CALL TO ORDER:

The meeting was called to order by Dr. Adrian Reuben, on Tuesday, June 5, 2001, at 7:45 am in Room 107 Admin./Library Building.

SENATORS PRESENT:

Basic Sciences: Ed Krug, Janice Lage, Kathryn Meier, Philip Privitera, Sally Self, Jerry Webb

Clinical Sciences: Narenda Banik, Timothy Carter, Dennis Cope, Leonard Egede, Leonie Gordon, Maria Lopes-Virella, Mark Lyles, Subbi Mathur, Terry O’Brien, Adrian Reuben

Dental Medicine: Peter Kobes, Luis Leite, Jon Rampton

Health Professions: Janice Hundley, Gail Pashek

Library Science & Informatics: Jennie Ariail, Nancy McKeehan, Peggy Schachte

Nursing: Tara Hulsey, Sally Stroud

Pharmacy: Kurt Lorenz, Kit Simpson, Donald Wiest

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The May minutes were posted in the unapproved form on the web site and were available for review prior to meeting. The minutes for May were approved and passed. The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 10, 2001 at 7:45 a.m., Admin. /Library, Room 107.

BUSINESS

Update on Legal Counsel. Dr. Reuben provided statistics on the faculty response to solicitations in support of establishing a legal counsel to review contractual documents for the Faculty Senate. As of June 4:

• 1267 letters delivered to faculty
• 110 replies received (8.7%)
• 101 positive responses (8.0%)
• 3 negative comments
• 6 blank responses
• $5,175 received

  Concerns voiced by faculty to senators include confidentiality. In response, Dr. Reuben asked that senators assure faclty that only the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and administrative assistant know the names of donors. These names will be used only to return checks, if that becomes necessary. The names will never be given to anyone else or recorded for any other reason. Other faculty asked who the lawyers would be. Dr. Reuben noted that two attorneys have been identified and professed interest, but none has been "hired." One of the attorneys has experience representing faculty and the other has experienced the quality of care at MUSC and wants to do something in return. Dr. Reuben will send another newlsetter to faculty with information about where to send contributions.

  Committee Assignments. Dr. Reuben announced the following assignments from the Faculty Senate to university committees:

  Search Committee, Dean of the College of Nursing: Terry O'Brien

  Search Committee, CFO: Janice Lage

  Committee to discuss criteria for Professor Emeritus and Distinguished University Professor: Subbi Mathur

  A Senate representative is needed to serve on the University Tenure Committee. Interested senators (must have tenure) should contact Adrian Reuben.

  Budget Presentation -- Dr. John Sutusky, Vice President for Finance and Administration & staff and Dr. Rosalie Crouch, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost. Dr. Sutusky announced that there is an on-going search for Chief Financial Officer. In the interim, Mr. Ed Troublefield, a recent retiree with many years' experience in academic institutions in South Carolina, is working in this capacity. Dr. Sutusky introduced Mr. Troublefield to the Senate.

  Susie Edwards, Budget Director, reviewed the internal university budget process and decisions which have been made at the state level to date in regard to the FY02 budget. She noted that cost of living increases of 1.25-2% for classified and unclassified state employees have been included in both Senate and House bills. Budget reduction projections vary in each body: the House projects a 10% reduction for higher education(2% for MUSC) and the Senate projects a 6% reduction for MUSC. Some of the shortfall would be made up with performance funding, but those are non-recurring funds. The conference committee to resolve differences in the bills is now in session and should finish by June 7. If their deliberations are not complete, they will come back in late June to continue. The Governor can then sign the bill, veto it, or use a line-item veto. Any delay beyond June 7 portends late delivery of the budget.

  In response to a question, Ms. Edwards said that MUSC receives $106M in state appropriations, which are distributed disproportionately among the colleges and departments. Dr. Sutusky noted that whatever the publicized cuts are, they will in actuality translate into more, because of fixed costs like utilities and contracts which we must pay at 100%. He also stated that FY03 will be a difficult budget year.

  Copies of the published MUSC budget, which includes final figures for FY99 and FY00 and projections for FY01 and FY02 can be obtained from the Budget Office by calling Ms. Edwards at 792-2853. This compilation includes MUSC and its affiliates: MUHA, AHEC, UMA, Charleston Memorial, etc.

  Ms. Edwards reviewed MUSC's internal budget process. Budget packages are distributed in the fall. Three analysts are available in the Budget Office to assist units with budget preparation. From January through March, budgets are presented to either the VP for Finance, the Provost, or Dr. Slaughter, the President's Chief of Staff. Upates are presented to the President and President's Council in May, to the finance committee of the Board of Trustees in June, with final presentation to the full Board in August.

  Departmental budgets were reduced by 1/2% in May of this year. For FY02, a 10% reduction is being assumed. Expenditures for FY02 are projected based on the plans presented from departments for a 10% cut.

  As senators review the budget figures distributed at the meeting, they may send questions to Dr. Sutusky (sutuskyj@musc.edu).

  Dr. Crouch responded to a question about how a 10% cut will affect departments. She noted that she has met with all academic units and about half are well-positioned for this. They have already determined what should go or be revised and begun working towards that. The other half have serious problems. Certain accreditation ratios, such as faculty/student ratios must be retained. She also advised that researchers should be sure that salaries are being reclaimed from grants whenever possible. Clinical departments must maximize revenues and efficiencies. Dr. Sutusky noted that the administrative side has been working through re-organizations and efficiencies also.

  Dr. Crouch feels that across-the-board cuts are unwise and will be discussing a change management approach with the President.

  Researchers expressed the need for more timely notification of how grant funds can be spent if the initial expenditure ideas included in their grants are disallowed later by federal guidelines.

  Parking: John Runyon, Director of Business Services. Mr. Runyon discussed the upcoming FY02 parking fee increased and the projected increases over the next few years. Staff and employee hikes are in keeping with the schedule published last year, while the patient/visitor increase has been imposed more quickly. As of July 1, patient parking will be $.75 per half hour, which is in line with municipal parking throughout the peninsula. Staff parking will go to $45 on July 1, $55 in July of 03, and $60 in July of 04. Off-campus staff lots at Harborview Tower and Lockwood will remain at $35 this year and then stay $10 behind campus parking in future years. The reason for the differential is twofold: to make up for the inconvenience of time-consuming bus rides to these facilities and because there are still 300 open spaces in these lots.

  Parking fee increases are required because of the projected need, over the next 10-15 years, for 6,000 additional parking spaces. The campus master plan calls for patient/visitor parking to be in the interior of the campus and staff parking to be on the perimeter. A new garage at the Charleston High School site is still under discussion, but is being designed. This will start as a dual-purpose facility with 500-1200 spaces, serving both staff and patients. The total debt service and operating costs of this garage are projected to be $1.8M per year. Since state regulations require that parking must generate revenues to cover all costs, including employees, operations, maintenance, etc., fees must go up to cover the costs of the new garage. Currently, staff/student parking operates at a $400K deficit each year, while patient/visitor parking runs at a $2M profit.

  In response to a question about validated parking, Mr. Runyon said that the Hospital Authority pays for that.

  A number of parking-related issues that need discussion or resolution were raised by the senators. Among these:

• A balance sheet reflecting parking expenses and revenues should be available for review.
• The unsanitary, smelly, and generally poor condition of the parking garage provokes the question of how the maintenance budget is being spent.
• The rigid and authoritarian attitude of the parking management staff toward faculty and staff (its customers) is of great concern. Rules need review and revision and a service attitude needs to be adopted. For example, the current rules for handling parking ticket reviews is unreasonable, requiring that people appear in person in a very limited timeframe with no regard to their academic or clinical schedules and responsibilities. Dr. Sutusky was asked specifically to look into this and implement changes to effect a more courteous and service-oriented attitude in the staff.

  Dr. Sutusky noted that the University Parking Committee has been reconstituted and will begin meeting. He assured the Senate that faculty concerns would be discussed. Dr. Maria Lopes-Virella is the Faculty Senate representative on this committee.

  Furlough of state employees. Dr. Sutusky said no formal guidelines or directives have come from the state regarding a furlough. He noted that a furlough would be very difficult to impose on a campus like this which provides critical services 24 hours a day every day. The Governor's office might announce something after June 7. In the meantime, MUSC Human Resources has drafted a policy in case a furlough is announced. Dr. Sutusky noted that if a furlough is imposed, there will be no exceptions.

  Faculty contracts are currently being signed. There are many different contracts in use throughout the university. They range from short and general to lengthy and detailed. If any faculty see a contract with difficult or complex wording, they are asked to bring it to the attention of the Faculty Senate. If wording can be added to protect the faculty, that should be done.

  For example, Dr. Privitera worked with Dr. Higerd to revise the wording on one contract which stated that the Period of Performance may differ from the Term of Appointment. While there was good reason to make this statement (to accommodate faculty who actually work less than12 months), this negates work done on the Term of Appointment document which was recently approved by the Board of Trustees and will be incorporated in the Faculty Handbook.

  All new faculty hirees will sign a statement recognizing that the MUSC Faculty Handbook is their contract with the university.

  Faculty Senate Elections. Nominations will take place the first week of school, about August 15^th, and elections will be held one week later.

  A request was made by one senator to invite the Institutional Review Board to the Senate to address the increasingly difficult research environment.

  Dr. Reuben announced the availability of a PDF version of the MUSC Faculty Handbook on the senate website and encouraged faculty to review significant parts and send questions/issues to him and the Governance Committee.

  ADJOURNMENT

  There being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 8:50 a.m.

  The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 10, 2001 at 7:45 a.m., Administration/Library, Room 107.