FACULTY SENATE MEETING
Minutes, September 11, 2008
Senate
Members: C. Bell, K. Cole, L. Dohse, B. Haas, M.
Harvey, G. Heard, J. Konz, A. Lanou, B. Larson,
L. Nelms, L. Russell, J. McClain,
M. Moseley, E. Pearson, D. Pierce, B. Sabo, S. Wasileski,
B. Wilson; J. Fernandes; Alt.
G. Ettari.
Visitors: E. Katz, G. Kormanik, J. Leffe, P. McClellan, R. Pente, A. Shope, J. Tieman.
I. Call to Order, Introductions and
Announcements
Dr. Dohse called the
meeting to order at 3:25 pm and welcomed Senators and guests.
II. Approval of minutes
The
minutes were approved as distributed:
April
10, 2008
April
24, 2008 (3:15pm)
April
24, 2008 (4:30pm)
III. Executive Committee
Report
Dr. Lothar
Dohse reported for the Executive Committee
Chancellor
Ponder is attending a Board of Governors meeting and sends her apologies for
being unable to attend the meeting today.
She will meet with the Senate when she can. In the meantime, there are meetings scheduled
so that Dr. Dohse and Dr. Wilson can talk to her, and any important issues can
be communicated between us and her office.
Standing Rules and Rules of Order (SRRO)
Dr. Dohse
explained that the 2008-09 Standing Rules and Rules of Order were the same as
last year’s SRRO. He reminded Senators
that they were elected to the Faculty Senate by the faculty; he urged them to
vote on issues rather than to abstain from voting. Senators were asked to talk to him beforehand
if there was a reason for a recusal:
this should only be used if there is a real conflict of interest.
The
Senate approved the Standing Rules and Rules of Order (Moseley/Sabo). They are available at:
2008-09 Standing Rules and Rules of Order.
Discussion Board
Dr. Dohse
has set up a discussion board on One-Port for the faculty to use as a campus forum. People can give their opinions and others
will respond without cluttering up email.
The Executive Committee agreed to test it to see how it works. Dr. Dohse will email instructions to the
campus community.
Instructions on getting onto the discussion forum on One-Port.
Note: some of the steps only need to be done once.
All users
1.
Get on One-Port and log in.
2.
Click on the "Groups" icon located on the upper right.
First time users:
3a.
Click on "Group Index"
3b.
On the left menu click on "academic"
3c.
Choose "Faculty Discussion Forum"
3d.
Request to "Join Group".
To join you must agree not to abuse
your privileges and understand that your comments are public.
3e. Read agreement; if you still want to
join, check off the two boxes and click the "Join" button.
Second (or later) time users:
3.
Choose "Faculty Discussion Forum"
All users
4.
Under "Message Board Topic" pick the topic of interest, and
read message and responses.
5.
If you wish to enter your response, click "Post a Reply" and
enter your comment.
6.
Click on "Post".
Senate Representative to the Position Allocation
Committee
The
Executive Committee appointed Linda Nelms as the Faculty Senate representative
to the Position Allocation Committee for the term 2008-10. Dr. Dohse thanked Ms. Nelms for her
willingness to serve.
Faculty Representative on CSAC
Dr.
Dohse welcomed Judi Leffe, Chair of the Chancellor’s Staff Advisory Committee
(CSAC). The Senate needs to appoint a
faculty representative to attend CSAC meetings.
Meetings are held the third Wednesday of the month from 1:30-2:30pm in
the Highsmith Union.
Dr.
Dohse asked Senators to nominate someone who meets three criteria: 1) wants to be on CSAC, 2) has at least three
years of experience at UNCA and, 3) is a reasonable diplomat. The appointment will be announced at the
October Senate meeting.
Continuity with 2007-08 Faculty Senate
Senators
received suggestions for continuity from 2007-08 Senate Chair Peg Downes so
that work initiated last year will continue.
IV. Faculty Welfare and Development Committee Report
Dr. Merritt Moseley gave
the Faculty Welfare and Development Committee Report.
First
The following
documents were distributed for First Reading:
FWDC 1: 2008 Revisions to the Post-Tenure Review
Process
(Revision of
SD6405S and Faculty Handbook 3.7.3)
FWDC 2: Amendment to Student Rating of Instruction policy
(Revision to SD1482F
and Faculty Handbook
3.3.3.1.1)
Sense of the Senate Resolution
Dr. Moseley moved approval of
the following resolution. Dr. Sabo
seconded the motion.
Sense of the Senate Resolution
The Faculty Senate affirms that UNC
Asheville’s guidelines and procedures for Performance Review of Tenured Faculty
are in compliance with the 1997 report as amended in 2008, with minor
exceptions. The changes necessary to
comply will be made by the Faculty Senate on October 16, 2008. The Sense of the Senate Resolution passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 0108F.
Nominees to Standing Committees
The Senate considered nominees to Standing Committees in
follow up business from last April.
Nominees to the ILSOC and ILS intensives were placed on hold in April so
discussions could continue.
Faculty
Integrative Liberal Studies Oversight Committee
2008-2011 – Information Literacy Tammy Huffman SS
ILS
Intensives:
Diversity
2008-2011 Keith Bramlett SS
Information
Literacy 2008-2011 Sam Kaplan NS
Quantitative 2008-2011 Mike Ruiz NS
FWDC representatives to Committees
Dr. Moseley made the following
announcements:
·
Faculty
Scholarship and Service Awards Committee
§
2008-2009 George Heard
§
2008-2010 Ellen Pearson
·
University
Teaching Council
§
2008-2009 Merritt Moseley
The Student Government Association appointed Mark Sidelnick as Alternate faculty conciliator for 2008-09 and
faculty conciliator in 2009-10. The
2008-09 faculty conciliator is
V. Institutional
Development Committee Report
Dr. Betsy
Wilson reported for the Institutional Development Committee.
Comments received on Program
Assessment
Dr. Wilson said that last year IDC
developed a draft on program assessment.
The Senate received a draft on April 10th and another draft
on April 24th. Senators asked
that the most current draft be placed on the Senate website for discussion and
comment. IDC has received comments and
they have been incorporated into a document for IDC’s review. Dr. Wilson anticipates distributing the
document at the October meeting.
First
The following document was distributed for
First Reading:
IDC 1:
Intent to Plan Masters Degree in Climate Change and Society.
Dr. Wilson said that IDC had been
asked to withdraw IDC 1 from consideration.
The plan may be rewritten and possibly would not need Senate approval.
VI. Academic
Dr.
Actions taken at APC’s first meeting follow:
·
The Standing Rules and Procedures were
approved. They will be sent to Chairs
and Program Directors soon.
·
APC unanimously selected Lorena Russell as APC’s representative to ILSOC.
·
Discussed general education and ILS review (point 6
on Dr. Downes’ continuity document). APC
made some tentative decisions regarding procedures, but agreed to deliberate
more before making definitive decisions.
·
APC is working on a timeline and a commitment of
three basic things that APC will undertake in the next one or two years
regarding the review of this process.
VII. Administrative
Reports
Academic Affairs
Provost
Dr. Fernandes thanked everyone
for the warm welcome and support she has received. She is enjoying working here very much and is
hoping for a good and long partnership.
Enrollment
Fall enrollment for new
freshmen and transfers is very good: the
number is a little higher and the quality of high school GPAs, SATs, and ACT
scores is a little better than last year.
Relationship
between Enrollment, Retention, Budget
Dr. Fernandes discussed the
Faculty Senate’s future consideration on the role that faculty have in
enrollment and retention, and to work together to devise some roles and niches
for faculty that will help us enroll the best students and to successfully
graduate these students. She has
received disturbing telephone calls from General Administration’s Budget Office
notifying us that we failed to meet our enrollment projections for the last
four years. Our enrollment projections
are behind ~225 students – and our budget is based on our enrollment
projections. The state legislature is
pressuring universities to meet enrollment targets. One university in the system had a budget
freeze during the summer because it was behind in its enrollment. We have some time to close the gap: we need to make up about 225 students in two
years. We could possibly see a budget
cut. If our budget is cut, we might have
a loss of faculty. When the strategic
planning work groups meet to discuss graduation and retention, she hopes our
colleagues will help her develop strategies to improve graduation and retention
rates.
Dr.
Retention and graduation
Faculty/staff recruitment
Liberal arts mission
Culture of evidence
Diversity and inclusion
The work
groups will be developing action plans.
There are roles for Senators that she will discuss with the Executive
Committee.
Diversity Action Council
The Diversity Action Council
(DAC) is developing a definition of diversity for UNCA. The Board of Trustees plans to discuss our
definition at its September 18th meeting. Our definition involves focusing on race and
ethnicity of students, faculty, and staff on campus. We will be using a lens that will allow us to
include all the dimensions of human diversity.
Questions/Comments
Dr. Pierce commented that
this is his second term on the Senate and one thing that distressed him was to
find out that once you were on the Senate, you were appointed not only to a
Senate subcommittee, but also to various other committees. He encouraged Dr. Fernandes – and all
administrators -- to reach beyond the Senate when appointing faculty to
committees; to consider some of the 200 faculty on campus to participate. Dr. Fernandes agreed and suggested expanding
the pool of people on the committees.
Dr. Pierce suggested changing the membership of the work groups to
“member of the Faculty Senate or designee,” so that the Senate would have a
role, but not necessarily appoint a particular Senator. Dr. Moseley suggested using Faculty Senate
alternates who are quasi members of the Senate who do not sit on APC, IDC, or
FWDC.
Dr. Heard referred to Dr.
Fernandes’ enrollment report and asked if we were balanced between in-state and
out-of-state students. Dr. Fernandes
said that we are in balance now, but next year we are going to aggressively
recruit out-of-state students. They
bring in more funds, more tuition, and more diversity. We can exceed 18% out-of-state students for
one year with no penalty.
These enrollment targets will
improve our numbers over last year’s:
· 635 new
freshmen
· 300 new
transfers
· 12% racial
and ethnic diversity
· higher
high school GPA and SAT
· 18% or
more out-of-state students
· 5
international students
· 35
international exchange students
VIII. Old Business
There was
no Old Business.
Dr.
X. Adjourn
Dr. Dohse adjourned the
meeting at 4:10pm.
Respectfully submitted
by: Sandra Gravely
Executive
Committee