MINUTES
UAF FACULTY SENATE MEETING #132
Monday, October 31, 2005
1:00 p.m. - 3:15 p.m.
Regents' Conference Room, 109 Butrovich

I	Call to Order – Paul Layer

Faculty Senate President Paul Layer called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m.

A.	Roll Call

Members Present:  
	Members Absent: 	
Allen, Jane 	Bailey, Scott	
Anahita, Sine 	Iken, Katrin	
Anderson, Jodie	Konar, Brenda	
Ayagarak, Nancy		
Berge, Anna		
Brown, Liz		
Burleson, Derick		
Cahill, Cathy		
Chowdhury, Ataur		
Collins, Jim		
Cooper, Christine	Others Present: 	
Corkern, Cliff	Box, Mark	
Davis, Mike	Caulfield, Rick	
Genetti, Jon	Gold, Carol	
Gray, Patty 	Hapsmith, Linda	
Haugen, Lee	Heckman, Daniel	
Illingworth, Marjorie	Humphrey, Mike	
Kawula, John	Ivey, Pat	
Lan, Ping	Jones, Steve	
Layer, Paul	Layral, Sheri	
Newberry, Rainer	Pinney, Pete	
Patil, Shirish	Reichardt, Paul	
Prakash, Anupma	Shepro, Carl	
Rickard, Anthony	Sunwood, Kayt	
Riley, Julie (Phil Kaspari)	Van Flein, Erika	
Roberts, Larry		
Thompson, Joseph		
Weber, Jane		
Wiechen, Heinz		
Wies, Rich		
Wolsko, Chris		
Zhang, Mingchu		
Zhou, Wendy (Debasmita Misra)		

Non-Voting Members Present:  
	Non-Voting Members Absent:	
Morrow, Phyllis - Dean, CLA	United Academics-Adjunct	
Williams, Richard - Dean, CEM		
Salganek, Maya - Staff Council President 		
Stickel, Tim - Registrar		
Blanchard, Joe - ASUAF		
Hazlett, Susan - GSO 		
Porter, David - United Academics		
Illingworth, Ron - ACCFT		

B.	Approval of Minutes to Meeting #131

The minutes were approved as distributed.  

C.	Adoption of Agenda

The agenda was adopted as distributed.  

II	Status of Chancellor's Office Actions 
	A.	Motions Approved:
1.	Motion on mixed-gender representation on university-wide committees.  
	B.	Motions Pending:  none

III	Public Comments/Questions - 

Carl Shepro, newly elected President of United Academics, addressed the Senate. He is hopeful of a good working relations with the Senate.  There are a lot of issues that the Union and the Senate have in common.  Jane Weber asked about the merger of the two unions.  Carl indicated that they are in the initial stages of talking about the possibility of a merger.  This is something that has been ongoing in discussion.  

IV	A.	President's Comments - Paul Layer

Paul Layer welcomed all the rural members.  

Paul Layer indicated that later on in the agenda there would be a presentation from Mike Humphrey about the Wellness Program and some discussion about it.  He asked how many had filled out the wellness survey.

General Education requirements and the Core - There is a motion before the Senate about transfer credits given students from out of state institutions.  When student's transfer from outside we can look at the content of courses and decide how it fulfills the requirement of our core courses.  The problem come when we look at how the transfer credits work within the statewide system.  Any course that fulfills the general education requirements at UAA or UAS must transfer in as general education requirements at UAF.  And this is causing some consternation because the content of the courses do not meet the spirit of our Core.  This is becoming more prevalent as more students take distance education courses.  The Faculty Alliance is working on a discussion on the GER’s philosophy with faculty throughout the system.  They will look at how we are similar and how we are different at the three campuses.  

Paul Layer attended the legislative mixer.  It included local legislators and many senators from out of the district attending the AFN conference.  It was very well attended but he wasn’t sure what was the focus of the discussion.  It was a bit awkward because the budget had not been approved by the Regents.  In the future this event needs to happen after the budget has been approved by the Board of Regent's.  

Tomorrow is the Board of Regents meeting and it will be a meeting to approve the budget.  

Paul Reichardt passed on to Paul Layer a couple of articles.  One relates to GER's and transfer credits.  In the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act there is some movement to prohibit regionally accredited from rejecting transfer credits from institutions that lack regional accreditation.  What this would mean is that the offices that approve transfer credit would not have the regional accreditation to fall back on.  It would fall back on faculty to evaluate the courses for transfer credit.  This would turn the table on the how we deal with non-accredited institutions.  This was in the Chronicle of Higher Education on October 14, 2005.  Another article is about student readiness for college and the role universities should have in helping secondary schools define what it means to be ready for college.  Copies of the articles will be in the Senate office.   

B.	President-Elect's Comments - Shirish Patil

Shirish Patil gave a brief presentation of the UAF Strategic Plan 2010:  Themes and Goals.  The plan is designed to address critical issues that the university will face over the next five years.  Core values include:  access, student success, active engagement, independence, innovation, and stewardship.  From these six values they came up with six themes with specific goals:  teaching and learning, research and scholarly activities, student success, community engagement and advancement, building a better campus--facilities and infrastructure, and faculty and staff development.  

For feedback contact any committee member or go to  www.uaf.edu/strategic.  Email can be sent to:  fy2010@uaf.edu

Questions from Jane Weber asked about the selective admission.  Shirish indicated that they are looking at the university to make a decision on selective admission by 2007 to be implemented by 2009.  Jane also asked about faculty and staff development in regards to term-faculty.  Ataur Chowdhury asked about when this will be implemented.  Shirish indicated that these were only the themes and goals and that the colleges/schools and institutes will develop compact plans in the spring of 2006.  It will be the compact plans that will look at the implementation.  Mike Davis asked about the involvement of the rural campuses.  Carol Gold spoke about the emphasis on northern research.  

V	A.	Remarks by Provost P. Reichardt	

Paul Reichardt spoke about GER's and the petitions he has had to approve and how he approaches them.  He understands there are extenuating circumstances.  He honors the agreement we have within the UA system that says if you take something that counts as a GER it will count at the other MAUs.  However, if they are our student, then we are not talking about transfers.  

At the AFN banquet there was recognition of a group of people that have worked on the Alaska rural systemic initiative over the last decade.  It has been an effort to teach math and science in a way that is relevant to students in the rural areas of the state.  There were four people recognized for their efforts including Ray Barnhardt and Oscar Kawagley.  It has accomplished a lot and has great promise for being something that has a lasting positive effect on education.  

Another issue relates to the talk on Intellectual Design given by Eduardo Wilner in conjunction with two student organizations.  In the process of publicizing it there were some changes proposed in the abstract and title by our University Relations office.  Paul had a meeting with Eduardo and Roy Bird that was very positive.  As a result there will be a discussion on academic freedom with the University Relations staff.  There are draft guidelines on publicity of talks on the web being developed.  This is a learning opportunity for the University Relations staff.  There was not a clear view of what all academic freedom entails.  

B.	Remarks by Chancellor S. Jones   

Chancellor Jones spoke about the wellness program.  It struck him that we are selling cigarette at Wood Center and at the same time spending $3 million over the next three years launching a wellness program.  There will be a memo going out asking about input into the decision of the sale of tobacco.  He is inclined to say it is not a financial issue but a health issue.  He will be asking for feedback by December 15.  He is looking for good reactions.  Faculty suggested that we need to encourage healthy activities such as the use of the SRC.  We also need to look at other items as well, including alcohol and vending machines.  This discussion needs to include the rural campuses as well.  

VI	Governance Reports 

	A.	Staff Council - Maya Salganek

Staff Council will be having their next meeting on November 14.  Since their last meeting they have been talking about the wellness program and will be creating an ad hoc committee to deal with it.  There were two informational sessions on the Wellness Program last week.   There have been about 1600 responses to the survey.  This is down quite a bit from what they were expecting, so they are still hoping to get a better turnout.  The online deadline has been extended for another week.  

Staff Council has been talking with the rural reps about different option to what we can do to enable better wellness on campuses.  One idea that has come up is to extend the lunch hour to promote time for wellness activity.  Maya would like to get faculty feedback on this.  They are looking at different options.  

Maya appreciated feedback on the legislative mixer.  There were 55 people in attendance--three legislative representatives, two senators, and two staff members.  This was the first legislative luncheon conducted.  

Staff Council is moving ahead with on-line elections.  Currently holding elections for all even units including:  CRCD, TVC, IAC, Cooperative Extension, IAB, SFOS, CLA, CNSM, ARSC, Museum, Financial Services/VCAS, and IARC.  All of those units are looking for Staff Council members.  Maya encouraged Senate members to talk with staff about getting involved.  

Maya spoke about the memo from the Chancellor.  The draft memo made it sound like Staff Council had voted to get rid of cigarettes at Wood Center.  What he asked was an informal poll of how many would support it.  We asked him to clarify the memo.  

The last issue they are dealing with is the resignation of the chair of the work place ethics committee.  She had to resign due to pressure from her work place.  So, we are back to the dilemma of having staff members serve on Staff Council and get release time from work in order to do that. 

	B.	ASUAF - Joe Blanchard 

Joe Blanchard indicated that he met with the Chancellor about the smoking issue.  Even within the student group they are very split on this issue.  He asked his group to put aside any concept of what is best--not morally--but what is best for the association.  

ASUAF is looking at creating a judicial branch.  They are hoping to work with Don Foley so that student conflicts will have a student medium through which they go through.  Currently there is a J-Board at residence life.  It is a small example of what he would like to do campus wide for students.  It will also look at the violations and what needs to be changed.  

Recycling is going well.  Joe will be meeting with Mayor Jim Whitaker in the next two weeks to discuss a comprehensive recycling plan.  He is encouraged by the talks.  Whitaker would like ASUAF to be a direct partner in the development of recycling in the Fairbanks North Star Borough.  

Paul Layer asked how significant the revenues from tobacco sales are to Wood Center.  Joe indicated that the figures he had were about 44% of the revenues.  

	C.	GSO - Susan Hazlett

Susan Hazlet indicated that the Graduate Student Organization (GSO) is not currently active.  A letter went out two weeks ago to graduate students to solicit their interest in reviving GSO.  There has not been any response.  

Paul Layer indicated that he would like to see it get going again and receive graduate student feedback.  

VII	New Business 

	A.	Motion to recommend approval of the proposed changes in BOR Policy and University Regulation (10.04.02-03), submitted by Curricular Affairs 

This is a proposed change to the Board of Regents policy.  There was a task force to address these certificates at less than the BOR certificate level.  These would be programs that would not need Board approval and could be enacted very quickly in response to workforce demands.  The task force has been working on these for over a year.  Their recommendations were for two different certificates:  Occupational Certificate and Workforce Certificate. The recommendations then went to Craig Dorman's office where they were modified.  Curricular Affairs was asked to look at the policy.  Statewide has suggested new changes based on a meeting with SAC which modified the Workforce Credential to non-credit CEU's and the Occupational Certificate to fewer credits. They also included the spirit of the recommendation for a different approval process.  Rainer Newberry proposed that we substitute the latest version of the policy and regulations.  Marjorie Illingworth expressed some concern about the non-credit courses.  Ron Illingworth said that for many years the rural campuses have been using Certificate of Completion.  There is nothing in the motion that talks about past practices.  He asked how this would articulate with current practice.  Paul Layer indicated this would formalize those certificates.  Whatever we have done in past practice, we would move forward to place them in the Occupational Endorsement program.  This would give it legitimacy and would be formal certificate.  It will help us give credit to what we have done on an informal basis.  Ron asked that a statement to this effect be added to the rationale.  The motion was unanimously approved.  

MOTION:  
=======

The UAF Faculty Senate recommends approval of the proposed change in Board of Regents Policy and University Regulations 10.04.02-03 adding Workforce Credentials and Occupational Endorsements.

	EFFECTIVE:  	Immediately

RATIONALE:  	The Curricular Affairs Committee discussed the proposed revisions to the policies on Degree and Certificate Programs forwarded to the Faculty Senate for review and moves to forward them to the full Senate, with its recommendation that they be accepted.  

UAF through the College of Rural and Community Development has had a long standing practice of awarding departmental certificates of completion for occupational and workforce development programs.  This change to Regent's policy formalizes that practice at the UA level and will allow development of additional credential and endorsement programs.  

**********************

REGENTS POLICY

Program Approval	P10.04.02

All program additions, deletions, major revisions, and offerings of existing programs outside the State of Alaska will be approved by the Board of Regents.  The Board delegates approval authority of Occupational Endorsements and Workforce Credentials to the President.   This Policy has a corresponding University Regulation.
	(05-07-81, revised 02-16-96, revised XX-XX-05)

Program Credit Hour Requirements	P10.04.03

The minimum number of credits which may be required by a degree or certificate program will be, for each level:

Workforce Credential - CEU, contact hour, non-credit only – no specified minimum
Occupational Endorsement	9 credits
Certificate	30 credits	Master's degree	                30 credits
Associate degree	60 credits	Graduate Certificate	                   12 credits
Bachelor's degree	120 credits	Post-Baccalaureate Certificate       24 credits

The maximum number of credits which may be required by a degree or certificate program is, for each level:

Workforce Credential - CEU, contact hour, non-credit only – no specified maximum
Occupational Endorsement    29 credits
Certificate	60 credits	Master's degree	    	45 credits
Associate degree	75 credits	Graduate Certificate	    	29 credits
Bachelor's degree	132 credits	Post-Baccalaureate Certificate 60 credits

The actual number of credits required for each degree and certificate, including prerequisites for required courses, will be specified in the current catalog of each university, community campus or community college.

The President may make exceptions to minimum or maximum credit hours for individual programs upon approval of the MAU faculty senate and the recommendation of the appropriate Chancellor.

While no minimum or maximum credit hours are required for the doctorate, a student is expected to be affiliated with the university for at least two years and complete all requirements for the degree within ten years.

UNIVERSITY REGULATION

Program Approval	R10.04.02

A program summary form shall be submitted through the Systemwide Academic Council to the President in a format approved by SAC.  Occupational Endorsement and Workforce Credential program approvals shall be submitted to the President by the Chancellor through SAC.    SAC will ensure appropriate review by industry or other vested parties.

*************************

B.	Motion on the Table of Substitution for non-UA Institutions, submitted by the Core Review Committee 

Mark Box spoke on the motion.  An earlier version was previously before the Senate.  It has been modified.  This motion applied only to transfers from out of state.  The initiatives come from the department responsible for the Core courses involved and are generic descriptions and should allow easy substitution.  The motion passed unanimously.  

MOTION:
=======

The Faculty Senate moves to amend the UAF catalog "Table of Substitutions: non-University of Alaska institutions" (page 31 of the 2004-05 catalog) as follows:

[[  ]]  = Deletion
CAPS = Addition

TABLE OF SUBSTITUTION: Non-University of Alaska institutions

Perspectives on the Human Condition:	Transfer Courses	
HIST 100X:  Modern World History	a Western or non-Western Civilization course at the 100-level or [[above]] 200 LEVEL (LOWER DIVISION), EXCLUDING INDIVIDUAL NATIONAL HISTORIES	
ECON/PS 100X: Political Economy	[[a foundation course in political science, economics or law]]  A COURSE IN US OR COMPARATIVE POLITICAL ECONOMY, OR US ECONOMIC HISTORY, OR MACROECONOMICS AT THE 100-LEVEL OR HIGHER	
ANTH/SOC 100X:  Individual, Society and Culture	[[a foundation course in sociology, social/cultural anthropology, social psychology; psychology, language and culture, or cultural geography at the 100 level or above]] 
AN INTRODUCTORY COURSE IN ANTHROPOLOGY AT THE 100 OR 200 LEVEL (LOWER DIVISION).
AN INTRODUCTORY LEVEL COURSE IN SOCIOLOGY, OR LOWER-DIVISION SOCIAL PROBLEMS COURSE.
A COURSE IN CROSS-CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY. 	
ENGL/FL 200X:  World Literatures	[[a literature course at the 100-level or above]] AN INTRODUCTORY OR LOWER DIVISION COURSE IN WORLD OR COMPARATIVE LITERATURE.	
ART/MUS/THR 200X: Aesthetic Appreciation
or HUM 201X
or ANS 202X	a history or appreciation course in art, theatre or music at the 100-level or above	
PHIL 322X: Ethics (Values and Choices)
or COMM 300X
or JUST 300X
or NRM 303X
or PS 300X	an upper-division course in ethics, or, with approval of the philosophy department, a lower-division course in ethics.	
Other	Transfer Courses	
Foreign Language 	[[a minimum of two semesters in a single, non-English language.]]
TWO SEMESTER-LENGTH COURSES IN A SINGLE ALASKA NATIVE LANGUAGE OR OTHER NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE OR THREE SEMESTER-LENGTH COURSES (9 CREDITS) IN AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE AT THE UNIVERSITY LEVEL.	

	EFFECTIVE:   	Immediately
				Upon approval of the Chancellor.
				This will appear in the 2006-07 catalog.

RATIONALE:  	The purpose is to align credit for transfer courses from out of state more closely with university core-curriculum requirements.  Currently, transferring students receive core credit for taking courses elsewhere that do not approximate content required in the core curriculum.  The proposed changes will achieve greater consistency between the experience of general-education requirements for students starting their studies at the university and those transferring from out of the state system.  

The central component of the intellectual experience at the university is the core curriculum.  It is possible to achieve a better correspondence between the content of the core and the courses selected to substitute for core courses without making the curriculum into a procrustean bed.   

**********************

VIII	Discussion Items 

	A.	Motion to amend the policy on Probation and Academic Disqualification, submitted by Curricular Affairs 

Rainer Newberry indicated that Curricular Affairs has been working on the policy.  It has undergone various revisions and the Dean's Council has reviewed it and made some additions.  The committee accepted one change dealing with exceptions granted by the appropriate deans.  There was clarification that we only disqualify students at the end of the spring semester.  Patty Gray proposed forwarding the motion for a vote.  Rainer indicated that Curricular Affairs would like to add an amendment to the last sentence of the academic disqualification that students will be notified.  The effective date will be Fall 2006.  There was some discussion about putting holds on the student's registration to direct them to a particular advisor.  This motion does not talk about the procedure for blocking a student's registration, but puts it in the catalog that there is a restriction.  We can continue to work with the Registrar's Office on the possibilities of how to block registration.  The revised motion passed unanimously.  

MOTION: 
=======

The UAF Faculty Senate moves to amend the policy on Probation and Academic Disqualification (2005-2006 UAF Catalog, page 72).

[[   ]]  - Deletion 
CAPS - Addition

Probation

*	Undergraduate students--Students whose cumulative and/or semester GPA falls below 2.0 will be put on academic probation.  Students on probation [[should]] MAY not enroll in more than 12 credits a semester, UNLESS AN EXCEPTION IS GRANTED BY THE APPROPRIATE DEAN.  Probation may include additional conditions [[and/or credit limitations for the student's next enrollment at UAF,]] as determined by the dean of the college or school in which the student's major is located.  [[Probation students may]] STUDENTS ON PROBATION WILL be referred for developmental advising/education and/or to an advising or support counseling center.  THE STUDENT WILL PREPARE WITH AN ACADEMIC ADVISOR AN ACADEMIC PLAN FOR ACHIEVING A HIGHER GPA; THE ADVISOR IS RESPONSIBLE FOR FORWARDING THIS PLAN TO THE APPROPRIATE DEAN.  A STUDENT ON PROBATION WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO REGISTER UNLESS THE ACADEMIC PLAN IS ON FILE.  Removal from probation requires the student's cumulative and semester GPAs to be at least 2.0. 

Academic Disqualification

*	Undergraduate students--Undergraduate STUDENTS ON probation [[students]] whose semester and cumulative GPAs are less than 2.0 at the end of spring semester [[may]] WILL be disqualified from degree-seeking status.  Disqualified students may continue their enrollment at UAF only as non-degree students and are limited to a maximum of 9 credits per semester.  To be eligible for reinstatement in an academic degree program, the student [[will normally be]] IS expected to earn at least a C grade in all courses taken as a non-degree student.  To be restored to degree-seeking status, the student must apply for readmission.  A STUDENT MAY BE REINSTATED BUT MAY STILL BE ON PROBATION, AND IF SO, WILL BE SO NOTIFIED.

EFFECTIVE:  	Fall 2006

RATIONALE:  	The current regulations are models of vagueness and lend themselves to arbitrary, inconsistent, and capricious interpretations.   In addition, they provide penalties, but no assistance, for students with poor academic performance.  These proposed changes are designed to address these problems.

********************

IX	Presentation

	A.	Faculty Work Life Survey - Sine Anahita

Background:  
-Committee on the Status of Women (CSW) appointed in 2004
-tasked with monitoring the status of women faculty and working proactively for gender equity
-in March 2005, questionnaires sent to all UAF faculty
-n=318 usable questionnaires returned (53% response rate)
-59% of Rs are men, 40% are women, <1% other/no response

First position at UAF:  
More than half were hired at the assistant professor level.  Men and women hired at comparable rates for instructor.  At the assistant professor level 40% were women and nearly 60% men.  Twice as many men (53%) were hired at the associate professor level as women (35%).  The largest difference was at the professor level with only 19% women and 81% men.  

Marked trend of improvement: 
UAF has significantly improved its record of hiring women over the last four decades.  

Tenure process:
-73% of Rs are tenured or on tenure track
-rates of men & women currently on tenure track but not yet tenured are comparable
-43% of Rs are currently tenured 
However, there is a significant gender difference between those who hold tenure.  70% of men report having tenure and 39% of women currently hold tenure.  

Faculty who intend to take on formal leadership roles at UAF:
-intend to be leaders:  
•	33% of men
•	30% of women
-these were asked if there are barriers to their pursuit of leadership and 60% of men and 40% of women perceive no barriers.  

Involvement at department level in decision-making: 
Comparable for men and women in all categories, with men a little higher. 60-80% feel they are a full and equal participant; meetings allow for all to share views; committee work rotated fairly; and chair involved them in decision-making. Only 50% feel they have a voice in resource allocation.  

Involvement at university level:  
Comparable for men and women, with men a little higher.  However, most faculty don't feel they are a full and equal participant in decisions made at the university level (30%).  Only 10-15% feel they have a voice in UAF resource allocation.  There is a lack of feeling UAF administration involves them in decisions (20%).  And, half (47-59%) feel UAF committee assignments are rotated fairly.  The significant difference is how they feel at the department level compared to the university level.  

Satisfaction with job at UAF: 
Vast majority of faculty report they are very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their job.  Most are satisfied with how their career has progressed at UAF as well.  

Gender and other diversity issues at the departmental level:
-over half of faculty think there are "enough" women colleagues and   leaders--only a slight gender difference (women slightly more likely)
-54% of men and 69% of women think there are not "enough" people of color as colleagues or leaders

Gender & other diversity issues at the university level:
-“are there enough women or members of minority groups in high-level leadership positions at UAF?”  Men report twice as high as women for both groups.  

How is the climate for high-level leadership positions at UAF?  
More men than women think the climate is good for women and members of ethnic minority groups who are in positions of high-level leadership at UAF.  

See the survey as an invitation to dialogue:
-interesting and useful data emerged from the study
-the CSW invites the UAF community to dialogue about the findings, create innovative ways to address the challenges identified, and to celebrate the good things about being faculty at UAF

Cathy Cahill asked in terms of the question: are there enough women?  Was there a split between sciences and Liberal Arts?  Sine indicated they have not looked at that question.  The data is available for that kind of analysis.  

The full report can be viewed at: http://www.uaf.edu/uafgov/newsletter.html

X	Committee Reports

	A.	Curricular Affairs - Rainer Newberry 

A report was attached to the agenda. Rainer sent a request to departments to discuss the +/- grading issue.  He would like each senator to encourage departments to discuss the issue.  

	B.	Faculty Affairs - Jon Genetti 

A report was attached to the agenda. 

	C.	Unit Criteria - Glenn Chappell 

A report was attached to the agenda. 

	D.	Committee on the Status of Women - Jane Weber/Carol Gold 

A report was attached to the agenda. 

	E.	Core Review - Mark Box

A report was attached to the agenda. 

	F.	Curriculum Review - Rainer Newberry

The committee has not met.  

	G.	Developmental Studies - Cindy Hardy/ Joe Mason

A report was attached to the agenda. The committee is talking about the issue of selective enrollment.  

	H.	Faculty Appeals & Oversight - Larry Duffy

No report was available.  

	I.	Faculty Development, Assessment & Improvement – Lee Haugen 

A report was attached to the agenda. 

	J.	Graduate Academic & Advisory Committee – Cathy Cahill

A report was attached to the agenda. 

XI	Guest Speaker 

	A. Mike Humphrey - Wellness Program 

Mike Humphrey, Systemwide Director of Benefits, and Erica Van Flein came to speak on the wellness program.  There is a Health and Wellness survey available on-line.  They are actively soliciting participation.  Both you and your spouse can participate.  Hope to gather enough demographic information to identify some of the population risk factors.  From that information we can begin to develop programs that address those types of risk factors.  They will work with the campuses and other groups to help lower the risk factors.  Mike indicated that one role of the survey is for the university to understand the population dynamics.  Another role is to give individuals an assessment tool.  Part of the program is a counselor.  If you are contacted you can decline that service.  Many faculty expressed a reluctance to give out their personal information.  

Mike Humphrey indicated that the university health plan is growing ($45 million) and will double in less than five years.  This will have a huge impact on our budgets and our take home pay.  In the Alaska health care market there is only so much that the university can do to negotiate discounts with the medical community.  Our other option is to redesign the health care plan.  An industry trend is to look at health risk assessments and trying to understand the population dynamics.  We have to shift from a sickness model to a wellness model.  

Carol Gold indicated that they would get more support by encouraging us in the positive things we do.  

Mike Humphrey indicated that this is a three year pilot project so that we can get enough information to run a cohort study that Summex will perform on our behalf to get an assessment of how we have changed our behavior.  The $3 million is over three years.  The other issue with respect to what we can do is, we are looking at this from a systemwide perspective--not just UAF.  We are trying to embrace diversity.  Not everyone wants to use SRC.  What we have done for incentive is give a $100 rebate off the employee charge of your plan and we will also give $100 for your spouse.  Eventually, we will be able to address and do some things for all the people who are doing positive things.  Right now we need to put effort into collecting the information.  

Erica indicated that the deadline for filling out the on-line assessment has been extended.  The hard copy assessment will be sent out and must be returned by November 25.  All the university will receive is a list of employees who filled out the survey and should receive the rebate.  

Mike spoke about possible smoking cessation classes or nutrition classes.  Maybe we need some nutrition standards for what we offer.  Or maybe invite Weight Watchers in during lunch item for programs.  When we get the data back we will be able to design specific programs.  

XII	Members' Comments/Questions - 

Paul Layer indicated that he would be visiting Kotzebue on Thursday and Nome on Friday.  

XIII	Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 3:45 p.m.

Tapes of this Faculty Senate meeting are in the Governance Office, 312 Signers' Hall if anyone wishes to listen to the complete tapes. 

Submitted by Sheri Layral, Faculty Senate Secretary.