October 22, 2008 - Faculty Governance

Faculty Governance News

vol. 3.5

October 22 , 2008

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

Vote with Chancellor Thorp and Student Body President Raynor, Friday, October 24, at 10:00 a.m at Morehead Planetarium

If you haven’t voted yet, consider casting your ballot with Chancellor Holden Thorp and Student Body President J.J. Raynor at Morehead Planetarium this Friday, October 24, at 10:00 a.m. Thorp and Raynor will make brief remarks before proceeding inside to vote. Click here for more information on Friday’s event.

Morehead Planetarium is one of five early voting sites in Orange County. The schedule for the remainder of early one-stop voting at Morehead is:

9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 20-25, Oct. 27-31
9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 1

Any voter registered in Orange County may vote early at an early one-stop site. In North Carolina, a resident who is qualified to vote but who misses the 25-day deadline for voter registration may also register and vote on the same day at an approved site during the One-Stop Absentee Voting period, but not on an election day. To learn more, visit the website for the Orange County Board of Elections.

Students worked hard to get an early voting site here on campus, and early voting has been a great convenience for faculty and staff as well as for students. Every vote counts, so make sure to cast your ballot.

Campus invited to forum to share input for ‘Carolina: Best Place to Teach, Learn and Discover,’ October 30

Students, faculty and staff are invited to share ideas and perspectives about how to strengthen the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at a campus forum on Thursday, Oct. 30. The forum, free and open to anyone, will be held at 2 p.m. in Gerrard Hall.

Attendees will join UNC Trustees J.J. Raynor, also student body president, and John Ellison of Greensboro for a discussion focused on “Carolina: The Best Place to Teach, Learn and Discover.”

At the request of Board of Trustees Chair Roger Perry and Chancellor Holden Thorp, Raynor and Ellison recently launched a broad discussion about the University’s future. Their goal is to develop a set of recommendations about ways to make Carolina an even stronger institution than it is today. This month’s campus forum is one way they are seeking input from the campus community to help reach consensus on those big ideas.

Raynor and Ellison have met with multiple individuals and groups in recent weeks. The upcoming forum is the first campus-wide event focusing on the initiative. They plan to report back to the trustees and the chancellor next spring. For more information about this initiative, see http://bestcarolina.unc.edu/ where you will also find an online form to submit suggestions.

Fixed Term Faculty Committee to hold discussions and forum on fixed term faculty issues, November 7

The Fixed Term Faculty Committee of Faculty Council invites the faculty to join us on Friday, November 7 in the Faculty Commons at the Campus Y to discuss these questions: “What changes or new provisions should appear in policies that apply to fixed term faculty?” and “What would make being a full-time fixed term faculty member at Carolina a more attractive career choice?”

Faculty members will have two opportunities that day to share their thoughts:

10:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon: Committee members will be on hand in the Faculty Commons for one-on-one conversations with faculty members. This will provide a chance for discussing issues that may require more confidentiality.
12:30 to 1:30 p.m.: Public forum. Committee members will share information about the committee’s work and engage attendees in a wide-ranging discussion of the topics listed above.

Click here to learn more about the recent work of the Fixed Term Faculty Committee.

Association of Women Faculty and Professionals sponsors panel discussion on “Caring for Aging Family Members,” November 21

The UNC Association of Women Faculty and Professionals invites the university community to its fall program, “Caring for Aging Family Members: A Panel Discussion.” This event will be held Friday, November 21, 2008, from 2:30 – 4:00 p.m.in the Pleasants Family Room in Wilson Library.

The program will feature several community- and university-based professionals who will help participants think about planning for and caring for aging parents or other aging relatives, a burden that often falls disproportionately upon women. Panelists will offer practical advice on strategies, resources, and services. They will consider a continuum of issues from preventing functional decline, assisting with relatives’ medical needs, and overcoming impediments to intergenerational communication to identifying resources in the community, planning for in-home care or long-term care (assisted living, nursing home), and undertaking advocacy.

Panelists will be:

Kate Barrett, MSW, LCSW, Director, Transitions Program, Orange County Dept on Aging
Sue Coppola, MS, OTR/L, BCG Associate Professor, UNC Division of Occupational Science
Laura Hanson, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, UNC Division of Geriatric Medicine
Jill Passmore, Region J Lead Long Term Care Ombudsman, Triangle J Area Agency on Aging

Click here to learn more about the Association of Women Faculty and Professionals.

Faculty Governance Reading Room

Articles, books, or other resources of interest to faculty. This week’s selection:

Too Many Rungs on the Ladder? Faculty Demographics and the Future Leadership of Higher Education
A new issue brief by the American Council on Education (ACE) concludes that an aging professoriate, a growing reliance on part-time and non-tenured faculty, and an expanding number of students who complete their PhDs and become faculty later in life are all factors that contribute to a scarcity of young permanent faculty who will have the time and opportunity to advance up the traditional career ladder to a college presidency. The report examines why so few young adults are in the professoriate and discusses the implications for the future of the nation’s colleges and universities. It analyzes data from the Department of Education’s 2003-04 National Survey of Postsecondary Faculty and suggests that the longstanding career ladder to top administrative posts in academia may have too many steps given these shifting demographic realities. Click the link above to find the full report.

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 2008-09 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 schedule to appear.

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