University of North Carolina
Minutes of the Eighty-eighth Meeting
February 4, 1994
The eighty-eighth 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 February 4, 1994. The meeting was called to order by the Chair, William Kane at 1:10 PM with 43 delegates in attendance. Kane introduced the visiting chairs of the faculty senates from the various UNC campuses. Past Assembly Chair Ken Wilson was introduced and presented with a copy of Faculty Assembly Resolution 93-1, honoring him for his service to the Assembly. Judith Pulley presented Wilson with a gavel. Kane then introduced Samuel Poole, Chairman of the UNC Board of Governors.
Chairman Poole's Report
Chairman Poole began by thanking the Assembly for its support on behalf of the bond referendum, and remarked on the importance of the improvements that will result on the campuses. He praised the Assembly for its efforts in addressing the many issues facing the University, and urged further serious attention to the Board of Governors' report on Teaching and Tenure in the University of North Carolina, which was distributed to the Assembly.
Chairman Poole reported that he has created an ad hoc committee to work out the details of establishing system wide teaching awards. The committee will be co-chaired by Mrs. Lois Britt and Mr. Charles Evans and will also include board members Dr. Earl Danieley, Ms. Valeria Lee, Mrs. Ellen Newbold, and Mr. Harold Webb and faculty persons Dr. Ben Ward, Dr. Joel Schwartz, and Dr. Ken Wilson. He concluded by describing the mission and make-up of the General Assembly's Legislative Study Commission on the Status of Education within the University, and emphasizing the fact that the Commission's deliberations represent an opportunity for the University to engage in a meaningful dialogue with the General Assembly. The text of Mr. Poole's remarks is attached to these minutes.
President Spangler's Report
President Spangler was unable to attend the meeting and was represented by Vice President William Little. Dr. Little introduced two new appointments to the University staff: Rosalind Fuse-Hall as Secretary of the University and Kitty McCullum as Benefits Officer. Judith Pulley reported that a conference will be held on March 21, 1994 to investigate the ideas that have been developed on the campuses regarding the issue of time-to-degree. Dr. Little announced that the General Administration will fund a conference on the evaluation of teaching on the WCU campus in the fall. He also announced that the Board of Governors is working on next year's budget requests and that a request for a 6% faculty salary increase is anticipated.
The minutes of the November 19, 1993 meeting were approved as distributed, and the session was adjourned at 2:15 PM.
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After the usual meeting of the standing committees, the Assembly was served a box supper at 5:00 PM, followed by a special presentation by Dr. Russell Edgerton, President of the American Association of Higher Education. Dr. Edgerton spoke on issues of evaluation of teaching and then conducted a lively question and answer session.
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EVENING PLENARY SESSION
The second session was called to order at 7:17 PM by Chairman Kane with 43 delegates in attendance. Lawrence Hough (ECU), Chair of the Assembly's Nominating Committee, presented its slate of nominees for the 1994-95 year. The slate was accepted by the Assembly. Nominees are:
Officers
Chair:
Secretary:
Committee Chairs
Academic Freedom and Tenure:
Budget:
Faculty Governance:
Planning and Programs:
Professional Development:
STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS
Budget (James Peacock - UNCCH)
Vice President Joyner met with the Committee and gave an update of the budget process to date.
The Committee discussed the results of its survey concerning the extent of faculty participation in the budget process on the campuses. Information from seven campuses was available. The exact nature of faculty participation varied widely among the campuses, but five of the seven campuses indicated significant faculty representation.
The Committee re-endorses Resolution 92-8 from April 2, 1993, "Resolution Regarding Establishing Goals to make UNC Faculty Salaries Competitive." That resolution called for setting the goal of increasing faculty salaries to a level consistent with an AP rating of 1 for each professorial rank at each institution.
Professional Development (Joe Johnson - UNCG)
The General Administration has allocated $15,000 to the Faculty Assembly and the Institute for College and University Teaching at WCU for a conference on "Enriching and Evaluating University Teaching." The conference will be held on the WCU campus, and is tentatively planned for September 8-10. It is expected that each institution will hold pre and post conference workshops to prepare for and follow up the conference. Keynote speakers will be Dr. Peter Selden, Pace University, and Dr. Linda Annis, Ball State University.
The Committee expressed concern over the sometime negative interpretation of Memorandum 338. They emphasize that the purpose of the Memorandum is to assure that teaching excellence is rewarded, and not to criticize the faculty for poor teaching; and that we should be proud of the good job being done by the faculty as a whole. They also note the danger of overlooking the importance of scholarship, and express the hope that continuing scholarly contributions will remain as a necessary concomitant to the awarding of tenure.
Planning and Programs (Peter Petschauer - ASU)
The Committee finished its discussion of campus schedules, which now average 157 days. There seems to be a trend toward adding an increasing number of reading and exam days. The results of the survey will be distributed to the various Registrars and Calendar Committee Chairs. A summary of the results is attached to these minutes.
The Committee introduced a Resolution (copy attached) on Professional Responsibility (#93-7). After some discussion, the resolution passed.
Associate Vice President for Planning Gary Barnes visited the Committee and led discussions on retention, graduation, and persistence rates and the Legislative Study Commission.
The Committee also began a pilot data collection project regarding faculty profiles.
Faculty Governance (George Bailey - ECU)
The Committee met with Faculty Senate and Council Chairs and discussed the grievance policies and procedures on the various campuses. They addressed a number of issues, including:
the pros and cons of instituting uniform system wide grievance procedures;
the possibility of having a faculty ombudsman on each campus;
system wide training for grievance committee members;
how grievances are mediated on different campuses;
how to insure that faculty members are knowledgeable about their own campus policies and procedures; and
how to get qualified faculty to serve on grievance committees.
Although no explicit conclusions were reached on the individual issues, the group observed that each campus has policies in its faculty manual that govern the activities of administrators and faculty members, and that what seems to be missing is the following policy statement:
"follow the rules, especially this one."
Faculty Welfare (Etta Gravely - NCA&T)
Betsy Bunting reported on the Family Medical Leave Act. Although the act is very complex, it is limited in some respects. It provides twelve weeks of leave for certain family related medical reasons. Only four needs are covered: birth, adoption/foster care, serious family health conditions which demand the employee's attention, and employee inability to function on the job. Since the act affects all who are entitled to leave days, the Committee recommends that the faculty senate chairs invite their benefit officers to share the details of the Act and other changes in benefits with the faculty.
The second half of the meeting was devoted to a discussion of issues of faculty morale. The Committee began by circulating and discussing reports from NCSU and UNCC on salary inequities and went on to discuss a report from WCU on the morale of women faculty. Other issues affecting morale were briefly raised, including salary compression and equipment, logistic, and environmental questions. Finally, the Committee focused on the question of communication between administrators and faculty, and in particular on the question of faculty evaluation of chairs and higher administrative officers. Gravely asked the Assembly for a show of hands from head delegates indicating how many institutions have faculty evaluations of Department Heads (11), Deans (8), Provosts (7), and Chancellors (6). The numbers in parenthesis are the results of the poll.
The Committee asked the heads of delegation and/or faculty senate chairs to determine and submit the five most important issues affecting faculty morale on their campuses to Etta Gravely by March 16, 1994.
Academic Freedom and Tenure (John Stevens - UNCA)
The Committee reminds the Assembly of Resolution 92-7 (April 2, 1993), "Resolution Regarding Reimbursement of Legal Fees for Permanently Tenured Faculty Who Successfully Appeal Dismissal Decisions." The Committee understands that the Board of Governors has completed the appeal of such a case and is interested in the disposition of this Resolution.
The Committee requests the Assembly to encourage faculty involved in faculty leadership positions to "subscribe" to the North Carolina Faculty Forum List-Server (electronic bulletin board) to allow for state-wide discussions of faculty governance and teaching.
The Committee is completing a paper on teaching evaluations. The paper, together with a resolution, will be presented at the next Assembly meeting. The paper will be appropriate for use in campus workshops and the coming conference on the Evaluation and Enhancement of Teaching. The Committee recognizes the importance of evaluating teaching and also in developing a culture in which teaching and learning are central.
Chairman Kane distributed two documents concerned with sexual harassment, and urged the faculty to take a leadership position in dealing with this problem on the campuses.
There was no further business, and the meeting was adjourned at 9:47 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Paul Duvall, Secretary