University of North Carolina Asheville
FACULTY SENATE MEETING
Minutes, May 6, 2010 (3:15pm)
Senate
Members: C. Bell, R. Berls, G. Boudreaux, L. Dohse, G.
Ettari, V. Frank, G. Heard, J. Konz, B. Larson,
K. Moorhead, L. Nelms,
E. Pearson, K. Reynolds, L. Russell; J. Fernandes.
Excused: B.
Haas, A. Lanou, D. Pierce, M. Sidelnick.
Visitors: M.
Alm, S. Capone, P. Catterfeld, L. Friedenberg, E. Katz, G. Kormanik, K. Krumpe,
L. Langrall,
L.
McCane, P. McClellan, S. Mills, G. Nallan, A. Ponder, B. Schaffer, A. Shope, S.
Subramaniam.
I. Call
to Order, Introductions and Announcements
Dr. Lothar Dohse called the last meeting
of the 2009-10 Faculty Senate to order at 3:16pm and welcomed Senators and
guests.
II. Approval of minutes
The minutes of April 8, 2010, were
approved with editorial corrections.
The agenda was modified.
III. Executive
Committee Report
University
Counsel
Dr. Dohse introduced our new
university counsel Lucien “Skip” Capone.
Mr. Capone said he was thrilled to be at UNC Asheville. Prior to coming to Asheville he was the
university counsel at UNC Greensboro for nearly nineteen years and he was at
the NC Attorney General’s office for fourteen years.
Mr. Capone said he has an open door
policy and he is here to help serve in any way that he can. At UNC Greensboro he worked with faculty on a
number of issues: helping faculty ferret through liability concerns around
field trips, intellectual property issues, and working with faculty committees
on policy issues. He encouraged faculty
to call him or send him an email and let him know how he can help.
Reflections
of the year
Dr. Dohse said the 2009-2010
academic year brought with it a number of challenges for the Faculty
Senate. Our work in addressing these
challenges resulted in a number of documents that will have an impact on the
future of this University. He highlighted
these in this retrospective.
Major documents passed are:
• The University Mission Statement – May 7, 2009
• Delivering the Curriculum outlining our workload – October 8, 2009
• Student Learning Outcomes setting our educational goals – January 21,
2010
• Approving the move to electronic Student Ratings of Instruction – March
18, 2010
In addition there were areas of
major discussion:
• The closing of the research centers EQI and Mossbauer – September 3, 2009
• Better communication with the Board of Trustees – November 5, 2009
• Elimination of the German program – December 3, 2009
• APC Report of Faculty Perception of ILS, and response to criticism of
Policy on Cluster courses – November 5, 2009 and February 11, 2010
Certain items were part of campus
discussion, but are on-going projects that will be part of the Senate’s Agenda
in the future. Specific items for the
next year are:
• The campus response to the budget crisis
• Review of our Tenure and Reward Systems
• Implementation of the electronic Student Rating of Instruction format
• Preparation for the 2012 SACS reaccreditation
As the campus evolves, additional
items may become important for the Faculty Senate to consider in the future. These are:
• The growing role of Student Affairs in the education of students
• Managing larger workloads with smaller budgets
• Incorporation of new programs to our campus, including distance learning
and programs jointly run with other universities.
Remarks
from Chancellor Ponder
• Chancellor Ponder thanked Dr. Dohse for his service as chair of the
Faculty Senate.
• Pisgah House is open and we have held 42 events at the House since
February 4. Over 1,400 people have
visited, some from every constituency: students, community leaders, alumni,
faculty, trustees and donors. Members of
IDC/UPC are invited to the House on Friday.
On Monday there will be a faculty reception after the final faculty
meeting of the year. Three retired
faculty members will be recognized for their service by the naming of those
endowed scholarship funds.
• Chancellor Ponder thanked faculty for teaching so well and for taking on
a heavier teaching load. If faculty had
not stepped forward, the cuts to the rest of the university would have been
worse. She is grateful for the faculty’s
work and involvement in that way. “Your
work with the Provost on Delivering the Curriculum will give us a transparent
and equitable way to know where we are in terms of teaching responsibilities
and delivering the curriculum. “
• Thanks to the contribution of the commencement selection committee, the honorands
this year include: civil rights leader Bernice Johnson Reagon, the legendary coach
Dean E. Smith who is being recognized for integrating basketball when other
great coaches of that era were far behind, and our local Hall of Fame recipient
coach Roy A. Williams.
• This will be our largest graduating class; any student who was qualified
to complete their work in December (that was snowed out) may come. The accomplishments of our students were
wonderful this year and let us congratulate them in person.
• The Board of Governors’ budget was positive for us because it followed
the plans that we enacted last year. The
magnitude of what we have to deal with was recognized in the BOG budget. It also offered a substitute tuition plan. Instead of having all the tuition dollars go
into the general fund half of those
dollars are pledged to financial aid for students who need help. The Governor’s budget is dire from the
perspective of the university. As usual,
we take our lead about what would be beneficial from the General
Administration.
Several days ago
Chancellor Ponder joined almost all of the chancellors and President Bowles at
the invitation of Senator Mark Basnight and six other senators in the
leadership of the Senate. Senator
Basnight asked them to make it clear to the people of NC that it would be
damaging to the university to follow the governor’s budget. Chancellor Ponder wants our faculty to
understand that we are attempting to make it easier and more likely for the
Senate to help us as they put forward their budget proposal, and more difficult
for the House to hurt us as they follow with their budget. The conference and the conclusion of this
legislative session are slated to be complete in July. With the same message, we need to alarm the
legislators but reassure the campus that we are in the middle of a process at
this particular point.
Dr. Ponder also
met this previous Monday with Senator Nesbitt who is now the majority leader in
our area. Yesterday, she worked with
some of our local media and Chancellor Bardo from WCU, and Chancellor Peacock
from ASU. This included a noon WLOS
taping for 5:00-6:00pm and a meeting with the editorial board of the Asheville
Citizen-Times. There was an initial
printed article today and she anticipates more in the editorial section over
the weekend. Our message is: It takes decades to build up a wonderful
university and only a session in the legislature to destroy it. The responsible cuts have been made and to
cut significantly further will actually undermine the quality of the university
in a way that it would take years to recover from, if possible at all.
• Chancellor Ponder has completed her service as the drafter of the
summary of the 17 university campuses and the three major affiliates that was
her committee assignment on the presidential leadership qualities. That work was completed yesterday when the
entire report was submitted. The process
now includes only members of the Board of Governors, but based on the advice
and material that we put together.
• It has been a challenging year but also an extraordinary one. A few of the things that have gone right this
year: we have a new web page, we have some of the most talented students
admitted that we have ever had, we got the Princeton Review ranking as one of
the greenest colleges, the university’s home “Pisgah House” opened and it
distinguishes the university, we dedicated Zeis for Science and Multimedia, we
named some endowed funds for staff in the fall, and faculty in the spring, we
acquired the Rhoades property into the Foundation and then from the Foundation
into the university. That was an
appropriation of an additional $1.75 million that had otherwise not been
previously budgeted. We created the
first endowed fund from the Janvirve Foundation to
the NC Center for Creative Retirement. Janvirve
is not able to contribute directly to the university but can contribute to that
special program. Again, with thanks and
gratitude, she congratulated the senators on a very fine year.
Questions/Comments
Dr. Heard asked if the tuition
increase would be 6.5 percent, which we proposed, or 8 percent proposed by the
Board of Governors. Chancellor Ponder
said the tuition increase has not been determined at this time. The Board of Governors sets the tuition
unless it is in conflict with what the legislature does. The Governor did support that change in her
budget and it is highly likely we will prevail with what we proposed.
Dr. Dohse asked what faculty could
do to help as a response to the budget.
Chancellor Ponder recommended that the Faculty Senate join as some of
the other Faculty Senates have done, to ask the legislature to fund the university
responsibility and to eliminate consideration of draconian cuts that would affect
the quality of the academic program.
Dr. Dohse asked Senators for
feedback. Dr. Nallan distributed a
resolution that East Carolina passed. He
said that the Faculty Assembly has asked each of the universities to pass a
similarly worded resolution.
The Senate discussed ECU’s
resolution at length and made several edits.
Mr. Berls made a motion to approve the revised resolution. Dr. Larson seconded the motion. The Sense of the Senate Resolution follows:
RESOLUTION ON THE 2010-2011 NORTH CAROLINA
STATE BUDGET
Whereas,
education plays a vital role in our State’s future economic health and the
aspirations of millions of North Carolina families; and,
Whereas, an
educated and highly skilled workforce is necessary for the economic progress of
the State; and,
Whereas, the
University of North Carolina System plays a leadership role in educating the
people of our State and in the overall economic growth of North Carolina; and,
Whereas,
continued excellence depends upon sustained, adequate funding; and,
Whereas, the
projected budget cuts are alarming, especially following budget cuts over the
past two years; and,
Whereas, the
budget cuts will limit access to higher education for many residents of our
State at a time when higher education enrollments are growing; and,
Whereas,
academic reputations are built slowly over many years, and once compromised
cannot be easily regained; and,
Whereas, the
University of North Carolina General Administration estimates that any budget
cuts in excess of 2% would harm the academic core of the University and
significantly reduce the quality of academic instruction and student
experiences at all UNC campuses; and,
Whereas, the
University of North Carolina has already absorbed approximately $300 million or
29% of the current state budget reversions while the University represented
only 13% of the total state budget; and,
Whereas, the
proposed state budget currently recommends a reduction of 5.9% or $154 million
(a 3.9% reduction on top of the existing 2% cut) for the UNC System; and,
Whereas, 75%
of the state budget allocated to the UNC System supports personnel expenses
making it impossible to absorb large cuts without eliminating more jobs; and,
Be It Resolved that
the Faculty Senate of the University of North Carolina At Asheville urges the
State Legislature to prevent the most serious erosion in the quality of higher
education in North Carolina by providing sufficient and appropriate funding for
higher education by restricting additional budget cuts to no more than 2% ;
and,
Be It Further Resolved that the State budget include full funding for
need-based financial aid to ensure access to higher education for the people of
the State of North Carolina; and,
Be It Further Resolved that the State Legislature appropriately continue its
historical commitment and attention to our State’s higher education needs as
envisioned in the original Act of Incorporation (1789) for the University of North
Carolina by providing adequate higher education funding to ensure “the
happiness of a rising generation, and endeavor to fit them for an honorable
discharge of the social duties of life by paying attention to their education.”
The Sense of the Senate Resolution passed without
dissent and became Senate Document 7210S.
Dr. Dohse
mentioned that the UNC Board of Governors approved UNC-Chapel Hill’s plan to
expand its Pharmacy School program to UNC Asheville in partnership with Mission
Health System. The satellite pharmacy
program will be based at UNC Asheville.
This will mean that some space will have to be assigned to this
group. That is an issue to be resolved in
the 2010-11 academic year. Presently
some space has been earmarked in Zeis. The school is significant in size;
estimates range from 6-12 offices and several classroom spaces designed to the
pharmacy school.
•
Elaine Fox’s Position [Director of Extension and Distance Education]
Dr. Elaine Fox should not be left
unnoticed by the Faculty Senate. Elaine works
in the adult education extension program and she is retiring. For a while it was unsure whether or not her
position would be filled, but it now looks like it will be filled. Dr. Dohse noted that the person in this
position will actually bring money to the school. As a public institution, he would see it as a
concern if the position was left unfilled.
•
Wireless Web Connections
Dr. Dohse reported that according to
Jim Kuhlman, UNC Asheville will soon have wireless internet on campus. New Hall, Zageir and Karpen may have wireless
connections by early next fall with the rest of the campus being online within
a year’s time.
IV. Faculty Welfare and Development Committee
Dr. George Heard
reported for the Faculty Welfare and Development Committee.
Alternate Faculty
Conciliator
Pam Laughon has been chosen by the Student Government Association as the
Alternate Faculty Conciliator commencing in Fall 2010, becoming the Faculty
Conciliator in Fall 2011.
Report
on electronic Student Rating of Instruction (SRI)
FWDC have met to discuss best practices in the implementation of
electronic SRIs. In order to estimate an
acceptable response rate we need to know the current response rate. This data was recently furnished – there is
an overall average of 83.8% of students enrolled in the course at the actual
time of administration, but individual department averages vary from 64.9% to
96.8%. There will be meetings with
vendors over the next few weeks to determine the capabilities of the software
and from there we will present a set of protocols to most effectively implement
SRI while monitoring response rates and changes in data over the first iterations. We request that the raw data be made
available immediately so any global changes in response rates and averages can
be factored in to decision making processes by the Committee of Tenured Faculty
and by Department Chairs in writing their supporting letters.
Report
on changes to Code 600
FWDC has been working to complete changes to the Faculty Handbook. The work will be reviewed by the incoming
FWDC before being brought to Faculty Senate.
These will come in as four separate documents:
• Changes to Faculty Grievance Committee, requiring that all qualified
complaints go to mediation before coming to the full Committee.
• Changes to policies on non-reappointment of tenure-track faculty,
delineating the responsibilities of the Faculty Committee on Hearings, and the
route of appeal in the case of a decision to not reappoint.
• General changes to Tenure policies (including the deletion of the
mandatory retirement).
• Elimination of Section 13.1 and replacement with a single link to the
UNC Code.
Dr. Heard thanked the members of
FWDC, Ellen Pearson, Gary Ettari, Greg Boudreaux and Bruce Larson for their
hard work during the year.
V. Institutional
Development Committee/University Planning Council Reports
Ms.
University Planning Committee (UPC)
Highlights:
• Much of the discussion was about the UNC Pharmacy
School satellite program at UNC Asheville.
Dr. Ponder has said that UNC Asheville does not have to put up money nor
raise money for the program.
• Chancellor Ponder gave an update on the UNC
Presidential search process.
• Debbie Griffith made a recommendation to establish a
new strategic plan workgroup focused on giving more attention to publicizing UNC
Asheville’s academic reputation.
•
Provost Fernandes talked
about the responses to the campus climate questionnaire. The Diversity Action Committee will continue
to work with it. She also discussed reconciling
the student learning outcomes with the elements of the strategic plan. In her opinion, the reconciliation is a matter
of semantics – there are no obvious areas of conflict. Dr. Fernandes simply wants to make sure that
there is no confusion or concern if someone mistakenly perceives two sets of
outcomes.
•
Ms. Nelms said her
comments to the Senate are often compressed because of time and recommended
that those who want more information access the minutes Archer Gravely writes
so excellently for UPC (ierp.unca.edu/ir).
Institutional
Development Committee (IDC)
Highlights:
•
IDC had a very unstructured and relaxed
end-of-semester discussion on goals for next year. They discussed the process related to the UNC
Pharmacy School satellite program at UNC Asheville. Given that this was generated externally and
brought to the campus, our typical process of discovering what the impact would
be was lacking. IDC will look at how
those changes that might not have been generated on campus can be better
integrated with the campus.
•
IDC discussed the upcoming SACS assessment and the
role that the Faculty Senate should have in it.
•
IDC also discussed additional issues of faculty
governance.
Ms. Nelms thanked Amy
Lanou and Dan Pierce, both of whom are away today on a mission to further their
faculty development. To her awe, these
are two people who had books published while they were members of the Faculty
Senate and IDC. They always provided
very good input. She thanked Bill Haas: we all know that he is ill and we are hopeful
that he is doing well. She thanked Jeff
Konz whose departure from IDC is voluntary as he takes on the responsibilities
of dean. She is delighted that we had a
chance to work with Jeff and feel sure that we will see more of him in the
future. She thanked her friend Kevin
Moorhead, who did not rotate off the Senate – she is delighted that he will be
back next year.
VI. Academic Policies Committee Report
Dr.
First
Reading
[Unanimously approved
by APC]
The following document was considered for First
Reading:
MINOR Document
APC 83: Sunsetting Courses
Courses that have not
been taught for four years are dropped from the Catalog unless the departments
offer a rationale for keeping them. The
document will be considered for second reading at the organization meeting
today.
Second Reading [Unanimously approved
by APC]
The
following documents were considered for Second Reading:
APC 41: Editorial Changes outside of the Education
Department.
APC 41 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 7310S.
APC 54: Change AP credit for U.S. History.
APC 54 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 7410S.
APC 56: Delete SPAN 320 from Spanish curriculum.
APC 56 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 7510S.
APC 57: Add new course, SPAN 345, Spanish for Business;
Add new
course, SPAN 498, Senior Seminar in Spanish.
APC 57 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 7610S.
APC 58: Change course descriptions for SPAN 481, 482 and 495.
APC 58 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 7710S.
APC 59: Change requirements for major and minor in Spanish.
APC 59 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 7810S.
APC 64: Change titles and course descriptions for HW 100, 101, 102, 103.
APC 64 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 7910S.
APC 65: Edit the introductory narrative for Health
and Wellness Promotion.
APC 65 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 8010S.
APC 66: Add new courses to the HWP curriculum: HWP 190, HWP 250, HWP 294.
APC 66 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 8110S.
APC 67: Change prerequisites for HWP 335, HWP 380,
HWP 390.
APC 67 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 8210S.
APC 68: Change course descriptions for HWP 225 and
HWP 310.
APC 68 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 8310S.
APC 69: Change title, description and credit hours
for HWP 420.
APC 69 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 8410S.
APC 70: Change course number and description for HWP 325.
APC 70 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 8510S.
APC 71: Change course description for HWP 459.
APC 71 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 8610S.
APC 72: Change major and minor requirements for HWP.
APC 72 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 8710S.
APC 73: Add new elective courses to the HWP curriculum: HWP 315, 316,
317, 320, 343, 365, 401.
APC 73 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 8810S.
APC
74: Editorial changes to courses
requiring a course from HWP 152-155 as a prerequisite.
APC 74 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 8910S.
APC 75: Change course titles for MMAS 151, 222, 322, 330.
APC 75 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 9010S.
APC 76: Add new course, MMAS 342 to the curriculum.
APC 76 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 9110S.
APC 77: Change MMAS 255 to 344, and add a prerequisite.
APC 77 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 9210S.
APC 78: Editorial changes to Aesthetics and Social Awareness.
APC 78 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 9310S.
APC 79: Add new courses, NEUR 216 and 480; Changes to Requirements for
Minor in Neuroscience.
APC 79 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 9410S.
APC 80: Increase credit hours for POLS 220 and resulting editorial
changes.
Dr. Moorhead made the
observation that by and large Political Science is teaching three four-credit
hour courses instead of four three-credit hour courses. He can appreciate why this was done administratively. If other departments follow this lead, at
some point this will become a problem if we have to follow the Delaware
Study. Dr. Bell said APC discussed this. APC 80 passed without dissent and became
Senate Document 9510S.
APC 81: Delete ATMS 105, replacing it with ATMS 111
and 113, Understanding the Atmosphere.
APC 81 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 9610S.
APC 82: Editorial Changes resulting from deletion
of ATMS 105 and addition of ATMS 111 and 113.
APC 82 passed
without dissent and became Senate Document 9710S.
Dr. Bell thanked the members of APC: Rob Berls, Volker Frank, Kitti
Reynolds, Lorena Russell and Mark Sidelnick.
He also thanked administrators Keith Krumpe, Alicia Shope and Sandra
Gravely.
VII. Administrative
Reports
Provost Jane Fernandes
reported for Academic Affairs.
Thank You
Dr. Fernandes thanked
everyone on the Faculty Senate for a very engaging and thought-provoking
year. Some really important issues were
discussed and resolved, or left unresolved.
This Senate is a great group and you have the best interests of the
university and the students at the forefront of your mind and that is what will
make the university strong going forward, especially in this budget. Thank you for great work.
Dr. Fernandes also
thanked the Executive Committee for taking her into their discussion and
letting her participate as a colleague.
She thanked Dr. Nelms, Dr. Bell, Dr. Heard, Dr. Dohse and Sandra Gravely
for meeting with her and allowing her to know more about the issues that are
important to you. She is in awe of Dr.
Dohse’s running a great meeting and managing difficult discussions and letting
all of the perspectives come forward to get a good understanding and
decision. She has been honored to work
with Dr. Dohse for the past two years and she hopes they will keep working
together in a different way in the future.
Change in our commencement ceremony
Students brought an
issue to the university’s attention related to inclusion of all in the various
aspects of our campus. When she met with
some of the students they particularly mentioned that commencement was a very
problematic area for them, especially since they are friends with some who will
be graduating this year who use wheelchairs.
The path that students in wheelchairs take is viewed as a very isolating
path and it is the antithesis of what a commencement should be – which is about
all of us together. The university made
a decision that we will not be using the stairs of Ramsey Library for
commencement starting with this commencement and going forward with other
commencements unless or until we have another better long term strategy which
we are working on. In the meantime, all
paths to commencement will not involve steps.
We will all be walking the same path.
To be clear, this is not about a legal accommodation or about an ADA
accommodation because we do that already.
The students were working on something much greater – an idealistic view
of our community -- even though there was a reasonable accommodation, it is not
an inclusive accommodation and it set some people off on the path of isolation
which we want to avoid.
VIII. Old Business
There was no Old Business.
IX. New Business
Dr. Dohse noted that he
has worked with some senators for three years and he has now been Chair for two
years. “It has been a little taxing but
he is proud to work with people like you.”
He said he would never have said yes to two years if he did not have
such strong support. He thanked the
Executive Committee: Linda Nelms, Chris
Bell, and George Heard. They made the
difficult times a lot easier to work through.
He thanked Sandra Gravely who has stayed by his side, keeping him
straight, and making sure that he did not goof off or forget things.
Dr. Bell presented a
gift to Dr. Dohse from the Faculty Senate and said he hoped the Senate had not
been too taxing. We appreciate the light
you have been – thank you so much.
X. Adjourn
Dr. Dohse said the
2010-11 Faculty Senate organization meeting will commence in five minutes. He adjourned the meeting at 4:35pm.
Respectfully submitted by: Sandra
Gravely
Executive
Committee