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Faculty Senate Minutes

University of North Carolina at Wilmington

President Richard Veit called the meeting to order at 2:30 p.m.

Roll Call

Absent were: Ainsley (Stu. Aff. Com.), Appleton (A&BL), Baker (Budget Com.), Blundo (Lib. Com.), Burt (FLL), Buttino (Comm. Stud.), Cummings (Nur), Earney (A&BL), Galbraith (M&M), Hackney (Bio.), Howell (Economics & Finance), Hobbs (Foreign Lang. & Lit.), Hunt (Mgt. & Mktg.),  Morden (Fin. Aid Com.), Noland (Eng.), Parish (Bookstore Com.), Parnell (Lib.), Rockness (CSBA), Sargent (A&T), and Wray (P&DS).

Approval of Minutes:  The September minutes were approved.

Individual Reports:

1. Chancellor James Leutze reported as follows:
• The General Assembly has approved its budget.  UNCW and the UNC system did well.   UNCW received $1.8 million for the education building.  Seventy-five million dollars was approved for the UNC system for technology; more technology money is coming.   $106 million has been budgeted for UNCW.  One-half of this will come from state appropriations and the rest from tuition and fees.  UNCW spends $710,000 a year for academic computing alone, so 1/10 of this money will be for academic computing.   This money will basically maintain the status quo and will not be any help for the distance-learning programs.  More money needs to be spent on developing technology.   UNCW asked for a 6% raise from the General Assembly and didn't get it. We have plenty of other needs in technology as well: money is needed for staff to teach use of technology—we will need several hundred million dollars to do this effectively.
• The UNC system says that by 2008 UNCW should have an enrollment of 15,500. The Chancellor did not think that this was possible unless drastic measures are taken—he noted that if we are to have this enrollment by 2008 we will need at least four new buildings the size of the New Science Building.  By 2006 the Chancellor thinks that 12,500 should be the realistic enrollment.
• The meeting of the first Board of Visitors was held; 40 of 60 attended.  The University needs to spread its reach beyond Board of Trustees to promote itself beyond a small Southeastern, North Carolina delegation to help identify additional sources of revenue.
• UNCW was part of the 1898 Foundation. There was a two-day affair on campus where John Hope Franklin Spoke.  The Chancellor was impressed by the presentations and the commitment towards better racial relations in Wilmington.  The Chancellor thanked Jim Megivern and Melton McLaurin for their participation and work to make this event a success.  Melton McLaurin spoke about the final commemorative program held at Thalian Hall. The Chancellor feels there needs to be a follow-through on the Centennial with one goal of increasing African-American tourism in Wilmington.

 

 

2. Dick Ward of the Chemistry Department reported on on-line courses:
   • Summer 1998 Initiatives were used to develop on-line courses, which are just a small part of distance learning at UNCW.  Web-based courses at UNCW were developed through 10 faculty grants which were to develop basic studies on-line courses.  Dr. Ward identified 15 courses enrolling 380 students, of which about 95% are traditional students.   Assessment will be done at the end of the semester. The goal is high quality, high context interaction. Next spring there will be nine courses offered; the goal for next year is 15-30 Web-based courses.
3. President of the Senate Richard Veit reported as follows:
• Some students have requested that SPOTs be made public so students could consult them while selecting courses.  SPOTs were intended only as an evaluation instrument to be interpreted only with great care and in combination with other evaluation instruments; consequently, scores should not be available to the public.
• Institutional Research sought faculty reaction about putting certain documents (grade distributions by faculty member and instructor,  faculty workload) on-line with restrictions on who would have access to them.  This would save on printing costs.   A discussion followed regarding privacy, interpretation of such information, and FOIA implications.

4. Faculty Assembly Delegate Ken Gurganus reported as follows:
   • In two days, the delegates had seven meetings involving copyright issues. It was stressed that users of the Web must be careful not to use copyrighted materials. Companies actually have hired individuals to search the web for copyright infringement.
   • President Broad says the faculty benefits package does not compare favorably to other systems with respect health care and retirement contributions.

Committee Reports:

The following motions from the Academic Standards Committee were acted upon:  

1. That the Three-Year Rule [see Agenda Appendix A] be repealed.  (Motion 99-3-8, returned to committee)

   In debate, some argued that the monitoring provisions of the rule were unenforceable.   Others argued that students showing marked improvement deserved a second chance.   Others argued that the policy language needed to make clear that readmission under the rule was a privilege, not a right.  The Senate returned the matter to the committee for further study.

2. That the course-repeat policy be modified to enable a student receiving a grade of C- for a course to repeat that course; i.e., that, in the first line of the policy [see Agenda Appendix B], that "C" be substituted for "C-"; an that the opening of the second paragraph be altered to read: "Students who receive a grade of 'C-', 'D+', 'D', 'D-' or 'F' in a course taken at ..."   (Motion 99-3-9, failed in tie vote)

Old Business: None

New Business: None

The meeting was adjourned at 4:14 p.m.

Submitted by: Bruce McKinney