Minutes, Truman State University Chapter of AAUP
August 29, 2003, 4:30 p.m.
University Club

Meetings are open to all University faculty members. This was the first meeting of this academic year.

Members present: Martha Bartter, Marc Becker, Roger Festa, David Gruber, James Harmon, Tom Marshall, Peter Rolnick, Jan Saffir.

1) Officers. We selected the following officers for the 2003-2004 academic year. Many thanks to Jan Saffir for serving as president so ably for the past two years.

President: David Robinson
Vice-president: Roger Festa
Treasurer: James Harmon
Secretary: Marc Becker
At large: Tom Marshall, Peter Rolnick

2) Meeting times. We decided to meet at the University Club during the fall semester alternating between Thursday mornings and Friday afternoons in an attempt to accommodate as many people as possible. Our meetings will be:

Thursday, September 25, 9 a.m.
Friday, October 24, 4:30 p.m.
Thursday, November 20, 9 a.m.
Wednesday, December 10, 9 a.m.

3) Faculty Senate restructuring. David Gruber reported on the progress for the restructuring of Faculty Senate. The Senate unanimously approved language to change its membership composition and to change voting procedures so that abstentions are not counted as no votes. Instead of 10 out of 15 Senate members being faculty, 18 out of 20 members will be. This plan strikes a good compromise between our division-centered structure in which each division regardless of size had the same representation and a process for allowing faculty in the larger divisions more weight on Senate. This restructuring plan is now ready to proceed to a faculty vote. We need to pay attention to this vote and urge our colleagues to support this plan.

4) Dixon meeting. AAUP will request a formal meeting with President Dixon in order to get to know her and to share our dreams, hopes, and concerns.

Meeting adjourned at 6:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by Marc Becker, Secretary