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Meeting of the Faculty Council & General Faculty

Friday, September 13, 2013
3:00 p.m.
Pleasants Family Assembly Room
Wilson Library

Chancellor Carol Folt and Professor Jan Boxill, Chair of the Faculty, presiding

Agenda

3:00  Chancellor’s Remarks and Question Period

  • Chancellor Carol Folt

3:20 Presentation of the 2013 Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prizes for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement by Young Faculty to:

  • Emily Baragwanath, Associate Professor of Classics
  • Eliana Perrin, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and director of the Child Health Program, Sheps Center for Health Services Research
  • Wei You, Associate Professor of Chemistry
  • Mark Zylka, Associate Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology, UNC Neuroscience Center, School of Medicine

3:30  Chair of the Faculty’s Remarks and Question Period

  • Prof. Jan Boxill

3:40  Resolution 2013-15. On Appreciation for the Service of Jackie Overton as Chair of the Employee Forum, 2010-13

  • Presented by the Faculty Executive Committee

3:45  New Functionalities in Connect Carolina

  • Mr. Chris Derickson, University Registrar

3:50  Meet Key Campus Leaders

  • Mr. Christy Lambden, Student Body President
  • Ms. Kiran Bhardwaj, President, Graduate and Professional Students Federation
  • Mr. Charles Streeter, Chair, Employee Forum

4:00  Faculty Athletics Committee Update

  • Prof. Joy Renner, Chair

4:10  Rawlings Panel Report Discussion, Part I

Focal document:  Rawlings Recommendations Relating to Faculty Governance or Educational Policy (created by Secretary of the Faculty Joe Ferrell)

Part I of the discussion will focus on soliciting Faculty Council’s general ideas about several specific recommendations within the Rawlings Report that relate strongly to the faculty’s role in setting educational policy.  Part II of the discussion will take place at the October 4th Faculty Council meeting and will include further, and perhaps more specific, conversation about those recommendations with a panel of campus officials having specific responsibility for admissions, athletics, and academic support for student-athletes.

Background reading:

4:50  Thursday Night Football Game, October 17th

  • Mr. Rick Steinbacher, Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Communications
  • Mr. Butch Ksiah, Head, Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation Department
  • Ms. Deborah Hawkins, Parking Control and Event Operation Manager, UNC Public Safety

Background reading:  Previous Faculty Council resolutions on weekday football:

5:00 pm  Adjourn

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Journal of Proceedings of the Meeting of the General Faculty and the Faculty Council

The Faculty Council of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill convened Friday, September 13, 2013, at 3:00 p.m. in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room at the Wilson Library.

The following 81 members attended: Able, Adams, Aikat, Alesii, Anthony, Beck, Beltran Lopez, Boettiger Cooney, Boulton, Boxill, Brown, Bulik, Caren, Chambers, Champagne, Chapman, Chavis, Chenault, Chera, Collier, Cook, Copenhaver, Cox, Cuddeback, Day, Divaris, Dolan, Edwards, Engel, Ferrell, Fisher, Folt, Furry, Gerhardt, Gilligan, Giovanello, Grabowski, Gucsacas-Calikoglu, Gulledge, Guskiewicz, Guthmiller, Hackman, Heitsch, Hill, Hirsch, Hodges, Howes, Hsu, Irons, Ives, Koomen, Kurtz-Costes, Larson, Liu, Lu, Mayer-Davis, McMillan, Melehy, T. Miller, V. Miller, Mitran, Mohanty, Moon, Moreton, Palmer, Parise, Paul, Persky, Pertsova, Pryal, Reiter, Rial, Rodgers, Stenberg, Steponaitis, Swift-Scanlan, Tepper, Thompson, Watson, Watson, Yaqub, and You.

Members absent with excuse: Bachenheimer, Baumgartner, Bunch, Cavin, Dean, Fry, Hobbs, Houck, Joyner, Kang, Kramer, Lee, Leonard, Parker, Shackelford, Spagnoli, Stavas, Viera, Wang, and Waterhouse.

Members absent without excuse: Carlson.

Chair of the Faculty Remarks

The Chair of the Faculty welcomed everyone to the first General Faculty and Faculty Council meeting of the year. She explained that Chancellor Folt would be delayed by an event at the Children’s Hospital involving Governor Pat McCrory. Prof. Boxill gave her remarks and answered questions from the General Faculty.  (See Appendix A.)

Prof. Boxill said that her goals from last year remain constant. She wants to restore confidence in the relationship between academics and athletics and to create partnerships between faculty and staff. She said that changes in the Faculty Athletics Committee’s approach to its charge, the Rawlings Panel’s work, and the Faculty Executive Committee’s subcommittee report have worked toward those goals. She said that she has worked on continuing partnerships between the faculty, staff, and students. She said that she met regularly with Chancellor Thorp, the Employee Forum Chair, and the Student Body President.  She plans to invite leaders from the Campus Community Garden to address Faculty Council this year.  She has spoken at the Employee Forum meetings on several occasions.

Prof. Boxill said that this year presents many new opportunities with new leadership. She plans to spend more time educating the public about faculty contributions to the community and the state. She said that it is important that North Carolinians know what kinds of work faculty do. She is coordinating a weekly WCHL program with Aaron Keck that will highlight the contributions of faculty, graduate students and post-doctoral scholars. She encouraged faculty to volunteer to highlight their work on the program.

Prof. Boxill said that this year she has three goals: 1) to implement the Honor System reforms that were passed last spring, 2) to improve the University’s response to sexual assault, and 3) to provide a forum for discussions about the future of athletics.

Prof. Boxill said she would take questions from the faculty about the article in the News and Observer that was published July 20, 2013. The article alleged that she forced changes to the 2012 Faculty Executive Committee report on athletics to avoid an NCAA investigation. She said that ethics are at the core of her identity and she has never shied away from conversations about ethics and sports. She helped to create the NCAA Scholarly Colloquium that launched in January 2006, but was later defunded.  She said she sees the value of sports on campus, but she still has concerns and has tried to create openings for learning and conversations about college sports.

Prof. Boxill announced that Provost Dean has launched the Student-Athlete Academic Working Group to study and evaluate the full student-athlete experience on campus.  She said that a summit titled “True Sport U: Beyond Compliance” will be held on campus in May.  She mentioned that the Faculty Council survey indicated that many Council members felt that the Council had spent enough time or too much time discussing athletics.

Prof. Jay Smith (History) said that he would like the Rawlings Panel to be embedded in a wider campus dialog about college sports. He said that the University has never held a town hall meeting on the subject and he would like one to be organized.

Prof. Boxill said that there have been many public forums held, but they have not been organized around the Rawlings Panel. She said that the faculty will have the opportunity to give input and ask questions about the Rawlings report at the next Council meeting.

Prof. Jonathan Engel (Physics and Astronomy) asked Prof. Boxill if she could explain the substance of the newspaper article and why the campus dialog is different from what the News and Observer has been reporting.

Prof. Boxill said that article headline was misleading. She explained that the committee was discussing was whether the word “booster” or “supporter” should be used in the report.  A member of the committee said that the term “booster” had a specific meaning for the NCAA that did not align with how the committee was trying to use the term. The committee felt that the change in wording did not have an impact on the substance of the report.  All of the subcommittee members emailed Dan Kane, the article’s author, with lengthy explanations that were not printed in the News and Observer. The recommendations in the report were not affected by the wording change.

Prof. Greg Copenhaver (Biology) said that he was present for the conversation. He said that the committee members offered multiple recommendations and the discussion about the terminology was a brief conversation.

Prof. Michael Gerhardt (Law) said that he agreed with Prof. Boxill’s explanation.  He added that he was out of town when the subcommittee was giving feedback on the report. He said some of the confusion stemmed from the subcommittee initially using a technical term that they didn’t know had a different meaning from what they had intended to convey.

Prof. Boxill said that the three faculty members who wrote the report were not particularly knowledgeable about athletics. Instead, they were chosen for their analytical skills.

Chancellor’s Remarks and Question Period

Chancellor Carol Folt greeted the Council and said that she has spent several weeks meeting people across campus and getting to know the faculty, staff, and students. She said she spent the morning meeting with the Board of Governors. Afterward, she went to the pit with Vice Chancellor Winston Crisp and Student Body President Christy Lambden to see displays for off-campus programs. Then she went to the Children’s Hospital where Governor Pat McCrory and his wife signed a resolution against child cancer.  She met a family and child who had gone through a tough cancer treatment. She said it was a wonderful event and Governor McCrory reaffirmed the need to support research. She ended the day with her first Faculty Council meeting.

She said that part of the challenge of transitioning to Chancellor is getting to know people. She said that Holden Thorp had an advantage because he already knew everyone by the time he became Chancellor. The chancellor said she wants to know the issues that concern people.

Chancellor Folt thanked Prof. Boxill for helping her get oriented to campus.  She said she looks forward to working with other faculty. She reported that she attended her first Atlantic Coast Conference meeting and had chance to learn about athletics at the University and the ACC.  She said that she looks forward to engaging in those conversations.

The chancellor reported that the University is close to naming the new Vice Chancellor for Development and Vice Chancellor for Communications. The search to replace Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Karol Kain Gray will come after the other two finished.

Chancellor Folt invited questions and comments.

Prof. Greg Copenhaver (Biology) remarked that he thought that the Governor’s comments about supporting research were not consistent with his actions, especially with regard to recent budget cuts.

Chancellor Folt said that she is proud of the work that Provost Dean and Vice Chancellor Gray did to minimize the impact of the cuts. She said that she is glad he recognized the importance of research and that his comments will help open up the conversation.

Presentation of the 2013 Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prizes for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement by Young Faculty

Chancellor Folt presented the Hettleman Prizes to Prof. Eliana Perrin (Pediatrics), Prof. Wei You (Chemistry), and Prof. Mark Zylka (Cell Biology and Physiology). Prof. Emily Baragwanath (Classics) was unable to attend.

Prof. Perrin (Pediatrics) thanked her husband, Prof. Andrew Perrin (Sociology), her parents, and Prof. Cindy Bulik (Nutrition). She said that as a pediatrician who works on childhood obesity, she uses a variety of research methods. She is interested in how pediatricians can foster healthy habits. She has created a toolkit for pediatricians to give to low-literacy parents. She is also concerned about how pediatricians can help children foster a healthy body image.

Prof. Wei You (Chemistry) thanked his department and Holden Thorp for hiring him in 2006 when he was chair of the Chemistry department. He said that at any time he works with 20 excellent graduate students. He explained that his lab is working to make a more flexible version of silicon that is affordable and transparent.

Prof. Mark Zylka (Cell Biology and Physiology) thanked the Hettleman Awards Committee and the chancellor. He said that moving to North Carolina from California was like walking into an empty house with no furniture and no family. He said when he arrived there were no test tubes, equipment, or people in his lab. The University gave him financial support for supplies, equipment, student workers. Since then, his lab has made discoveries in treating pain and genetic and environmental causes of autism.

Resolution 2013-15. On Appreciation for the Service of Jackie Overton as Chair of the Employee Forum, 2010-13

Prof. Boxill read the resolution aloud to the Council. Jackie Overton thanked the faculty for their work and for honoring her with the resolution. The resolution passed without dissent. The faculty rose and applauded.

Campus Leader Introductions

Mr. Christy Lambden, Student Body President, thanked the faculty for their work and said that he is looking forward working with them this year.

Ms. Kiran Bhardwaj, President, Graduate and Professional Students Federation introduced herself. She was the GPSF representative on faculty council last year. She extended her thanks to the faculty and emphasized that graduate and professional students make up 37% of the student population at Carolina.

Mr. Charles Streeter, Employee Forum Chair, introduced himself and said that he is excited about the projects the Forum has planned for the year. He hopes to continue strengthening the relationship with faculty that his predecessor built.

Faculty Athletics Committee Update

Prof. Joy Renner (Allied Health), Chair of the Faculty Athletics Committee, gave an overview of the committee’s charge. She explained that the committee advises the chancellor by 1) monitoring existing systems and policies and organization related to academics, 2) reviewing present academic outcomes and trends, 3) seeking out Best Practice information from our academic peers to guide our refinement of the UNC connection of academics and athletics, 4) discussing trends in college athletics on topics that could affect academics, and 5) providing input to new systems and policies to strengthen the student athlete’s UNC experience.

She said that last year the committee focused on researching topical areas and this year they will focus on recommendations. She said the committee plans to work with the provost’s new working group on the student-athlete experience. Last year, she assigned each member to a content area to research. She plans to continue the same structure this year. However, she wants to add “alignment” to the list of items to research. By “alignment” she means that the committee should be sure their efforts are in line with Carolina’s strategic plan and other recommendations that are currently being implemented.  She has designated team liaisons for particular sports teams. This year, she would like the committee members to meet with faculty to listen and bring information back to the committee.

Prof. Renner moved on to addressing the Rawlings Report recommendations.  Recommendation #3 states that faculty committees should have clearly defined charges, roles and responsibilities. She said that the Faculty Athletics Committee will look into whether the Faculty Code should be amended to update the committee’s charge.

Prof. Renner said that the University has already implemented recommendation #6 by restructuring the Academic Support Program for Student Athletes and moving it administratively to the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost. In response to recommendation #8, Prof. Renner said that Carolina uses an integrated approach to admissions and that Steve Farmer, Vice Provost for Enrollment and Undergraduate Admissions, will attend the next Council meeting to clarify the process for admissions.

Recommendation #9 states that the University should “Insure that student/athletes are subject to general disciplinary rules and codes of conduct applicable to other students at the institution, including the same procedures and sanctions; assure as well that all athletics department policies are applicable specifically to all student/athletes, and that all communications regarding student/athletes between athletics department staff and student disciplinary staff are routed through the athletics director or his/her designee(s) are applicable to other students.” Prof. Renner said that the Honor System reforms partly address this concern.

Prof. Renner said that recommendation #10 has already been implemented at Carolina. She explained that all medical services for student-athletes are housed in the Department of Student Affairs, not the Department of Athletics.  She explained that recommendations #12, 13, and 14 call on the University to provide a way to report compliance violations and to provide an easy to read, transparent budget for the Department of Athletics. Recommendation #18 encourages conferences to expand educational benefits to student-athletes. Prof. Renner said that this recommendation is meant to help student-athletes come back and finish their degrees if they leave the university. Prof. Renner said that Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham is interested in expanding educational opportunities for student-athletes.

Prof. Renner said that the Faculty Athletics Committee plans to discuss recommendations #19 and 20, which discourage excessive spending on athletics. With regard to recommendation #21, she said that Mr. Cunningham has been working to develop a consortium of universities who are interested in engaging in discussions about athletics reform. Prof. Renner said that Mr. Cunningham would like to get the consortium started in the spring. So far, eight schools have agreed to join.

Prof. Renner said that recommendation #22 to insure quantitative academic performance of special admits is already being done at Carolina. Many factors are taken into consideration for admission, including the school the prospective student is coming from and the academic performance of the team they will be joining. Recommendation #25 that recommends a year of readiness for first year student-athletes has been discussed by the Faculty Athletics committee. Prof. Renner explained that similar initiatives, such as a “period of readiness” have been discussed as well. She said that while some student-athletes would benefit from a year of readiness, others may not.

Prof. Boxill said that the faculty will have a larger discussion at the October Council meeting. She asked members to identify athletics issues that they would like to discuss.

Prof. Vin Steponaitis (Anthropology and Archaeology) said that he was surprised how similar the recommendations of the 1989 task force chaired by Prof. Doris Betts is to the Rawlings report. He asked what recommendations from 1989 report have been implemented.

Prof. Renner said that the Faculty Athletics Committee will be looking into past reports and recommendations to find out why some things have been implemented and others haven’t been. She said that is why she is asking the committee to focus on alignment.

Dr. Libby Chenault (University Library) asked why athletes are compared to other special talent students. She asked if Steve Farmer could talk more about special talent admissions.

Prof. Tim McMillan (African, African American, and Diaspora Studies) asked which schools had joined the consortium.

Prof. Renner said she only knows a few of the schools, but she will find out and post the information on the Office of Faculty Governance web site.

Thursday Night Football Game Update on Parking

Mr. Rick Steinbacher, Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Communications, introduced himself and thanked the faculty for their work. He said as the father of a Carolina first-year student, he is especially grateful to the faculty for making Carolina a great institution. He explained that he chaired the planning committee for the October 17th Thursday night football game. He has also been involved in organizing Tar Heel Downtown, an event for fans and families that will be held that day on Franklin Street. He said that the last Thursday game that UNC hosted was in 2009. He said that the committee intends to follow same plan as in 2009 to the greatest extent possible.  He said that unlike in 2009, the campus will not close early this year.  The campus will stay open until 5 p.m. He said that Tar Heel Downtown will highlight the town and campus and will generate positive exposure and economic impact. He said that the event will also help to redirect traffic away from South campus.

Mr. Butch Ksiah, Head of Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation Department, said that the Thursday game is a great opportunity. ESPN is planning to film downtown and on campus. He said that he has also been planning Festifall in partnership with the Ackland Art Museum. He said these events are examples of ways the town can partner with the University.

Ms. Deborah Hawkins, Parking Control and Event Operation Manager at UNC Public Safety, said she would prefer a Saturday game to a Thursday game because of the limitations on parking spaces.  She said her office has worked out a parking plan and they are doing their best to accommodate the people who will still be working on campus during the game.  She said that some lots will be closed for security at 3:30 p.m., although the University will remain open for business until 5 p.m. She suggested that the faculty contact their parking coordinator if they need to be on campus so that arrangements could be made for parking. Their office will be launching a website where people can access the parking plan and find out which lots will be closed at which times.  She said that additional buses will be added to the normal schedules. She said that the hospital will not be making patient appointments after 3 p.m.

Prof. Peter Gilligan (Pathology and Laboratory Medicine) said that he runs a clinic 24 hours a day with 800 inpatients. He said he has a staff of 30 people who work late hours.  He asked why staff and faculty members’ cars were towed during the 2009 game. He asked why a Thursday night football game is necessary.

Ms. Hawkins said that parking areas around the stadium are security sensitive. She said that they will not tow cars in the majority of lots.

Prof. Gilligan asked again why someone who has a parking sticker would be towed.

Prof. Shielda Rodgers (Nursing) said that she agreed with Prof. Gilligan. She is also concerned for the staff members who have to move their cars by 3:30 p.m. She said that some are being forced to take vacation pay or rearrange their schedules to leave work early. She asked why those few people can’t stay in their assigned lot.

Ms. Hawkins said that if staff can identify reasons for being on campus and communicate them to their parking coordinator, an exception might be made.

Mr. Rick Steinbacher said that Thursday night games are important because there are only one or two college games aired at that time on ESPN. There tends to be higher viewership on Thursday than Saturday.

Prof. Gilligan asked if the Thursday game would have that much impact on the ranking of UNC’s brand.

Prof. Boxill said that the game is a good opportunity to highlight what faculty do and showcase Franklin Street. She said there will be a plan in place to control traffic.

Prof. Rodgers asked again if there is some way to make an exception for the healthcare workers who park in lots that will be affected.

Prof. Copenhaver (Biology) said that he agreed. He said that if there is an emergency situation, he would want hospital staff to be responsive and not have to worry about their cars.

Ms. Hawkins said that roads will be shut down for emergency access. She said they have a plan in place for emergency situations and affirmed that access to the level one trauma center is the highest priority. She said that is precisely the reason why cars cannot be located in specific lots.

Prof. Vin Steponaitis (Anthropology and Archaeology) said that he is impressed with the amount of planning and is glad that the event helps downtown. He said there are a lot of pros and cons to having Thursday games, but this event is going to happen. He suggested that the Council revisit the issue and possibly strengthen the 1999 resolution that was already passed.

Prof. Boxill said in conclusion that some people may be dissatisfied with the Thursday games, but there will be a plan in place to help mitigate the inconveniences.

Adjournment

Having completed its business, the Faculty Council adjourned at 5:05 p.m.

Respectfully submitted

Kathryn Turner
Executive Assistant

Joseph S. Ferrell
Secretary of the Faculty

Appendix A: Chair of the Faculty Comments

I cannot believe this is the beginning of the final year of my 3-year term as Faculty Chair. As I was preparing my comments for today, I looked back at my remarks from last year’s retreat where I expressed my priorities for the year. They were to restore confidence in the healthy combination of academics and athletics; rediscover and renew our commitment to the UNC mission; and restore morale through partnership of students, staff, faculty and administration.  These aspirations are pretty general, but they remain constant.

We’ve made strides in each of these areas over the past 2 years:

•            Beginning to restore the relationship between academics and athletics through the Faculty Athletics Committee’s work, the implementation of the recommendations of the FEC subcommittee, the work of the Hunter Rawlings panel, and the work on the Honor System.

•            Building morale and community among students, faculty, and staff through regular meetings between the Chancellor, Student Body president, the Chair of the Employee forum and me; through inclusion of faculty, students and staff on the Chancellor’s and Provost’s search committees; through the partnership involved in the Campus Community Garden (about which you will hear later in the semester); and through regular appearances I have made at the Employee Forum.

But there is still work to be done on these issues and on new issues that will inevitably arise. The University is not a static institution, but one that is constantly changing and developing.  This gives rise to conflicts, new collaborations, and revised plans.  But what does not change is our mission, and the creative and varied approaches our faculty embrace to pursue it.  It is our time with new Chancellor and Provost and with financial tightness to bring us all back together to clarify and enhance our mission with the extraordinary and diverse talent we have here at UNC. This is a new beginning, an incredible opportunity for all of us.

In this spirit, in the coming months, I will focus on publicly advocating on behalf of the faculty; indeed we must all be advocates in letting the public and our own colleagues know who we are and what we do.

Also, I especially want to provide a solid base for my successor as Faculty Chair to take on new conflicts and collaborations in achieving our mission.

Three issues are priorities for me this year:

I.  Seeing the Honor System reforms that you approved last spring through to full implementation for fall of 2014.  We face several challenges to completing this process:

1.           Student/faculty resolution: Standardizing penalties and who qualifies for this procedure.

2.           XF grade: The grade itself isn’t the challenge; it was approved by EPC last Spring. The challenge is in how XF it will be implemented and how it can be removed. For the latter, one plan is to develop a course, either face-to- face or on line. This requires a unit to implement the course and instructors to teach it.

3.           Faculty sitting on initial hearings of cases.  This one was a fairly contentious reform, but the challenge now is in recruiting faculty to serve.  Many departments and units have an Honor System Liaison, but a good number do not. Please find out if your department has one and, if not, do your part to make sure it does.  Beyond the Liaisons, we need at least 50 faculty members for hearings, and this is where you come in. I am challenging each of you to volunteer to serve on the Hearings Board, and/or to recruit a colleague to do so.  The faculty called for these reforms, it is now time for us to step up and participate if it is to be sustainable.  We need to get faculty in place this term so everyone can be trained in the Spring.

4.           Further, given the new mandates, we now face some new challenges. One that recently came from the General Assembly is a new law allowing students charged with anything other than academic dishonesty to have attorneys or non-attorney advocates at initial hearings. The Governor has signed this, and it has already gone into effect!  There are many devils in the details of implementing the policy, not the least of which is the disadvantage it creates for lower income students.

I will work collaboratively with you, the Faculty Executive Committee, EPC, COSC, and the Faculty Advisory Committee to the Honor System to see these reforms in place for Fall 2014.  Over the summer Professor Richard Meyer, Chair of COSC, Professor Judith Wegner, Chair of the Faculty Advisory Committee, and myself met with Vice-Chancellor Crisp and Dean of Students Jonathan Sauls to work on all these issues.

 II.  Improving our campus’s response systems for sexual assault.  This is a very complex issue, so too are the challenges.  It is an extremely emotional issue and it affects all of us—men, women, faculty, staff and students.   The Sexual Assault Task Force, chaired by Christi Hurt, has been working diligently all summer to set policies for student-on-student conduct.  I appointed four faculty members to the task force who have expertise on the issue.

              Title IX coordinator

•            Carolina’s search committee for the Title IX coordinator position has scheduled open forums with three candidates who will be on campus for interviews. The forums will include a presentation and question and answer session. The campus community is invited to attend the forums, interact with the candidates and provide feedback: One has already been held.

              Mr. Howard Kallem: Sept. 13, 2013, 3:00 – 4:00 p.m., SU- 3408

              Ms. Jayne Grandes: Sept. 18, 2013, 3:00 – 4:00 p.m., SU-3408

 III.         Monitoring our progress in addressing the problems within our athletics system that contributed to the serious troubles uncovered last year, and continuing to provide forums for honest discussion of the role of athletics on our campus. The appendix of our response sent to our accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, last spring lists nearly 50 recommendations and indicates where the university stands on implementing them. Most show progress or completion, but a few still need to be monitored and attended to.

The Hunter Rawlings report has other recommendations—which we will discuss later in this meeting.

IV.         On top of these priorities, I will also be working with the Faculty Executive Committee to monitor and provide opportunities for faculty engagement around emerging issues such as online or e-learning, and the development of MOOCs, as well as the implementation of the system-wide Strategic Plan which includes the Drop/Add policy and the General Education student learning competencies appropriate for all UNC system institutions.

On all of these issues, I am excited—and I hope you are as well—to have the opportunity to forge new ground with Provost Jim Dean and Chancellor Carol Folt.

I’d like to offer you the opportunity to make comments about these or other matters as we look ahead.

I’d also like to make some specific remarks about athletics.  In a few minutes, I’d like to open things up for you to ask anything you’d like to ask, including anything about this summer’s News & Observer article claiming that I sought inappropriate changes to last summer’s FEC report.

But as we discuss all of this, I’d also like to note a few important points:

Ethics and integrity have always been at the core of my professional identity.

•            As some of you know, much of my scholarly work has revolved around trying to open conversations about ethics in college sports.  I have never shied away from creating spaces for frank analysis of college sports to take place.

•            Fitting with my concern for justice for women and minorities, I began in the 60s advocating for women to have the opportunity to participate in sports, music, and other educational opportunities generally unavailable to women.

•            When philosopher Myles Brand became President of the NCAA in 2002, I contacted him to discuss my concerns about college sports and my overall interest in ethics in sports.  You might remember Myles as the President of Indiana who fired Bobby Knight.  Our discussions led us to include other scholars in the field, which then led to the creation of the NCAA Scholarly Colloquium on College Sports, along with a Journal of Intercollegiate Sports, launched in January of 2006 in conjunction with the NCAA National Convention. This new initiative was designed to address a void in research activity related to sport in the context of higher education.

Before it was defunded, it hosted many speakers who offered critical analyzes of intercollegiate sports and the NCAA.  We saw, and still see, the value of sports on campus, but we also saw, and still see,  the conflicts and issues that undermine this value.  Despite not having the Colloquium, I am happy to say the Journal is surviving.

In the last two years, through Faculty Council, the Office of Faculty Governance, and my own efforts via the Parr Center for Ethics and other entities, including the Black Caucus, Black Student Movement, EXSS, I have tried to create openings for learning and conversation regarding sports here at Carolina through open forums, conferences, lectures, panel discussions etc.

For instance:

·        We had regular briefings to FC from Joy Renner, chair of the Faculty Athletics Committee.

·        Last Fall we had a Faculty Council forum with Joy, Faculty Athletics Representative Lissa Broome, and Athletics Director Bubba Cunningham.

·        We held an open forum for faculty discussion of athletics held at Campus Y.

·        We hosted an open forum beginning with a conversation between NY Times columnist Joe Nocera and me.

·        Along with the Friends of the Library we supported an open forum with Taylor Branch, Charles Clotfelter, and Bill Friday.

·        In April we had the open discussion with the Hunter Rawlings Panel.

·        The Parr Center also sponsored several public forums:

·        EXSS SPONSORED the College Sports Research Institute symposium, which many of us participated in for the past 4 years.

·        Already this year the Provost has launched a Student-Athlete Academic Initiative Working Group and we now have  the Rawlings Report.

·        And to culminate my efforts to produce a base for continued honest and open discussion on the role of athletics on campus, the Parr Center is partnering with Athletics, EXSS, and USADA [US Anti –Doping Agency] and Penn State to hold a summit in May 2014 tentatively titled: True Sport U: Beyond Compliance. The summit will be held here at UNC this year, another will be held at Penn State next year, with the hopes of an honest national conversation and movement.

I would like to have the conversation people want to have about athletics on campus and I welcome your questions and guidance about where Faculty Council would like to go next on this AND the other issues that lie before us.

Storify of Live-Tweets Related to this Meeting

Did you miss the meeting, but want to know what happened as we await the official minutes?  Check out our “Storify” version of the live-Tweets from the meeting.

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