University of North Carolina
Minutes of the Ninety- Sixth Meeting
February 16, 1996
The ninety- sixth meeting of the Faculty Assembly of theUniversity of North Carolina was held in the Board Room of the General Administration Building in Chapel Hill on February 16,1996. The meeting was called to order by Chair Peter Petschauer at 1:10 with 37 delegates in attendance. Chairs of faculty senates of various campuses were present to meet with theAcademic Freedom and Tenure Committee. Present were the faculty senate chairs from: Appalachian State University, East Carolina
University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Western Carolina University.
President Spangler's Report.
Mr. Spangler spoke of the retirement of Wyndom Robertson, Vice President for Communications of the General Administration and of her contribution through her work with television and the print media. As part of his report, he turned the podium over to D. G. Martin.
D. G. Martin's Report.
Mr. Martin distributed a working document highlighting topics of interest to the System in the short session of the Assembly. He suggested that, as faculty can communicate with integrity and persuasion, they should be advocates for the overall system as well as critics. They can communicate to the General Assembly especially through their local representatives. Sam Neill and six members of the Board of Governors will be placing key budget requests before specific legislators.
One of the key requests is to encourage the legislators to eliminate the two per cent reversion, thus effectively increasing the accessible funds without affecting the nominal allocation.
Questions and Answers.
Q. George Bailey(ECU): Expand on Other Priorities #2. Requests for continued access to NC REN and the Information Network Supercomputer.
A. Martin: This is a request to continue the state funding that enables the system to utilize the benefits of the supercomputer.
After Vice President Martin's remarks, President Spangler continued his address. (Text of the second part of President Spangler's remarks are included.)(Not yet available on this page.)
Q. Larry Hough(ECU): Will the courses from any community college that offers an AA satisfy the general education requirements for any campus?
A. Roy Carroll: Individuals receiving the Assicate in Arts, Associate in Science and Associate in Fine Arts degrees from the community colleges will have been deemed to have covered the requirements for all lower division institution- wide general education. Discipline based committees will meet to develop content.
The Minutes of the December 1, 1995 meeting were presented for approval. Spelling changes were noted in Faculty Assembly Resolution 95- 3 and Larry Hough's name. With those amendments, the Minutes were approved.
Chair's Report.
Dr. Petschauer mentioned that faculty are well received, but higher education is under attack. He noted the positive attention received on behalf of several of our colleagues including Dan Caton's column in the Charlotte Observer, the article on Marjorie DeWert's work with computers in the classroom that appeared in the Raleigh News and Observer, and James F. Smith's work on forecasting that appeared in the Wall Street Journal.
He noted with regret the loss to the academic community of Meada Gibbs former Chair of the Faculty Assembly and Dean of Graduate Studies at NCA&T and Deryl Howard, Chair of Philosophy at UNCA.
He announced that, responding to an invitation, Sam Neill andrepresentatives from the Board of Governors will attend thecommittee meetings at the April 19 Faculty Assembly.
Eugene Rice will speak on issues relating to tenure and faculty roles during the Evening Plenary Session.
The Nominations Committee was elected. Dr. Petschauer proposed Harmon Watson, George Bailey and William Keech, members of the Executive Committee who will not be returning next year. Greg
Givens, Sam Garren, and Ken Chambers were nominated from the floor. This slate of six candidates was approved by acclamation.
The current By- Laws state that this committee should begin its work at the second meeting of the year. Dr. Petschauer has noted that this has not been the custom and suggested that the By- Laws be revised to reflect the practice.
The session was adjourned to committees at 2:15.
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EVENING PLENARY SESSION
The session was called to order at 5:05 PM with 37 delegates remaining in attendance despite a heavy snowfall continuing outside.
Dr. Eugene Rice delivered an excellent presentation on the changing roles of faculty and on the importance of tenure in light of these changes. [Copies of the video of the presentation have been distributed to Heads of Delegations.]
STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS
Planning and Program (Pamela Hunter)
Reports were distributed on pilot off campus site programs and review of academic degree programs.
Old Business:
Roy Carroll, representing General Administration, presented the Committee with the final version of the Pilot Off- Campus Sites Report. Budget development for these programs is on- going.
There is a serious effort to see how many underserved individuals can be reached when off campus work is appropriately funded.
Dr. Carroll also reported on the Review of Academic Degree Programs noting that 199 programs had been discontinued in the years before the report was requested. The current status is that 143 separate programs will be eliminated or combined. Pages 23 through 26 of the report should be read by all faculty members so they can better understand the process. The Committee will request that those pages be included with the Minutes when they are put on the World Wide Web.
New Business:
The Committee discussed the Proposed Plan to Further Simplify and Facilitate Transfer of Credit between Institutions. The General Assembly has mandated the adoption of a plan by July. The current proposal is for students who have taken the college curricula as opposed to the technical curricula to take forty- four hours of general education courses at the community college level. They will then be given credit for general education at the university to which they transfer. Those hours taken at the community college will meet the Freshman and Sophomore level of general education requirements at all State universities. If students transfer without receiving a degree or transfers with a technical degree, their courses will be matched to the university's requirements much as they are now. Transfer of credits outside the general education courses will be facilitated by transfer agreements. There should be no effect on agreements already in place.
It was noted that inclement weather policies are set on individual campuses.
Faculty Governance (George Bailey)
The Amendment to By-laws that was presented at the December 1 meeting was brought up for vote and discussed. Dr. Carroll spoke of the necessity of the Chair having a voice when there is a need for immediate action. Bailey noted that the resolution pertains particularly to written submissions to the President and the Board. It passed by acclamation.
The Committee gave a recommendation that the Assembly invite Associate Vice Chancellor for Networking John Harrison to discuss with the Faculty Assembly some of the issues that have been under discussion by the ad hoc committee on controlling journal costs. The recommendation was approved.
Faculty Welfare (James Nicholl)
As indicated in Dr. Little's remarks at the last meeting of the Faculty Assembly, President Spangler's lack of action in response to Resolution 95- 1 resulted from the large number of General Administration reports already mandated by statute. Economic impact data already available will be used when appropriate in presenting UNC's case for support in the upcoming short session. The Committee agreed that President Spangler's response was appropriate under the circumstances .
The Committee tabled discussion of desirable attributes of the next UNC president until they received position descriptions from UNC-CH, NCCU, and UNC- G.
The Committee prepared a resolution for Faculty Participation in the University President Search (Resolution 95- 4, copy attached) using information prepared and furnished by Chet Jordan(PSU) and Larry Hough(ECU), including materials associated with previous presidential searches, particularly 1985. The resolution passed.
Kitty McCollum, University Benefits Officer, reported on reasons for the time lags in crediting UNC employee contribution to TIAA/CREF or VALIC retirement accounts; she will express faculty concerns when she is working with a statewide committee that is recommending changes in procedures and equipment related to payroll processing. She also reviewed Health Care benefit changes for 1995 and presented a report including detailed demographic structure data for Faculty in the UNC system and the Committee will return to the topic of early retirement incentives at its next meeting.
Kathy Davis (NCSU) provided salary study data from NCSU, ASU, and the AAUP. The Committee will review this data and return to this subject at the next meeting.
The Committee deferred until its April meeting discussion of the UNC- CH resolution on partner benefits to be presented by Jane Brown (UNC- CH).
The Committee welcomed as a salutary response the news conveyed by Chair Petschauer from Board of Governors' Chair Sam Neill that representatives from the Board of Governors will be attending the April Faculty Assembly meeting to sit in on committee meetings and perhaps the plenary sessions.
The Committee brought to the Faculty Assembly its concern that the UNC Faculty should join President Spangler and the General Administration Staff in conveying concerns regarding the inadequate funding of the University of North Carolina especially during the upcoming short session of the General Assembly when deficiencies might be addressed.
Jane Brown(UNC- CH)spoke to the ways faculty might provide information to legislators. At Pamela Hunter's(NCA&T) suggestion she agreed to provide information that would help coordinate efforts.
Dr. Carroll spoke to the need to make sure that the information that the campuses and faculty submit to legislators be conveyed to GA in order to make sure that data is accurate and consistent.
Dr. Petschauer noted that the Home Page can provide list of legislators.
Professional Development (Harmon Watson)
Inez Davis presented her notes from AAHE conference and the Committee discussed post tenure review.
Workload requirements were considered in light of whether the expectation was for excellence in all three major areas of faculty efforts or for particular strength in one area.
The needs of junior faculty for rational plans for support of travel, technology were addressed.
Academic Freedom and Tenure (Frank Edens)
The Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee met with the chairs of the various faculty senates and councils. Topics for discussion with the chairs included:
Pressures to reduce academic standards in order to improve retention and time to degree.
Impact of implementation of the transfer of credit plan on quality of student preparation and loss of autonomy and academic freedoms to have input into design of curricula.
Impact of rewards for extra teaching/workloads and its impact on promotion and tenure.
The conferees focused on the proposed plan for transfer of credit between institutions, i. e. UNC and the Community College System. The Committee feels that there are pitfalls associated with this plan that should be addressed by all members of the faculty. While the legislative mandate calls for implementation of the plan, time is still available for the faculty to make significant contribution in order that academic standards are not sacrificed and that uniqueness of individual institutions is not lost.
The Committee will prepare a resolution for presentation expressing concerns and make some suggestions to strengthen the plan.
Dr. Carroll noted that there was a mandate to review and adopt a plan by July 1, 1996. Community Colleges will change to a semester system, and have agreed to 44 hours of general education, and have adopted common course numbers.
Budget (William Keech)
The Budget Committee presented documents to the faculty senate chairs on the budget process of the University System.
The Committee prepared and presented two resolutions to the Faculty Senate for adoption: Resolution of Elimination of the Required 2% Reversion for Flexibility Resolution (95- 5, copy attached) and Resolution on Faculty Participation in University Budgeting. (Resolution 95- 6, copy attached.) After discussion, both resolutions passed by acclamation.
The Committee is looking at codification of the budget process on each campus and at the ASU revised salary report.
There was no Old Business to discuss.
New Business: Lolly Gassaway requested that the Home Page make mention of the new court ruling that appears to reverse the Kinko's decision. The new ruling may have a direct and positive effect on the creation of course packs.
There was no further business and the meeting was adjourned at
9:30.
Respectfully submitted,
Linda L. Nelms, Secretary
Documents Distributed: (not available on this page.)
Working Document- Talking Points for the Short Session
Distribution of Declared Majors of Transfers with Associate
Degrees from North Carolina Community Colleges in first- Term
Enrolled UNC Institutions, Fall 1992 through Fall 1994.
A Recommendation to Establish UNC Pilot Off- Campus Sites.
Proposed Plan to Further Simplify and Facilitate Transfer of
Credit Between Institutions.
Overheads from Dr. Little's presentation.
Actions requested:
That all delegates carefully read Pages 9- 11 and 23- 26 in the Review of Academic Degree Programs Within the University of North Carolina