PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH YOUR COLLEAGUES WHO DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO EMAIL

Report from Administrative Council and the Board of Governors: 

The chancellors met with President Broad and her staff on Thursday and the Board of Governors had their usual meeting on Friday.  The key issues from both meetings are listed below: 

1.         Budget: the budget outlook remains clouded.  NCCBI has endorsed freezing current taxes.  This is an important action.  Without the freeze there would be a substantial additional budget cut. 

2.        There is increasing attention being paid to freshmen retention rates and institutional graduation rates.  There will be on-going discussion of these issues over the next several months.  For the most recent information on institutional retention and graduation rates.  See Attachment 1a-Retention Rates and Attachment 1b-Graduation Rates.  

          3.          There is increasing awareness of the important changes that have taken place in relationships between the system and the needs of the people of the state.  There were extensive discussions regarding UNC system positioning and recognition that we must be more directly involved in economic development activities.  There also was substantial discussion of the degree to which our own system policies make it difficult for us to respond to changing societal conditions. 

 2.         Western was given delegated authority to act on nearly all personnel issues without those issues having to be forwarded to the Board of Governors for approval.  The major exception to the delegation of authority is the appointment and compensation of the chancellor which stays with the Board of Governors.

 3.          In a very important move, the Board approved Western creating two joint engineering programs with UNC-Charlotte.  Under the joint degree process, both universities will have their names on the diploma.  Moreover, student enrollments (in terms of headcount) will accrue to Western and the program will be covered by UNC Charlotte’s accreditation by ABET.  The Board approved our developing degrees in electrical engineering and in computer engineering.  It also is important to note that if the program prospers, at a future date, we can either add other engineering programs and/or propose to offer the programs separately.  All faculty members hired by Western to teach in the program would need to meet ABET standards.  They also would stand for tenure, promotion, and merit consideration using the standards of this university.  It also was made clear by the staff of General Administration that it is expected that these faculty members will engage in significant interaction with local business to promote regional prosperity.  Final approval of the system policies governing joint degrees will take place in May.  However, we have been strongly encouraged to move forward with the program planning as soon as possible.  The draft guidelines did not receive significant comment and should be approved as written.

4.          Many of you will remember Rosemary DePaolo, our former dean of Arts and Sciences.  Rosemary was appointed chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington on Friday.  She will be an excellent colleague and I know that we all wish her well.

 If I can provide additional information on any of these issues, please let me know