FACULTY SENATE MEETING
Minutes, May 3, 2007
Senate
Members: L.
Atkinson, G. Boudreaux, B. Butler, K. Cole, P. Downes, M. Harvey, H. Holt, B.
Hook,
B. Larson, D. Lisnerski, J.
McClain, C. McKenzie, M. Moseley, G. Nallan, B. Sabo,
B. Wilson, J. Wood; K.
Whatley; A. Ponder.
Excused: S. Judson.
Visitors: C.
Bell, R. Booker, L. Dohse, J. Fox, L. Friedenberg, B. Haas, J. Hartsfield, G.
Kormanik,
K. Krumpe, P. McClellan, J. McKnight,
A. Shope, S. Reiser, S. Weatherford.
I. Call
to Order, Introductions, Announcements
II. Academic Policies Committee Report
Second
[Unanimously approved by
APC]
The following documents were considered
for Second Reading:
APC 47: Increase the number of credit hours for EDUC 316;
Drop EDUC 317 from the
requirements for Foreign Language licensure.
APC 47 passed without dissent and
became Senate Document 5807S.
APC
49: Change
to requirements for Pure Mathematics concentration.
Change in departmental
approval procedure for required courses.
APC 49 passed without dissent and
became Senate Document 5907S.
APC
50: Change the prerequisite for MATH
480.
APC 50 passed without dissent and
became Senate Document 6007S.
APC
51: Add new courses: MMAS 101, 201, 255, 350, 450.
APC 51 passed without dissent and
became Senate Document 6107S.
APC
52: Delete the Sound Recording Emphasis
Area.
APC 52 passed without dissent and
became Senate Document 6207S.
APC
53: Change the prerequisite requirement
for MMAS 121.
APC 53 passed without dissent and
became Senate Document 6307S.
APC
54: Edit requirements for the MMAS major
and minor.
APC 54 passed without dissent and
became Senate Document 6407S.
APC
55: Establishing Minimum Requirements for Minor Programs.
APC 55 passed without dissent and
became Senate Document 6507S.
APC 56: Reinstate
CSCI 142: Computer Programming I (FORTRAN).
APC 56 passed without dissent and
became Senate Document 6607S.
APC
57: Adding a Minor in Astronomy.
APC 57 passed without dissent and
became Senate Document 6707S.
APC
58: Delete ASTR 380; Change title and
prerequisite for ASTR 411;
Add
new courses: ASTR 412, 430, 431; Change prerequisites for ASTR 321, 322.
APC 58 passed without dissent and
became Senate Document 6807S.
APC
59: Adding 6-9 teacher licensure as an
option to the Psychology major;
Required
editorial changes resulting from the addition.
APC 59 passed without dissent and
became Senate Document 6907S.
APC
60: Delete EDUC 313 from required
courses for 6-9 Social Studies licensure;
Clarify requirement of the
Humanities sequence for Social Science licensure.
APC 60 passed without dissent and
became Senate Document 7007S.
APC
61: Add new courses: ECE 109 & ECE
209; Delete ECE 480 and add EGM 482;
Change
credit hours and description for ECE 200.
APC 61 passed without dissent and
became Senate Document 7107S.
APC
62: Changes to Degree Requirements in
Mechatronics.
APC 62 passed without dissent and
became Senate Document 7207S.
APC
63: Clarify credits allowed for CHEM
190, 290 and 390.
APC 63 passed without dissent and
became Senate Document 7307S.
APC
64: Clarify students may not receive
credit for more than one section of LSIC
179 & 379.
APC 64 passed without dissent and
became Senate Document 7407S.
APC 65: First-Year
Student Suspension Policy.
APC 65 passed without dissent and
became Senate Document 7507S.
APC 66: Change how World and Western
Civilization courses are applied to HIST 151 & 152.
APC 66 passed without dissent and
became Senate Document 7607S.
APC Approved as Minor Proposals:
APC 48: Adding Undergraduate Research to Art History.
APC 48 passed without dissent and
became Senate Document 7707S.
ILSOC Report to APC
APC
received the required report from the Integrative Liberal Studies Oversight
Committee. Alan Hantz met with APC and
they had a good discussion.
III. Faculty Welfare and
Development Committee Report
Second
The following documents were considered
for Second Reading:
FWDC
6: Proposal
to Eliminate all References to the First Year Experience Program in the
Faculty Handbook including the First Year
Experience Advisory Committee
(Revises SD27998; Faculty Handbook 1.4.3.5.3,
3.1.4.1.4, 10.4.15, 10.4.19 and 11.2)
FWDC
6 passed without dissent and became Senate Document 7807S.
FWDC
7: Proposal to Establish the
Sustainability Committee as a Standing Committee
(Faculty
Handbook Section 10.4.6)
FWDC
7 passed without dissent and became Senate Document 7907S.
FWDC 8: Proposal to Establish the Safety and Health Committee as a
Standing Committee
and Revisions to Faculty Handbook Section
10.4.6
FWDC
8 passed without dissent and became Senate Document 8007S.
FWDC
9: Proposal to Eliminate the Recreation
Committee (Faculty Handbook Section 10.4.14)
FWDC
9 passed without dissent and became Senate Document 8107S.
FWDC
10: Proposal to Eliminate the Violence
Prevention Committee (Faculty Handbook Section 10.4.31).
FWDC
10 passed without dissent and became Senate Document 8207S.
FWDC
11: Proposal to Revise the Faculty ILS
Oversight Committee
(Revises SD0703F, SD0304F and SD0105F; Faculty
Handbook 10.3.8)
FWDC
11 passed without dissent and became Senate Document 8307S.
Review of University Service Council
FWDC
anticipates completing its review of the University Service Council (USC) next
fall. The USC was originally designed to
provide a service award and to make appointment recommendations on some
committees. The present committee
assignment process has some flaws, as did the old process. FWDC is considering a process to computerize/automate
an online listing of committees that faculty can indicate an interest in. If this occurs, USC would have less work to
do; it may provide a greater voice in advocating the value of service assignments
on campus. FWDC is considering
restructuring the Feldman Committee, the Scholarship Committee, the Teaching Awards
Committee, and the University Service Council.
Adjunct
Faculty
FWDC
members
Establishing
a Textbook Committee
At
President Bowles’ request, FWDC is working toward establishing a Textbook
Committee.
Status of Academic Related Non-Departmental
“Specialty Funds”
While
reviewing the status of the Distinguished Scholarship Committee and the
Honorary Degrees this semester, several faculty raised questions about a
variety of funds that were set aside for specific purposes over the past
years. Questions include whether the
following funds exist and, if so, their status:
the Highsmith Visiting Scholar Fund, the Feldman Fund, and an Adjunct
Faculty Fund.
FWDC
is asking the University Relations Committee (URC) to work with Academic Affairs
and the Development and Alumni Office in determining the status of these and
any other similar funds which may exist, and their purpose(s) and use over the
past several years. The URC will also work
with the Alumni and Development Office to determine a reasonable reporting
mechanism to the Faculty Senate on the status of these funds.
Administrative
Offices Review
FWDC is working on an administrative
offices review document. There is
general agreement that it needs to be broken down into a more meaningful review
of the administrative units instead of reviewing them all at one time.
FWDC is recommending that the Center
for Teaching and Learning create a centralized resource for faculty development
opportunities.
Shared Governance Review
FWDC needs to complete the Shared
Governance Review and related documents.
Nominees to Standing
Committees appointed by the Faculty Senate
Senators received a list of nominees
to Standing Committees that the 2007-08 Senate will consider at its
organizational meeting later today. Some
appointments have not been made because documents are either going to be voted
on, or the committees are still on review.
Thank You
Dr. Lisnerski thanked FWDC members
IV. Executive Committee Report
Gary
Nallan gave the Executive Committee Report.
Office Support Study
Dean
Lisa Friedenberg reported that the Office Support Study Team is going through
data collected from individuals in office support positions, their direct
supervisors (department chairs/program directors), and Institutional Research
about the number of faculty (full and part-time), number of students served,
number of budgets managed by departments, and number of students supervised by
office assistants at this time. This
information will be distilled into a career ladder defined primarily by two
dimensions: differences in complexity, which reflect the skills and knowledge needed,
and workload. The committee hopes to
meet with the Chancellor next Monday to solidify its recommendations.
Dr. Moseley asked which office
assistants were on the committee. Dr. Friedenberg
said an attempt was made to create a cohort using staff from academic programs,
academic departments, co-curricular units under Dean Katz, and staff under
Academic Affairs that is supervised by the four academic deans. The office assistants in that pool are part
of this phase of the project.
Policy for Service on the Faculty Senate
Dr.
Nallan explained the need to have a formal policy to handle cases where a
Senator takes professional development leave.
He asked that next year the Faculty Welfare and Development Committee
address this issue and bring a proposal for a written policy to the Senate.
V. Institutional Development
Committee Report
Bruce
Larson reported for the Institutional Development Committee.
National Environmental
Modeling and
IDC
recently reviewed the National Environmental Modeling and
The
review took place on 26 April 2007, at which time IDC, along with Lisa
Friedenberg (Dean for Social Sciences), Archer Gravely (Director of
Institutional Research), and Gregg Kormanik (Interim Dean for Natural Sciences
and Chief Research Officer), met with John Stevens (Director of NEMAC) to
discuss the document “National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center: First Annual Report (10/1/2003 –
12/31/2006),” dated March 23, 2007.
During
its three years of operation NEMAC’s activities have been consistent with the
mission of UNCA and with its establishing document (SD3405S). It has been quite successful in attracting
funds to the university. It has engaged
50 UNCA students with employment opportunities and many opportunities for
undergraduate research. It has involved
the work of 14 UNCA faculty from a variety of disciplines, and 20 different
educational and business organizations in relation to their work.
As
NEMAC looks forward to the next five years, its External Advisory Board
indicated the need to develop a professional business plan which NEMAC intends
to do. Space is an issue for NEMAC. To solve space issues in the short run, NEMAC
is looking beyond the campus: part of its operation activities will take place
in Enka, and it may have a downtown presence.
It is the judgment of the IDC that
NEMAC has contributed a lot to the university and has even greater
opportunities to contribute in the future.
It is the hope of IDC that the activities of NEMAC and UNCA will become
more fully integrated over time, as was noted by John Stevens in his initial
comments to IDC on April 26, 2007. This
would include: (a) developing more
undergraduate research, employment, and learning opportunities, and (b)
creating more opportunities for UNCA faculty (and a broader range of faculty)
and NEMAC staff to interact with one another, for example, in colloquia and
scholarly activity. Both of these ends will
be supported to the extent that UNCA faculty, students, and staff come to be
better informed about the activities of NEMAC.
Discussion
Dr.
Moseley asked if NEMAC generated overhead money for the university. Jim Fox and Susan Weatherford reported that $300,000
has been generated in the three years that NEMAC has been in existence. The Senate approved IDC’s recommendation that
NEMAC be continued until its next review period.
Second
The
following document was considered for Second Reading:
IDC
2: Proposal to Revise the University
Planning Council
(Revision
of SD4201S; Faculty Handbook Section 10.1.1)
Dr.
Larson reported that IDC has heard throughout the year that we need to have a
fully functioning University Planning Council (UPC). Since February, members
of IDC along with Chancellor Ponder,
Dr. Sabo questioned the effectiveness
of such a large UPC and reiterated his earlier request – to include a review
process through which the Planning Council would review actions of the
administration and the faculty to the degree to which they conform to our mission
statement and the statement of shared values.
This is not in the proposal and he thought the review process was
extremely important.
Dr. Larson said size is not a matter
of concern to him and he hopes it is not a matter of concern to others. It is the size that it needs to be. It has significant faculty and staff
representation. The Chancellor is able
to work with a larger group of people as demonstrated by the strategic planning
activities over the last year. He agreed
that it is important that someone have an opportunity to examine the
consistency of various programs and activities with regard to university values
and other aspects of our planning activities.
The UPC, in his judgment, has been created toward and helped with
planning, and to assist in thinking about the decisions that we have to make in
relation to planning activities. That is
what this document reflects; he thought concerns raised by Dr. Sabo would be
addressed.
Dr.
Downes suggested adding the word “values” under Duties (c): “Review periodically the University mission,
goals, values, and strategic plan,
and progress towards realizing these.”
Dr. Sabo said he was less interested
in reviewing the mission constantly than he is in various activities,
decisions, and actions that are taken by the university to judge their
conformity to the mission and to the goals and to the values.
Dr. Wood noted that the phrase “monitoring
institutional effectiveness” alludes to oversight. UPC may be about our vision; the faculty, the
Faculty Senate and IDC may be the watchdog.
What came out of the conversations last semester was that the Faculty
Senate is charged with overseeing the welfare of the community; perhaps we can
reinvigorate the Senate and particularly IDC’s responsibility for doing that in
companion with UPC. IDC is on UPC but we
also have an independent role as faculty to ensure the mission and the goals of
the institution are being followed.
Dr.
Sabo argued that things can slip through the cracks when no one is responsible with
the task of review. The Senate agreed to
look at IDC’s role as it is defined by the Standing Rules and Rules or Order and
to possibly modify those at the first Senate meeting next academic year to
address Dr. Sabo’s concerns.
Dr. Larson added that there is
institutional effectiveness and there is programmatic effectiveness. Throughout the year IDC has been talking
about reinstituting a review process that would look at majors and other programs
in the academic area; we could think of it as educational or programmatic effectiveness
in the academic area. He envisioned that
the broader role of institutional effectiveness would fall under UPC.
In a friendly amendment, the proposal was
edited by IDC to add “values,” under Duties section C.
IDC 2 passed as amended without
dissent and became Senate Document 8407S.
Thank You
Dr.
Larson said he was honored to work with all the folks on the Faculty Senate and
beyond this year. He and
VI. Student Government Association Report:
There was no Student Government Association report.
Dr. Nallan reported that the
SGA appointed
VII. Chancellor’s Staff Advisory
Committee
Joanne
McKnight gave the Chancellor’s Staff Advisory Committee report.
Ms. McKnight reported on the Staff
Assembly’s semi-annual meeting. The
Assembly developed guidelines for its six representatives who will serve on the
task force President Bowles is initiating to redefine our relationship with the
Office of State Personnel (OSP).
The Initiatives and Innovations
Committee of the Assembly is developing a policy that would allow staff members
to train other staff throughout the state and save the system money.
Senators
received a draft of CSAC’s Planning Retreat set for May 14th.
VIII. Administrative Report
Interim
VCAA
Information from General Administration: Tuition by Credit Hour
General Administration (GA) plans to initiate
a new system regarding tuition that will charge students tuition by the credit
hour. GA is setting up a scale so that
students who are taking 15 credit hours would pay approximately the same thing
that students pay now for full-time status.
One reason for the change is to allow more students to take advantage of
other course offerings whether it is online or distance learning at other
institutions. Students would pay their
own institution for credit hours taken there and would pay other institutions
for the credit hours taken at other institutions.
Only
UNCA and
Several
suggestions/concerns were expressed during discussion:
- Faculty Teaching
Workload Report for 2002-2004 through 2003-2004
A chart showing the
schools who have exceeded the standard course load for their campus as defined for their campus was
distributed at the Chief Academic Officers meeting. Every school exceeded the course load
expectation except UNCA and
Dr. Whatley noted that
UNCA is still officially a 24-hour load institution. Part of this is trying to give faculty a
little time to work on scholarly work and part of it is the reassigned time
given for administrative duties for chairs and program directors. Dr. Whatley, Dr. Gravely, and the Deans will
work this summer to make sure we are accurately reporting everything we
do.
UNC
Tomorrow
UNC Tomorrow is an initiative by the Board of Governors to ensure that
the UNC system is being responsive to the future needs of the state. To plan for our campus visit in early June, Dr.
Whatley has requested input from chairs and program directors.
One Stop for Students
Planning is underway to
relocate several offices to one area of campus to provide better services for
students. Students will go to one place for
registration, financial aid, cashier, bursar, and advising issues; staff will
be cross-trained to improve coverage and service. A task force has been meeting most of the
semester in an inclusive process facilitated by Eileen Buecher.
IX. Old Business
Email message from Maggie
Weshner
Dr.
Nallan read the May 5, 2007 email message from Maggie Weshner:
To the Senate -
I’d like to again thank the faculty,
staff, and students for your support. I
am particularly appreciative of the Faculty Senate’s resolution asking for my
reinstatement. As a result of all your
efforts, I have been “collocated” to MAHEC’s behavioral medicine program until
the end of December 2007. Although my
heart is, of course, still with the
While I have been seeing the ten UNCA
students that were of concern to me and waiting for the MAHEC agreement to be
completed I have been required to exhaust approximately seven weeks of my
accumulated leave. I will, however, be
able to continue seeing the students through May as part of the MAHEC agreement
(although not at that location).
Again, my heartfelt appreciation to
all of you for your concern about mental health on the UNCA campus and for all
your efforts on my behalf.
Sincerely, Maggie Weshner
X. New Business
Thank You
Dr. Nallan thanked
Ms. McKenzie thanked members of APC for
their hard work this year. She then presented
Gary Nallan with a gift as a small token of the faculty’s appreciation for his
hard work this year. A round of applause
followed.
Dr.
Nallan arranged to have a photo taken of the 2006-07 Senate to commemorate the
year.
XI. Adjourn
Dr.
Nallan adjourned the meeting at 4:30pm.
Respectfully submitted by: Sandra
Gravely