Faculty assembly meets to discuss future of administrator review committee

Miami University’s faculty assembly was held Thursday afternoon to debate the reinstatement of the All-Faculty Committee for Evaluation of Administrators. The committee was suspended on Sept. 28, following a meeting of the Board of Trustees, due to potential conflicts related to bargaining efforts between Miami University Administration and the Faculty Alliance of Miami (FAM).

The Committee, originally established under the Enabling Act for University Senate, serves to review all university administrators.

The Enabling Act was the document that permitted this assembly to be called. Under Article 6, members of the faculty assembly have the right to call a special meeting to discuss any resolutions to the Enabling Act. The meeting was called for after a petition was submitted to university administration with117 signatures.

The meeting opened with an explanation of the process from Provost Liz Mullenix and was followed by remarks from chair of the FAM organizing committee, Cathy Wagner.

“Let’s talk about what seems to be the main justification … the argument that the committee allows for the opportunity for direct dealing,” Wagner said. “There are many reasons that the committee cannot be described as doing ‘direct dealings.’”

Wagner argued that under the university’s definition of direct dealing, the faculty assembly asking for their “2% raises at this meeting” could be considered direct dealings.

This received a round of applause from the crowd.

Ginny Boehme, a lead negotiator for FAM, said that “ [administration does] not want to know what you think … this is not right.”

Various other faculty members spoke, including Daniel Hall, who as a former administrator, had been subject to the committee in addition to serving on the committee himself after leaving the administration.

“As a lawyer, I find this argument to be completely specious,” Hall said.

Ballots will be circulated within 10 business days to all faculty assembly members, who will then have 10 days to vote on whether the committee should be reinstated.

In a statement to The Miami Student after this article's original publication, the university stated that any potential vote would not immediately result in the reinstatement of the committee, regardless of whether it reaches a simple majority or not.

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"As the Board has suspended the Committee in accordance with the Enabling Act, only the Board could act to reinstate the Committee," the university stated. "Under the circumstances, the only outcome of a simple majority vote is to submit a request to the Board to reconsider its September action suspending the Committee."

reieram@miamioh.edu