Minutes

of the

Faculty Assembly

of the

University of North Carolina

122nd Session

20 November 2002

Chapel Hill, NC

 

Agenda

 

I. First Plenary Session

 

1.Chair Veit called the meeting to order at 10:32 a.m., with 45 members present.
   

The following members were absent: Mark Venable (ASU), Ali Kahn (ECSU), Percy Murray (NCCU), Philip B Carter (NCSU), Sue Estroff (UNCCH), William Link (UNCG), Richard Ehrhardt (UNCG ), Mary Ann Nixon (WCU).
  

Present were: (ASU) Paul Gates, Lorin Baumhover, David Domermuth; (ECU) Bob Morrison, John Cope, Brenda Killingsworth, David Pravica, Ralph Scott; (ECSU) Wayman Parson; (FSU) Thomas Van Cantford for Blanche Radford-Curry, Genniver Bell; (NCA&T) Beryl C. McEwen, Alvin Keyes, Edna Ragins; (NCCU) George Conklin, George Wilson; (NCSA) Bill McCord, Robert Collins; (NCSU) Harriette O. Griffin, Stephen Lilley, Paul Williams, Richard Bernhard; (UNCA) Donald Lisnerski, Duane H. Davis; (UNCCH) Steve Bachenheimer, Barbara Moran,  William W. Smith, Diane H. Holditch-Davis; (UNCC) Jeffe Passe, Mike Corwin, Ann Newman, Meg Morgan; (UNCG) Bruce Kirchoff for James Evans, Anthony Fragola, Gerald Ponder for William Link; (UNCP) Jose D’Arruda, Bonnie Kelley; (UNCW) Richard Veit, Stephen McNamee, Dan Noland; (WCU) Mary Adams, Kathleen Wright; (WSSU) Jill Harp, Francine Madrey.

 

2.The Minutes of the September 2002 meeting of the UNC Faculty Assembly were approved as submitted by the secretary.

 

3. Report by Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs Betsy Brown. Associate Vice President Brown noted that President Broad was sorry that she could not be with the Faculty Assembly today. She noted that a year-end progress report will be available to members regarding the Non-tenure track faculty policy on the 16 campuses. Members of the group come from the sixteen campuses and are currently studying the recommendations of the Non-Tenure Track Faculty Committee, including multi-year non-tenure track faculty contracts. Associate Vice President Brown noted that the Assembly will have a draft of policies for Faculty Sick Leave and Diversity at their next meeting. She gave an update on the UNC Phased Retirement program for Tenured Faculty. The Assembly received a Report to the Personnel and Tenure Committee of the Board of Governors on this topic, dated 12 November 2002. The Board voted in 2001 to continue this program with minor changes to the eligibility requirements. She called attention to the percent of Tenured Faculty in Phased Retirement during the period 1998-2002, noted on page three of the report. Overall some 324 faculty have entered the program. Page five of the Report gives a breakdown by year and institution. One table and one graph are included in the report: Age Structure of Tenure Track Faculty and a graph showing under 40 and over 55 Tenure Track Faculty. Associate Vice President Brown noted that she would appreciate assistance encouraging faculty to complete a questionnaire on Performance Review of Tenured Faculty to be sent out in the next few months. She also noted in the International arena that there were expanded opportunities for faculty with ITESM (Tec de Monterrey) with respect to a UNC-Monterrey Tec faculty exchange program. Delegates received a handout on this program with Monterrey Tec.

 

4.Chair’s Report. Chair Veit called attention to the “Parliamentary Motions Guide” that delegates have in the folders.

 

5. Committee of the whole discussion on a) Salary Policy and b) Governance Standards.

After the Chair ruled that debate on these two items would be limited to fifteen minutes each, discussion proceeded to the Salary Policy issue. Delegates were referred to a memo dated 11 October 2002 from Senior Vice President Gretchen M. Bataille to UNC Chancellors that forwarded on behalf of President Broad “instructions to guide the allocation of salaries for 2002-2003.” It was noted that this is not a secret document. Major points in the memo were noted: For those campuses with tuition based increases, external market forces can reward faculty, criteria for the distribution of salary funds must be clearly understood by faculty, plans for overall salary adjustments must address a broad range of problems (inequities, below market value, compression and inversion as well as inequities that exist for individuals or entire groups), satisfactory performance is a necessary condition for any salary adjustments, plans for evaluation of performance should accord appropriate weight to teaching and research, Chancellors may differentiate in the distribution of funds among departments and colleges based on documentable criteria. Chair Veit asked for “a show of hands on who knows about their BD-119 salaries for the coming year?” About 2/3 of the delegates indicated that they were not aware of their upcoming BD-119 salary, and 1/3 did. He next asked how many were aware of the Policy used on their campus to determine salaries for the upcoming year? Again about 2/3 of the delegates indicated that they were not aware of the policy and 1/3 did. After some additional discussion on this issue, Delegate Morrison (ECU) moved this issue to the Faculty Welfare and Benefits Committee for discussion. The motion passed on voice vote. Next discussion moved to the Governance Standards issue. Chair Veit passed out a memorandum entitled: “For Discussion: Standards for Governance on UNC Campuses.” It was noted by William Smith (UNC-CH) that the AAUP Red Book has a number of policy statements or suggestions on Governance standards. Delegates agreed that the standards proposed were important for shared faculty governance.

 

5. Report by Vice President for Public Affairs and University Advancement J. B. Milliken. Vice President Milliken noted that there was a list the new House and Senate members in Faculty Assembly received a list of delegates prepared from an unofficial list from the Board of Elections. He noted the change in membership of the Senate from 35D/15R to 28D/22R. While the Democrats still have a majority in the Senate we have lost all three of the current appropriations chairs. The House is 61R/59D with a Republican majority. The Democratic leadership is a strong supporter of Higher Education. It is not clear yet who the Speaker will be. Vice President Milliken asked faculty to get to know their new (and old) assembly members. He next reviewed budget and non-budget policy issues. The Vice President welcomes ideas and input from faculty on policy changes at: milliken@northcarolina.edu

Priorities for the upcoming year are to: minimize budget reduction, retain overhead receipts, increase out of state graduate tuition remission, and develop academic program initiatives. He noted how strong the people of North Carolina feel about their university – over 70% are positive about the UNC System. We are better off than other states in this regard. He noted the formation of a UNC Advocacy team: 16 Chancellors, Board of Governors, Faculty, Staff and Students of the System. He noted that there will be an advocacy notebook available at http://www.northcarolina.edu/pa/advocacy_notebook/

He encourages each of us to share information with new members of the Assembly. This is an opportunity to talk to the 46 new legislators about the university system.

 

 

II. Lunch

During lunch, Vice President for Financial Affairs Jeff Davies reported on the 2003-2005 Biennial Budget request of the Board of Governors to the General Assembly. The continuation budget for 2003-2005 has $1,602,258,295 for the first year and $1,621,586,523 for the second year. The expansion budget has $174,268,239 for 2003-04 and $221,949,301 for 2004-05. Academic Salary increases for the first year are $71,048,137 and $149,737,597 for the second year. Lunch ended at 12:53 p.m.

 

III. Standing Committee meetings

 

IV. Second Plenary Session

The Second Plenary Session started at 3:15 p.m. with 35 members in attendance.

Special Order of the Day: Election of the Nominations Committee. Chair Veit presented a slate of members for the Nomination Committee: Beryl McEwen, Jeff Passe, Jill Harp, Sue Estroff, and Bob Morrison. The slated passed on voice vote. Chair Veit asked the committee to meet at the conclusion of the Assembly meeting.

 

 

V. Standing Committee reports

 

            l.  Academic Freedom and Tenure – Mary Adams. The Committee presented a Resolution in Support of SPA Salary Increases (motion 2002-Nov-#04), which passed on voice vote. Committee wants to look at ratio of administrators to Tenure-track faculty on system campuses. Committee discussed revisions to the Promotion and Tenure regulations with regard to the service component. Will study further intellectual property review and administrative review.

 

Budget – Duane Davis. Committee would like to see more administration to faculty communication regarding the budget. More information will mean less negative energy on the part of faculty. In general the committee felt that information was good to poor as to how cuts would affect faculty. Committee noted that a web site would be an easy way to assemble budget information. Rob Nelson reported on how local campuses were cutting budgets – 50% cuts were coming from salary lines. The Committee hopes to have reports available in December on web site.

 

Faculty Development – Bonnie Kelley. Met with Technology Committee regarding TLTC conference. Met with Vice President Betsy Brown about the professional development funds in the new budget. 2A funds will be available to TLT sites. Requested funding for leadership development for department chairs.

 

Faculty Welfare and Benefits – Don Lisnerski. Developed a resolution supporting the restoration of state matching funds to the NC Retirement System (Motion 2002-Nov-#05), which passed on a voice vote with editorial changes. Looking into problems the North Carolina Health Plan is having with out-of-state providers

 

Governance – Jeff Passe.  Looked at the By-laws with regard to Governance. Will have several recommendations for next time. Discussed committee chair elections. Suggested that committees elect their own chairs. Will prepare amendment to By-Laws that will enable committees to elect their own chairs. Asks that other committees look at their section of By-laws for possible changes. Suggested Faculty Assembly meet for additional times (5 meetings a year) or overnight/dinner meeting like in the past years. Looking at the role of the committee chair in consulting with administration and President Broad.

 

Planning and Programs – Bob Morrison. Committee met with the Academic Freedom and Tenure committee and discussed enrollment growth and planning. Number of graduate students higher than predicted. Some campuses have been raining standards. Low productivity reports will be sent to campuses in December. Faculty should be involved in these discussions. About 500 programs have been approved and about the same number eliminated. We encourage faculty to get involved in the planning process on their local campuses.

 

Technology – Jose D’Arruda. Had a joint meeting with Frank Prochaska and the Faculty Development Committee. The annual TLTC Conference will be in Greensboro at the Corey Center during the week of 2-5 April 2003. The Technology committee will jointly plan the conference with the TLTC.  We encourage faculty on your campus to present papers and poster sessions at the April conference. NCREN3 (Internet II) should be on all campuses in an improved version by the end of next year. The Committee will have a videoconference on  December 2nd with the Board of Governors Task Force on Technology.

 

VI. Unfinished Business

 

            The Assembly voted on the revised Resolution Honoring President Broad’s Five-Year Term as President of the University of North Carolina (Motion 2002-Sept-#03) as revised by the Executive Committee. The motion passed on voice vote.

 

The Faculty Assembly adjourned at 4:33 p.m.

 

Respectfully Submitted by

 

Ralph Lee Scott

Secretary

The Faculty Assembly of the University of North Carolina.