Record of the Council June 11-13, 2004

Academe, Sep/Oct 2004

The Council of the Association met on June 11-13, 2004, in conjunction with the annual meeting at the Washington Court hotel in Washington, D.C. The Council session on Saturday, June 12, ran concurrently with the annual meeting plenary session.

President Jane Buck presided. Members of the Council (with the exceptions of Linda Dell, Dan Murphy, Sharon Ng, and Rosa Pegucros) were present, as were AAUP general counsel David Rabban; general secretary Mary Burgan; general secretary-designate Roger Bowen; and other members of the staff. Kerry Grant served as parliamentarian.

Reports were presented by Jeffrey Halpem for Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure and the Committee on Inter-Organizational Relationships; Estelle Gellman for the Committee on Membership; Larry Gerber for the Annual Meeting Agenda Committee; David Gruber for the Committee on the Organization of the Association; and Gerald Turkei for the Committee on Government Relations. Thomas Guild and Ariel Anderson reported, respectively, for the Assembly of State Conferences (ASC) and the Collective Bargaining Congress (CBC). secretary-Treasurer Jeffrey Butts presented the report of the Panel on Chapter and Conference Sanctions, and David Rabban delivered the reports of the Election Committee and the Office of Staff Counsel.

Task Force on Restructuring

The Council authorized the president, in consultation with the general secretary and general counsel, to appoint a task force to examine what, if any, restructuring of the Association may be most appropriate to best carry out AAUP programs. The task force will report to the Council on an interim basis until it is prepared to provide its final recommendations. The Council also authorized an increase of $15,000 in the budget of the OfSce of Staff Counsel to help fund the legal work required for this task force and to cover future legal expenses in 2004.

Nominating Committee

George Wharton, Curry College (District IX), was selected by the ASC as its representative on the 2004-05 Nominating Committee; Jeffrey Lustig, California State University, Sacramento (District I) was selected as the CBC representative on the committee. The Council then elected, from its ranks, three additional members of the committee: Estelle Gellman, Hofstra University (District VHI); Gary Nelson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (District IV); and Sean Moran, Oakland University (District HI). After the meeting, members of the nominating committee elected Gellman to chair the committee.

Association Budget

Jeffrey Butts reported that the Association ended 2003 with a general fund deficit of $423,986, increasing the deficit balance in the general Rind from $102,634 in 2002 to (163,474. He noted that although income in 2003 was (80,000 more than projected, expenses also increased by approximately (288,000 over the amount budgeted.

Butts explained that travel expenses were $112,000 over the amount budgeted in 2003, stemming from travel to conferences and the interviews with candidates for the position of general secretary. He also noted that, at the request of the auditors, a new expense category-"doubtful account expense"-has been added to the budget to move uncollected dues from accounts receivable to an expense item. A total of (347,000 in doubtful account expenses for fiscal years 1999-2001 was applied to the 2003 budget, and future uncollected dues will be expensed according to a schedule recommended by the external auditors. Butts noted that the accounting change does not affect the Association's continued efforts to collect dues from chapters in arrears.

Butts also noted that the Association is currently in the ninth year of a twenty-year amortization of its pre-1995 post-retirement health benefits liability for Association retirees, a future liability that accounts for approximately $961,781 in "negative dollars" in the general-fund balance. If reporting the general-fund balance as was done prior to the 1995 accounting change, Butts noted that the balance would be (1,758,100. He added that the ad hoc joint committee established by the Council to review the Association's postretirement benefits expects to present its report by June 2005.

Butts reported that the projected deficit in the general-fund budget approved by the Council for 2004 was $249,854, which approximates the projected postrctirement health benefit obligation for 2004. He noted that in March 2004, the Council approved loans totaling $348,479 for the purchase of hardware and software to upgrade the Association's membership database and, most recently, approved a $15,000 increase in the budget of the Office of Staff Counsel (see above, Task Force on Restructuring). Butts noted that those adjustments will be reflected in future financial statements and will affect the projected budget deficit accordingly.

Academic Freedom and Tenure

The Council concurred in the statements of Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, as presented by committee member Jeffrey Halpern, recommending the imposition of censure on the administration of Philander Smith College (Arkansas) and a deferral of any action against the administration of Medaille College (New York). The Council also concurred in the recommendations of Committee A to remove the following institutions from the Association's list of censured administrations: Amarillo College (Texas), Houston Baptist University (Texas), and Mount Marty College (South Dakota).