University Senate : Academic integrity, union representation, debated during 1st meeting of semester

A contentious debate about academic integrity of the entire campus community and a motion to allocate two University Senate seats for a Syracuse University employee’s labor union headlined a busy USen meeting at Maxwell Auditorium Wednesday.

Wearing a black hat that said ‘Integrity Matters,’ Elet Callahan, chair of the Vice Chancellor and Provost Committee on Academic Integrity presented a report highlighting three recommendations that were made after an investigation of academic integrity of the non-student members of the campus community.

The first recommendation from the VPCAI was that the university should make academic integrity a key institutional priority – not only for students, but also for faculty, instructors, administrators and staff. The second was for Eric Spina, vice chancellor and provost, to initiate a procedure to ensure fairness to those accused of violating academic integrity expectations at SU, Callahan said.

After being interrupted in the middle of her report, Callahan was clearly exasperated by the amount of time allotted for her to speak.

‘You know, I have to say, this is a little tough for me to take,’ Callahan said. ‘This report was ready to go in December and it was cut from the agenda. It was ready to go in January and it was cut from the agenda. ‘

Carter, chairman of the senate agenda committee, said there was no attempt to block the report. He also said the committee wanted to discuss the recommendations with the vice chancellor before it was discussed at the meeting.

After being granted permission to continue her report, Callahan discussed the third recommendation from the VPCAI that proved to be the most controversial.

The third recommendation of the committee is the creation of an impartial, independent and confidential ‘ombuds office’ to receive concerns of integrity by members of the university community, Callahan said.

‘We believe that this office is needed because it will promote an institutional culture that is characterized by trust,’ Callahan said. ‘We think it will solve problems.’

Despite Callahan’s explanations, there was still a general confusion as to what an ‘ombuds office’ is and how an employee being paid by the university could be impartial. An ombudsman – a position that can be held by a man or a woman – is used at other universities and some businesses to receive confidential complaints and report them to the highest authority.

‘We need other models before we can vote on how it would work here,’ said a member of the senate. ‘I have no idea what the hell an ombuds is.’

A few more than half of the senators supported the VPCAI’s recommendations, but the vice chancellor announced they would not be passed today, but that it would be brought up in the agenda committee and voted on again.

SEIU Local 200 United, a labor union made up of library, SU Food Services and Physical Plant workers, had nine members at the USen meeting. Among them were five tradesmen, three workers from SU Food Services and a library employee.

‘The reason the union members want representation here is because there are issues that come up on the floor of the senate that get discussed and passed that profoundly affect their membership, such as their retirement benefits,’ said Linda Alcoff, a member of the Committee for Diversity.

The group’s representation in the senate is long overdue, Alcoff said. But while the motion was strongly backed by a majority of USen members, it could not be passed because it conflicted with a USen bylaw that prohibits bargaining groups, which include labor unions, from having representation in USen.

‘The provision is that non-unionized staff has representation in the government,’ said Bruce Carter, chairman of the senate agenda committee.

‘There is one constituency that has never been represented in the senate,’ Alcoff said. ‘That is the constituency that represents over 800 workers from the library, Physical Plant and Food Services.’

Assistant to the president of the SEIU and SU law graduate Scott Phillipson said the workers need representation in the senate.

‘This is a forum that they need to participate in,’ he said. ‘The health insurance plan is something that was voted through the senate and that we found out about after the fact. We could have actively engaged in that process.’

Member of the Administrative Operations and Budget and Fiscal Affairs committees, Chief Financial Officer Louis Marcoccia said he was hesitant to vote on the motion because he didn’t understand the bylaw that restricts union representation.

‘People who are in a bargaining unit have certain rights that I don’t have, not being in the bargaining unit,’ he said. ‘Perhaps there is some legal reason why that decision was made. I would like to be brought up to speed to answer that question before we vote.’

One USen member was hopeful the restriction on unions in USen would not stop the proposal, saying, ‘I know we have to go by the rules, but I think it’s so important that union members get representation. When I think of Nancy’s push towards having diverse faculty and diverse representation everywhere, I think that this a great move that Linda has made.’

Besides the need to give two seats to the labor union, Alcoff also reported on the lack of diversity among SU professors. She said a mentoring program should be implemented to help new faculty of color become acclimated to the university.

After 30 minutes of discussion, a ‘sense of the senate vote’ was taken and it was decided that an amendment negating the bylaw that prohibits labor union representation would be voted on at the next USen meeting.

Despite not getting the amendment passed, one member from the labor union was encouraged, saying ‘We should be identified as a member of the senate – but just having it discussed at the senate was a step in the right direction.’

Chancellor Nancy Cantor could not attend the meeting because she was at a special session committee on education.

USen’s next meeting will be April 18 at Maxwell Auditorium.