By Amanda Hunt
Arizona Daily Wildcat
The UA Faculty Senate discussed a conflict of interest policy and passed measures that will merge exercise and sport sciences into the department of physiology and rename the four faculties in the College of Arts and Sciences at its meeting yesterday.
The University of Arizona Faculty Senate held a continuation of this month's meeting to cover agenda items not discussed at the March 6 meeting. Additional meetings may be needed for next few months' agendas, said Malcolm Zwolinski, presiding officer of the Faculty Senate.
A conflict of interest and commitment policy was debated by the Senate and referred back to the Research Policy Committee for further review. If enacted, the policy would set guidelines concerning the amount of money earned and time invested by all university employees in employment outside the university.
Sen. Shlomo Neuman contested the policy for several reasons and said there is "need for a fundamental change in the policy."
Neuman disliked the combination of both conflict of interest and commitment because they deal with two separate issues. He said commitment should be mixed with conflict of interest because it deals with "time, not money."
"I believe we must police ourselves or someone will police us," said J.D. Garcia, Faculty Senate chairman. "The details (of the policy) are less important to me than the statement.
"Every profession is moving in this direction of responsibility," Garcia said.
Neuman and others questioned a cutoff mark of $2,500 in outside earnings included in the policy.
Fulvio Melia, chair of the Research Policy Committee, said that stipulation does not constitute a wrongdoing by the employee but only indicates that the earnings must be reported. He said decisions about a possible conflict would be made on a "case by case" basis.
Melia also said the cutoff is to make the policy "as uniform as possible."
The senate approved seconded motion from the senate executive committee merging the faculty of exercise and sport science into the Department of Physiology.
Only one senator disapproved of the measure. Sen. Matthew Troth said the measure was unclear about what would happen to the physical education program under a merger. The program's future is still under consideration of a Faculty Senate special committee and will be up for a final decision from the Arizona Board of Regents.
Troth said passage of the measure would leave the program in an ambiguous position, should it survive proposed cuts.
Sen. Claire Parsons, committee chair, said "proposals would come forth as to where to place the program" following such a decision.
Also as a seconded motion, the Senate passed a proposal to rename the four faculties in the College of Arts and Sciences. According to the motion: "The Faculty Senate approves the changing of the designation of faculties of fine arts, humanities, science and social and behavioral sciences to be henceforth colleges of fine arts, humanities, science, and social and behavioral sciences, respectively."
The Senate also discussed the third draft of a proposed performance based compensation plan for faculty. The proposal was discussed at Faculty Senate meetings in January and February as well, and has been continually contested by Senate members.