October 3, 2003
Meeting of the Faculty Council
Friday, October 3rd, 2003 at 3:00 p.m.
The Pleasants Family Assembly Room in Wilson Library
Chancellor James Moeser and Professor Judith Wegner, Chair of the Faculty, will preside.
Agenda
3:00 Faculty Council Convenes (Professor Joseph Ferrell, Professor Judith Wegner)
- Opening Remarks and Question Time.
- Chancellor James Moeser invites questions or comments from the floor.
3:15 Reports of Standing Committees (Informational)
- Report of the Faculty Grievance Committee. (Professor John B. Stephens)
- Report of the Faculty Hearings Committee. (Professor Frayda Bluestein)
- Report of the Committee on Instructional Personnel.
- (Professor and Executive Associate Provost Bernadette Gray-Little)
3:30 Faculty Forum: Financial Resources and their Implications
Presentations and discussion with the Faculty Council.
- Preliminary Remarks (Professor Wegner)
- Provost Robert Shelton (Click here for Powerpoint presentation on the budget)
- Vice Chancellor Tony Waldrop (Click here for Powerpoint presentation on research)
5:00 Adjourn.
Minutes
Attendance
Present (59): Adimora, Ammerman, Anton, Bachenheimer, Bane, Bouldin, Cairns, Conover, Daye, Elter, Fishell, Gerber, Givre, Goldstein, Gollop, Gulldge, Hammond, Heenan, Holditch-Davis, Holmgren, Kagarise, Kjervik, Kramer, Langbauer, Leonard, Malizia, McGraw, Mesibov, Miller, Morris-Natschke, Nonini, Owen, Pardun, Parikh, Perrin, Porto, Renner, Rippe, Rock, Rogers, Rowan, Salmon, Sawin, Schauer, Shea, Simpson, Jay Smith, John Smith, Straughan, Tolbin, Toews, Tulloch, Vick, Wallace, Weinberg, Willis, Wilson, Yankaskas, Yopp,
Excused absences (28): Arnold, Bowen, Colindres, de Silva, Elvers, Foley, Frampton, Granger, Howell, Klebanow, Leigh, Lohr, Martin, Miguel, Molina, Muller, Nicholas, Orthner, Perelmuter, Pisano, Pittman, Poole, Reisner, Retsch-Bogart, Strauss, Tauchen, Tresolini, Wolford.
Unexcused absences (1): Lin
Chancellor’s Remarks and Question Time
Chancellor James Moeser invited Council members to read his 2003 State of the University Address online. The URL is http://www.unc.edu/chan/speech_archive. The principal announcement was a new “Carolina Covenant,” a plan promising to our most needy students the opportunity to graduate without any debt. The plan will be available to students who are admitted to Carolina, who qualify for federal student aid, and who come from a family with an income at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty level, indexed by family size. The University will meet 100 percent of such a student’s financial need through a combination of federal, state, campus-based, privately funded grants and scholarships, as well as his or her participation in the federal work-study job program. The chancellor said that the plan has received wide, favorable coverage by the national press.
Chancellor Moeser reported that the Board of Governors’ Educational Planning Committee has approved a recommendation by President Broad to increase the cap on out-of-state student enrollment from 18% to 22%. The recommendation now goes to the full Board of Governors. It will be explained and discussed at the Board’s meeting on October 6, and will be on the Board’s agenda for a vote at its November meeting.
The chancellor concluded by urging the faculty to attend the University Day ceremonies on Sunday, October 12, at 2:00 p.m. in Hill Hall. The speaker will be Dr. Mary Sue Coleman, President of the University of Michigan, who will also receive one of the Distinguished Alumna Awards to be presented. Dr. Coleman will also be the featured speaker at a symposium celebrating the centennial of the Graduate School.
Chair of the Faculty’s Remarks
Professor Wegner challenged Council members to familiarize themselves with budget issues that are facing institutions of higher education all over the nation. Much useful information can be found on institutional websites, but much can also be learned by asking colleagues at other institutions how their institutions are responding to budget reductions. She said that the faculty can and should play an important role in Carolina’s institutional responses to budget reductions but to do so optimally will require members of the faculty to inform themselves. As a beginning in that process, Professor Wegner said she had asked Provost Robert Shelton and Vice Chancellor Tony Waldrop to speak to the impact of state budget reductions and the importance of funded research.
Annual Reports
The annual reports of the Faculty Grievance Committee, the Faculty Hearings Committee, and the Committee on Instructional Personnel were received as presented without question or comment.
Presentation on the Impact of State Budget Reductions on UNC Chapel Hill
Provost Robert N. Shelton addressed the issues of “The Impact of State Budget Reductions on UNC Chapel Hill.” (See slide presentation at http://web.archive.org/web/20041103125911/http://www.unc.edu:80/faculty/faccoun/reports/Oct03Budget.ppt for detailed explanations).
UNC Chapel Hill has managed by implementing an annual budget planning and hearing process that involves the deans, vice chancellors, and the University Priorities and Budget Advisory Committee. We have made differential cuts, abandoning the across-the-board approach, that have protected the classroom as much as possible, while streamlining administration and eliminating a few relatively minor programs. We have increasingly relied on alternative funding sources to maintain excellence, such as clinical income, research awards, F&A funds, and gifts through Carolina First Campaign, but funds of these types are limited to specific uses and are not available for general purposes.
The Provost said that for the 2001-03 fiscal period the University has had to absorb reductions in State funds available to the operating budget totaling $104.5 million. This as offset to some extent by additional funding for enrollment increases of $27 million and an increase in operating reserves of $5.89 million. The net effect was that over $71.5 million in reduced expenses had to be identified. Four basic criteria used to choose what to cut: (1) protect activities that are central to the University’s mission, that add value, or that are required by law or for compliance purposes; (2) allow deans and vice chancellors broad discretion in choosing areas to cut, but require them to manage within available resources; (3) use existing planning documents at both the University and unit level to guide reduction and allocation issues; (4) look for opportunities to improve efficiency and eliminate duplication; and (5) make decisions consistently with measures of excellence adopted by the Board of Trustees.
The Provost reported that 63% of the permanent reduction ($34.1 million) had been absorbed by eliminating 158 faculty and 219 non-instructional positions. All but two of the faculty positions were vacant, but 156 non-instructional staff were laid off. In addition to staff reductions, many support programs were discontinued including HEELS for Health, the Office of Continuing Education in Health Sciences, the Hanes Computer Training Center, Arts Carolina, the Neonatal Nurse Practitioner Program, and Annual Preceptors Conference of the Department of Health Policy and Administration, several support units in the School of Medicine, the First Year Initiative Living-Learning Program, and the Institute for Nutrition.
Provost Shelton ended his presentation with a positive note thanking all those whose leadership has brought us through to this point. We are continuing to pursue excellence with the challenges that lie ahead, he said. These include implementation of the Academic Plan, launching the new undergraduate curriculum, new investments in research computing, a new biomedical engineering program in cooperation with North Carolina State University, a new Institute for Advanced Materials, Nanoscience and Technology, development of Carolina North, an aggressive building campaign, and continued progress towards completing the Carolina First Campaign case statement goals, including 200 new endowed professorships and 1,000 new scholarships.
Presentation on Research at Carolina
Vice Chancellor Tony G. Waldrop gave a presentation entitled “Research at Carolina: Education, Knowledge, and Economic Growth.” See his PowerPoint slides are http://web.archive.org/web/20041103130631/http://www.unc.edu:80/faculty/faccoun/reports/Oct03research.ppt. Among the highlights of the presentation were these points:
- More than 20% of Carolina undergraduates receive course credit for research.
- Carolina’s faculty averages $187,383 in outside funding per FTE each year.
- Carolina generates 57% of all external funding received by the 16 campuses of the UNC System.
- Contracts and grants are steadily increasing as a percentage of Carolina’s overall budget.
- Carolina is among national leaders in several significant measures of research funding.
Vice Chancellor Waldrop concluded his presentation by describing the organizational structure of his Office and how each unit contributes to furthering the research function of the University.
Adjournment
Its business having concluded, the Council adjourned at 5:00 pm.
Joseph S. Ferrell Secretary of the Faculty
