Faculty Assembly

University of North Carolina

Minutes of the Ninety-fifth Meeting

December 1, 1995

The ninety-fifth 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 December 1, 1995. The meeting was called to order by Chair Peter Petschauer at 1:05 with 39 delegates in attendance.

Vice President William Little's Report.

In the absence of President Spangler, Vice President Little spoke on behalf of the General Administration (A copy of Dr. Little's speech is attached.) Two areas of special concern to General Administration were provisions in the appropriations bill that provide that the Board monitor faculty work loads and reward faculty who teach higher than standard work loads and one that dealt with access to higher education. Pilot programs for off-campus education are being developed through UNCW in Onslow County; ECU in Craven/Carteret; ASU in Burke/Cleveland/Rutherford; and PSU in Anson/Richmond/ Montgomery/Moore.

Questions and Answers.

Q. Dan Noland (UNCW). If these pilot programs are successful, will they have new line funding?

A. Little. It is being proposed that summer school and off campus programs be given FTE funding.

Q. Noland. Will this be new money?

A. Little. Yes. But there may be a problem in that serving student populations off campus may lead to a decrease in the number of students moving on campus.

Chair's Report.

Gordon Mercer will move from the Planning and Programs Committee to the Faculty Governance Committee.

The Minutes of the September 22, 1995 meeting of the Faculty Assembly were approved as presented.

Members were asked to review the data in the faculty roster. They will be presented with latest version of the roster as it is amended.

Dr. Petschauer stated a concern that there is a weakness in the ability of the Faculty Assembly to respond as a body to situations that occur between regularly scheduled meetings.

After the September meeting had already been held, members of the Board of Governors requested that Dr. Petschauer provide them with input for discussion as they reviewed the need for a policy relating to amorous relations between faculty and students/staff. Timing was an issue as the Board of Governors would meet before the December meeting of the Faculty Assembly. Dr. Petschauer did not feel it was feasible to call an ad hoc meeting of the assembly and the By Laws did not give guidelines as to what action he should take.

In order to provide some meaningful input, he solicited information on the Internet, prepared a position document (Consideration for a Board of Governor's Amorous Relationship Policy), sent out copies of the document to members of the Assembly for their feedback, and circulated the document to his colleagues for suggestions. After incorporating many of the suggestions he received, he forwarded the document to the Board of Governors and has provided copies for the delegates.

Members of the Assembly should have opportunity for as much discussion as possible. Two suggestions from Petschauer: 1) Establish a list server or develop an interactive capability on the Home Page. 2) Have a mechanism for ready consultation with the officers and a way of forwarding the results to the Board of Governors. George Bailey has agreed that Faculty Governance would address the matter and determine if the By Laws need to be revised.

For informational purposes, heads of each faculty delegation responded to some quick survey questions. Twelve of the sixteen institutions reported that there was easy access to the BD 119 document in their campus library. Ten of the institutions had university-wide tenure committees rather than relying strictly on discipline-based tenure committees. Four faculty representatives remain without access to e-mail.

At 1:50 the afternoon Plenary Session was dismissed and the committee meetings took place in their customary locations.

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EVENING PLENARY SESSION

The session was called to order at 7:15 PM with 40 delegates in attendance.

STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS

Budget Committee(William Keech)

The Committee reviewed an updated version of the UNC-GA Budget Process document that was originally distributed last Spring. Copies of the document are available for each of the campuses and for any delegate who would like to have a copy.

The Committee is trying to identify a central, public location on each campus where this and other important public university documents will be held. Among others documents that could be archived in this location are minutes of the Board of Governors Meeting, the Board of Governors Budget Recommendations, and the BD 119.

The Committee is in the process of updating a document describing the budget process on each campus, a copy of which was distributed last spring, in hope that the information will make it possible to share ways for improvement. They are looking at the campus procedures on setting fees and at the variations in amounts and focus of these fees.

The Committee is distributing to each Faculty Senate chair a model document that provides average salaries by rank and school within the university. Each campus is urged to prepare such a document and place it in the central public place where the other documents named above are held.

Q. Dan Noland(UNCW): Would it be possible to have the budget information available on a home page or is that information too controversial?

A. Bill Keech(UNCCH): It is not currently complete, but should be available for electronic distribution by April.

A. Paul Duvall(UNCG): If you will get me the information on a disk, I can have it on the Web virtually immediately.

Planning and Program(Pamela Hunter)

The Committee reviewed the following reports presented by Gary Barnes, Myra Cain, and Judith Pulley:

UNC Pilot Off-Campus Sites:

Pilot off-campus sites enacted as part of House Bill 230, which directs the UNC Board of Governors to establish pilot degree programs at such off-campus location as "Community college campuses, especially those with a higher proportion of college transfer student enrollment, accessible to military personnel and sites remote form the constituent institutions." UNC Wilmington, East Carolina University, Appalachian State University, and Pembroke State University are the institutions that have been selected for these pilot programs.

Academic Program Review

All constituent institutions, except Elizabeth City State University, Fayetteville State University, North Carolina School of the Arts, University of North Carolina at Asheville, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Winston Salem State University, will have degree programs and/or program tracks discontinued. Total discontinuation are projected to be 124 degree programs and/or tracks ranging from 1 - 8 programs in the affected universities.

Full Time Equivalent Enrollment Report

The estimated enrollment for ten of the institutions are within the established ranges, five institutions are below the ranges, and one institution has an estimated enrollment above the range. An estimated systemwide FTE enrollment of 130,755 for 1995 - 96 falls within the established range of 129,435 - 134,725.

Availability of Higher Education in North Carolina Interim Report, November 10, 1995

Senate Bill 393 of the 1993 Sessions Laws directs the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina to "develop a plan for the continued and expanded availability of higher education for all citizens, focusing on the availability of opportunities in underserved areas by means other than the establishment of additional degree programs. Thus, the Board of Governors is committed to provide opportunities for all North Carolinians to participate in higher education ...by improving access to higher education...Access and instructional delivery systems include extension and distance learning."

The Committee discussed the implications of these reports and agreed to develop some preliminary resolutions by the February meeting.

Members of the Assembly expressed concern over the costs of some of the mandates, but there are no solid estimates available to work with and probably will not be until the programs have been more fully developed.

Faculty Governance(George Bailey)

The Committee brought one resolution and one motion to change the bylaws to the assembly.

After extended discussion, the Resolution on Responsibilities in Professional Relationships passed. (Resolution 95-2, copy attached).

Angela Lumpkin(NCSU): I move that Resolution 95-2 be communicated to the Board of Governors as the position of the Faculty Assembly on Responsibilities in Professional Relationships.

This motion was proposed in order to avoid all confusion relating to the earlier communication "Considerations for a Board of Governor's Amorous Relationship Policy." After discussion, the motion passed.

The motion to amend the By Laws was put before the Assembly (copy attached). No vote on By Laws can be taken until a subsequent meeting of the Faculty Assembly.

There was concern that the proposal allowed the Executive Committee to act without sufficient faculty input.

Laura Gassaway proposed that information be distributed to all members of the Faculty Assembly at least one week prior to the Executive Committee's meeting. Delegates would then have the opportunity to contact a member of the Committee and give their opinion.

Faculty Welfare(James Nicholl)

The Committee discussed President Spangler's reaction to Resolution 95-1. Chair will be checking with Roy Carroll to determine why a more positive response did not occur.

Discussion of health benefits was tabled until the February meeting when Kitty McCollum will be present.

Chair will request demographic information before proceeding with the discussion of retirement incentives (both full and early). Information gathering may include determining the different sorts of post-retirement reemployment agreements currently in practice.

The Committee began discussion of domestic partner benefits (internal--athletic facilities, faculty club memberships, etc vs. state employee--health) and will take up the issue again in February when Jane Brown, who is chair of the UNCCH Faculty Council and a Faculty Assembly delegate will be present.

Chet Jordan and Larry Hough will draft a resolution on faculty representation in searches for the President of the North Carolina University System. The Committee also will explore the possibility of having faculty representation during the planning stage of the search process.

In order for the Committee to recommend attributes desired in next UNC President, the chair requests heads of delegations whose institutions have hired new chancellors within the last three years (1993 to present) forward a copy of their position vacancy announcement to Jim Nicholl for the Committee's consideration. (ASU, FSU, NCCU, UNCA, UNC-CH, UNCG, WSSU, ECSU, WCU.)

The Committee discussed maintaining/increasing faculty sense of community in the UNC System while resource shifts are occurring due to legislation allowing optional tuition increases at UNC-CH and NCSU and at other institutions through their professional schools (law, medicine) and programs (MBA). Also discussed were moves to obtain building and programs for various campuses and the deterioration of academic quality caused by insufficient state funding while costs to students continue to rise.

The Committee voted to explore inviting six or more members of the Board of Governors to the April meeting of the Assembly and have each one meet with a committee. They request the Chair of the Faculty Assembly explore the feasibility of this idea with President Spangler and appropriate GA staff members and report on his findings to Faculty Welfare at the February meeting.

Faculty at at least one institution have discovered a seven to thirteen day lag between the date faculty are paid and the date payments on retirement accounts are credited at TIAA/CREF and VALIC. The chair will check with Ms. McCollum to determine a cause and whether the situation exists on other campuses.

Committee member Dawn Clark(ECU) and Kathy Davis(NCSU) were asked to gather additional information on salary compression.

Professional Development(Harmon Watson)

Information is still coming in on the development of Teaching Centers on the campuses. The Committee discussed the form the final report should take, whether the information should be comparative or summative.

The Committee discussed issues surrounding Campus Diversity/Integration. There was question as to whether faculty is sufficiently trained to recognize the many cultures inhabiting the classrooms and appropriately skilled to be sufficiently responsive to a diversity of cultures. There were additional questions as to how the institutions assist the development of such skills.

Considerable discussion surrounded faculty work loads and how an increased number of roles and responsibilities has affected productivity and quality. The cost of these additional responsibilities and the institutional support that is supplied were also in question.

Volunteers for a committee to explore faculty workloads were: George Bailey(ECU), Paul Duvall(UNCG), Greg Givens(ECU), Pamela Hunter(NCA&T), Roger Lowery(UNCW), Angela Lumpkin(NCSU), Charles Mitchell(UNCC), Peter Petschauer(ASU).

Academic Freedom and Tenure(Frank Edens)

The Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee will host the Chairs of the Faculty Senates at the February 16, 1996 meeting. Topics for the Chairs to discuss with the Committee are: 1) Pressures to reduce academic standards in order to improve student retention and to improve time to degree. 2) Impact of outsourcing freshman core courses on quality and on loss of academic freedoms. 3) Impact of rewards for extra teaching workloads on teaching performance, academic freedoms and, eventually, promotions and tenure. Additionally, the Committee will be hosting Eugene Rice who will present the keynote address on February 16.

The Committee discussed professional ethics in light of academic freedoms and tenure. Disengaged professors, although a very small part of the faculty population, pose a threat to the continuation of protection of productive faculty by The Code of the Board of Governors concerning Academic Freedom and Tenure. The Committee also spent time discussing the influence of academic freedom issues on the review process for promotion and tenure.

The Committee presented Resolution Supporting the Policy on Academic Freedom and Tenure in the Code of the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina. Reasons for presenting this resolution include perceptions by Legislators that tenured faculty are not held accountable. The Resolution was passed after discussion and editorial amendment ( Resolution 95-3, copy attached).

There was no further business and the meeting was adjourned at 9:30.

Respectfully submitted,

Linda Nelms, Secretary

Actions:

Heads of delegations whose institutions have hired new chancellors within the last three years (1993 to present) forward a copy of their position vacancy announcement to Jim Nicholl for the Committee's consideration. (FSU, NCCU, UNCA, UNC-CH, UNCG, WSSU, ECSU, WCU.)