December 5, 2007

Faculty Governance News

Vol. 2.7

December 5, 2007

From the UNC-Chapel Hill Office of Faculty Governance
200-204 Carr Building
CB# 9170
UNC Campus
Contact:  Anne M. Whisnant (anne_whisnant@unc.edu)

Faculty Council to consider priority registration proposal this Friday, December 7th

A proposal to create a formal system of priority course registration was introduced at the November 9th Faculty Council meeting and will be taken up for a vote at the December 7th Council meeting.  To read the proposal and several additional documents providing contextualizing information, you can visit the special Priority Registration page on the Faculty Governance website.  If you’d like to give feedback on the proposal to your Faculty Council representatives, you can find all of them listed here. 

The December 7th Faculty Council agenda may be seen here.

Minutes and audio from November 9th Faculty Council meeting now online

The minutes from the November 9, 2007 Faculty Council meeting, along with audio files of the meeting, are now available online here.

Winter Commencement Ceremony is Sunday, December 16th

The Winter Commencement Ceremony will be held on Sunday December 16 at 2:00 p.m. in the Dean E. Smith Center. Hodding Carter, University Professor of Leadership and Public Policy in the College of Arts and Sciences, will deliver the commencement address.  Faculty are encouraged to join the processional, which will will assemble at 1:30 p.m. in the Press Room of the Smith Center.

Nominees sought for 2009 Honorary Degrees; deadline is January 18th, 2008

Now is the time to nominate people who might receive an honorary degree at commencement in the spring of 2009.  The award of an honorary degree recognizes people who have rendered outstanding service to humanity in the world arena, in our nation, in the American South, or our State of North Carolina; people who have made outstanding contributions to knowledge in the world of scholarship; people whose talent and creativity in the world of the arts has enriched our lives; and people whose devotion to and support of our University merits our highest recognition.

Full information on how to make a nomination, along with a list of past recipients, is here.

“Focus the Nation” invites faculty participation in January 31, 2008 teach-in on global warming

Focus the Nation: Global Warming Solutions for America is a national initiative to get a thousand colleges, universities, businesses, and other civic organizations in the United States to collaboratively engage in a nationwide, interdisciplinary discussion about effects of and solutions to global warming.  The main ‘Teach-in’ will take place on January 31st, 2008, but it is open to those teaching a MWF course on Jan 30th or Feb. 1st as well.

The goal is to have every professor, teacher, and teaching assistant in every classroom spend a minimum of 5-10 minutes on the teach-in dates discussing climate change from the perspective of their discipline. 

Over 1,000 institutions will be participating on this day nationwide.  This event has been endorsed by: Chancellor Moeser and Student Body President Eve Carson, as well as three departments and eight student groups.  Over seventy UNC professors are also signed on.

UNC Institute for the Environment staff and interns are available to connect faculty members with experts to advise you on how to relate your class topic to climate change science and discourse.

If you would like to sign on to participate in the national teach-in, please contact  Anslei Foster at afoster@unc.edu.

Have you used the Anne Queen Faculty Commons at the Campus Y?  If so, we’d like to know.

For several months now, the Anne Queen Faculty Commons in the renovated Campus Y has been open to provide a place on central campus for informal gatherings, meetings, and programs that encourage faculty exchange.  Have you used the room?  Met a colleague there for coffee?  Convened a lunch group?  Reserved the space for a formal event?  If so, we’d like to know about how the room has worked for you.  Please send your feedback to Anne Whisnant in the Faculty Governance office at anne_whisnant@unc.edu.

Faculty Governance Reading Room:  Books, articles, and links of interest to faculty.

• This week’s featured book: The Art and Politics of Academic Governance: Relations among Boards, Presidents, and Faculty, by Kenneth P. Mortimer and Colleen O’Brien Sathre (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2007).   Read a review by Michael N. Bastedo, in the current issue of Academe. 

For more information on any of these items, please contact Anne Whisnant in the Office of Faculty Governance.