FACULTY SENATE MEETING
Minutes,
Senate
Members: L. Atkinson, R. Booker, B. Butler, L. Cornett, J. Konz, B.
Larson, D. Lisnerski, S. Mills,
G. Nallan, P. Nickless, D. Pierce, B. Reynolds,
Excused: S. Walters.
Visitors: M. Alm, A. Bass, B. Spellman.
I. Call to Order
Dr. Nickless called the special meeting to order at
Dr.
II. Executive
Committee
Highlights
of Constitutional Revision
Dr.
Nickless stated that the document titled “Highlights of the Constitutional Revision” is a report for
informational purposes only and does not require action by the Senate.
Sample
Standing Rules and Rules of Order
Dr.
Nickless explained that the Faculty Senate does not have the power to adopt
Standing Rules and Rules of Order under its current Constitution. If the revised Constitution is adopted, the
Executive Committee will review the sample Standing Rules and Rules of
Order. There will be an opportunity for
Senate input before a vote is taken on any Standing Rules and Rules of Order.
Standing Rules and Rules of Order
serve two purposes -- to avoid frequent revisions to the Constitution and to
put into writing items that have been done by tradition in the past. The descriptions of the committees in the
Constitution remain deliberately vague to provide flexibility. For example, elections are conducted by the
FWDC, not the Executive Committee as stated in the Constitution. Also, when someone is on off-campus scholarly
assignment, they have to either resign from the Senate or they are taken off
the ballot. This is not in the
Constitution, nor should it be, because we do not know how it will change over
time. These are examples of items that
would be included in the Standing Rules of Order.
Second
EC 1: Proposed Faculty Senate Constitution
Revision.
·
Dr. Nickless corrected wording to EC 1 that was
inadvertently omitted. In 1999, the Constitution
was amended to add the phrase “…and all members in phased retirement are
eligible for election…” The passage
should read:
All full-time ranked members who
teach six (6) contact hours or more per semester, all ranked librarians, and
all members in phased retirement are eligible for election to the Faculty
Senate and may vote in faculty elections.
The
following amendments were made to EC 1:
(Changes in bold)
·
Dr.
Nickless moved to amend Article II, Section 1 Powers and Duties. The motion
was seconded by Dr. Reynolds. Following
discussion and a friendly amendment by Dr. Rossell, the motion passed and
Section 1 was amended as follows:
(o)
Participate in institutional development by providing input into the ongoing
planning and budgetary process;
(j) Advise members of the administration
regarding standards of admission to the University including but not limited to
academic standards;
(k) Advise members of the administration on matters pertaining to the level
and use of tuition and fees;
(The list was re-alphabetized.)
The Chair, who shall normally preside at Senate meetings, shall
chair the Executive Committee of the Senate and serve as the official
spokesperson of the Senate. The Chair normally attends the Board of
Trustees meetings and may respond to Trustee questions and/or give reports at
the discretion of the Chair of the Board of Trustees.
The motion was seconded by Dr.
Larson and passed. The Senate agreed
that editorial changes would be approved by the Executive Committee.
EC 1 increased the Senate membership
to 18. The amendment addressed where the
three additional members would serve and when the committee appointments would be
made. In summary, The Executive Committee shall at the first meeting of the Senate
appoint Senate members to the
The amendment also deleted the
passage under FWDC stating that the UNCA representative to the sixteen campus Faculty Welfare Committee would be a voting member of
FWDC, and “The committee may consist of only five members, in the event that
the UNCA representative is also an elected member of the Faculty Senate.” (This would be addressed in the Standing
Orders).
The
Senators made the following comments while debating the motion:
-
questioned the wisdom of having floating members and thought this would create
unnecessary bargaining amongst the members of the Executive Committee
-
questioned when the committee appointments would be made, how the Executive
Committee could anticipate workloads so far in advance, and whether members
could change committees in mid-year
-
preferred creating task forces to handle extraordinarily heavy workloads that
would report to the Senate
-
supported having the most breadth on
-
favored appointing ex officio members when necessary for added breadth
-
suggested that more breadth could be achieved by dividing the membership evenly
between committees
-
preferred having certainty on committee size and not making the decision
annually.
The
motion tied with a vote of 6 to 6 with one abstention. As the presiding Chair, Dr. Konz then voted
against the motion. The motion failed by
a vote of 7 to 6 with one abstention.
·
Dr.
Lisnerski made a motion that IDC and
·
Dr.
Lisnerski made another motion that IDC and
Dr.
Cornett questioned the need to increase the Senate membership and stated that
she felt uncomfortable deciding on the composition of the committees before
deciding whether or not we want to have 18 Senators. Dr. Konz explained that the increase in size
of the Senate was not part of the amendment which was under consideration. Since the revised Constitution as a whole was
back on the table, he encouraged her to address the issue.
Dr.
Cornett explained that a faculty member who could not attend the meeting asked
her to speak on this issue. S/he was not
in favor of expanding the Senate. This
sounds like an unpopular issue because everyone has big workloads. The argument, as she understood it, was that
there is an impression that the faculty has been less effective in recent years
for any number of reasons and that expanding the number of participants might
further erode the focus and the ability to get things done -- as difficult,
time consuming, and energy consuming as it is with fewer people.
Dr.
Pierce asked how many faculty members there were when the membership of the
Senate was originally set. Dr. Nickless
responded that there were 15 Senate members in 1982, when there were probably
less than 70 faculty members. We now
have about 180 faculty members.
Dr.
Cornett asked if a greater number of faculty demanded
a greater number of representatives to do the business of the Faculty Senate. Dr. Ruiz added that he was not convinced that
was true. Dr. Rossell countered that in
the past, faculty had a greater probability of serving on the Senate when there
were fewer faculty members. More Senate
seats give more faculty an opportunity to serve.
Dr.
Nickless stated that she resented the notion that the Faculty Senate has been
ineffective and she did not believe that it was true. The workload on the Senate committees has
increased. For example, FWDC now runs
all of the elections. In 1982, when the
original Constitution was amended, the elections were run out of the Vice
Chancellor’s office by a clerical worker.
The faculty did not run the elections.
Over the years, the faculty took on that additional job as part of
FWDC. When Dr. Nickless was on FWDC
around 1986, they spent a lot of time talking about whether or not we would
have 401K plans that were socially responsible.
We need more people because we have taken on more duties. It is not just the representative issue that
Dr. Rossell spoke to, although that is important too – that we give more people
a chance to be on the Senate.
Dr.
Cornett noted that the faculty member was concerned about losing efficiency and
focus. She may have overstated what they
said about the perception that it is less effective – it may or may not be
given the broader range of duties that the Senate has undertaken.
Dr.
Lisnerski noted that the perception of being less effective also comes from
some things that we have very little control over. Regarding the issue of giving faculty more
opportunities, FWDC has worked hard to combine and reduce the number of
committees. There are not enough
opportunities for all faculty to serve because we have
so many faculty now. About twenty faculty do not serve on any committees, while others serve
on several committees because of their elected office or, because they are
chairing one committee, they automatically sit on another committee. We need to address this issue.
Dr.
Larson supported Dr. Rossell’s point. We
talk about the work associated with being on the Faculty Senate, but in fact it
is an extraordinary privilege for us to do so, and it should be provided to
more of our colleagues. It is a great
forum for professional development, to get a sense of what it is to be a member
of the academy who is engaged and participating.
Dr.
Nickless referred to Article II Section 3 Election
of Senators, and noted that currently two-thirds of the Senators are
elected from academic areas and one-third is elected at-large. This will change -- nine senators will be
elected from academic areas and nine will be elected at-large. She wanted everyone to be aware of this
change. All elected representatives
shall represent the faculty as a whole and not solely the exclusive academic
area in which they teach. She did not
have a sense that the at-large elections follow a pattern.
Dr.
Reynolds added that the likelihood of the at-large members being weighted
towards one academic area is fairly low.
Dr. Konz stated for the record that at the moment, with our current
structure, we have a
Dr.
Larson referred to the last sentence under Article I Definition of Faculty and Those Eligible to Serve on the Faculty Senate,
and asked how we would know who the Chancellor’s staff is or the staff of the
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs. Dr. Nickless explained that the task force
did not want to list titles because we keep changing administrators’
titles. The sentence -- “Any faculty
member serving on the Chancellor’s staff or the staff of the Provost and Vice
Chancellor for Academic and Student affairs shall be ineligible for election to
the Senate or any of the Senate’s elected committees and shall not vote in such
elections regardless of rank or teaching load.” – refers to Assistant/Associate
Vice Chancellors and the Director of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs. If it becomes more complicated it will be
addressed in the Standing Rules. It
includes anyone listed as a member of the senior staff. EC 1 passed unanimously as amended and
became Senate Document 0204F.
Dr. Nickless referred to Article 3 Section 1 Amending and
Revising the Constitution:
Provisions outlined in this
constitution may be amended by a two-thirds majority of the votes cast,
provided that at least a simple majority of the faculty members vote, and
provided at least one month's notice has been given to the faculty of the vote.
The vote shall be by secret ballot.
The Executive Committee will make
editorial corrections to the document and it will be placed on the Faculty
Senate web page by November 5 for faculty to review. The vote will be conducted by paper ballot.
III. Adjourn
Dr.
Konz adjourned the meeting at
Respectfully submitted by:
Don Lisnerski