2009-2010 Fall Faculty Convocation
Marianna Walker, Chair of the Faculty
August 24, 2009

Good Morning! Welcome to all faculty, administrators, Board of Trustee members, students, and staff. I am Marianna Walker and I am honored to serve you as the Chair of the Faculty this year. I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders in the College of Allied Health Sciences. I welcome you back to begin the 2009/2010 academic year. Thanks to Professor John Tucker, University Historian, for providing this montage of images to celebrate ECU’s rich history. This visual presentation is timely as this is the 100^th anniversary of the opening of classes at our institution. On October 5, 1909, classes began at East Carolina Teachers Training School. This year, classes will begin for over 27,000 students. As part of the Centennial Celebration at ECU, we are pleased to inform you that two Centennial history books, No Time for Ivy and Promises Kept, will be available in the lobby for faculty members, at the close of the convocation. These books provide a comprehensive narration of the history of East Carolina University, as written by our former historian, Professor Emeritus Henry Ferrell and are provided at no cost to you. I’m sure they will be a valued addition to your professional library. Thanks to Austin Bunch for his efforts in providing these copies to us. There will opportunities for additional distribution of copies to others within departments and divisions later in the week. It is important for us all to reflect on our history and to appreciate the process of development and change and resulting outcomes that have shaped our university to its present form.

We thank Chancellor Ballard for his commitment to shared governance and to the preservation of the academic core in these tough budget times. You promised that the faculty and their responsibilities to academic instruction would be spared and you followed those words with action. We appreciate your representation of our needs to the Board of Trustees and to UNC General Administration. Thanks also to our new Board of Trustees Chair, Mr. David Brody, and all BOT members for making academic core functions and faculty priorities for the budget. We look forward to our work together this year. Thanks also to the Academic Council, for their continued commitment to shared governance and the detailed communication that has already occurred with the faculty leadership – Thanks to Provost Sheerer, Vice Chancellor Horn, and Vice Chancellor Deirdre Mageean. We look forward to our continued dialogue.

I would like to recognize the current faculty leadership team. This team has been working diligently for the past two months in addressing current university issues that affect all of us. I can’t overemphasize the word “team” in this group of faculty leaders. On occasion, this term is loosely defined or used to describe a “group of people” who may or may not actually collaborate. In an effective faculty leadership “team”, varying perspectives, representing differential faculty needs, are welcomed and as a result, consensus occurs, which is then communicated to the general faculty, faculty senate, and administration. I can assure you that your faculty leadership team will represent you well in all venues this year. I cannot function alone in my role as Chair of the Faculty. Let me introduce the faculty leadership team to you. Please stand as I call your name.

The Vice Chair of the Faculty, Professor Mark Sprague, Department of Physics, Harriot College of Arts and Sciences; Secretary of the Faculty, Professor Hunt McKinnon, Department of Interior Design and Merchandising, College of Human Ecology; and Parliamentarian, Professor Brenda Killingsworth, Department of Management Information Systems, College of Business. Dr. Killingsworth will also be the first UNC GA Scholar in Residence where she will be involved in system-wide aspects of distance learning as well as lead several peer panels for the new academic program planning process developed as a result of UNC Tomorrow.

And last, but certainly not least, is Ms. Lori Lee, the Faculty Senate administrator. She is the rock in the office, the source for all information and matters pertaining to the Faculty Senate. Thank you Lori for all that you do for the faculty on our campus.

These leaders have already displayed a passion for their role in shared governance and in determining the nature of the issues that face the faculty, the faculty senate, and the university this year. As you can see, this team represents the many facets of university, from the various disciplines to the diverse representation of divisions and units. Your faculty leadership team consists of a speech-language pathologist (me), a physicist, an architect, and a systems analyst.

We call on each of you, as a faculty member, to establish or renew your sense of faculty roles, rights and responsibilities, to communicate your ideas and to provide a voice on key university issues that will assist the faculty leaders and the faculty senate (including committees), the senior administration, and the Chancellor, in making decisions this year toward common university missions. We call for a renewed sense of communication and collaboration in the university this year as we move forth in accomplishing our endeavors together. The faculty leader have already established relationships and communicated with key constituencies during their short tenure in office and will continue to build on those relationships this year.

Thanks to our past Faculty Chair, Professor Jan Tovey and Professor Ken Wilson, Parliamentarian, for his invaluable assistance in university procedures and policies. Professor Wilson will continue to be a valuable asset to the faculty leadership this year. I thank you in advance, Ken, for your continued service to the university.

The faculty leaders have met on a number of occasions with the SGA Officers, whom are a dedicated group of students who are passionate about their service and communication with both faculty and administration. Their organization of the Violence Walk and Memorial Service this summer was well run, which demonstrated their leadership skills. We invited them to be present today and I would like to have each of them stand and be recognized: President – Brad Congletion, Vice President – Brad Teasley, Treasurer – Tremayne Smith, Secretary – Kendra Parks, Chief of Staff – Joshua Martinkovic.

Their stance is not only what the faculty leadership can do for them, but how they can collaborate and assist the faculty leadership. We look forward to our continued communication with this group.

I would now like to recognize the faculty senators and alternates for the 2009-2010 year. Please stand. Thanks to you for the work you have done and will do this year. You will be called upon to make important decisions pertaining to faculty roles and responsibilities. I am asking all senators to truly represent their respective units so the voice of your faculty will be represented in the faculty senate meetings.

In addition, I’d like the faculty senate committee members to stand and be recognized. Thanks in advance for your university service. This year, I will be meeting monthly with Faculty Committee Chairs who will keep me informed of progress made in committee charges and tasks. In addition, I will be soliciting ongoing feedback from my representatives on each of the committees. The faculty leadership is hopeful that this increased communication practice will promote collaboration among committees, increase accountability, and provide a broader understanding of the interrelationships between the Academic committees.

The faculty should stay involved and be thoroughly informed of current issues, charges, and changes that are on the table for discussion. In order to accomplish this, the faculty officers have established a continued line of communication with the general faculty, in additional to the faculty senators, which will exist in many forms. We have an obligation to represent and communicate with the entire faculty on these academic issues. One way that we will strive to keep faculty informed about issues will be through scheduled bi-monthly open faculty forums, which will provide a mechanism for open discourse surrounding current faculty and university issues. These forums will be held on east campus on the 2^nd Wednesday of the month, at noon, in Brewster B 104 and on west campus on the 4^th Wednesday of the month, at noon, in the Gold Auditorium in Brody School of Medicine. The actual dates are available on the Faculty Senate website. Current topics will be sent via email and will be announced in Faculty Senate meetings each month.

The first scheduled forums, Wednesday, September 9, 2009, is scheduled for 12 noon-1:00 in Brewster B-104 and again 5:30-6:30 in the Gold Auditorium of the Brody Building will provide an overview of the Policy on Policies, as part of the University Policy Guidelines Manual.

Please come to the forums and let your voice be heard. A key to a strong university is broad faculty input into all academic issues. Without a strong faculty voice, shared governance will be skewed. The faculty leadership wants to hear, not only from faculty senators, but from the general faculty who represent diverse and differing points of view and needs. All views need to be heard and acknowledged as we embark on important decisions this year. We will be using these forums as a way for faculty to also communicate with senior administrators, who value your opinions regarding university issues. Thanks in advance to our administrative leadership who have already expressed an interest in attending these forums. In addition to these forums, a blog, entitled Faculty Matters, will focus on faculty-related issues and will be available online. A link is available on the faculty senate website. The Faculty Matters Blog will also serve as an online forum where the readers will be able to participate in the discussions. Thanks to Vice Chair Mark Sprague for his oversight of this venue.

Recently, the faculty officers received a directive from the Chancellor regarding a comprehensive emendation of the faculty manual, as you just heard from his remarks. As you may be aware, the East Carolina University Faculty Manual was developed 44 years ago in 1965 and has been the only academic policy manual to remain in existence at the university since that time.

Many of the procedures and policies documented within the faculty manual are, and have historically been, responsibilities of other divisions on campus, such as the Administrative Policy and the Facilities sections. While the Faculty Senate has done an admirable job throughout the years in maintaining this information in a central location for the faculty, relinquishing the maintenance of administrative sections and policies to their proper divisions is an appropriate course of action, freeing up our faculty committees time to focus on issues more germane to faculty roles and responsibilities.

Two years ago, a committee was formed to develop a university policies and procedures manual, which will contain administrative and academic regulations and policies. This directive came from the University auditor who provided this recommendation to the Board of Trustees. Following this mandate, The Chancellor directed the Chair of the Faculty and faculty officers to create a more streamlined document to eliminate redundant sections, rectify inconsistencies, and make appropriate references to current policies and procedures, housed in the University Policy Manual. The directive also asked for a Faculty Manual Steering Committee with members collaboratively selected by the Chair of the Faculty, Provost and Chancellor. This Committee will be appointed very early this semester, and will be co-chaired by the Chair of the Faculty and the Provost.

Sometimes circumstances, such as an auditor directive, dictate the need for important, thoughtful, and immediate responses. There is a call for renewed communication and collaboration between faculty and administration. It is time for faculty to come together to ascertain ways to improve our responsiveness and shared governance procedures to advance the mission of our great university. We have an opportunity to improve the faculty manual by making it a more understandable and streamlined document consistent with the UNC Code. This year, I will be calling on my colleagues to work with the faculty leadership to accomplish this important task.

We have much work to do this academic year, but it is comforting to know that we have great resources and expertise among the faculty to make this possible. We must direct our passion and experience toward this enormous endeavor. We must be positive and forward thinking in our collaboration with the administration, and work to preserve the academy and faculty rights in shared governance at East Carolina University.

The Faculty Senate and its committees will have much work to do this year to make these changes. I encourage you to be involved and to come to the faculty forums to discuss this and other contemporary issues including the Faculty Workload Policy, SACS reaccreditation, SOIS, Strategic Enrollment Task Force recommendations, and the Scholarship of Engagement.

As we embark on this new year, we need to remind ourselves that if faculty are engaged in the process of solving problems, suggesting solutions, developing new systems, or revising existing policies and procedures, they will have ownership in the final product and outcome. Ask yourself what you can do to be part of this process. Remember, it is not only your right, but your responsibility.

The faculty are the soul of the university. Faculty need to provide direction and insight not only for our students, but for the administration and Board of Trustees on important academic issues in order to safeguard the well-being of all faculty now and in the future and to maintain the university’s process of shared governance. I look forward to working with all of you this year to accomplish great things.