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MINUTES prepared by Lou Gross, Approved at Jan. 27, 2003 meeting
Members Present: Davies, Davis, Dewey, Gross (Chair), Reed, Reidy,
Scheurer
Members Absent: Greenberg, Hedrick, Lyons (on leave), Mulkey, Nugent
I. CALL TO ORDER, 3:35pm
II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA.
Agenda was modified to include new business to set next semester's
meeting schedule, then approved as distributed.
III. The minutes of the November 11, 2002 Committee meeting were
approved
with minor revisions for spelling and grammar.
IV. Reports.
1. Gross presented a summary of the comments of Provost Crabtree
regarding
budget planning to the Senate Executive Committee, in which he stated
that the budget presentations by units this year would be held much
earlier
than in the past. The Provost encourages all interested individuals
to attend as many of the presentations as possible. The Provost
also
mentioned the benefits to the Library of the Faculty Affiliates
program
with UT/Battelle, providing approximately $250,000 new funding to
the Library. Some discussion from the Committee was held on this
matter,
with Dean Dewey providing additional background information, including
the fact that Affiliates would not have the same access as faculty,
but
would be restricted to certain digital databases.
2. Davis presented a summary of budget matters pointing out that
the
2002-2003 UT budgets are now complete, and that she had not received
any specific questions regarding the budget materials she had handed
out to the Committee in October. She expressed some goals regarding
interactions with the new Nashville administration and in particular
an objective to have budget planning take place so that the State
allows for fixed costs come off the top and not to rely on tuition
and fee increases in order to fund salary raises. The raise situation
for this year was described, with a minimum $750 raise provided
for all, and other raises determined at a unit level with a
minimum of 2% for all who are not rated unsatisfactory in performance.
Davis discussed the activities of a Compensation Task Force that
is
currently carrying out a review of compensation of university employees
relative to non-university employees. This is in an information
gathering
stage now with a consultant being hired to analyze potential plans
starting in January.
Discussion followed on the great delay in budgets getting to units
this year and how this might be avoided next year. Evidently
budgets were completed in October but some colleges were still
dealing with within-college allocations until late November.
Scheurer mentioned a problem with paychecks for November being
delayed and not sent out from Payroll.
3. Reed reported on the activities of the F&A Task Force. A
report has
been sent to the Provost, with recommendations essentailly the
same as reported in the minutes from the November 11 Budget Committee
meeting. The Task Force has no more meetings planned though it
was not at all clear how the proposed Research Foundation would
affect the recommendations. There was no consultation between
those developing plans for the proposed Research Foundation and
the Task Force.
Discussion followed regarding the need for a better system for
allocating F&A to units and associated costs of research. This
might
require a database to determine actual costs and possibly allow
the
University to argue for an increase in the allowable rates for
F&A.
4. A streamlining Committee has been set up focused on Human Resources
and
Deamn Blackwell will be asked to provide a report to the Committee
at
a future meeting.
V. Old Business.
1. Regarding the budgetary process, at this time no guidelines
for
presentations by units have been determined. Once they are, Committee
members would plan to attend the hearings as in past years, but
expect that the materials for the presentations would be made available
prior to the time of the presentation.
2. Discussion of the comments from the Committee to those involved
in
planning the proposed Research Foundation was briefly held, based
upon the
comments attached to the November 11 minutes. The Committee was
in favor
of a joint presentation to the Committee and the Research Council
on
details of the plans if feasible. Gross was charged with discussing
this with Doug Birdwell and Mike Combs before the next Committee
meeting.
VI. New Business.
1. The concerns expressed by some faculty regarding raises when
the faculty member was on official leave of absence was discussed.
Evidently, although raise funds are not included in the pool
for these individuals, upon their return to UT full time, they
will receive a raise from central funds at a level requested
by their Department Head, consistent with the guidelines in
place for determining raises while they were on leave. This policy
has been in place in the past and has not changed.
2. Regarding the draft plans for revision of the Faculty Senate
Bylaws,
Gross was charged with discussing with Paul Phillips the need for
a
standing Budget Committee in the new structure.
VII. GOOD OF THE ORDER
none
VIII. ADJOURNMENT 5:00PM
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