| |
|
|
| Assembly
Highlights for April 2003
WCU's delegates to UNCs Faculty Assembly,
Mary
Adams, Mary
Anne Nixon, and Marie
Huff represent our faculty's concerns at the system
level, reporting what they learn from system administrators
and other delegates annually and making resolutions
and recommendations. Because we believe the knowledge
we gain in Chapel Hill to be potentially more powerful
than our recommendations, we'd like to share our findings
in report form as soon after meetings as possible.
Below you'll find a short summary of
discussions we thought of greatest concern for the
WCU community at the last session, along with links
to the web pages for the Faculty Senate and the Office
of the President for you to read more.
These notes are not the official
assembly minutes. You can read official
Assembly minutes at the UNC main site. |
| |
Summary
of Findings
Note: Some documents linked to
this report are in PDF format and require Adobe
Acrobat Reader. If you don’t have it, download
it here:
printable version of
these notes
UNC Faculty Assembly Meeting: April 25, 2003. Issues
of Interest to WCU
-
Budget—More bad news
-
We should anticipate more devastating
cuts. The house, which usually goes after
university overhead receipts, hasn't submitted
a budget. The governor (usually pro-education)
submitted a budget that includes
-
a $20.6 million cut in continuing
budget increases (includes vehicle replacement,
utility increases, retirement funds,
and about 60% of the operating expenses
for new bond buildings like the fine
arts center)
-
a $44.7 million reduction in permanent
"management flexibility" as well
as a $13.9 million one-time cut
-
a $2 million cut in the "strategic
initiative reserve"-- a fund used to
administer all bond contracts
-
a $3 million reduction in non-resident
graduate tuition remissions (a perennial
target; GA has fought it off for years).
-
Despite our recommendations, both
faculty and staff are slated to receive
a 1.6 % increase (and it could still
get worse). For some staff, this means
a sum smaller than anticipated increases
in health coverage costs.
-
Those concerned about the State
Retirement Plan's withholding of matching
funds last year will be relieved to
know that this year they will match
our contributions with a 0.25% contribution.
- Already possessed of the worst state
employees' health plan in the country,
North Carolina is debating a raise in
premiums of between 11% and 17%. (At 17%
increase, according to Peg Shafer, one
would have to earn about $40,000 per year
to break even).
-
Still alive are efforts by the Assembly
to put all tuition increases under their
control
-
Assembly Resolutions. The Academic Freedom
and Tenure and the Faculty Benefits and Welfare
Committee made four resolutions that are timely
and could affect all of us. I'd like Senate to
consider ratifying all of them, or at least the
first one, this semester.
-
- Resolution
concerning Administrative Growth. This resolution
recommends that the Office of the President
create a task force that would study administrative
growth over the last ten years with the goal
of recommending consistent definitions and best
practice policies.
- Resolution
concerning Recognition of Service. This
resolution recommended that all campuses review
their TPR documents to make sure that they emphasize
the importance of service and reward it accordingly.
- Resolution supporting the University's efforts
to allow waiving the current one-year residency
requirement for in-state tuition for spouse
and dependents of eligible state employees.
- Articulation
agreement with Community Colleges. A task force
established to review university / CC college articulation
has made its final recommendations, which include
- Changes in teacher education here,
including expansion of 2+2 program and replacement
of "second academic concentration"
(i.e. content area) with interdisciplinary set
of "corollary studies" that address
identified needs of the public schools
- Creation of common online degree
programs modeled after the B.S. degree in Business
Administration at UNCP (years 1 and 2 at community
colleges; years 3 and 4 at UNC schools)
- Creation of articulation agreements for four
year degrees (not just first two years) for
Business, CJ, Early Childhood, Engineering,
and Nursing).
- Expansion of Nursing Education areas of articulation
- Efforts to make CAA a living document (i.e.
annually reviewed and edited by "a standing
faculty committee that will support ongoing
and continuous review of the CAA under the direction
of the Transfer Advisory Program" )
- New emphasis on writing.
On Friday at noon (We got it at 11:30) the National
Commission on Writing in America's
Schools and Colleges released a report calling for
a writing revolution. (http://www.writingcommission.org)
- Its findings:
- Writing weaknesses of incoming college
students cost our campuses up to $1 billion
annually.
- Most fourth-grade students spend less
than three hours a week writing, which is
approximately 15% of the time they spend
watching television.
- 75% of high school seniors never receive
a writing assignment in history or social
studies because teachers to not have time
to grade them
- About 50% of college freshmen are unable
to produce papers relatively free of errors
or analyze arguments or synthesize information.
- Its recommendations:
- Federal telecommunications policy should
be extended to cover financing the hardware
and software required in schools and colleges
(and training for faculty and teachers)
- Legislators and policymakers should collaborate
on a National Conference on Literacy and
Writing
- We should improve teacher training on
writing in all disciplines
- We need a “new commitment to measuring
writing quality” with essay, not multiple
choice, tests that are read by real people
- Amazingly, the Commission does not make
recommendations about reading, apparently
seeing no connection between aliteracy (especially
reading for pleasure) and poor writing skills
- Miscellaneous.
- TPR and Dispute Resolution. VP Bataille
stressed the need for campuses to reform their
employment policies and dispute resolution
policies to protect academic freedom. Campuses
that complete this process are rewarded with
more flexibility on employment and TPR.
- Sponsored research.
- We were complimented as a system for
our success obtaining competitive funds—we
rank 4th in the nation in state
appropriations (even if it looks bad here)
and our “sponsored growth”
funding is twice that.
- We should look for other means of “incentivizing”
so faculty don’t spend grant funds
elsewhere and the state doesn’t
siphon off grant funds to pay for cuts.
- We can’t expect this kind of growth
to continue; most federal grant funds
from this administration (science, engineering)
are drying up.
For more information and the full
minutes, please go to the link
for the faculty assembly.
top
|
|
|
