FACULTY SENATE MEETING
Minutes,
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; M. Padilla.
Alternates: C. Bell,
R. Bowen, B. Holmes.
Excused: S. Judson
Visitors: J.
Cone, E. Katz, P. McClellan, J. McKnight, K. Whatley
I. Call
to Order, Introductions, Announcements
Dr. Gary Nallan called
the meeting to order at
II. Approval of minutes
The
minutes of
III. Student Government
Association Report (SGA)
There was
no Student Government Association report.
The order of business was modified.
Director of Athletics
Janet
Cone, Director of Athletics, reported that last September a committee began
reviewing UNCA’s academic progress rates from the previous two years. The Athletics Department has taken a
proactive approach in developing an academic improvement plan that has already
proven to be successful. A handout
outlined the academic improvement plan for eligibility and retention. The department has also initiated Team MVP –
Mentoring Adds Value to our Program – an opportunity for faculty and staff to
be mentors to our student-athletes and teams.
Currently 30 faculty and staff are involved in the program.
Highlights
of Student-Athlete Academic Honors in 2005-06
Sportsmanship and Citizenship
The
Big South now has a mandatory sportsmanship policy; the Chancellors met with
all of the coaches and student-athletes to discuss sportsmanship and what it
means to be a good sport. Our Campus
Security and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs also attended the
meeting. UNCA has a student-athlete Code
of Conduct and students are held accountable for their actions. Ms. Cone reminded senators of her commitment
to the faculty that our student-athletes would be students first and athletes
second.
NCAA Financial Report
Per
NCAA Bylaw 6.2.3, the Athletics Department was audited by an independent
auditing firm in accordance with industry standards and NCAA requirements. The department received a clear report and
continues to operate with a balanced budget.
Academic money is not used to run the Athletics Department.
Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR)
Chancellor
Ponder appointed
Special Events for Athletics – Campus and
Community
·
“Our
Turn to Play” Women’s Luncheon
·
Big
South Women’s Basketball Tournament Bid
·
Campaign
“True Blue”
·
Big
South Men’s Soccer Tournament and Cross Country Championships
Concerns
·
Scholarships,
facilities and salaries – raising money to balance the budget
·
Academic
and athletic demand on student-athletes
·
NCAA
Compliance and advising student-athletes
·
NCAA
Re-Certification
Dr. Nallan noted that one of the first questions
asked during the NCAA re-certification will be: “Was there broad-based
participation on campus?”
Top
priorities in terms of facilities:
Enrollment
Associate Provost McClellan gave a
preliminary census report on Fall 2006 enrollment:
Chief Academic Officers
meeting
A
top priority for the Board of Governors (BOG) is the issue of retention and
graduation for the UNC system. The
system enrolls many more students than it graduates. The transformation to a knowledge-based
economy is perhaps leaving the citizens of NC behind; we are importing a lot of
people for jobs from other states. The
citizens who are being taxed to fund the system are perhaps not fully taking
part in opportunities because they are not graduating and do not have the necessary
qualifications for some of the better jobs.
It is very important to the BOG that the new economies that the state is
pursuing be available and attuned to
Issues coming to Faculty Assembly
·
Legal
counsel at GA has talked to the provosts about the need for background criminal
checks on all new employees,
including faculty. We want to create a
safe environment and this is also an equity issue. The expectation of legal counsel is that the
decision will be centralized and there will not be variations in colleges or by
program areas. The ultimate
responsibility will fall to the Provost.
The UNC system has found a credible organization that will provide
service for $6 per check. The Senate
discussed privacy issues, civil disobedience and the opportunity to rebut the
results.
·
The
issue of the balance of increased faculty salary versus benefits that the
President should take to the legislature at the next session. Our benefits are very uncompetitive – this is
the number one problem that candidates raise when he interviews them. The benefits are expensive and often involve
all state employees. President Bowles is
very dedicated to raising faculty salaries but if our benefits are what is
hurting us in terms of recruiting and retaining highly talented faculty then
maybe we should work on that. They are
looking at the idea of allowing faculty to slip out of the state personnel
system when it comes to health care. It
has been a political hot potato but there may be an opportunity if the state
were to let us be the pilot with faculty first.
Faculty Salary Model
Dr.
Padilla reported that the implemented model used for faculty salary increases
incorporated responses from faculty concerned about the level of set
increases. He appreciated the faculty
input.
Highlights follow:
·
Implemented Model: 6.0% flat increase
·
Amount of increase: $3,740
·
Average rate of increase:
8.31%
·
Range of increases: 3.53%
- 14.97%
·
Number of faculty receiving increases below 3.5%: 0
·
Number of Tenure-track faculty below $50,000: 21
·
BD-119 average faculty salary: $62,332
·
Number of Tenure-Track faculty below $50,000 before increases: 37
Questions/Comments
Dr. Sabo expressed concern that
students who want to go overseas are not being adequately supported by the
university. The deadline has passed for
two programs. Ms. McClellan stated that
students are receiving information from Diane Royer. An interim Study Abroad/Away director has
been hired and will begin working next Wednesday.
VI. Executive
Committee Report
Gary Nallan reported for the
Executive Committee.
Faculty
Senate Representatives on CSAC and on the Office Support Study Team
Gary Nallan will be the Faculty
Senate representative on the Chancellor’s Staff Advisory Committee.
Brian Hook will represent the Faculty
Senate on the Office Support Study Team.
VII. Faculty Welfare and
Development Committee Report
Goals 2006-07
·
Assist
in clarifying the Shared Governance agreement regarding issues related to Faculty
Welfare and Development
·
Re-establish
the Mentoring Program for new faculty
·
Evaluate
the present committee assignment structure
·
Resolution
of the “Child Care” issue
Faculty
Mentoring Program for New Faculty
·
Coordinators: Cindy Ho (Hum), Chris Nicolay (NS),
Service Commitment
There is a perception on
campus that service is no longer important for promotion, tenure or merit
increases. Some faculty sign up for
committees and never show up. Perhaps
Chairs/Directors should stress that service is valued by people who evaluate
faculty.
Review
of how COPLAC and Peers handle Development
FWDC will be looking at
how similar public and private institutions (COPLAC and Peer) deal with faculty
development.
Working with Chairs/Directors Study Teams
FWDC has requested that a
point person from each of the newly established Chairs and Program Directors
study teams meet with FWDC on a regular basis to keep them informed on what is
being discussed and what the issues are.
Ultimately documents will be coming from the Senate.
The Study Teams follow:
·
Annual
Faculty Record Redesign (
·
Guidelines
for Merit Distribution (
·
Expectations
for On-Campus Time and Office Hours (Alan Hantz)
·
Reassigned
Time and SCH Generation (
Dr. Padilla explained that the study team areas were self-identified by
the Chairs/Directors. The format has
changed to encourage more conversational and interactive meetings with on-going
discussions.
-
Student Rating of Instruction
Dr. Downes reminded
Senators that when Leah Mathews gave the final report of the Task Force on
Student Rating of Instruction (SRI) last April, the task force recommended a continued
investigation into SRI and the general process of how we evaluate teaching at
UNCA that should be led by the Faculty Senate in collaboration with the Center
for Teaching and Learning. The Faculty
Senate was urged to adopt guidelines governing the use of student rating of
instruction in personnel decisions. This
effort needs to move forward.
Committee assignment updates
The Senate affirmed
the following committee assignments:
Graduate Council
Director
of MLA: Melissa Burchard
Director
of Humanities Program: Cindy Ho
Academic
Affairs Representative:
2005-07: Volker Frank (SS)
Randy
Booker (NS)
2006-08: Ted Uldricks (Hum)
Surain
Subramaniam (SS)
Jonathan
Horton (NS - provost appointee)
UNCA Foundation
2005-07:
2006-08: Linda Nelms (SS)
VIII. Academic Policies Committee Report
-
Brian Hook
was appointed to represent the Academic Policies Committee on ILSOC this year.
IX. Institutional
Development Committee Report
Program
Reviews
IDC is starting to reassemble some
elements of the University Planning Council with Christine Riley’s
endorsement. Archer Gravely will meet
with IDC this year to share his institutional memory, specifically about
programmatic review activities. The
group discussed existing and previously existing program reviews and
departmental review procedures.
Currently two are being used on a systematic basis: the Program Assessment Survey (running on a
five-year cycle) and the Biennial Review (runs on a two-year cycle).
Gregg Kormanik, Chief Research
Officer, will discuss Centers at the next meeting.
IV. Chancellor’s
Staff Advisory Committee Report (CSAC)
JoAnne McKnight, Chair of the
Chancellor’s Staff Advisory Committee, distributed four reports for
informational purposes:
The
Research Sub-committee was formed to provide preliminary recommendations to
CSAC regarding the request received from Chancellor Ponder to recommend strategies that can be implemented by the administration
to build a culture of confidence and faith at UNC Asheville that is a shared
and unifying force among faculty, staff and students; and, to build a culture
of inclusion which values all staff with a sense of equality and justice.
Staff
members are being asked to indicate the areas that they feel are among the top
five in importance. Additional suggestions
may be added to the back of the check-list.
It will be recommended that the Employee Excellence
Institute become a standing committee of the Staff Assembly. The EEI will provide an opportunity for
information exchange among the campuses and will provide workshops for staff
across the UNC system via teleconferencing.
X. Old
Business
There was no Old Business.
XI. New
Business
Student
Rating of Instruction
Dr. Larson referred to Dr. Downes’
repeated request that the Faculty Senate follow up on the work of the Task
Force on Student Rating of Instruction and asked that this issue be placed on
Executive Committee agenda.
Office
Support Study Team
Dr. Hook reported on the Office
Support Study Team (OSST) meeting held today.
Chancellor Ponder wants to conduct a study of the jobs of our academic
support staff since a lot of the jobs have changed over time and job
descriptions no longer reflect the work being done. Dr. Hook was asked to report to the Senate
that there will not be a creation of secretarial pools and there will not be
the elimination of any secretarial jobs for departments or creations of
secretaries for buildings.
A couple of years ago, system-wide
career banding was approved but not funded.
Career banding was repealed by the last legislature. Apparently UNCA is now on its own with no
particular model. The head of Human
Resources for the UNC system says that there is no other school in the system
that has a model for us. The OSST will
be looking simply at defining the work that is to be done within the school,
the talents and skills of the people doing the work, and rewriting job
descriptions. Staff categories may
change and their jobs may change a little, but no one will be eliminated.
Chancellor Ponder has hired
organizational development consultant Carol Rovello to work with the Office
Support Study Team. To assist the
consultant and to oversee the study, an exceptional group of campus leaders
have agreed to represent their areas and serve on the review team. These members include:
Dr.
Dr. Brian Hook, Faculty Senate;
Dr. Kevin Moorhead, Department Chairs;
Dr.
Ms. JoAnne McKnight, CSAC Chair;
Ms. Debra Robbins, Ms. Donna Early,
and Ms. Jacqui Justice, Academic Support Staff.
Human Resources Department will assist
the team and provide their expertise.
The Senate
strongly suggested that Chancellor Ponder send an email message to staff and
faculty to reduce campus stress and rumors about the Office Support Study.
Dr. Nallan adjourned the meeting at
Respectfully submitted by: Sandra Gravely