I beg to differ from my esteemed colleague, friend, and Faculty Senate
President Marvin Ernst. Today's meeting is a Faculty Meeting for the
reasons I mentioned earlier, but please note the operative part of my
message: "...for the purposes of creating minutes for distribution and the
official record." I only intend to sit in the audience with all the invited
staff, faculty, and invited public (including the media), make a public
record of the event, and perhaps ask a question or two myself.

This is not meant to preempt employees, exempt or otherwise, but merely to
respond to the direction Tuesday of the Provost and President Ernst that
we, the faculty, should wait until today's open meeting to ask questions of
the Chancellor about salaries and other budget matters. I expect faculty
and staff will share concerns about how these decisions are being made. I
do not expect faculty to dominate the meeting, and most, if not all faculty
are acutely aware of the problems facing the staff we work with and depend
on each day. Thank you for organizing this important meeting, at which I
hope we all will learn something from the Chancellor.

There may be some confusion about my role as Faculty Secretary and perhaps
I read the Handbook incorrectly, but the secretary is not appointed by the
administration nor selected by the Faculty Senate, a group that represents
the faculty by meeting every two weeks or more during the academic year to
consider important issues. The Faculty Senate President then reports
results and recommendations to the full faculty at one of the four regular
faculty meetings each year, which are primarily the responsibility of the
Faculty Secretary as stated in the Handbook.

I do serve at the pleasure of the full faculty which votes each January on
the position.

Respectfully,

Richard Rice
Faculty Secretary