MINUTES prepared by Beauvais Lyons
Members Present: B. Lyons (Chair) , T. Miller, D. Murphy, B. Fisher
Others Present: M. Combs, K Greenberg (Fall Acting Chair)
Members Absent: W. Robinson, W. Mulkey,

1. CALL TO ORDER at 12:03pm

2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA, by consensus

3. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES, October 21, 2000, by consensus
http://web.utk.edu/~senate/BylawsMinutes.html
(Note: no minutes were kept for the 2001-2002 year by the committee)

4. REPORTS

Beauvais Lyons discussed the Faculty Handbook Revision Committee and the
concept of the Judicial Committee at the University of Minnesota as a
model for how the Faculty Affairs Committee would handle appeals.

5. PREVIOUS BUSINESS

There was some discussion of bylaws changes from last year that were not
implemented for the version that is currently on the web site. These were
approved at the April 1 and April 29, 2002 Faculty Senate Meetings. While
the minutes were not on the Senate web site at the time of the meeting,
Beauvais said he will review these changes and include them with a list of
revisions to the web site based on grammatical changes or changes which
have already been improved. These include:

From the April 1 Senate Meeting Minutes:
Combs noted that proposed changes in the Bylaws are available in a handout
distributed at the meeting and then identified and thanked the committee
members. He next described briefly the first two changes which concern
the chairs of the Graduate and Undergraduate Councils. The proposals were
approved without change. The next item, which increases from six to eight
the number of members of the Instruction with Technology Committee, also
was approved. A proposal to change "webmaster" to "Senate Information
Officer" was approved next. Including the Chief Officer in charge of
Business and Finance (or designee) as an ex-officio member of the
Executive Committee also was approved. Combs concluded by reading a
proposal to be voted on at the next meeting. It adds the President of the
University to the list of ex-officio administrative members of the Faculty
Senate.

From April 29 Senate Meeting Minutes:
Combs first reminded everyone that a proposal to change the bylaws by
making the president of the university an ex-officio member of the Faculty
Senate was presented at the last meeting. F. Weber suggested changing
"President of the University" to "chief executive officer of the
University." This friendly amendment was accepted. It also was noted
that "Article I, Section I" should read "Article II, Section I." The
amended proposal then was approved.

6. NEW BUSINESS

The committee also identified several grammatical and other revisions not
requiring Senate Approval. These include:

1. The Bylaws should exist in an "html" and a "pdf" format. Following
each approved revision of the bylaws, the Information Officer should also
post a link to the "pdf" version.

2. Article II, Section 10: correct spelling of "regarding"

3. Article III, Section 3, A: delete "and" after Director of Student
Recreation

4. Article III, Section 3, A: add a period after the word "Student
Senate."

5. Article III, Section 3, E (1): delete last sentence "The Council shall
reportÉ." As redundant.

6. Revise chronological history of bylaws revisions to include a synopsis
of senate actions on April 1 and April 29th, 2002.

Beauvais will communicate these revisions to the Information Officer for
revision on the senate web site.

The committee also discussed and agreed by consensus to the following
recommendations for bylaws revisions to be presented at the August 20th,
2002 Executive Committee Meeting:

1. Article II, Section 1, B (1): Change the first sentence to
readÉ"Elective seats shall be apportioned in January of each year among
the respective colleges and units by the clerical secretary of the Faculty
Senate under the supervision of the Chair of the Committee on
Committees." Rationale: accurate language is needed to distinguish the
Senate Secretary (currently Sam Jordan) from the Clerical Secretary
(currently Sharonne Wilson). This revision would also ensure that the
Chair of the Committee on Committees (who is also the
President-Elect) will oversee the process of apportioning senate seats to
the various colleges and schools.

2. Article II, Section 1, B, (1): Delete "as of April 2001" from first
sentence. ." Rationale: the Bylaws are automatically dated by the history
of revisions and a listing of when the last revisions were made at the
beginning of the document.

3. Article II, Section 1, B, (1): Delete "Human Ecology" and "Information
Sciences" and use new combined college names instead: "Education, Health
and Human Sciences," and "Communications and Information
Sciences." Rationale: The Bylaws need to conform to the new college
configuration.

4. Article II, Section 8: allow 4 nominees from the College of Education,
Health and Human Sciences to be considered for election to two positions
on the Committee on Committees. " Rationale: This college is large enough
to require two representatives to the Committee on Committees.

5. Article III, Section 3, C: Add a final sentence "It is the
responsibility of the Chair of the Bylaws Committee to make sure that
revisions to the bylaws are accurately communicated to the Information
Officer." Rationale: Bylaws revisions enacted by the faculty Senate last
year were not communicated to the Information Officer. It is hoped that
this revision will serve to address this I the future.

The committee discussed the description of the duties of the Professional
Development Committee in Article III, Section 3, M, and agreed that the
description of duties (3) could be deleted with the establishment of the
new Professional Leave Policy. The committee felt that this duty was
covered by the second duty of the committee "initiating activities to
facilitate the development of faculty members as professionals; monitoring
and evaluating these activities and resulting programs." Mike Combs
suggested that the Professional Development Committee consider this
recommendation before forwarding it to the Executive Committee. Beauvais
Lyons indicated that he would send this recommendation to Sara Williams,
chair of the committee (sara-williams@utk.edu).

The Committee discussed but did not arrive at a consensus on the following
two items:

Article III, Section 3, C: Change the membership of the Bylaws Committee
to read "Membership shall consist of five members of the Senate with two
year staggered terms plus the Senate Parliamentarian. This revision would
also add a second sentence to Article IV, Section 4: "The Parliamentarian
will serve as an ex officio member of the Bylaws Committee."

The committee discussed the issue of whether the Immediate Past-President
of the Senate should be regarded as an Officer. Mike Combs made the case
that the bylaws are well designed in this regard - and indicated that
several Past Presidents feel it is important for the Immediate
Past-President, while on the Executive Committee, should not be regarded
as an Officer. He expressed that it is important for the President to
make his or her mark during their presidential year. In contrast, Tamara
advocated giving the Immediate Past-President officer status, but with
duties set by the President. She proposed language to list, under Article
IV (Officers), Section 6 the Immediate Past President "shall serve as a
member of the Executive Committee and shall perform other duties as
designated by the President."

These items are tabled until further action by the committee.

7. ADJOURNMENT at 1:35pm by consensus.