2006-2007
FACULTY SENATE
California State University, Sacramento

MINUTES
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Foothill Suite, University Union
3:00 p.m.

Voting Members Present (+ indicates alternate):

The agenda was amended to add FS 06-144, "The Budget Task Force Recommended in FS 06-142, Resolution Regarding", FS 06-145 "FS 06-142 Request for a Full, Detailed, and Complete Accounting of Revenues and Expenditures Over the Past Four Years, Resolution Regarding", FS 06-146 "Allocations to Academic Programs Budgets" and FS 06-147 "Junior Faculty Salaries, Renewed Resolution On" as first reading items. In addition, the agenda was amended to show a brief DVD of Fox 40 news report on the university's budget situation, subsequent to the Faculty Senate meeting of November 16, 2006, technology permitting.

CONTINUED DISCUSSION: SECTION 6.06 OF UNIVERSITY ARTP POLICY - (3:15-4:00)
(This is the second in a series of discussions)

David Wagner, Vice President, Human Resources, answered questions from senators and members of the audience about the changes to Section 6.06 of University ARTP Policy proposed in FS 05-69.

Chair Fitzgerald instructed senators to consult with their faculty colleagues in their units about the proposed changes and to return to the Senate to discuss possible next actions by the Senate.

ACTION ITEMS

The Faculty Senate waives the first reading of FS 06-147, "Junior Faculty Salaries, Renewed Resolution On".

Carried unanimously.

WHEREAS,	The situation known as salary inversion, where faculty with less experience are hired at a greater starting salary than current salary of experienced junior faculty, has been recognized as a major problem on this campus by Faculty Senate Resolution 05-73, by the Associated Students Resolution of 18 October 2006, and by the CSUS Administration in President Gonzalez’s memo to the Faculty Senate of 28 April 2006; and
WHEREAS,	President Gonzalez recognized the group character of this problem in the granting of temporary relief in the form of 146 summer stipends to junior faculty in 2006; and
WHEREAS,	President Gonzalez suggested that the proper mechanism for securing an increase in base pay rate was through the filing of individual equity requests; and
WHEREAS,	104 individual equity adjustment requests were made: 87 were denied outright, 17 were approved but were granted only $42 - $200 per month raise when full equity would involve many thousands of dollars, and individuals who were denied have exactly the same situation as those who were approved, indicating the use of criteria not discussed or disclosed in Article 31.23 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement; therefore, be it
RESOLVED,	That the Faculty Senate condemns the use of undisclosed and seemingly arbitrary criteria for granting or rejecting individual equity adjustments; and be it further
RESOLVED,	That the Faculty Senate condemns the lack of action on FS 05-73, and reiterates to the President that he must address this pressing issue by whatever means available to him on the campus level.

Carried unanimously.

The Faculty Senate waives the first reading of FS 06-144, "The Budget Task Force Recommended in FS 06-142, Resolution Regarding".

Carried unanimously.

Whereas,	the Constitution of the Faculty provides that “Through the Faculty Senate, responsibility shall be vested in the faculty or its elected Senate representatives for developing policies and making recommendations to the President on. . . (Art. II Sect. 4, B. 4) faculty appointments to institutional task forces, advisory committees, and auxiliary organizations. . .”; and
Whereas,	permitting other, non-faculty, bodies to select which faculty members to appoint to special task forces and committees determining academic and curricular policies without the advice and consent of the Senate violates the basic principles of shared governance of CSU, Sacramento, and would deprive the faculty of its proper role in university governance;
Whereas,	the Budget Task Force now being constituted is being created only because of the actions of the faculty which, in the Faculty Senate of November 16, 2006, by unanimous vote rejected the President’s proposed budget cuts and called for a committee to further examine the current budget issue; and representation of the independent faculty perspective which produced this vote is essential on the committee resulting from it; and
Whereas,	general faculty compliance with the findings which emerge from this task force will depend upon the faculty’s acceptance of the legitimacy of the Task Force’s composition and proceedings; therefore, let it be
Resolved,	that the CSUS Faculty Senate requests that the President withdraw his faculty appointments to the Budget Task Force by December 4, 2006 and have the Faculty Senate fulfill its proper duties by selecting and recommending an equal number of faculty members for the Task Force according to the Senate’s constitutional responsibilities by December 7, 2006, at which time, a special meeting of the Senate will be convened.

Carried unanimously.

The Faculty Senate waives the first reading of FS 06-145, "FS 06-142 Request for a Full, Detailed, and Complete Accounting of Revenues and Expenditures Over the Past Four Years, Resolution Regarding".

Carried unanimously.

Resolved: The Faculty Senate once again urges that the President provide to the University community a full, detailed, and complete accounting of revenues and expenditures (e.g. “administration and business affairs, all university expenses, mandatory benefit costs, etc.) over the past four academic years (2002-03, 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06) that have created the budget deficit.

Rationale:  While the Faculty Senate is appreciative of the President’s efforts to “provide the university the details and rationale for the budget and the actions that have been proposed” (President’s November 28, 2006 Memorandum responding to FS 06-142, included as Attachment A), the presentations provided thus-far and the President’s November 28, 2006 response to FS 06-142) have failed to include a full, detailed and complete accounting of revenues and expenditures over the past four years to which the purported budget deficit can be attributed.  Indeed, in light of data presented to the Senate by Professor Scott Farrand at the November 16, 2006 meeting (Attachment B), it appears that new FTES funding received over the course of President Gonzalez’s tenure has been allocated in a manner that fails to recognize that these funds are provided primarily to support the cost of education of students admitted to the University, which, in turn, requires the ability to hire faculty to staff additional course sections, instructional operational expenses, and resources to support faculty and student engagement in scholarly activities.  Instead, most of the new funding has been allocated to units that are not directly involved in the education of students (e.g., University Advancements, Government and Civic Affairs). 

Finally, since the Faculty Senate assumes that the proposed budget allocations were based on a detailed and comprehensive view of the budget over the past four years and that a process was used by the administration to develop this year’s budget allocations, and since such documents are public information, the Faculty Senate fails to understand the President’s apparent inability to provide the information requested in item 2 of FS 06-142 at this time.

Carried unanimously. 

The following item received a first reading and will receive a second reading on December 7, 2006:

INFORMATION

1. Faculty Senate's home page:  www.csus.edu/acse, or, from the CSUS home page, click on Faculty and Staff, then Faculty Senate.
2. For new Senators:  "TOP TEN THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW AS A FACULTY SENATOR".
3. Meeting procedures

4. Schedule of Faculty Senate meetings:

December 7, 2006 - Senate meets December 14, 2006 - tentative December 21, 2006 - tentative

*    Requires Presidential approval.