Rodin OKs special U. Council session

University Council members petitioned for a session on outsourcing. In a rare move, University President Judith Rodin has agreed to hold a special session of University Council on Tuesday. More than one-quarter of Council members petitioned the administration this week to convene a session about decision to outsource facilities management to Trammell Crow Co. The petition requested that a meeting be held before University Trustees meet on campus next Thursday and Friday. The Trustees are scheduled to vote on whether to approve the Trammell Crow deal. Graduate and Professional Students Assembly representative Alex Welte said this week that the meeting would give Council members a chance to respond to "this strange, sudden announcement of the secretly broken deal." Since Executive Vice President John Fry announced the outsourcing proposal October 8, some students, faculty and staff have criticized the way the deal was handled. If approved, Trammell Crow would assume management of all campus buildings. About 175 employees will need to interview with Trammell Crow to retain their current jobs. Administrators expect about 75 percent of them to get offers from the firm. They have pledged to maintain salary and benefits levels for employees who are hired by Trammell Crow. Council members originally wanted the meeting to take place Wednesday, but scheduling conflicts, including a Council Steering Committee meeting from 3-5 p.m., made Tuesday a better choice, Council Secretary Constance Goodman said. "I hope that the Tuesday meeting will meet the request of those who have requested it," Goodman said. She said that although Council by-laws allow one-quarter of Council membership to convene a special meeting, those members don't have authority to set a time or date. Rodin's call for the meeting "indicates the president's responsiveness not only to the concerns of those who submitted the petition but to those in the larger community as well," Goodman added. But Rodin's announcement still sparked controversy among some Council members, who said they fear the Tuesday meeting "has hijacked our efforts to hold a meeting," Welte said. "We don't see how the announcement of Tuesday's meeting somehow cancels the other meeting," he said. "We plan to push for the Wednesday meeting." The Steering Committee has authority to set the agenda for the meeting, regardless of who called it. "The emphasis should be on that and not whether the meeting is in one person's hands or another," Goodman said. Rodin and other top administrators were unavailable for comment yesterday, due to Chinese President Jiang Zemin's visit. Undergraduate Assembly Chairperson Noah Bilenker said he would prefer the meeting to be on Wednesday so more faculty can attend, regardless of the Steering meeting. Faculty Senate Chairperson Vivian Seltzer, who chairs Steering, has said she will cut short that meeting Wednesday, to accommodate a Council meeting on that day if necessary. She said this week that members of the Faculty Senate "respect and are in favor of wide consultation and discussion of these important issues." Tuesday's meeting will be held in the Quadrangle's McClelland Hall from 4:30-6 p.m.