The University Senate held its second meeting of the 2000–2001 year on May 17 in Turnbull Auditorium on the Chicago Campus. In the absence of President Henry Bienen, who was teaching a class meeting, Provost Lawrence Dumas called the meeting to order at 4:00 PM.

I.  The minutes of the November 16, 2000 meeting were approved unanimously.

II.  Associate Provost Stephen D. Fisher noted an error in the calendar for the year 2010. Rosh Hashanah falls on Thursday, September 9 of that year instead of Tuesday the 7th as written; Yom Kippur falls on Saturday the 18th, not Sunday the 19th. The calendar was approved unanimously as amended.

III.  Brian Peters, Director of University Services, summarized the present situation as not one of insufficient parking places but of insufficient convenient ones. University Police is responsible for parking on the Evanston campus while University Services administers Chicago parking. The new parking garage planned for next year in Chicago will have 700 spaces, but ground will not be broken until the hospital plan at the Wesley site is completed. An earlier plan for a joint Northwestern-Veterans Administration facility has been set aside. In response to a question from Stephen Fisher about the proposed parking structure in Evanston next to Englehart Hall, Peters said the plan was for a five-level garage with about 600 spaces. University Police and the Motor Pool are likely first-floor tenants. Architects are being approached, with completion expected in no less than two years. Provost Dumas added that with increasing parking pressure east of Sheridan Road, multi-story garages peripheral to the old part of the Evanston campus are needed. The City of Evanston restricts the size of structures west of Sheridan Road, but a garage of sufficient capacity has been approved near the Foster Street CTA station within easy walking distance of campus and on the route of the shuttle bus serving all parts of the campus. The two-level South Beach campus is too close to Lake Michigan to permit upward extension without cutting off the lake view; Ryan Field has the potential for development of a decked facility if needed. Multi-story parking on the lakefront near the Sports Pavilion on the north campus is undesirable because it would wall off the lakefront. The cost of basement parking levels is too great everywhere to present viable options. Peters noted that according to University Police there are always about 35 spaces available on the Evanston campus, with additional space at Ryan Field, served by shuttle buses. The issue is therefore one of convenience, not availability. On the Chicago campus, Northwestern can lease as many as 100 spaces about six blocks to the south, at North Pier Apartment Tower Garage. A shuttle bus serves four parking lots including this one, running every fifteen minutes from 6:45 to 9:05 AM, resuming from 2:45 to 10:30 PM. But only 31 people have chosen to buy permits at this facility. In response to a query from Fisher about the possibility of gated lots on the Evanston campus that would reduce illegal parking, Peters said that police are regulating parking more strictly; a gate near the Allen Center is being actively considered. Visitor parking on parts of campus will also be eliminated. Responding to an observation by Laura Wilber that construction workers are taking up spaces on campus, Dumas remarked that this is a matter for ticketing by police. Construction parking is provided by contract in designated places only. Peters reported that the 459-space Chestnut parking garage in Chicago made 50 spaces available last fall for graduate medical students who formerly parked at the Huron Street facility. Two months later, the Chestnut Street garage operator made an additional 50 spaces available for use beginning in March. But the Huron Street garage is still overcrowded on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 10 to 2. Medical School Professor Robert Decker observed that in his experience the Huron Street situation has been greatly improved. Peters added that the University is considering self-operating the Chestnut Street garage, making a revenue-neutral transition that would yield an additional 50 to 75 spaces by eliminating monthly occupants and converting to Northwestern permit users. Costs to Northwestern employees remains the same, though the University would lease at a higher rate. Dumas remarked that in some cases parking on the Chicago campus is owned by a Medical School endowment which provides operating expenses to the Medical School. If parking costs there were reduced or eliminated, operating revenue would be lost to the Medical School. The revenue-neutral parking formula preserves this necessary operating revenue. Peters announced that the impending closing of the Dental School will free up 100 places that will be reallocated to various constituencies on the Chicago campus. Finally, it is hoped that an expanded, web-based inter-campus shuttle survey will entice Chicago campus staff to park on Ryan Field and ride the bus to Chicago beginning in September. An added advantage would thereby accrue to University Library users who work in Chicago.

IV.    Suzanne Anderson, University Registrar and Project Director of the Student Enterprise System, reported on the Student Enterprise System. Noting that the system went live for the first time on January 1, 2000, she reported that the first year of operation was filled with challenges. The functionality of legacy systems had to be transferred to a new architecture; besides this architecture, new hardware had to be learned. The complexities of different semester and quarter calendars and different units of credit were among the challenges faced. Users of the system have become more comfortable with its operation as the vendor produces additional releases. Four revisions of financial regulations must be applied system-wide each year because of changing Federal regulation. Additional returns and  more stable operation can be expected as use of the system reaches maturity. In reply to a question by Steve Fisher about web-based access, Anderson explained that all of her staff will access the system through their browsers. That release of the software is expected by the end of the present calendar year. Before this is implemented, it will be necessary to appraise its impact to avoid further disruption of operations. She therefore expects web-based access to be in place sometime between summer 2002 and the summer of 2003. GFC chair Andrew Wachtel asked what new features and upgrades are most desirable and when they might be added. Anderson replied that she consults with ASG about their needs and would like similar consultation with faculty and administrators. Wachtel suggested GFC as a channel for faculty input. In reply to a question about the need for more programming staff, Anderson noted that the Medical School interface has been a challenge for student records as well as billing and financial aid. The ideal staffing level is difficult to maintain as programmers move on to other jobs; programmers who have experience with PeopleSoft and PeopleTools are not readily available, and as a result on-the-job training is often necessary. Budget resources are less a problem than finding the right people. Other Big Ten institutions have had more problems in this way than Northwestern, she said. She looks forward to working with GFC in the fall.

V.  GFC Chair Andrew Wachtel reported that his Committee has successfully identified issues that need attention. A final agreement on the Faculty Handbook has been reached, perhaps for distribution on CD ROM rather than a printed form. The central GFC initiative this year has been to galvanize a large group of campus organizations around the importance of child care to many constituencies in the University community. Northwestern is the only CIC university that has no child care centers, and one of the only major universities in the country that lacks such assets. Even universities under space constraints similar to ours have credible child care facilities. The GFC-led coalition of groups advocating child care is finishing the draft of a presentation that will be given to President Bienen in June. Wachtel noted that the President’s position has evolved significantly in favor of child care development. Initial costs are offset by the improved position of Northwestern in attracting the best faculty, graduate students, and staff. The immediate GFC recommendation will be that Northwestern establish a child care committee with administrative and financial authority to retain professional services to establish a program of requirements for child care facilities at both campuses of Northwestern, and to make specific recommendations regarding both space and budget. Such a task force should not be charged with deciding whether child care should be undertaken, but how it should be implemented on both campuses by fall of 2002. This requires an ideological as well as a financial commitment by the University, with good will on the part of all the campus groups involved, as a utopian set of arrangements is not a reasonable prospect and compromises will have to be made. Besides child care, copyright policy looms large on the future agenda of the GFC. The proposed University policy has elicited determined faculty opposition, and is expected to be withdrawn. GFC expects to lead discussions next year resulting in a mutually satisfactory copyright policy. Bob Decker, who will chair GFC next year, added that Northwestern will host the annual CIC meeting of general faculty committees next fall.

VI.  Standing in for President Bienen, Provost Lawrence Dumas remarked that the interaction between the Central Administration and the General Faculty Committee has been especially productive in the last two years. The Administration is eager to engage the GFC in that constructive spirit. He thanked Wachtel for his work over the past year in leading the Committee. Looking ahead, Dumas commented on the paradox that while the University has a $1.4 billion fundraising campaign well in hand, our operating budget is faced with new needs that were not present when the present leadership began its work 5–6 years ago. Initiatives launched then are now being funded; later initiatives must therefore be deferred for the time being. Physical space figured prominently in the first wave: some 40% of the funding now coming in is earmarked for new facilities on both campuses. This is an unusually large proportion. Recurring new maintenance expenses, not counting those of the Robert H. Lurie Medical Research Center, will add about $10 million to the University budget. In addition, the Medical School will have to set aside a substantial fund from their own budget to operate and maintain the Lurie Center.

            An issue that faces us in the next two years is the identification and recruitment of prospective freshmen. As one of the “other ivies” recently named in the Wall Street Journal, Northwestern has greatly improved its profile in recent decades. Nevertheless, undergraduate recruitment is more challenging than ever. The undergraduate admission office has therefore been asked to formulate a strategic plan for the near future to raise the level of service in this area. Individual attention to the best prospects will be a component of such a plan. Changes in the college marketplace make a more competitive posture necessary. Prospective undergraduates should be approached in a more nuanced way as a segmented body of individuals with differing objectives, interests, and priorities. Involvement of faculty in each of the undergraduate schools in a likely part of the new recruitment strategy. Next year’s undergraduate class is better in the easily measurable ways such as class standing and SAT scores. The success rate in matriculations has improved, especially in WCAS.

            Collaborative interaction across academic boundaries calls for the recruitment of new faculty whose work falls between traditional disciplines. Many members of the faculty have shown their interest in recruiting new colleagues who are pioneering ideas in new intellectual space. Post-baccalaureate and graduate student training is also shaped by interdisciplinary enterprise. Even undergraduate programs reflect the shifting ground of new organizations of learning. Domain dinners that bring faculty together across disciplines are designed to stimulate such interaction. In the past three years, the administration has invested funding in various cross-school initiatives in research and teaching. At the end of this three-year cycle, it is time to watch the new initiatives mature and see what results they produce before investing additional funding. The new projects in cross-disciplinary work mark Northwestern as an exciting research venue.

            Finally, Provost Dumas expressed his agreement that the spirit in which the GFC has identified child care as a key issue is both timely and constructive. He urged Wachtel’s successor Bob Decker to carry on in the same spirit.

            In reply to a question from Laura Wilber, Dumas and Steve Fisher affirmed that the program of student-faculty debates will be continued into the next academic year. Under consideration for fall quarter is a debate on whether Division I student-athletes should be paid.

VII.       There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:55 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Daniel H. Garrison

Secretary to the University Senate