Dr. James J. Stukel
President, University of Illinois
364 Henry Administration Building
Urbana-Champaign MC-346

RE: Revisions to the University of Illinois Statutes - Terms of Faculty Employment (USC ST-30)

Dear Jim:

Enclosed is a proposed amendment to the Statutes in which a new Section 6 (Sanctions Other Than Dismissal For Cause), is added to Article IX (Academic and Administrative Staffs). The current Section 6 and all other subsequent sections in Article IX would be renumbered accordingly.

"Terms of Faculty Employment," as this issue has been referred to, dates back to December 1991 when Dr. Robert Resek, then Vice President for Academic Affairs, suggested that the University Senates Conference look into the possibility of establishing progressive discipline measures. With the Conference's concurrence, Dr. Resek formed a university-wide committee in June 1992. Dr. Resek transmitted the committee's proposed statutory language to the Conference in March 1993, which the Conference, after review, referred to the senates in September 1993. In early 1994, both senates reported to the Conference little to no support for the language as written, yet both senates agreed that some form of progressive discipline was called for; UIUC supported statutory changes, UIC supported changes outside of the Statutes. In March 1995, a UIUC Senate Council subcommittee presented for information to the UIUC Senate a set of guidelines that outlined the basic principles the subcommittee thought should be embodied in a revision of the Statutes, in an attempt to build a consensus around these principles before proposing statutory language.

The UIC Senate Executive Committee was solicited for input before these guiding principles were brought to the UIUC Senate. Subsequently, the University Statutes and Senate Procedures Committee of the UIUC Senate drafted statutory language which, after a series of re-drafts, was approved by the UIUC Senate on April 21, 1997. In May, the Conference transmitted the approved document to the UIC Senate for action and the UIS Senate for information (although in October 1997 this was changed to an action item for UIS). On March 11, 1999 and April 30, 1999 respectively, the UIC and UIS Senates approved statutory language similar to each other's yet with some substantial changes from that of the UIUC Senate's language.

The Conference referred the three documents to its Statutes Committee on May 11. The Committee later produced a chart that outlined the differences among the versions. The Conference felt it should use its statutory authority to produce compromise language and proceeded to sort through the discrepancies listed on the chart while making recommendations to the Statutes Committee. The Committee drafted statutory language which was approved by the Conference on September 8.

I also enclose the actions of the senates because the Statutes require that "…where agreement cannot be achieved within a reasonable period of time, the Conference shall send the advice of the senates and its own recommendations to the president for transmission to the Board of Trustees…". However, please note that all three senates agree that there should be "Sanctions Other Than Dismissal for Cause" in the Statutes. The main discrepancies were: where the language should be placed in the Statutes; whether an existing committee or a newly created committee should hear the case; and a few other minor points.

We request that this proposed amendment to the Statutes be forwarded to the Board of Trustees with your recommendation for approval.

Sincerely,

Elliot R. Kaufman, Chair
University Senates Conference

ERK:cjs

Enclosure (compromise language)

c:	Members, University Senates Conference   
	Sylvia Manning
	Michele M. Thompson
	William G. Jones
	Frank J. Kopecky
	Robert F. Rich
	Robert C. Damrau
	Christan L. Moffett
	Kathy L. Rutherford