FACULTY SENATE
FULL MINUTES OF JANUARY 30, 2007
The fifth regular meeting of the 2006-2007 Faculty Senate was held on Tuesday, January 30, 2007, in
the Mendenhall Student Center Great Room.
Agenda Item I. Call to Order
Mark Taggart, Chair of the Faculty called the meeting to order at 2:10 p.m.
Agenda Item II. Approval of Minutes
The minutes of December 5, 2006, were approved as distributed.
Agenda Item III. Special Order of the Day
A. Roll Call
Senators absent were: Professors Rastatter (Allied Health Sciences), Kim (Art), Benson (Mathematics), Brown (Psychology), Rigsby (Past Chair of the Faculty), and Cope (Faculty Assembly Delegate).
Alternates present for part of the meeting were: Professors Grobe for Hodge (Education) and Eble for Deena (English).
B. Announcements
1. The Chancellor has approved the following resolutions from the November 7, 2006, Faculty Senate meeting:
06-27 Approval of the Fall 2006 Graduation Roster, including honors program graduates, subject to completion of degree requirements.
06-28 The Student Opinion of Instruction Survey (SOIS) for all courses will be changed to an Internet-based survey delivered in a manner similar to the surveys currently administered to students in Distance Education courses.
06-30 Curriculum matters contained in the minutes of the October 12, 2006, and October 26, 2006, Committee meetings.
The Chancellor has also approved the following resolutions from the December 5,
2006, Faculty Senate meeting:
06-31 Grant SECS 1000, offered by the Department of Political Science, Social Science Foundation Credit.
06-33 Curriculum matters contained in the minutes of the November 9, 2006, Committee
meeting.
2. There is no longer a curriculum submission deadline for inclusion in the official ECU catalog. Faculty are reminded that the official ECU catalog is now the online catalog. The University Curriculum Committee will continue to meet through April 2007 to address curriculum matters. Please direct any questions to Professor Janice Neil, Chair of the University Curriculum Committee at cuc@ecu.edu.
3. Thanks was extended to the following Faculty Senate Alternates serving as Tellers during the meeting: Martin Bier (Physics), Ihab Saad (Technology and Computer Science), and Ken Ferguson (Philosophy).
4. The Chancellor will host a Faculty Senate reception in the Chancellor’s residence on Tuesday, April 17, 2007, from 5:30 – 7:00 p.m. Formal invitations will be forthcoming to all Faculty Senators, Alternates, past Chairs of the Faculty, and their guests.
5. Letters concerning unit elections for the 2007-2008 Faculty Senate representation have been mailed to unit code administrators. In accordance with the ECU Faculty Manual, Appendix A, elections are to be held during the month of February. Please call the Faculty Senate office if you have any questions.
6.
The Committee on Committees has been charged to seek volunteers to serve on the
various academic, appellate, administrative, Board of Trustees, and student
union committees. Faculty are strongly encouraged to participate in this
component of shared faculty governance and complete a volunteer form by February
16, 2007. Committee appointments will be finalized at the April 24,
2007, Faculty Senate meeting.
Faculty members have two ways to note their preference for service on the
various standing University committees.
1) On OneStop under Employee Section, faculty members click on “Faculty Committee Volunteer Form” and complete the committee volunteer preference form.
2) A faculty member may complete the volunteer preference form that is available on the Faculty Senate web site at http://www.ecu.edu/data-fsonline/committee/callforvolunteers.htm
Professor Taggart also informed the Senate that ECU’s Strategic Directions document will be discussed at the February 20 Senate meeting, and asked them to review it carefully. President Erskine Bowles has informed Faculty Assembly delegates that the UNC system will determine an “accountability matrix” of twenty measures that will be employed system wide, in addition to ten or so measures that will be unique to each institution that will constitute the standards upon which we will hold ourselves accountable.
Professor Taggart announced that General Administration had approved the revised Appendix D of the ECU Faculty Manual, outlining the procedures in ECU’s Tenure and Promotion policy, with minor editorial changes. These changes were sent to the Chancellor and are presented as announcements for today’s meeting. He thanked all who were involved in this process, particularly the Faculty Governance Committee, stating that Chancellor Ballard will announce within approximately a week when these changes will take effect. He noted that the Governance Committee approved the following motion: “All personnel decisions will be subject to the provisions of revised Appendix D as approved January 9, 2007, except for those personnel decisions still under active review.”
Professor Taggart also indicated that a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that a national survey of junior professors ranked East Carolina University as one of the best Doctoral/Research institutions with regard to “tenure clarity”, a tribute to the success of shared governance here at ECU, and to the tone of transparency and inclusiveness set by our Chancellor.
The Chair then thanked the senators and alternates from BSOM for meeting with him on January 29 to discussing challenges facing the Brody School of Medicine and possible revision of its Code.
Professor Taggart mentioned that Spring Commencement will be May 5th, and urged faculty to attend this event.
C. Chancellor’s Report
Chancellor Ballard presented the report on the Longitudinal Profile of Faculty Tenure Status, noting that between 2001 and projected staffing for 2008, there will have been an overall growth of approximately 500 faculty positions, 150 of those to come in the next two years. He encouraged faculty to look not only at the hiring profile, but to also place emphasis on enabling tenure track faculty to succeed, particularly in the first three years. Chancellor Ballard informed the Senate that the change to a trimester system is going to occur in the very near future, perhaps as soon as 2008. This is in response to the growth of the state’s population and the legislature’s demands that we maximize utilization of facilities. Doing so will be vital to future funding and bond issues. He reported that our Strategic Directions plan is on schedule, although the BoG’s review of our Mission Statement is likely to result in changes making it more lengthy, allowing ECU to present better its unique nature. Provost Jim Smith commented on specifics of the longitudinal profile, stating that while fixed-term positions continue to increase, the percentage of this increase at ECU is not among the highest levels nationally, and the preference of many BSOM faculty for fixed term employment has contributed. By 2008, ECU expects to have 1800 full-time faculty, an increase from 1200 in 2001.
Roberts (philosophy) asked the Chancellor to confirm that the rationale for
changing to a trimester was maximizing utilization of existing facilities.
Professor Ballard stated that that was correct.
Provost Smith noted that an electronic copy of the Task Force on Fixed Term Appointments (dated 9-06) was distributed to Faculty Senators and Alternates prior to the meeting.
D. Phyllis Horns, Interim Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences
Vice
Chancellor Horns announced that, in the Health Sciences Division, both the
E. Mark Taggart, Chair of the Faculty
Chairperson Taggart stated that we’ve been hearing much about “accountability” lately. I have already mentioned the “accountability matrix” that we are to use in order to determine our success in achieving the goals of our mission. Simply put, “accountability” is but another way of determining that old saying, “What have you done for me lately?”
We have chosen careers where a major component of what we do is to be accountable to others. Our students hold us accountable when we grade their assignments and send us e-mails that we want answered. We hold our students accountable through the assignments we make and the exams we administer. We are held accountable in contributing to our field of study through research and creative activity. We regularly face deadlines that must be met. Our faculty leaders ask constantly if we have completed that report or committee task. Our lives are constantly filled with questions and attitudes that pressure us to perform.
All of us, faculty and administration, are under constant pressure to perform a series of tasks, duties and responsibilities in a timely manner and to the best of our abilities. Under all of this pressure, it may become difficult for us to see the big picture. We are responsible for shaping and maintaining the quality of our university. We should use the pressure of accountability to motivate us to continue to produce the quality of teaching, research and service that ECU is built on.
Failure to be held accountable is a failure to move our university, our programs and ourselves in the way that we should. As we contemplate the “accountability measures” of our university, keep in mind that we should expect ourselves and all others around us to be dedicated to the task at hand, to make the difficult decisions, and to handle the problems that we face. As we do the really hard work, we can assure ourselves that we hold our faculty colleagues, our administrators, and ourselves accountable for what they are doing on behalf of the ECU community.
As Chair of the Faculty, I pledge to be held accountable to my colleagues and my constituency, the faculty, as I expect those around me to do so also. I pledge to implore others, faculty and administrators, to be accountable. We are all in this together!
So, let’s think of our accountability measures as a kind of self-examination that we need for our institution, our programs, for our students, and for ourselves. I challenge you to join me: be accountable and hold others around you to the very high standards of professionalism that we hold ourselves. Let’s raise the level of expectations and performance for us all. Remember, at the end of the day, it is up to us to ask ourselves the hard questions that hold us accountable.
F. Brenda Killingsworth, UNC Faculty Assembly Chairperson
Professor Killingsworth reported on the January 26, 2007, Faculty Assembly meeting. She called Senators’ attention to the representatives’ written report provided them. This includes information concerning the UNC system’s growth to 17 campuses with the inclusion of the NC School of Science and Math, the Board of Governers meeting with President Bowles, increased opportunities for shared governance at the system level, and a report by Phillips concerning how university will meet the state’s educational needs over the next 20 years and how this will affect institutions’ missions. She signalled three opportunities for participation on this report: 1) campus visits seeking the input of individual faculty on what it is we do now 2) business and community use faculty scholar 3) UNC FA Pres. Full council commissioner on commission to report.
She informed the Senate concerning the following aspects of President Bowles’s report: his progress on his goals to use increased funding to bring ECU faculty compensation up to the 80th percentile and to increase need-base student aid; funding enrollment goals; new measures include retention and graduation; faculty input before report presented; graduate student support especially stipends; public service lacking system wide, Faculty Assembly task force; literacy support UNC online initiative link to integrate online programs throughout system; 20 measures on accountability; MT elected Chair of FA Fac Gov; announced anuual opp for open public.
Stevens (Health and Human Performance) asked if retention rates were available broken down by race. Killingsworth answered that she would check, but believed that the category of “minority” was not broken down further.
G. Question Period
Faculty are encouraged to participate in the Question Period of the Faculty Senate meeting. This period allows faculty an opportunity to ask questions of administrators and others present relating to activities of the administration or Faculty Senate committees.
McKinnon (Interior Design and Merchandising) asked Provost Smith if the University Athletics Department will be using the frisbee golf green space for the Pigskin Pigout again this year. Provost Smith indicated that he had asked Vice Chancellor Seitz, who informed him that Nick Floyd had stated that no decision on its location had yet been made, but that meets will be held with and input sought from all appropriate groups and following established protocols.
Sprague (Physics) expressed concern about the lack of high performance computing resources for research, and asked Vice Chancellor Mageean what, if anything, is being done to address the situation. VC Mageean responded that the topic is being addressed in strategic planning being conducted. In particular, Paul Gemperline’s committee is work ing with ITCS, and is also meeting with Health Sciences representatives for input. They have formed subgroups to address needs in three different areas: high end needs, laboratory and desktop needs, and statistical and methodological support. Jack Brinn of ITCS then detailed problems encountered with the NSF cluster computing system, purchased in October and not yet up and runing running, including misrated power load capacity ratings and software issues. He named numerous options being explored. He noted that ITCS is not set up to support research computing also noting that, when the installation is complete, ECU will have the largest shared-memory high performance computer facility in the state.
Glascoff (Health and Human Performance) asked Vice Chancellor Mageean if strategic plans are also being made in support of qualitative research; for example, transcription. Professor Mageean stated that she hadn’t yet heard from that constituency, but when she does she will be glad to address the issue.
Tovey (English) asked Chancellor Ballard what the future implications of PACE, the Presidant’s Advisory Committee on Effectiveness and Efficiency, are? Ballard answered that the goal is to save money—in all areas— that can then be diverted to the University’s 3 core duties. This in turn will demonstrate good husbandry to the legislature, aiding with future funding and bond issues. He stated that a draft report will be ready in February and the final version, which must document results, is due in May
Tovey (English) held up an organizational chart of Academic Affairs, and asked the Provost if eliminating Associate and Assist Vice Chancellors was being considered? Provost Smith answered that the Academic Council has been working on a divisional Strategic Plan that includes peer review of 10 areas.
Schenart (Medicine) asked Chancellor Ballard why he made a direct appointment of the new Vice Chancellor of Student Life. Ballard responded that, after consulting with all affected constituencies, he had to balance the value of national searches with the performance of the Interim Vice Chancellor. He then asked Chancellor Ballard if he has a timeline for hiring a permanent Dean of Medicine, as the delay may affect recruiting of new faculty? The Chancellor responded the ECU is not yet ready for a search, as it must address the administrative structure and efficiency issues in order to attract a pool of excellent candidates.
Rick Niswander (Academic Deans’ Representative) noted that Professor Killingsworth had been accorded the rare honor of being elected to a third term as Chair of the Faculty Assembly, an accomplishment for which the Senate congratulated her.
Agenda Item IV. Unfinished Business
Edson Justiniano, Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Yardley Research Group Draft Report provided a report from the Ad Hoc Committee. He thanked committee members for their hard work and professionalism. He reported that they had concluded that the data was insufficient for understanding ECU’s situation, that said date was flawed, leading to ECU being placed in inappropriate cohorts and thus measured against inappropriate institutions. He stated that the committee concluded that the Yardley Group does not have the academic experience needed to provide direction to specific programs, which its report did, resulting in a biased view.
They additionally stated that Yardley’s recommendation that professional MA degrees must generated revenues to support other programs was unacceptable given ECU’s mission and circumstances. Finally, Professor Justiniano declared that the committee opposed the top-down model of graduate program development suggested by the report (as opposed to a faculty-directed model), and expressed concern about the influence the flawed report will have over the strategic direction graduate programs will take.
Decker (Health and Human Performance) asked if and when a copy of the final report would be available. It was unknown. Zoller (Art & Design) asked what the next step is in strategic planning of graduate programs? Mageean promised to take the Ad Hoc Committee’s report under advisement.
Agenda Item V. Report of Committees
A. Committee on Committees
Henry Ferrell (History), Chair of the Committee, first presented the nominees for one delegate and two alternates to the UNC Faculty Assembly Delegation which included: Andrew Morehead (Chemistry), Catherine Rigsby (Geology), Ralph Scott (Academic Library Services), Ed Seidel (Medicine), Linda Wolfe (Anthropology) and Connie Ciesielski (Technology and Computer Science).
The following were elected to serve as the University’s Delegation with terms beginning in Fall 2007: Delegate: Catherine Rigsby (2010 term) Alternates: Linda Wolfe and Connie Ciesielski (2010 terms) and Andrew Morehead (2009 term).
B. Educational Policies and Planning Committee
Dale Knickerbocker (Foreign Languages and Literatures), Chair of the Committee, presented several items of business for information only. Those included names changes for the Department of Business and Information Technologies Education and BSBA in Management Information Systems, a new concentration in “Mathematics in the Community College” for the MA in Mathematics and requests for authorization to establish a post Master’s certificate for Clinical Nurse Specialists and a BA in African and African American Studies and minor in African and African American Studies. There was no discussion on this committee report.
C. Faculty Governance Committee
Puri
Robinson (Mathematics) moved that in part A new language ” pertaining to Part XII” be added to “required for all personnel actions”, Chandler (Nutrition and Hospitality Management) seconded; Niswander (Business) made friendly substitute amendment to replace “all” with “these”; accepted by Robinson and Chandler. The motion carried.
Roberts (Philosophy) said that the wording in C3 b and c “appropriate to decision”, not specifying if pre-ECU work was to be considered, was too vague. Glascoff (Health and Human Performance) pointed out the advantage to being vague is that it leaves that to unit codes. Jones (Criminal Justice) stated that this was particularly advantageous for promotions to full professor.
Levine (Medicine) moved that in A7. the word “current” be deleted. The motion carried.
McKinnon (Interior Design and Merchandising) moved to add “undergraduate” to first line of B4. Smith (Technology and Computer Science) suggested making “undergraduate” a separate item. Tovey (English) offered a substitute motion drop “graduate” in first line, and have “a” to refer to “undergraduate students and projects”, “b” to graduate students and projects” and “c” to “thesis/dissertation”; this was accepted by McKinnon. Sprague called question. The motion carried. The substitute motion passed.
Brown (Education) moved C2o, “Electronic publications”, be removed (with subsequent re-lettering of p and q) and C2 b “journal articles” be changed to “in peer-reviewed publications in print or electronic format”. Stevens (Health and Human Performance) spoke against the motion, noting that electronic publications are not necessarily peer reviewed. Zoller (Art and Design) moved to change C2b but to retain o, Brown accepted this as friendly. Roberts (Philosophy): observed that publications not peer reviewed can be prestigious, and complained of the vagueness of the wording. Corbett (Geology) stated the suggested language would be redundant to another section in part 2. Tilman (Psychology) asserted that the change’s specificity would cause more problems. Robinson (Mathematics) stated that what publications should and shouldn’t count are discipline specific and should be code issue. Smith (Technology and Computer Science) warned that the change would overcomplicate the document, affirming that faculty know how to weigh different types of publication. Zoller (Art and Design) moved to call the question, the motion carried The motion to change C2b failed.
Fletcher (Medicine) asked why C2 specifies the AMA format for lists of publication? Martínez responded that BSOM representatives had specifically asked for it to be that way. Roberts (Philosophy) moved to table until Senators were supplied a list of all amendments and editorial changes. The motion was defeated.
Brown (Education) asked if Attachment 2 B3 and C, requiring signatures of the chairs of the Promotion Committee implicitly require separate Personnel and Promotion committees? Martínez responded that since the two are not necessarily coextensive, both must be mentioned, and that it does not constitue a change in the present policy.
Tovey (Health and Human Performance) asked if the mention in B1a of the Chair of the Personnel Committee was correct or if it should be the Chair of the Promotion Committee? Martínez answered that it should be Chair of the Personnel Committee
Sprague (Physics) moved to approve the entire document as amended. The motion passed. Following discussion, the proposed revisions to the ECU Faculty Manual, Part XII. Personnel Action Dossier was approved as amended. RESOLUTION #07-01
D. University Curriculum Committee
No one was present from the Committee to present the curriculum matters contained in the minutes of December 14, 2006, and January 11, 2007, meetings, so action on these matters were postponed until the February Senate meeting.
Agenda Item VI. New Business
There was no new business to come before the Faculty Senate at this time. The meeting adjourned at 5:05 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Dale Knickerbocker Lori Lee
Secretary of the Faculty Administrative Officer
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures Faculty Senate office
FACULTY SENATE RESOLUTIONS APPROVED AT THE JANUARY 30, 2007, MEETING
07-01 Revised ECU Faculty Manual, Part XII. Personnel Action Dossier
Disposition: Chancellor