October 22, 2010 - Faculty Governance

Faculty Governance News

vol. 5.3

October 22, 2010

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 employing more interactive format in 2010-11

At its first two meetings of the year, the Faculty Council has employed a more interactive format for considering and responding to the presentations and committee reports that often constitute a majority of the meeting agendas. Based on the techniques of “Appreciative Inquiry,” a strengths-based strategic planning and organizational development approach, the Council is experimenting with incorporating more small-group discussion and open-ended conversation in its meetings.

During an initial exercise conducted at the September meeting, Council members indicated that they welcomed the opportunity to discuss issues of concern that emerge from, but may not be limited to, the specific matters included in committee or other reports. Chancellor Holden Thorp and Provost Bruce Carney have endorsed the approach, which was advocated by Chair of the Faculty McKay Coble.

The next Faculty Council meeting is Friday, November 12, 2010, and all faculty members are invited to attend. The Faculty Council Agenda Committee will meet Monday, November 1 to plan the meeting. If you have issues you would like brought to the Council’s attention, please contact Anne Whisnant in the Office of Faculty Governance at anne_whisnant@unc.edu or 919-962-1671 in advance of the Agenda Committee meeting.

Chair of the Faculty invites faculty to help “Build That Block!” at Habitat “blitz build” faculty/staff/student workday, Nov 6th

Chair of the Faculty McKay Coble invites faculty to participate in an upcoming work day for the UNC Build-a-Block project, a student-led initiative to build ten Habitat for Humanity houses for University and UNC Hospital employee families in the ten months of the 2010-2011 academic school year.
When: Saturday, November 6, 2010 (Shift 1 @ 12:00-2:00 and Shift 2 @ 2:00-4:00)
Where: Phoenix Place; directions @ http://www.orangehabitat.org/directions/index.php?PhoenixPlace
Who: UNC Students, Staff, Faculty, Family

This project began when Habitat for Humanity of Orange County approached the UNC student chapter of Habitat with the news that a record number of University and UNC hospital employees had applied for Habitat housing. With the generous support and encouragement of student groups, administration, alumni, athletics, schools and units, faculty and staff, and UNC Hospitals, UNC-Chapel Hill is raising funds and providing volunteers for the building effort. Coble asks that you help continue Carolina’s strong legacy of service, and join us in this community-wide undertaking by coming out on November 6th.

Calls for nominations issued for two faculty awards: Edward Kidder Graham Award and O. Max Gardner Award

Nominations are now being accepted for both the 2011 Edward Kidder Graham Award (recognizing outstanding service by a member of the faculty) and the 2011 Oliver Max Gardner Award (a UNC-system award recognizing the faculty member who, in the current academic year, “has made the greatest contribution to the welfare of the human race.”

Full information on both awards, including instructions on how to submit nominations, is available online:

Edward Kidder Graham Award (deadline November 19th )
O. Max Gardner Award (deadline November 19th )

The Faculty Committee on Honorary Degrees and Special Awards selects the winners of the Graham Award and the UNC campus’s nominee for the Gardner Award.

Center for Faculty Excellence workshops on teaching and technology, tenure process, fixed-term faculty policies, and NIH grant writing . . . all this week!

The Center for Faculty Excellence is sponsoring a series of workshops this week touching on many facets of faculty work. The full schedule and all details are online here; check this link out, as many events require registration. Some highlights:

October 27, 9:00 am – 12:30 pm, Rosenau Hall, How to Write Grants with the NEW NIH Guidelines
October 28, 4:00-5:00 pm, Campus Y, Tenure and Promotion Process at Carolina
October 28, 4:00-5:00 pm, 105 South Building, Review and Evaluation Process for Fixed-Term Faculty
October 28, 5:00-6:00 pm, Campus Y, New and “Newish” Faculty Wine and Cheese Social
October 29, 8:00 am-2:30 pm, symposium, “Shift+Control+Teach: A Faculty Showcase,” a teaching with technology event

Deadline for the 2011-2012 Institute for Arts and Humanities Academic Leadership Program is November 10th

The Institute for the Arts and Humanities is now accepting applications and nominations for the 2011-2012 Academic Leadership Program (ALP), due November 10. The ALP helps prepare and support current and emerging academic leaders throughout the University through a series of activities to help them develop leadership skills, clarify their career commitments, build a leadership network within the campus and extend their contacts to other leaders beyond the university. All tenured faculty members at UNC are eligible.

URL: http://iah.unc.edu/programs/leadership-programs/academic-leadership

Nominations sought for 2011 University Awards for the Advancement of Women (deadline November 18th)

Now is the time to nominate candidates for the 2011 University Awards for the Advancement of Women. This award recognizes contributions to the advancement of women at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Each year, one faculty member, one staff member, and one undergraduate/graduate student/postdoctoral scholar may be selected to receive the award. The faculty and staff recipients each receive $5000 and the undergraduate/graduate student/ postdoctoral scholar recipient receives $2500. Awardees will be recognized in a ceremony held Monday, February 14, 2011, at 3:30 p.m. in the Anne Queen Faculty Commons Room of the Campus Y.

This award recognizes women and men who have:

Elevated the status of women on campus in sustainable ways;
Helped to improve campus policies affecting women;
Promoted and advanced the recruitment, retention, and upward mobility of women;
Participated in and assisted in the establishment of professional development opportunities for women; and/or
Participated in and assisted in the establishment of academic mentoring for women.

The deadline for nominations is Thursday, November 18, 2010, at 5:00 p.m.

Please contact Dr. Donna M. Bickford, Director of the Carolina Women’s Center at dbickford@unc.edu or (919) 843-5620 if you have questions about the awards or nomination process. More details about the award and a link to the nomination form are available online at this link at the Provost’s Office website.

Faculty/Staff Central going away November 1st

Faculty/Staff Central will be decommissioned on Nov. 1, 2010. The majority of functions accessed from Student Central and Faculty/Staff Central have or soon will be transitioned to ConnectCarolina and should be accessed via the portal at http://my.unc.edu/. More information about the transition is available here.

ITS Teaching and Learning offers course design assistance

ITS Teaching and Learning Interactive (ITS-TLI) offers an array of services to help faculty design new courses, modify existing courses, and convert face-to-face courses to online formats.

Their team of project managers, instructional designers, flash animators, graphic designers, and video specialists combine proven instructional approaches with technology to produce effective and sustainable courses. For every project, ITS-TLI uses a personalize needs assessment and a systematic production process to best meet your specific budgetary, technology, and instructional goals.

Contact ITS-Teaching and Learning Interactive’s Megan R. Bell [megan_bell@unc.edu / 919.445.9474] to get started.

Faculty coffee hours at the Faculty Commons at the Campus Y: 9:00-11:00 a.m. daily!

The Office of Faculty Governance reminds you of the free coffee we make available each weekday for faculty and their guests at the Anne Queen Faculty Commons at the Campus Y. The coffee hours run from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. The Faculty Commons is a beautifully renovated space where faculty and their guests can gather for impromptu get-togethers or conversations. The room is kept unscheduled each day until 1:30 p.m., but faculty groups can reserve the room for faculty-oriented programs in the afternoons. Please contact Anne Whisnant in the Office of Faculty Governance (962-1671) for more details or check out the room regulations, calendar, and reservation form online.

Faculty Governance Resource Room

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

Flexibility in Faculty Careers,” excerpt from article by Gretchen M. Bataille in the Winter 2010 issue of The Presidency, the American Council on Education’s flagship magazine.
Celia Whitchurch, “Shifting Identities and Blurring Boundaries: The Emergence of Third Space Professionals in UK Higher Education,” Higher Education Quarterly, vol. 62, October 2008. Discusses author’s work on “changing roles and identities of contemporary professional staff in UK higher education” with a focus on “blended professionals, who have mixed backgrounds and portfolios, comprising elements of both professional and academic activity.”

About Faculty Governance News

The Faculty Governance News is published approximately every two weeks throughout the academic year and once monthly during the summer by the Office of Faculty Governance. Archived issues and the publication schedule 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.