Senate
Members: M. Burchard, P. Caulfield, F. Davenport, R. Dunning, C. James, K. Krumpe,
J. Kuhlman, B. Larson, H. Lee, P. McClellan, C. Mitchell, D. Peifer, T. Rizzo,
G. Wilson.

Excused: J. Rackham.

Visitors: S. Browning, W. Bruce, T. Byers, L. Dohse, E. Fox, J. Konz, S. Malicote,
R. Sensabaugh, A. Shope, B. Spellman, M. Walter.

II. Announcements
Mr. Tom Byers and Dr. Elaine Fox gave an update on the higher education bond referendum and UNCA's initiatives to support this effort. Funds from the $3.1 billion bond would be used to construct new buildings and to modernize existing buildings on the state's 59 community college and 16 UNC campuses. These improvements are needed to meet enrollment demands and to prepare graduates for 21st century jobs. UNCA would receive $49.9 million to construct and improve facilities.

III. Approval of minutes
The minutes of August 31, 2000 and September 14, 2000 were approved as written.

IV. Administrative Report
Dr. Caulfield announced that Dr. Cochran and Chancellor Mullen are out of town; Dr. Cochran will give the administrative report at the November meeting.

V. Executive Committee Report
Dr. Peter Caulfield gave the Executive Committee Report.
Post-Tenure Review Revision Update
Dr. William Bruce distributed a progress report from the Post-Tenure Review Revisions Committee. He asked senators to address feedback to committee members Gordon Wilson, Lothar Dohse, Rick Chess and himself quickly as they expect to bring a document for first reading to the November Senate meeting. The committee consensus is that Post-Tenure Review should better nurture and support tenured faculty careers. They will likely recommend: (1) clarification of the guidelines for evaluation, which currently can be read as four equally weighted criteria -- teaching, scholarship/creative work, service to university, service to community; (2) reduction of the final ranking categories from three to two -- "Successful," " Needs Improvement," and (3) provision of specific qualitative feedback that recognizes and affirms excellent or exemplary performances. Other changes may require wider campus discussion.

Honor Code Task Force
Dr. Caulfield reminded senators that the SGA submitted an Honor Code to the Faculty Senate last May which had been ratified by the students in a university-wide election. SGA requested that the Senate, through APC, act upon it. During the September 14th Senate meeting, the Senate determined that it would, instead, develop a task force to study the implications of imposing such an Honor Code at UNCA.

The charge of the Task Force on the Honor Code follows:
(1) examine the Honor Code proposed by SGA to assess its feasibility for UNCA,
(2) survey UNCA faculty attitudes regarding an Honor Code at UNCA,
(3) research other colleges and universities which have attempted to implement Honor Codes,
(4) explore the legal implications and ramifications of implementing an Honor Code at UNCA, and 
(5) make recommendations on a proposed course of action regarding the Honor Code proposal to the Senate by the May 3, 2001, Senate Meeting.

The Task Force on the Honor Code should include three faculty members (one from each division), one representative from SGA, one representative from Academic Affairs, one representative from Student Affairs, and one representative from CSAC. A faculty member will serve as Chair of the Task Force.

Dr. Caulfield will ask for volunteers willing to work on the task force via email. It is extremely important to have broad faculty representation and faculty leadership in such an effort. It would be particularly useful to have faculty members on the task force who have had experiences with honor codes at other universities.

Vice Chancellor Reports
In an effort to improve communication on campus, the Executive Committee discussed whether all the Vice Chancellors should give a university-wide report each year outlining their accomplishments and goals. Dr. Caulfield posed this request to the Vice Chancellors at the Chancellor's Cabinet meeting and they endorsed this initiative.

Chancellor's Cabinet Report
Dr. Caulfield and Dr. Larson attend the Chancellor's Cabinet meetings each week as Faculty Senate Chair and Chair of UPC. To keep senators better informed of issues under consideration, Dr. Caulfield will distribute copies of the agenda and report items of interest.

Chancellor Mullen asked that the Senate consider ways to address complaints from summer graduates who feel slighted because they cannot march during May graduation and do not want to return the following May to receive their diploma. Following discussion the Senate proposed making the reception at the Chancellor's residence more formal by recognizing each graduate by name and awarding their diplomas at that time. Because graduation is a commencement for those who have completed their work, there was no support for recognizing these students early.

Dr. Caulfield reported that the Chancellor's Cabinet will study the reports from the Diversity, Retention, and Community Partnership Task Forces.

VI. Student Government Association Report
There was no Student Government Association Report.

VII. Academic Policies Committee Report
Dr. Cathy Mitchell gave the Academic Policies Committee Report.
First Reading:
APC 1: Recataloging Individual Degrees Under Interdisciplinary Studies
APC 2: Establishing an IST Concentration: "Ethics and Social Institutions"

Unanimous Votes
Dr. Mitchell reported that in the future all APC documents the committee approved unanimously will be moved for Senate approval as one vote to save time.

General Education Review Report on Humanities Requirement and
General Education Review Report on Language Requirement
APC is now in the second year of a two-year process reviewing general education requirements as they currently stand at UNCA. Last year, APC reviewed the requirements in Math, Library Science, Arts, Arts Lab, Humanities and Language. The two general education review reports distributed today completes APC work from last year. The reports will be placed on the Faculty Senate website next week at: www.unca.edu/facultysenate. The reports can be found by scrolling down the home page to the Senate Bulletin Board.

This year APC will complete the process by reviewing the requirements in Social Science, Natural Science, Health and Fitness and Foreign Languages.

As APC reviewed these courses, they have also been keeping track of general issues of concern to do with general education at UNCA. At the end of this academic year, APC plans to submit a report to the Senate which is not course-specific but addresses overall issues in general education. The original general education charge written in 1984 is now out of date. Faculty, for almost all of the courses APC reviewed last year, spoke of the difficulty they have in being true to the original charge and also to the current state of knowledge. Therefore APC will likely be recommending a major overhaul of the general education curriculum. In addition, a lack of resources is a major issue that has appeared in the Humanities, Arts, Arts Lab and Language courses. Far too many sections of these courses are taught by non-tenure track faculty. In addition, faculty in Arts and Humanities do not receive full credit for the number of student contact hours in these courses.

VIII. Institutional Development Committee/University Planning Council Report
Dr. Bruce Larson gave the Institutional Development Committee/University Planning Council Report.
Second Reading:
IDC 1: Request for Authorization to Establish a New Degree Program in Interdisciplinary Studies.

Dr. Larson distributed information on the history of the document and noted that Dr. Malicote, Dr. Konz, and Dr. Browning were available to answer questions. This document establishes an Interdisciplinary Studies major at UNCA and two concentrations, one in Individual Degree and one in Ethics and Social Institutions.

Dr. Rizzo supported IDC 1 but expressed concern about resources for ESI, given that resources in existing programs are currently over-strained. Dr. Konz replied that ESI would be staffed by full-time faculty in the home department. While it will require one or two adjunct courses within the home departments, no release time is being requested for the ESI coordinator. IDC 1 passed unanimously and became Senate Document 0200F.

Institutional Effectiveness Committee (IEC) Report
Ms. Pat McClellan reported that all academic departments and programs have completed their reports. IEC is producing a manual to clarify issues and expectations, and to aid departments in writing future reports. They are also developing indicators to determine if the University is achieving the goals outlined in our guiding concepts.

Report on UPC Planning Activities for 2000-01
UPC periodically looks at the relationship between the University's mission statement, guiding concepts, vision statement, and the overall strategic plan of the university. UPC will initiate this review next week and anticipates holding a campus-wide event in Spring 2001 to clarify the University's strategic plan. The intent is to have a new strategic plan in place by the end of the year which will incorporate the financial planning activities of the university.

Recommendations in light of Zageir Hall
At the August 31 Senate meeting faculty members from Zageir Hall expressed concern over the possibility of moving Printing Services from ZH and moving Pegasus Press into this area. IDC was given the informal charge to look into the situation and see what might be done immediately and make recommendations for the longer term. Dr. Larson distributed IDC's recommendations.

Happily, an alternative was found that should help address the main concern of the ZH faculty, mainly, inadequate classroom space in the building. Pegasus Press will move to a house on Hyannis Drive, which is adjacent to campus.

The following recommendations were made for the longer term:
1. When a new committee or task force is formed, its charge, staffing, and likely mode of operation should be made known to the university community.

2. The charge, staffing, and mode of operation of the Space Planning Committee should be made known immediately to the university community. This recommendation should also apply to any new committee that has been formed but not made known to the university community.

3. The Faculty Welfare and Development Committee of the Faculty Senate should be (1) consulted about faculty staffing of all committees and task forces and (2) fully involved in the appointment of faculty to standing committees.

4. Each committee and task force should pay careful attention to its communications. At minimum it should address: (a) from whom it will solicit information; (b) how it will convey information; (c) to whom it will convey information; (d) how it will preserve information; and (e) its rationale for these decisions.

5. A task force of faculty, staff, and students should be formed no later than Fall 2001 to explore communication practices within the university community and report to the Chancellor's Cabinet no later than Spring 2002.

6. Copies of these recommendations should be conveyed to the Chancellor's Cabinet and the Space Planning Committee.

Dr. Caulfield thanked Dr. Larson and IDC for taking on this task. Although everyone participated with goodwill, it was an enormous amount of work. In response to Dr. Caulfield's question, Dr. Larson suggested that the Chancellor's Cabinet create the task force with broad input from faculty, staff and students as the communication problem is university-wide. The Senate asked Dr. Larson to forward the recommendations to the Chancellor's Cabinet and the Space Planning Committee.

IX. Faculty Welfare and Development Committee Report
Dr. Tracey Rizzo gave the Faculty Welfare and Development Committee Report.
Electronic Balloting update
Dr. Peifer explained that FWDC is considering holding future elections electronically over the internet instead of using paper ballots as a means of saving time and paper. Mr. Mark Walter and Ms. Robin Daugherty from the computer center have set up a web page and appropriate software to facilitate online elections. The voting system they have designed ensures that each eligible member of the faculty may vote exactly once on each ballot. Records will be kept that tally the votes while keeping no record of who an individual voter has voted for. Our colleagues in Administrative Computing have gone to great lengths to ensure the confidentiality of each vote and to protect against security problems. In fact, the new electronic system will probably be more secure than the old paper ballot system. In order to test this new electronic voting system, FWDC is running a mock election next week. Mr. Walter was available to answer questions.

First Reading:
FWDC 1: Proposal to establish the Adjunct Faculty Committee as a new standing committee.
FWDC 2: Selection of Honorary Degree recipients.
FWDC 3: Proposal to establish the University Service Council as a new standing committee.

Faculty Committee Workload
The Senate discussed the need to make committee workload more equitable and ways to assess committee workload. Some committees meet two or three times per year while others have meetings weekly or monthly. Possibilities included reviewing faculty annual reports, committee preference forms, committee annual reports, and polling faculty. Dr. Kathy Whatley, the new associate VCAA, intends to make workload equity a priority.

X. Old Business
There was no Old Business.

XI. New Business
There was no New Business.

XII. Adjournment
Dr. Caulfield adjourned the meeting at 5:00 pm.

Respectfully submitted by: Sandra Gravely
                                                 Tracey Rizzo