March 19, 2010 - Faculty Governance

Meeting of the General Faculty & the Faculty Council

Friday, March 19, 2010
3:00 p.m.
Hitchcock Multipurpose Room
Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History

Chancellor Holden Thorp and
Professor McKay Coble, Chair of the Faculty, presiding

Agenda

3:00 Chancellor’s Remarks and Question Period

Chancellor Holden Thorp

3:10 Provost’s Remarks and Question Period

Provost Bruce Carney

3:20 Center for Faculty Excellence: An Update

Prof. Ruth Walden, Director
Dr. Todd Zakrajsek, Executive Director
Prof. Malinda Maynor Lowery, Recipient of a 2009 CFE/Lenovo Instructional Innovation Grant

4:00 Retired Faculty Association Update

Prof. Emeritus Andrew Dobelstein, RFA President

4:10 Committee Report: Buildings and Grounds Committee

Prof. David Owens, Chair

4:20 Committee Report: Status of Women Committee

Prof. Barbara Osborne, Chair

4:30 Resolution 2010-1. On Amending the Faculty Code of University Government to Change the Composition of the Administrative Board of the Library. (Second Reading)

Prof. Vin Steponaitis, Chair, Committee on University Government

Resolution 2010-1 Amendment

Proposed by Prof. Joseph Ferrell, Secretary of the Faculty

4:40 Resolution 2010-2. On Establishing the Edward Kidder Graham Faculty Service Award.

Chair of the Faculty McKay Coble and Secretary of the Faculty Joseph Ferrell on behalf of Chancellor Holden Thorp and the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee

4:45 Changes in Calendaring and Email Systems with Upcoming Microsoft Exchange Migration

Dr. Michael Barker, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Infrastructure and Operations
and Chief Technology Officer

5:00 Adjourn

Minutes

The General Faculty and Faculty Council of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill convened at 3:00 p.m. in the Hitchcock Multipurpose Room of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History.

The following 47 members of the Council attended: Aaron, Anderson, Ashby, Bagnell, Bechtel, Bickford, Blackburn, Blalock, Bloom Bowdish, Brice, Catellier, Cornell, Earp, Egan, Fuchs Lokensgar, Gilliland, Greene, Guskiewicz, Halloran, Hayslett, Irons, Janken, Koomen, Lothspeich, Maffly-Kipp, McMillan, Mieczkowski, Morris-Natschke, Morse, New, Owen, Paul, Renner, Richardson, Rodgers, Sheldon, Shields, Sterns, Stotts, Sweet, Tisdale, Tobin, Toews, Van Tilburg, and Wallace.

The following 35 members were granted excused absences: Andrews, Binotti, Blocher, C. Brown, J. Brown, Carlson, DeSaix, Gehrig, Gerber, Gerhardt, Gulledge, Hartnett, Heenan, Hershey, Hodges, Katznelson, Kelly, Koroluk, Lee, Lopez, Mauro, Melamut, Persky, Quinonez, Rhodes, Schoenfisch, Shea, Stein, Sweeney, Syzpszak, Thorp, Thrailkill, Troster, Williams, and Yankaskas.

The following 4 members were absent without excuse: Coleman, Dilworth-Anderson, Papanikolas, and Paquette.

Call to Order

Chair of the Faculty McKay Coble called the meeting to order promptly at 3:00 p.m.

Chancellor’s Remarks and Question Period

Provost search. Chancellor Holden Thorp noted that since the last meeting of the Council, he had decided to ask Interim Provost Bruce Carney to accept the position of Provost after it had become clear that none of the finalists recommended by the search committee were a good match for the job. He said that both of the leading candidates had spent their careers at private institutions and found that heading a public institution posed difficulties; family considerations were a major factor since both have spouses with their own careers and children in school; finally, salary considerations were a problem given today’s economy. When it became apparent that negotiations with neither of the finalists would be successful, the chancellor said that he discussed the situation with the search committee and concluded that the choice came down to starting a new search or asking Interim Provost Carney to take the position. He chose the latter. Fortunately, he said, everyone is in agreement that the final outcome is a highly desirable one.

Budget. Chancellor Thorp reviewed some data on state revenue collections prepared by Mr. Barry Boardman of the General Assembly’s Fiscal Research Division. The data show that sales tax collections are down by 20% from recent experience and withholding tax collections are down by 4.2% from the same period last year. Employment continues to decline with 300,000 jobs lost since the January 2008 peak. The chancellor said that this data indicates that we need to go forward with current plans to identify an additional five percent reduction in state appropriations for the upcoming fiscal year.

Junior faculty positions. The chancellor announced that the William Rand Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust is making a $5 million expendable gift to Carolina to pay the salaries of sixteen new junior faculty hires for three years. This magnificent gift will enable us to get through tough budget times while still continuing to recruit outstanding junior faculty, he said. It will be necessary to find another source for these salaries after the gift is expended, but the chancellor said that he is willing to take the risk. After the Kenan gift was finalized, an anonymous donor added another $500,000 to the endeavor, bringing the total of new hires to 18. Chancellor Thorp said that fifteen new hires will be allocated to the College of Arts and Sciences and one each in the School of Nursing, the School of Education, and the Kenan-Flagler Business School. He said that he is working on some way to provide special recognition to these positions without making them named chairs.

Search for UNC President. Chancellor Thorp noted that the Leadership Statement Committee formed by the Board of Governors for the search for a new president of The University of North Carolina has begun to meet. The committee’s job is to draft a job description for the position. He said that he and Chancellor John Bardo of Western Carolina University have been assigned to get input from the various chancellors. Prof. Judith Wegner (Law), Chair of the Faculty Assembly, is charged with securing input from faculty. Others have been charged with obtaining input from students, staff, alumni, and North Carolina citizens. The Board of Governors has asked that the job description be completed by May 5, at which time a search firm will be engaged. The final selection will be made by a Selection Committee appointed by the Board of Governors.

Provost’s Remarks and Question Period

Provost Bruce Carney reported that budget hearings for 2010-11 are almost complete. He said that he has found these sessions to be highly educational and useful. He has asked each of the deans to identify both how they will absorb an additional five percent reduction in state funding and what they would do with a modest amount of new money.

The provost said that showing a visiting delegation from India around campus had made him realize just how good this University is, and how important it is to get the UNC Global initiative up and running in a more coherent fashion. He said that we need an associate provost position for UNC Global and that he would like to have this position filled by mid-summer. He said that we will be doing an internal search initially and will seek outside applicants only if necessary.

Other items mentioned by the provost included:

A search for the senior associate provost for finance to replace Ms. Elmira Mangum who resigned to accept a position elsewhere;
Continuing work on implementing ConnectCarolina, including partnering with North Carolina State University with respect to the finance and human resources modules;
Work on developing means for making more rational use of Facilities and Administrative (F&A) receipts; and
Plans to revisit gender and racial salary equity studies.

Center for Faculty Excellence Update

Prof. Ruth Walden, Faculty Director of the Center for Faculty Excellence introduced a presentation on the Center’s mission and work. It is a successor to the Center for Teaching and Learning. Its mission is professional development for faculty members at all career stages and its work covers teaching, research, and leadership support. In addition to working with members of the faculty, the Center also continues to provide instructional support for graduate student teaching assistants. The Center’s major areas of emphasis are teaching and learning, research, leadership and mentorship, and E-learning.

Dr. Todd Zakrajsek, Executive Director, reviewed the Center’s work in teaching and learning [click this link for his PowerPoint]. He mentioned one-on-one consultations, workshops, seminars, resource materials, classroom visits, the Future Faculty Fellowship program, the Faculty Newer to Carolina program, and graduate teaching assistant orientation. Specifically, he described some of the work of three colleagues:

Dr. Sohini Sengupta, Research Coordinator, conducts individual consultations and principal investigator training, and explores ways to assist faculty in applying for recognition awards.
Dr. David Kiel, Leadership Coordinator, conducts mentoring workshops, develops language to incorporate mentoring into program review standards, and meets with individuals across campus who are involved in teaching and mentoring programs.
Ms. Laurie Cochenour, E-Learning Policy Coordinator, works on online teaching, blended learning, revision of Carolina On-Line Teaching courses, and Lenovo grants given for innovation in teaching and distance learning.

Prof. Walden introduced Prof. Malinda Maynor Lowery (History), who described her course in Lumbee history. The centerpiece of the course is a website developed with funding support from a Lenovo grant.

Retired Faculty Association Update

Prof. Emeritus Andrew Dobelstein briefed the Council on the UNC Retired Faculty Association (RFA). The RFA was organized in 1986 with a mission to help retired faculty to maintain meaningful ties to the University. Membership is open to all retired faculty, whose ranks include over 750 people, of whom 700 are on the RFA mailing list. The association has about 125 active members. Recently RFA has launched a campaign to demonstrate the potential value of retired faculty for service to the University.

RFA has established contact with retired faculty groups at North Carolina State University and North Carolina Central University and is affiliated with the Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education, a national group of organizations similar to RFA. The national organization plans to hold its 2012 biennial meeting in the Triangle Area.

Prof. Dobelstein said that RFA has been working closely with Chancellor Thorp and Executive Associate Provost Ron Strauss to clarify its formal relationship with the University. He said that plans are in motion to make RFA an official affiliated organization under the aegis of the Office of Faculty Governance.

Annual Reports of Standing Committees

Committee on Buildings and GroundsView the Report Here. Prof. David Owens (Government), chair of the Committee on Buildings and Grounds, presented the committee’s annual report by title. There were no questions or comments.

Committee on the Status of WomenView the Report Here. Prof. Barbara Osborne (Exercise and Sport Science), chair of the Committee on the Status of Women, spoke to the committee’s annual report. She said that the committee had focused its work on faculty salaries and advancement, and that wage disparities are of particular concern in the current economy. Prof. Osborne said that the committee had requested the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment to provide data sufficient to analyze salary comparisons and advancement. This request had been coordinated with the Carolina Women’s Center. Information requested in July was not received until November and then proved inadequate. Prof. Osborne said the committee was disappointed that the information it sought had not been provided in a useful and timely manner, but that she was pleased to hear from Provost Carney that the kind of study the committee had in mind will be done this year.

Administrative Board of the Library—Second Reading of Resolution 2010-1

Prof. Vin Steponaitis (Anthropology), chair of the Committee on University Government, reviewed the reasoning behind submission of Resolution 2010-1, which was approved on first reading at the February General Faculty meeting.

Prof. Joseph Ferrell, Secretary of the Faculty, offered an amendment providing that, except for the seat allotted to the University Libraries, no elections would be held for Administrative Board of the Library in 2010, but that elections would resume in 2011 and 2012 as the terms of elected members expire. He said that this would provide for a smooth transition from a 21-member board to a 14-member board without the need to shorten anyone’s term.

The amendment offered by Prof. Ferrell was adopted without dissent.
Resolution 2010-1 was adopted as amended on second reading without dissent and will be enrolled as part of the Faculty Code of University Government.

Edward Kidder Graham Faculty Service Award

Prof. Ferrell laid before the Council Resolution 2010-2 establishing the Edward Kidder Graham Faculty Service Award, sponsored by himself and Chair of the Faculty McKay Coble. He said that Chancellor Thorp had suggested the creation of an annual award to recognize outstanding service on the part of members of the faculty. Discussions with the Advisory Committee and the Faculty Executive Committee led to a consensus that such an award should be established; that it should be awarded annually on University Day; that it should recognize outstanding service in the spirit of President Graham’s call to extend the services of the University beyond the campus; and that the recipient should be chosen by the Committee on Honorary Degrees and Special Awards on the basis of nominations submitted by any member of the University community. The recipient would have to be an active member of the voting faculty, and attendance at the award ceremony would be expected. Prof. Ferrell said the general outline of the selection procedures had been modeled closely after the procedures followed for selecting recipients of Distinguished Alumnus and Alumna Awards.

Resolution 2010-2 was adopted without dissent.

Update on Microsoft Exchange Migration

Mr. Michael Barker, Assistant Vice Chancellor for IT Infrastructure and Operations, briefed the Council on the impending migration of the email system to Microsoft Exchange. He said that Exchange provides a seamless, integrated messaging platform that includes both email and calendaring. In response to questions, he said that email addresses will remain unchanged, but users will need to reconfigure their email clients to reflect the change in income and outgoing server names. As for compatibility, Mr. Barker said that IMAP and SMTP will remained active but POP will be discontinued. In response to a question about the Lyris listserve client, Mr. Barker said that Exchange will make it easier for users to set up distribution lists without needing to create a listserve.

Adjournment

Its business having been completed, the Council adjourned at 4:47 p.m.

Joseph S. Ferrell

Secretary of the Faculty