October 27, 2009 - Faculty Governance

Faculty Governance News

vol. 4.4

October 27, 2009

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

Faculty Council Committee on Fixed-Term Faculty begins work

The Faculty Council Committee on Fixed-Term Faculty held its first meeting October 9th before Faculty Council. This year, the committee will work to collect policies on fixed-term faculty appointments, evaluation, promotions, and governance rights from units around campus in an attempt to create a comprehensive picture of policies governing fixed-term faculty work across the university. They will also work closely with a related committee within the College of Arts and Sciences, chaired by Senior Associate Dean Bill Andrews, that is developing comprehensive policies covering fixed-term faculty for the College.

The Faculty Council Committee on Fixed-Term Faculty is chaired this year by Senior Lecturer Prof. Jean DeSaix (Biology), a longtime advocate for fixed-term faculty concerns on campus. The committee, whose mandate is to monitor fixed-term faculty working conditions and policies across the entire campus, was authorized in 2005 by Faculty Council Resolution 2005-9. You can learn more about the committee and its work at their official web page here.

FAQ of the Week: Who may speak at Faculty Council?

According to Appendix B of the Faculty Code of University Government, “Rules and Procedure of the Faculty Council,” any member of the General Faculty (an entity defined in Article 1 of the Faculty Code), “may enter into the discussions of the Council upon recognition of the chair.” Other members of the University community, the Code states, “may attend Council meetings as observers unless a particular meeting has been declared closed.” In practice, members of the University community who are not members of the General Faculty occasionally speak at Council meetings upon recognition of the chair.

From the Archives: 1976 speech by former Chair of the Faculty and historian George Taylor resonates today

In sorting through the files last week, Secretary of the Faculty Joe Ferrell discovered the text of a 1976 speech given by former Faculty Chair George Taylor to the UNC Faculty Club. In his remarks, Taylor made the case that faculty research was the key factor distinguishing universities from non-universities and enjoined his faculty colleagues to make a stronger case for the public, social value of university-based research. You can read the text of Taylor’s speech here.

Prof. Tim McMillan offers his “Black and Blue Tour of the UNC Campus,” October 28, 2:00-4:00 p.m.

Tim McMillan, professor in African and Afro-American Studies here at UNC, will offer his “Black and Blue Tour” of the campus tomorrow (Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009) from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. This event is free and open to the public. Meet at the Unsung Founders Memorial on McCorkle Place. This walking tour of campus historical landmarks focuses on UNC’s racial history and the people and events that these landmarks commemorate.

The Black and Blue tour is presented by the Southern Folklife Collection in Wilson Library, in conjunction with the exhibit “We Shall Not Be Moved: African Americans in the South, 18th Century to the Present,” on view in Wilson Library through Feb. 5, 2010. Exhibit information: (919) 962-1345 or http://www.lib.unc.edu/blogs/news/index.php/2009/10/we-shall-not-be-move/

For full tour information, including rain date, contact Liza Terll, Friends of the Library, at (919) 962-4207 or liza_terll@unc.edu. Or visit http://www.lib.unc.edu/blogs/news/index.php/2009/10/black-and-blue-tour/.

ConnectCarolina town hall on Monday, Nov. 9, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m., Gerrard Hall

A town hall meeting will be held from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. on November 9th in Gerrard Hall to update members of the campus community on the implementation of “ConnectCarolina,” the new integrated administrative system designed to provide a consistent information environment across the University. This system, formerly known as “ERP,” began being rolled out this fall for student information. The town hall agenda includes the following components:

Introduction: Dr. Bruce Carney
ConnectCarolina: An Integrated Solution — Larry Conrad
Student Systems — Bobbi Owen
Finance — Dick Mann
Human Resources — Brenda Malone
Reporting and Data Warehouse — Jerri Bland
Document Management — Jerri Bland
Change Management — Jerri Bland
Questions

Another Way of Learning (AWOL) program provides funding for student-faculty interactions outside classroom settings

A new program at UNC called Another Way of Learning (AWOL) provides funding for student-teacher interactions outside of traditional classroom settings. If you are a educator — professor to graduate student — for any undergraduate class in any department and you would like to host an event with your students, you can now get it funded! Please visit https://studentlife.unc.edu/organization/awol–another-way-of-learning/documentlibrary for more information, or contact Michael Johnston at mjjohnst@email.unc.edu.

Carolina Women’s Center accepting applications for fall 2010 and spring 2011 Faculty Scholars; deadline is November 24, 2009, by 5:00 p.m.

The Carolina Women’s Center is accepting applications for its fall 2010 and spring 2011 Faculty Scholar program. This program offers UNC-Chapel Hill faculty working on projects related to the mission of the Carolina Women’s Center the opportunity to serve as a Faculty Scholar for the CWC for one semester. One Faculty Scholar will be chosen for each award semester. The deadline to apply is November 24, 2009 by 5:00 p.m. To download the application form, visit the Carolina Women’s Center’s website at: http://womenscenter.unc.edu. Contact Dr. Donna M. Bickford, Director of the Carolina Women’s Center at 843-5620 or dbickford@unc.edu with any questions.

Faculty Governance Reading Room

Articles, books, or other resources of interest to faculty. This week’s selections focus more attention on the issue of “contingent faculty” within academe:

AAUP Committee on Contingent Faculty and the Profession preliminary report: “Conversion of Appointments to the Tenure Track” (2009). This report, posted on the website of the American Association of University Professors, urges colleges to convert full-time, non-tenure track faculty members to the tenure track. Acknowledging the efforts of full-time continent faculty to establish provisions for greater stability of employment outside the tenure system, the report nonetheless concludes that the best way to “stabilize” the “crumbling infrastructure of the faculty,” is to “bundle the employment and economic securities that activist contingent faculty are already winning for themselves with the rigorous professional peer scrutiny of the tenure system” by converting positions (and people) in contingent positions to tenure-eligible positions. The report includes lengthy appendices providing examples of how various institutions have stabilized their faculty, either by conversions to tenure lines or by other measures stopping short of conversion.
“Love of Teaching Draws Adjuncts to the Classroom Despite Low Pay” (Chronicle of Higher Education, 18 October 2009). The Chronicle’s survey of Chicago-area part-time faculty uncovers some surprising findings and attracts interesting commentary from readers about the less positive aspects of adjunct employment.

About Faculty Governance News

The Faculty Governance News is published every two weeks throughout the academic year by the Office of Faculty Governance. Archived issues and the publication schedule for 2009-10 are available online here. Information to be considered for inclusion should be sent to Anne Whisnant (anne_whisnant@unc.edu) by Monday before an issue is scheduled to appear.

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