Flu Worries and Financial Woes Top Academic Senate’s Agenda

Paul K. Mueller | May 4, 2009

The usual business of committee reports and voting on recommendations at UC San Diego’s Academic Senate was preceded Tuesday by an update on the ongoing flu outbreak and a brief discussion of UC President Yudof’s recent statements on possible furloughs or pay cuts for university employees.

Chair Dan Donoghue introduced Chancellor Fox, who reported on the latest developments in the swine-flu outbreak, emphasizing that university leaders are working closely with the county Public Health Department and the Centers for Disease Control to stay informed about fast-changing developments. Dr. Regina Fleming, the new medical director of Student Health Services, and Phillip Van Saun, director of the campus Continuity and Emergency Services department, helped the chancellor respond to the assembly’s questions. Fox encouraged faculty members to check updates at the website created for that purpose: http://blink.ucsd.edu/go/swineflu.

The chancellor also reminded the assembly that UC San Diego planned to host the May meeting of the UC Board of Regents, a meeting now limited to a telephone conference due to H1N1 flu concerns. The regents, she said, are expected to consider fee increases for students, ongoing union negotiations, and Yudof’s call to begin planning for possible furloughs or pay reduction, among other issues.

Because some of those issues will prove contentious, Fox asked the Academic Senate – and the entire UCSD community – to reaffirm the campus Principles of Community, and invited faculty members to refresh their commitment to those principles.

Chair Donoghue then discussed Yudof’s recent statements about furloughs and pay reductions. The UC President has asked his staff to begin developing a framework of policies and procedures that would be required to implement furloughs and/or temporary or permanent salary reductions should they become necessary in the coming months, especially in light of the dire state funding situation.

"While I have not decided to implement any such measures at this moment, they may become necessary, and I believe we need to have a policy and planning framework in place to implement such actions should they become necessary," Yudof said in a recent news release. "At the same time, I also am concerned about maintaining our ability to attract and retain the caliber of people we need to continue to serve the growing needs of the state."

In other announcements, Barbara Sawrey, associate vice chancellor for undergraduate education, provided a brief update on the ongoing re-accreditation process conducted by the Southwestern Association of Schools and Colleges; and Laurence Brunton, professor of pharmacology, gave a quick overview of UC’s negotiations with the United Auto Workers about unionizing postdoctoral scholars — something already under way, said Brunton, but that UC negotiators can still shape to reflect the realities of university research and postdoctoral work.

Formal Academic Senate business followed, with the assembly approving candidates from the arts, humanities, health sciences and sciences for vacancies on the Committee of Committees – although one member of the assembly wondered about the “appropriateness” of an assistant professor being nominated.

The senate also OK’d the Committee on Distinguished Teaching’s recommendations for recipients of teaching awards, and accepted revisions to the policy for “associates-in” to teach upper-division classes put forward by the Committee on Educational Policy.

That committee’s chair, Steven Constable, professor in residence at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, closed out the assembly’s business with an explanation of proposed changes to the add and drop deadlines. In order to “maximize the number of students enrolled in heavily subscribed courses,” the committee has recommended revising the deadline dates for adding and dropping, setting both at the end of the third week of instruction.

The Academic Senate will meet for its final session of the academic year on Tuesday, May 26, in the Center for Molecular Genetics.