University of North Carolina
Minutes of the Eighty-ninth Meeting
April 22, 1994
The eighty-ninth meeting of the Faculty Assembly of the University of North Carolina was held in the Board Room of the General Administration Building in Chapel Hill on April 22, 1994. The meeting was called to order by the Chair, William Kane at 1:12 PM with 42 delegates in attendance. The delegates whose terms expire this year were introduced and given a round of applause. Kane then introduced President Spangler.
President Spangler's Report.
President Spangler thanked the delegates for their work this year and then introduced Vice President Felix Joyner, who gave a report on the status of the budget. The main requests to the General Assembly will be a request for a 6% academic salary increase and a request to use surplus enrollment growth funds for high priority items such as computing and telecommunication, library acquisitions, distinguished professor endowments, and new degree programs.
President Spangler introduced Vice President William Little, who reported on the status of teaching awards being sponsored by the Board of Governors. The Board of Governors appointed a committee to establish guidelines for the awards. $250,000 from overhead receipts will be used for the next two years. One half of the money will be used for the Board of Governors Awards; the other half will be sent to the campuses for local awards. Each campus will nominate one faculty member for the Board of Governors Awards, which will carry a stipend of $7,500. Winners must be tenured faculty with at least seven years of experience. Money given to the campuses must be used in addition to existing programs.
Associate Vice President Judith Pulley reported on a University-wide Conference on time-to-graduation held on March 21. The conference had 175 participants from the various campuses and General Administration.
Associate Vice President Gary Barnes reported on compliance with two directions from the 1993 General Assembly in Senate Bill 27:
1. A tuition surcharge should be levied against students whose course work exceeds 110% of the hours needed to graduate, and
2. The average course load of full time UNC students should be at least 15 hours per semester.
Proposed guidelines for compliance are attached to these minutes.
President Spangler reported that the General Assembly's Study Commission on Higher Education has begun to meet, and will consider three main areas, Undergraduate Education, University Funding, and the Quality of Education in the University.
President Spangler remarked that he will be seeking faculty input as requested in Resolution 93-7 regarding professional responsibility. He also asked that the Faculty Welfare Committee rethink the issues in Resolution 93-6 on health care premium schedule inequities.
Questions and Answers.
Q. T. Dankel (UNCW). A recent case before the Board of Governors relates to Assembly Resolution 92-7 regarding reimbursement of legal fees for permanently tenured faculty who successfully appeal dismissal decisions. What is the status of that case and the resolution?
A. R. Robinson. The Board discussed the issue, but declined to support the payment of legal fees.
Q. Dankel. Don't SPA employees have the right to seek such reimbursement?
A. Robinson. That's not quite correct. There are only five specific circumstances under which attorney's fees can be awarded to a state employee.
Q. D. Noland (UNCW). What is the definition of full time undergraduate student?
A. G Barnes. A course load of twelve hours or more.
Joan Walls(ASU) conducted the election of officers for the coming year. Elected were William Kane, Chair, Bonnie Kelley, Vice-Chair, and Paul Duvall, Secretary.
Chair's Report.
Kane commented on the symbolic importance of the Board of Governors teaching awards, He distributed several documents, including two articles from the Chronicle of Higher Education, an article from Academe on faculty workloads, and a report on the status of resolutions(attached).
The session was adjourned at 2:50 PM.
EVENING PLENARY SESSION
The second session was called to order at 7:08 PM by Chairman Kane with 34 delegates in attendance. Kane announced that the dates of the Faculty Assembly meetings for the 1994-95 academic year will be September 16, November 18, February 3, and April 21.
Elections were held for committee chairs for the coming year. The chairs will be:
Academic Freedom and Tenure: Thad Dankel (UNCW)
Budget: William Keech (UNCCH)
Faculty Governance: George Bailey (ECU)
Planning and Programs: Peter Petschauer (ASU)
Professional Development: Harmon Watson (FSU)
Faculty Welfare: Etta Gravely (NCA&T)
The minutes of the February 4, 1994 meeting were approved.
STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS
Faculty Governance (George Bailey - ECU)
The Committee noted that only a few campuses have policies requiring early exams for graduating seniors, and discussed policies requiring that final exams be given during exam week.
Sexual harassment policies and problems in this area on the WCU campus were discussed, and this led to a brief discussion of the UNC anti-nepotism policies.
Questions were raised regarding the specific legal relation of the individual campus policies to the policies stated in the UNC Code. The Committee will follow up on that question.
Also discussed were the status of terminal contract faculty members who are employed beyond seven years, policies regarding off-calendar tenure decisions, and the atypical structure of NCCU's faculty governance system.
Finally, the Committee discussed whether certain recent policies on some of the campuses, such as writing across the curriculum, create bottlenecks to graduation and are in conflict with current attempts to reduces time to graduation.
Faculty Welfare (Etta Gravely - NCA&T)
Kitty McCollum was asked to gather information regarding the cost of providing a separate employee/spouse category in the North Carolina Health Plan for University Personnel. She was asked to provide data regarding other institutions in the region that provide such coverage and at what cost. This information will be used by the Committee in responding to President Spangler's remarks regarding Resolution 93-6.
The Committee discussed at length the results of the survey on faculty morale on the campuses. Particular focuses included 1) unsatisfactory administration/faculty communication, 2) salary compression, and 3) due process aspects of faculty rights. This led to a discussion on the need for management training programs for new university administrators and retraining for continuing administrators.
The Chair agreed to obtain the NCCU faculty morale report and to tabulate the survey results to share with the Committee and the Faculty Assembly to see if the Assembly wishes to pursue a more formal survey of faculty morale.
Academic Freedom and Tenure (Thad Dankel - UNCW)
The Committee presented Resolution 93-9 Regarding suggested guidelines for evaluation of teaching (copy attached). The resolution was approved by the Assembly.
Due to illness and death in the family of the Committee Chair, editorial worked needed to complete the Committee's report on the evaluation of teaching is being postponed until the fall.
Planning and Programs (Peter Petschauer - ASU)
The Committee discussed a draft version of the proposed Professional Responsibilities of University Faculty document (attached to Resolution 93-10).
Roy Carroll reported on the first meeting of the Legislative Study Commission, and Shirl Hoffman reported on his informal faculty work profile investigations.
Issues to be considered by the Committee next year include:
1. Seeking a stable basis for comparing relative FTE-based funding on the various campuses, and
2. ascertaining the long-range land use policies of the UNC system.
The Committee presented Resolution 93-10 regarding professional responsibilities (copy attached). After some discussion, the resolution was approved by the Assembly.
Budget (Patricia Campbell - ECU)
Mr. Felix joyner joined the Committee for a lengthy and informative meeting. Many questions were prompted by Mr. Joyner's remarks to the Assembly. The Committee expressed its thanks to Mr. Joyner for his helpful advice this year.
Topics addressed by the Committee included academic salary increases, graduate teaching assistant funding,faculty longevity pay, effect of student enrollment on faculty positions, and the role of the faculty in the university budget process.
Committee member Keech distributed a memorandum from Jim Murphy (UNC-CH) former delegate and Budget Committee Chair, updating activity relevant to resolution 92-8 on faculty salaries.
Discussed and scheduled to be completed next year was the survey of faculty involvement in the budget process on the campuses.
The Committee presented Resolution 93-11 on faculty salaries (copy attached). The resolution was approved by the Assembly.
Professional Development (Joe Johnson - UNCG)
Johnson reported on the status of next fall's conference on teaching.
The Committee presented Resolution 93-12 on peer review and evaluation of teaching (copy attached). The resolution was approved by the Assembly.
On behalf of the Executive Committee, Kane presented Resolution 93-8 on the Legislative Study Commission on the Status of Education at the University of North Carolina (copy attached). The resolution was approved by the Assembly.
Roy Carroll expressed his appreciation to the Assembly for its focus on substantive issues and to William Kane for his hard work during the year.
Kane called for a round of applause for Roy Carroll for his support during the year and thanked the Committee Chairs for their work.
There was no further business, and the meeting was adjourned at 8:25 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Paul Duvall, Secretary