March 26, 2008
Faculty Governance News
vol. 2.12
March 26, 2008
From the UNC Office of Faculty Governance
200-204 Carr Building
UNC-CH Campus
Contact: Anne M. Whisnant (anne_whisnant@unc.edu)
Faculty Council to meet Friday, March 28th; February meeting minutes now online
The Faculty Council will meet Friday, March 28th at 3 p.m. in the Hitchcock Multipurpose Room of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History.
Topics include a presentation of the annual report of the Scholarships, Awards and Student Aid Committee; an Introduction to the Summer School by new Dean Jan Yopp; and a presentation on opportunities for diversity training for faculty, led by Donna Bickford, Director of the Carolina Women’s Center, and Cookie Newsom, Director of Diversity Education and Research in the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs.
The minutes for the February 22 meeting are also now available online here.
Elections for Faculty Council, committees will take place April 14-21
Members of the Voting Faculty are encouraged to participate in the annual faculty elections, scheduled for April 14-21. Elections will be conducted electronically, with all members of the Voting Faculty receiving their ballots by email. The annual voter information guide will go online at the Faculty Governance website April 4th.
Textbook orders due Friday, March 28th
Friday March 28th is the deadline for faculty to place book orders for the fall 2008 semester. Ordering by the deadline helps students get better prices for the textbooks they sell back at semester’s end and increases the likelihood that used copies of books will be available for purchase next fall.
Textbook orders can be placed online at by visiting Student Stores here.
Ideas, politics topic of April 14 discussion in the Faculty Commons
Three UNC faculty members who are the authors of acclaimed new books will come together to discuss the topic, “Do Ideas Matter in American Politics? A Conversation about Transcendentalism, Fundamentalism and Liberalism” on Monday, April 14 at 3:30 p.m. in the Anne Queen Faculty Commons, located in the Campus Y.
The event, sponsored by the Office of Faculty Governance, will feature:
- Philip Gura, William S. Newman Distinguished Professor of American Literature and Culture and author of American Transcendentalism: A History (Hill & Wang, 2007)
- Michael Lienesch, Professor of Political Science and author of In the Beginning: Fundamentalism, the Scopes Trial, and the Making of the Antievolution Movement (UNC Press, 2007)
- John McGowan, Ruel Tyson Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature and author of American Liberalism: An Interpretation for Our Time (UNC Press, 2007)
All members of the campus community are invited to attend.
All faculty invited to reception set for April 29 in the Faculty Commons
The Office of Faculty Governance will sponsor a reception to mark the end of the spring semester on April 29 from 3 to 5 p.m. in the Anne Queen Faculty Commons. All faculty members are invited to drop in for refreshments and fellowship.
Campus Y Faculty Commons reservation schedule can now be seen online
The Anne Queen Faculty Commons, located in the Campus Y, offers faculty a quiet place to interact and discuss academic news and issues. Many faculty groups are now meeting for lunch in the Commons.
The reservation schedule for the Faculty Commons can now be seen online. Please visit the web page for the Commons at the Office of Faculty Governance website, scroll down below the picture and click the “View the reservations calendar” link.
“Managing Your Files: Guidelines for Faculty” now available
The University Archives and Records Service website includes many items of interest to faculty, especially a new publication called “Managing Your Files: Guidelines for Faculty,” written by University Archivist Janis Holder.
In an era of massive piles of paper and electronic records, sweeping technological changes, and ongoing public controversies over the retention and disposal of public records, the guidelines can help faculty members understand their role in preserving the university’s history. The guidelines offer practical advice on relevant state and federal legislation, what records faculty members need to keep, what they can safely throw away, and what they might want to consider conveying to University Archives upon retirement.
UNC hosts AAUP lecture on privatization and America’s research universities, April 4
“Higher Learning and Higher Profits: The Privatization of America’s Research Universities” is the topic of an upcoming lecture by Jennifer Washburn, a Fellow in the New America Foundation. The talk will be held April 4, 2008 at 7 p.m. in the FedEx Global Education Center auditorium. A reception will follow.
Washburn is the author of University, Inc.: The Corporate Corruption of Higher Education, which examines the public-private research partnerships that many universities have embraced.
The lecture is co-sponsored by the North Carolina State Conference of the American Association of University Professors and the UNC-Chapel Hill AAUP chapter as part of the spring conference of the state organization.
Other events are scheduled for April 5, including an examination of North Carolina universities and their relationships to foundations and corporations. Faculty, academic professionals and graduate students are invited to attend.
For more information, directions, or to register for events on April 5, visit http://www.nc-aaup.org
Success of women and minorities in the academy is the topic of March 28th lecture
Dr. Juanita Merchant, Professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Integrative Physiology at the University of Michigan, will discuss the pipeline success of women and minorities in the academy and the role of race and affirmative action in these endeavors during a lecture on Friday, March 28 at 12:30 p.m. in the Morehead Planetarium Dining Room.
Dr. Merchant’s speech is the keynote address in the 2008 International Scholars Conference: “Colorism, Color, Caste and Race,” sponsored by the UNC Institute for African American Research. The conference will be held Friday March 28 and Monday, March 31. Pre-registration for this lecture is preferred. For a full conference schedule, see http://web.archive.org/web/20080322230159/http://www.unc.edu/iaar/2008%20ISC/isc08schedule.htm.
UNC Association for Women Faculty and Professionals hosts two upcoming events
The Association for Women Faculty and Professionals invites faculty to two upcoming events:
- March 28, 2:30 to 4:00 p.m., 143 Carroll Hall: “Financial Planning Advice for Women,” featuring Tanya M. Barrera, a financial planning specialist with Citi Smith Barney.
- April 30, 12:00 noon, Carolina Club: AWFP Annual Spring Luncheon. Jane Brown, James L. Knight Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and former Chair of the Faculty, will be the speaker. Registration for this event is required. Please contact Dede Corvinus (Dede_Corvinus@med.unc.edu) for more details.
Reading Room
Interesting reading about universities, faculties, and governance. This week’s selection:
- “Not So Free Speech in Campus Governance”
A federal court has applied just the principle that faculty groups thought shouldn’t be applied in higher education — that bosses can punish employees for speech deemed inappropriate — to a case involving a university. From Inside Higher Ed.
For more information on any of these items, please contact Anne Whisnant in the Office of Faculty Governance.
