Academic Senate to assess the present functioning of the University’s rank-and-step system of faculty salaries, and propose possible reforms. It has found widespread use – arguably, overuse – of off-scale salary increments as a means to stem the erosion of competitive faculty salaries at the University. At the June 21 meeting of the Academic Council, UCAP Chair Anthony Norman presented an impressive set of principles and policy recommendations for restoring systemwide consistency and coherence to faculty salaries. These recommendations would promote a more systematic, rational, and transparent structure governing faculty salaries, and one that could easily be explained to the faculty, The Regents and the people of California. The Academic Council voted to distribute UCAP’s Principles and Policy Recommendations for Senate review by all Senate divisions and committees, and to simultaneously convene an ad hoc working group composed of representatives from appropriate Senate committees and the administration to begin comprehensively to address solutions and propose implementation steps. I look forward to the establishment of this work group and to the outcome of the systemwide review. It is of vital importance to the welfare of the Academic Senate, and of the University as a whole, that the faculty take a leading role in making sure that faculty salaries are determined in a fair, orderly, and systematic way. If we succeed in this effort, we will be better able to make the case for the systemwide salary-scale increases necessary to close the chronic 10-15 percent lag between UC faculty salaries, on average, and faculty salaries at our peer institutions.

 

I am extremely proud to commend the work of the Senate this year to increase support for academic graduate students and eliminate non-resident tuition, in the Senate’s overall effort to ensure UC’s primacy among world-class research universities and remain competitive in its graduate student enterprise. As you may know, the Academic Senate faculty voted overwhelmingly in May in favor of a Memorial on Non-Resident Tuition, which requests that The Regents structure and advocate a budget for the University that eliminates non-resident tuition for academic graduate students. In support of this effort, the Academic Council in July unanimously endorsed the Final Report of the Graduate Student Financial Support Advisory Committee (GSAC), with an eye toward the University’s quick adoption of the specific recommendations contained in this important report. The Memorial on Non-Resident Tuition is the first since the Senate last communicated a Memorial to The Regents in 1996. I can assure you that the Academic Council will closely follow this issue in 2006-07 to fulfill the will of the faculty and ensure future University budgets are structured accordingly.

 

Finally, I would like to draw your attention to the Academic Senate’s proactive efforts this year in promulgating principled statements and policy recommendations concerning the University’s handling of senior-management compensation issues. Of particular note, in February 2006, the Academic Assembly approved a set of Recommended Compensation Principles for the University of California, and in June, passed Proposed Principles on Private Funding for Senior Leadership Salaries at the Level of Dean and Above. In February, the Academic Council approved certain Recommendations and Principles for Compensation for the Senior Management Group to address The Regents’ interim senior-management salary slotting plan, following up in July with Additional Recommendations for the Proposed Senior Management Compensation Plan. Further, the Academic Council at its June 21 meeting approved a Statement on the senior-management slotting plan and its tacit stratification of the campuses, which calls on President Dynes to initiate a task force of appropriate administrative and faculty representatives to develop a more appropriate salary scale for senior management.  I owe much gratitude to those who spearheaded these efforts on behalf of the Academic Senate, both the University Committee on Planning and Budget and the University Committee on Faculty Welfare and their respective chairs, Stan Glantz (UCSF) and Rusty Russell (UCR). I assure you that the Academic Senate is committed to retaining an active role addressing these issues both within the Office of the President and before The Regents, as resulting actions will surely impact the face and direction of the University for many years to come.

 

The Academic Senate will continue working at full speed this summer, both in completing our own agenda and in consulting with the Office of the President with regard to an unusual number of high-level searches for Chancellors, Vice Presidents, and other key administrators. I welcome your input and encourage your participation in Academic Senate activities, whether at the systemwide level or through your local Senate division, and look forward to continued success for the Academic Senate in 2006-07.

Cheers, and have a pleasant and restorative summer!

John