Congress Executive Council (CEC) Minutes for November 28, 2005
UH-Hilo Congress
1. Minutes. The minutes from the previous meeting were approved with corrections.
2. Letter to elected officials regarding deferred maintenance. Congress has tasked the CEC
with writing a letter which requests that surplus state revenues be spent on three deferred
maintenance projects at UH-Hilo (with the three projects to be selected by the CEC). The
VC for Academic Affairs (VCAAdm) has provided the CEC a prioritized list of deferred
maintenance projects. The CEC has decided to ask for monies to address health and
safety defects. The VCAAdm list, however, does not categorize specific health and
safety needs separately from general repairs. The CEC therefore recommends the
following wording in the letter:
Be it hereby resolved that the University of Hawaii at Hilo Faculty Congress urges the
governor of Hawai'i [or state legislature] to spend a portion of the projected surplus
revenues on deferred maintenance to correct health and safety violations at the
University of Hawaii at Hilo, with an emphasis on 1) unsafe electrical wiring, 2)
improving air quality in unhealthy buildings and 3) improving teaching laboratories to
meet health and safety standards. Currently there are 36.2 million dollars of deferred
maintenance projects at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo and Hawai'i Community
College. Currently, these projects are backlogged due to lack of funding. In times of
budget surplus, there is no reason that college students in this state should have to
endure unsafe educational facilities. Examples of urgently needed repairs at the
University of Hawai'i at Hilo include the unsafe teaching laboratories in Wentworth Hall
and the moldy air conditioning system in Kanaka'ole Hall.
3. Congress Communications. It has been decided that for this year the Congress Chair-not the Secretary-- shall write and sign official communications from Congress. To
facilitate communication with the broader faculty, the Congress Secretary shall send a
message on the Ohana email list when the approved minutes of the Congress meetings
(and the CEC meetings) are posted on web.
4. UARC. The Manoa Senate resolution against UARC was on the agenda of the recent
ACCFSC (All Campus Council of Faculty Senate Chairs) meeting. The UH-Hilo
Research Council is looking into the matter.
5. Faculty Governance for Graduate Programs. There was a brief discussion of which
policy making bodies should have authority to approve or modify graduate programs. It
appears that this is an open question. Since Rick Castberg is on the Graduate Council, he
volunteered to give a brief report at the next congress meeting.
Respectfully submitted,
Jene Michaud, Congress Chair