FACULTY SENATE
FULL MINUTES OF OCTOBER 7, 2008
The second
regular meeting of the 2008-2009
Agenda Item I. Call to Order
Janice Tovey, Chair of the Faculty called the meeting to
order at 2:10 p.m.
Agenda Item II. Approval of Minutes
Action on the minutes of September
9, 2008, were
postponed until November.
Agenda Item III. Special Order of the Day
A. Roll Call
Senators absent were: Professors Stapleton (Education),
Talente (Medicine), Coddington and Ciesielski (Technology and Computer Science)
and Vice Chancellor Mageean.
Alternates present were: Professors Boswell for Glascoff
(Health and Human Performance), Felts for McCammon (Health and Human
Performance), Boklage for Gilliland (Medicine), Hodson for Levine (Medicine),
and Larson for Eason (Nursing).
B. Announcements
1. We have the following vacancies on
standing University Committees and ask that anyone interested please contact
Janice Tovey, Chair of the Faculty, at toveyj@ecu.edu.
· Admission
and Retention Policies Committee, Chair of the Faculty representative
· Calendar
Committee,
· Continuing
and Career Education Committee,
· Libraries
Committee, Chair of the Faculty representative
· Research/Creative
Activity Grants Committee, regular member term
· Teaching
Grants Committee, regular member term
2. Faculty
are eligible for the following university-wide teaching awards: Board of
Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching, Board of Governors Distinguished
Professor for Teaching Award, Alumni Award for Outstanding Teaching, and Max
Ray Joyner Award for Faculty Service Through Continuing Education. Portfolios of nominated faculty members are
due November 3, 2008. Evaluation materials submitted by past year’s winners are
available for review in the Center for Faculty Excellence (Old Cafeteria, room
2305, 328-6470). A description of each award is available online
at: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/fsonline/aa/academicawards.cfm.
3. The deadline for
submission of nomination materials for the annual Lifetime and Five-Year University Research/Creative Activity Awards
(which includes 7 copies of departmental
and unit review committee nominating letters, complete CV, and 3 letters from
outside referees) is November
3, 2008 (November 3, 2008). Evaluation materials
submitted by past year’s winners are available for review in the Center for
Faculty Excellence (Old Cafeteria, room 2305, 328-6470). All relevant
procedures are available online at: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/fsonline/customcf/committee/aa/researchspecifics.htm.
4. The Committee on Committees is seeking
nominees from the faculty for the election of one delegate and one
alternate to the 2009-2010 UNC
Faculty Assembly. Nominees should be full-time faculty, holding no
administrative duties outside his/her department. The names of those
nominated to the Committee on Committees will be submitted to the
C. Steve
Ballard, Chancellor
Chancellor Ballard stated that the University had initiated
a process to assure that all SPA employees will make a “living wage” of at
least $25,000 a year. This has been a four year process, and only UNC-Charlotte
has committed to a similar assurance that all employees will make a “living
wage”. The cost to ECU for this commitment is about $200,000. He also stated that higher education may be
affected a little more slowly than other economic sectors by the global
economic climate; but that there will be impacts on the State revenues and
therefore the University system. The cutbacks will be steady and increasing as
we see the full economic implications and extent of the global economic crisis.
The Governor and the State Budget Office has announced an immediate 2% non
recurring cut back effective immediately. This amounts to $5 million; the
Chancellor stated that he anticipated an additional non recurring cut of
between $5 -$8 million at mid year. This is on top of the $2.4 million dollars
in non recurring cuts that were required of all State universities in the last
biennium. The Chancellor stated that the University was trying to anticipate
these cuts so that essential services that are provided to the students are not
drastically impacted
The Chancellor stated his concern for students and their
ability to afford a college education.
He noted that ECU had the highest requirement for financial assistance
of any University in the system. Money
for financial aid is a concern, as well as, when and if the ECU will require
mandatory health insurance for all students. The number one goal should be the
ability of ECU students to complete their education in a reasonable period of
time.
Chancellor Ballard stated that he expected the UNC Board of
Governors to restrict, if not prohibit, any increase in campus based tuition.
The only increases will be related to the welfare of the students, which
further restricts ECU’s flexibility to respond to budget issues. The Chancellor
distributed a memorandum from Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance, Kevin Seitz entitled Non-Recurring
Budget Management Guidelines indicating the current actions that have
been taken to reduce spending on campus. The memo indicates four actions that
will take effect immediately. One of the items already implemented is that no
hiring will be permitted until January. This is lapsed salary money that will
not take away any academic positions. Travel restrictions are also described in
the memo. The Chancellor stated that every option will be evaluated in view of
protecting the core functions of the University mission and reminded faculty
that this may be just the beginning of a couple of hard years for higher
education.
Professor Taggart (Music) asked about student affordability
and the mandatory health insurance. The Chancellor stated that, since the
policy will be for the entire UNC system, the insurance carrier had already
been determined but that with abnormal times, more time would be needed to make
sure that the financial impact on ECU’s students was known before proceeding
with requiring health insurance.
Professor Sprague (Physics) stated that he served on the
Task Force for a
Professor Martinez (Foreign Languages and Literatures) asked
about the rumored financial error in budget projections for the formula funding
matrix and student credit hours which resulted in a loss to the University’s
funding. The Chancellor stated that the formula funding matrix for student
credit hours was very complicated, and every year in the past there had been a
multi-review process. He agreed that
mistakes were made at ECU. Each year the University would submit funding
numbers to UNC General Administration and they would react with a counter proposal.
ECU would make the University counter proposal and some time over the course of
the Fall, ECU and General Administration would agree on what the enrollment
projections for the coming year would be. Assuming the legislature would
approve those projections, ECU would then get money for anticipated student
enrollment. Chancellor Ballard stated that ECU had never gotten funding for
every credit hour that was produced. For
example, when we generate 80% of D.E. in the system we do not get 80% of the costs
of generating credit hours. Chancellor
Ballard stated that last year the negotiation process did not happen. The
system was self correcting according to Dr. Mabe,
with UNC General Administration, since the funding would be based on credit
hours achieved.
Provost Sheerer stated that the University did not have to
return any money because of this error because student credit hours could not
be used to compensate for budget cuts. She stated that there was no
relationship between the double entry calculation error made in the projection
of enrollment growth and the source of funding that can be used for the budget
cut backs. One lesson that was learned was that the review and negotiation
process was helpful and another lesson was that their needed to be some
reorganization done within ECU’s Institutional Research Office.
Professor Rigsby (Geology) stated that she understood that
some numbers were transposed but wanted to know how much the error was because
the rumored number kept changing. Dr.
Sheerer introduced Robert Frye, Interim Director of Planning and Institutional
Research, who stated that the error was around $20 - 25 million, but that ECU
would still not have gotten that money if the normal review process had
occurred. ECU received about $9 million
this year and one in every 8 dollars that the entire UNC system received from
the appropriation. Mr. Frye concluded that there was a mistake made, and that
the mistake was made due to the lack of review and self correction at several
levels, not just within ECU.
D. Phyllis
Horns, Interim Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences
Interim Vice Chancellor Horns stated for the last twenty one
months she had been acting as the Interim Dean of the Brody School of Medicine
and Interim Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences. She stated that she was
delighted to have an opportunity to introduce the new Dean of the
Dr. Horns reported that the appropriate rate of growth and
the service mission of the Health Science Division are currently being
discussed. The
No questions were posed to Interim Vice Chancellor Horns at
this time.
E. Janice Tovey,
Chair of the Faculty
Professor Tovey stated that she would to begin with an
explanation for one item on the agenda: unfinished business. After consulting
with Committee on Committees and reviewing the charge of the Educational
Policies and Planning Committee, she has determined that the Senate will be
voting on all programs, both undergraduate and graduate that are reported on.
Therefore, the
Chair Tovey
also stated that the Board of Trustees, at their last meeting, heard a
preliminary report from Kemal Atkins about the
The board
also heard the preliminary report from Dr. Bailey on Enrollment Management: the
report that will be presented today. She stated that the process being put in
place is so that all faculty, students, and staff can take part in the
conversation about the best ways to manage enrollment growth in a way that
benefits all constituents. Today, Dr.
Bailey will present an overview of the preliminary report to provide faculty
with the context in which the task force worked and the key points about smart
management. Faculty Senators have received a copy of her report and, following
the Senate meeting today, the preliminary draft of the report will be released
to all faculty, students, and staff. Then beginning after Fall break, the Task
Force will have several open meetings for faculty and staff and other meetings
that will target students. These meetings will be an opportunity for all
faculty to respond, question, argue, etc. about the options presented. She also
stated that she would like Senators and Alternates to consider meetings in your
units to get feedback and response.
Chair Tovey
also stated that she was asking faculty who were members of the Task Force to
facilitate the open meetings in order to report to the
Professor Vail-Smith (Health and Human Performance) asked if
the University was planning to purchase North Campus Crossing Apartments. Chancellor Ballard indicated that the Board
of Trustees had not made a decision. Dr. Ballard also indicated that there was
a political dimension and a financial component to this question and that the
financial aspect will probably “ win out “.
The Chancellor stated that Vice Chancellor Kevin Seitz was the only one
who could really speak to this. Professor Christian (Business) asked if the
Board of Trustees had a financial interest in the property. Chancellor Ballard
responded that he was not aware of one. Professor Niswander (Business) replied
that none of the Trustees had any financial interest other than an interest in
what was appropriate for the University.
Chair Tovey also noted that the complex was built in a flood plain.
Professor Rigsby (Geology) asked which standing academic
committees had been working on the strategic enrollment management plan. Chair
Tovey stated that members of the task force will be asked to help her to report
the conversations to the various standing academic committees, but at this
point there were no specific recommendations coming forward for final approval
until after the open hearings.
F. Judi Bailey,
Senior Executive Director of Enrollment Management
Executive Director Bailey listed a number of the Faculty
Senators who were on the Strategic Enrollment
Management Task Force. She stated
that the Task Force was charged in February 2008 and that participation was
excellent. She noted four critical areas
included in the report distributed to the Senators entitled Preliminary
Report to the Faculty Senate. A Strategic
Enrollment Management Task Force Project Status Update was also distributed
to members of the group.
Professor Bauer (English) asked how the academic committees
would be able to meet the timeline set forth in the distributed material. Dr.
Bailey indicated that the draft report listed individual committees that would
meet to advise the
Professor Robinson (Mathematics) asked what the nature of
the Final Task Force Report to the Board of Trustees in February 2009 would be.
Dr. Bailey responded that a report on the issues that the task force dealt with
would be included in her remarks to the Board.
Some of the concerns voiced by the Task Force may lead to recommendations;
some of which may be adopted in the near future, some of which need to be
discussed in a spirit of shared governance, and some of which may never be
adopted.
Professor Rigsby (Geology) reminded the Faculty Senators and
Faculty Officers that the
G. Terry
Holland, Director of Athletics
Director Holland stated that the Board of Trustees had
approved a new contract for Skip Holtz
as the football coach, with the contract tied to revenue streams such as
fundraising and ticket sales. He stated
that success on the football field generated funds for compensating the coach
and that the salary could also be reduced. He mentioned that he would like to
build a new soccer field, softball field, and track area and that this would be
a $20 million project. No questions were
posed to Director Holland.
H. David Dosser,
Chair of the University Athletics Committee’s Academic Integrity Subcommittee
Professor Dosser provided several
reports for the Faculty Senators and links have been provided here:
·
University
Athletics Committee Academic Integrity Subcommittee Report
·
Freshman
Cohort Graduation Rates
· Academic Rankings of Squads in Conference USA
Professor Wilson (Sociology) asked if Professor Dosser felt
confident that there were no integrity concerns within Athletics. Subcommittee Chair Dosser responded that he
did not have any integrity issues that are systematic, such as with
Professor Matthews (Anthropology)
stated that reports reflect that athletes are doing better than the average
students at ECU. She asked what was the
source of funding for athletes because currently faculty are asking student
tutors to be volunteers. Professor Dosser stated that tutoring for athletes was
paid for out of the general funding of the University for tutoring all
students.
Professor Vail Smith (Health and Human Performance) asked how
many men versus women sports were there at ECU and how many men coaches versus
women. Professor Dosser provided those numbers.
Professor Dosser also recognized Professor Michael Felts
(Health and Human Performance), Chair of the University Athletics Committee,
who provided an
overview of the University Athletics Committee and the Gender Equity
Subcommittee. No questions were posed to Professor Felts.
I. Mark Sprague, Faculty Assembly
Delegate
Professor Sprague provided Faculty Senators a written report
on the September
19, 2008, Faculty Assembly Meeting.
Professor Martinez (Foreign Languages and Literatures) asked
how the Task Force on Strategic Enrollment Management would address online
education. She also requested additional
information on the proposed “trimester” being routinely discussed by Erskine Bowles.
Professor Sprague responded that President Bowles was considering on-
line education as one of the ways to make infrastructure go further.
He stated that President Bowles considered the “tri-semester system” as a
way of getting better utilization of University facilities over the summer and
that faculty would be asked to teach two of the three semesters.
Professor Sprague also stated that while President Bowles
talked about how the UNC system had been successful in getting money from the
legislature on the basis of enrollment growth, he indicated that this caused an
emphasis on quantity rather than quality.
President Bowles also believed that the University can not grow their
way into a better quality of education and success in funding. He concluded
that the revenue stream model was flawed
Professor Sharer (English) stated that there was a
contradiction of the issue when using under-utilized facilities versus reducing
energy and eliminating wasteful uses of utilities. Professor
Sprague stated that there was a presentation on energy conservation at the
meeting and that guidelines were coming for energy efficient buildings. He gave the example that new construction
must be 30% more efficient and renovations must be 20% more efficient than the
current standards.
Professor Martinez (Foreign Languages and Literatures)
referenced the low productivity/low enrollment programs identified by General
Administration and asked how it reflected on the responsibility of the
Educational Policies and Planning Committee to formulate guidelines that
faculty and academic units should consider. Chair Tovey indicated that the
programs that General Administration identified as low productivity programs
indicated in the memorandum from Harold Martin were on the basis of numbers .
Marketing strategies and other needs were not a part of the equation. Professor
Sprague also indicated that while 20 graduates might trigger a closer look at a
program, there might be a sound reason for some programs to have a low number
of graduates. This is an opportunity for the University system to look at all
our programs.
J. Question
Period
Chair Tovey noted that representatives from ECU Dowdy
Student Stores were available for questions on the distributed information
relating to Response
Regarding Textbooks and Half-Priced
Textbooks.
Professor Sharer (English) referenced the end of October
2008 deadline for all textbooks for introductory courses, stating that all must
participate in the buy-back or rental program.
She then asked if all instructors now need to select from a list. Wanda
Scarborough with Dowdy Student Stores responded no.
Professor Bauer (English) stated that she was a member of
the SACS undergraduate working committee, but had not been notified of when
they were meeting. Provost Sheerer responded that Professor Bauer should
contact David Weismiller.
Professor Jesse (Nursing) asked if the previous year’s $500
incentive for online textbook adoption program was successful and if so, which
academic units were successful in meeting the goal and earning the $500. Wanda Scarborough with Dowdy Student Stores
responded yes, that the adoption program was successful and that she would let
Professor Jesse know which unit earned the $500.
Chair Tovey also noted that there were representatives from
ECU Admissions available for questions on their Report
on the 2008 Freshman Class and Home Schooled Admissions. No questions were
posed to the representative from the Admissions office.
Agenda Item IV. Unfinished Business
Chair Tovey acknowledged that there
had been confusion on what items of business from the standing Academic
Committees could the
Agenda Item V. Report of Committees
Professor Rigsby (Geology) moved to reorganize the
C. Faculty
Governance Committee
Professor Puri Martinez (Foreign
Languages and Literatures), Chair of the Committee, presented first the
proposed Guidelines for Preparing a
Cumulative Evaluation. It was noted that
there would be placed an electronic link to the appropriate section in the
online ECU Faculty Manual to aid
faculty going through the cumulative evaluation. There were no questions
and the
proposed Guidelines for Preparing a Cumulative Evaluation were approved as
presented. RESOLUTION #08-41
Professor Martinez then presented the proposed revisions to
the ECU Faculty Manual, Appendix B.
Policy for the Cumulative Review of Permanently Tenured Faculty of ECU. She
stated that
these revisions needed to be submitted to General
Administration as soon as possible and that the guidelines only needed minor
adjustments since in compliance.
Professor Bauer (English) asked if each unit needed to
create a review committee. Professor Martinez
responded yes, same as before. Following
discussion, the proposed revisions to the ECU
Faculty Manual, Appendix B. Policy for the Cumulative Review of Permanently
Tenured Faculty of ECU were approved as presented. RESOLUTION
#08-42
Professor Martinez then presented a report on the proposed review of administrators. She
provided her own personal perspective of the current situation and related the
proposed document to a democratic model based on an AUUP definition. She stated
that under this AAUP model, the vote was a summary evaluation of an
administrator.
Professor Taggart (Music) thanked members of the Faculty
Governance Committee who were working together to draft a tool for the review
of administrators. He expressed his
disappointment in what has transpired and that the final document displayed a
lack of transparency. He hoped that more
work could be done between the committee and administrators that would reflect
openness, transparency, and accountability. Professor Martinez responded that it was the Chancellor’s job to hire and
fire administrators and that the Committee’s report was just an attempt to be
systematically involved in the evaluation activity.
Chair Tovey stated that faculty needed to honor provisions
of the joint statement and work with the Faculty Governance Committee to find a
way to have faculty input and take part in administrative review. Professor
Sprague (Physics) moved that the
Professor Coleman (Medicine) asked if the motion passed,
would the Chancellor’s suggested revisions be ignored. Professor Sprague responded that no, the
intent was that this body support the original motion that provides for
transparency.
Professor Rigsby (Geology) offered a friendly amendment to
the motion to read that the
Professor Brown (Psychology) stated that he thought what the
motion was saying was that faculty think that the Chancellor should work better
with us, and if so, is that what we should say.
Professor Sprague (Physics) stated that this issue was not
something that had just been sprung upon the Senators and that it was something
that most faculty should be familiar with.
Professor Christian (Business) stated that having been in
the Senate for 6 years, it seemed to him that the Chancellor had been
transparent. So he stated that there must be reasons why Chancellor Ballard was
responding this way about this matter. Professor Martinez stated that the
review of administrators’ policy should be created for the University, not just
for the Chancellor.
Professor Bauer (English) clarified that the Committee’s
work was to make sure that faculty have input into the review of administrators.
Professor Zeager (Economics) stated that he did not like this and that this
motion was not an appropriate way to exercise the most faculty influence on
this issue. Professor Zoller (Art and Design) stated that the purpose of the
motion was not to strong arm anyone but that the Committee needed support for
their hard work and efforts and needed to know that what they were saying was
speaking for the faculty. Professor Niswander (Business) called for a
quorum. Parliamentarian
Professor Gibson (Business) asked if the Committee had met
again with the Chancellor since his latest rewrite of the policy. Professor Martinez replied that the Committee
had extended an invitation to discuss this with Chancellor several times and
that he had decided through his conversations with Chair Tovey that he was
going to form an ad hoc committee to determine the input from the faculty;
taking this issue away from the Faculty Governance Committee.
Professor Vail-Smith (Health and Human Performance) asked
why didn’t Senators ask Chancellor Ballard about this issue when he was present
earlier in the meeting. Chair Tovey stated that Chancellor Ballard does want
faculty input in the evaluation of his administrators and that she would work
closely with him to resolve this issue as soon as possible.
Professor Spraque
(Physics) called the question. Following
a vote on the amended motion, the final motion read The
Prior to additional committee reports, Parliamentarian
Wilson ruled that a quorum had been lost.
Discussion and action on the remaining committee reports
would be postponed until the November 4, 2008,
The meeting adjourned at 5:05 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Hunt McKinnon Lori
Lee
Secretary of the Faculty
Department of Interior Design and Merchandising
FACULTY SENATE
RESOLUTIONS APPROVED AT THE OCTOBER 7, 2008, MEETING
08-40 Request for
Authorization to Establish a PhD
Program in Curriculum and Instruction in the
Disposition: Chancellor
08-41 Guidelines
for Preparing a Cumulative Evaluation.
Disposition: Chancellor
08-42 Revisions to the ECU Faculty Manual, Appendix B. Policy for the Cumulative Review of
Permanently Tenured Faculty of ECU.
Disposition: Chancellor
08-43 The
Governance
Committee’s policy on the Review of Administrators.
Disposition: