First Plenary Session called to order at 1:08. Thirty three delegates were present.
A. Welcome
B. Announcements:
The Chair read a message for Vice Chair Dan Noland who could not be present.
The Chancellor North Carolina State University, Marye Ann Fox, will be inaugurated tomorrow
The chair reminded that delegations must be certified by May 1, and that all the directory information must be submitted.
The next meeting will be September 17, 1999 at a location to be announced.
D. Chair's report:
The Chair wrote the President supporting the resolution from the Student Government Association regarding the 150-day academic calendar.
The Chair reported that the Budget Committee chair had asked her to delay writing a letter regarding reduced operating funds.
The Chair reported that two Faculty Assembly members had won the teaching awards, Walter Gray and George Wilson. An alternate, Michael Brookshaw, also won a teaching award.
The copyright task force has been appointed, chaired by Rich Linton from GA and by Chair Gasaway. The majority of task force members are faculty.
The Chair attended the funeral for Gib Smith and reported to members some of the events.
The second plenary session was opened at 3:34
A. Mr. Ben Ruffin, Chair of the Board of Governors was unable to attend the meeting.
B. Report of President Broad. The President:
1. Acknowledged the loss of our colleague Gib Smith.2. Reported that she met with the faculty council at Chapel Hill to announce that Chancellor Hooker has entered the National Cancer Institute for treatment and reports that he is in good spirits.
3. Mentioned the inauguration of Marye Ann Fox as Chancellor at NCSU.
4. Recognized Walter Gray and George Wilson as winners of the teaching awards and talked about the value of the ceremony to revitalize us at the end of the semester.
5. Talked about the enrollment plan. The President reported that the Board of Governors has adopted a ten-year enrollment plan for the University, divided into two five-year plans for each campus. The plan will accommodate approximately 50,000 new students in the next ten years. Many of the discussions were linked to the issue of facilitating growth on the smaller campuses who have a comprehensive mission but who have not achieved an economy of scale due to their small size. If these smaller underutilized campuses could accommodate this growth it would also benefit them by increasing their size. This does not apply when the campus mission would be harmed, such as at UNC Asheville. The discussion of enrollment growth was campus specific, aligning the capital capacity, the campus mission, and enrollment growth potential. For some, this will represent a major change and will involve other activities, including marketing. The plan was approved with the understanding that it would be examined, and possibly modified, yearly. This adjustment must also be linked to capital adjustments.
6. With respect to legislative initiatives: Information technology, enrollment, assessment, distance education, public service programs, and capital needs were items discussed at more than ten occasions during the last few weeks with the joint appropriations committees. The overall financial climate of the State, including the financial implications of recent court cases, presents some significant problems in the continuation and expansion budgets. Each of the appropriations committees must contribute to cutbacks amounting to $125 million, including $53 that the education system must suffer. GA has been examining and communicating what is feasible to do, although the university believes that in direct or indirect ways it has already suffered cutbacks and has already targeted its budget request to very narrow, specific strategic issues. The budget request this year is already $30 million less than just a few years ago. The university believes it has already limited its request to the highest priority items and has little left for further cuts. Additionally, this year we are using $29 million in nonrecurring monies to fund current operations. The President hopes that tax revenues will be favorable and that we have made our case as strongly as possible. The budget process appears to be moving very quickly this year, with a budget possibly being ready by early May.In response to questions:Faculty compensation and staff compensation are important issues, particularly with health care and retirement. The University must contribute to the State's needs for teachers in the next years, and its role in accelerating the pace of our teacher preparation programs will be important. GA will also work very hard to find adequate funding for library resources and information technology.
7 . Highlighted the study by Eva Klein, which highlights the important need for capital improvements. The preliminary conclusion is for a need of $6.9 billion, with $3 billion for renovation of current facilities. GA has documented the magnitude of the need to improve the quality of our academic spaces to keep programs operating at a high level of quality. The cumulative effect of our lack of funding has only escalated the need for funding.
The strategy will involve collaboration. There will to be a move towards collaboration of the development of web tools.
GA will approach funding by specifying not only how much, but also "how come" so that people will understand what we are trying to achieve. We will also be very clear what expectations are appropriate as a result of funding our efforts.
The discussion on each campus should be energized in each of the areas as people from different parts of each campus begin to address the same issues.
Finally, those outside our campuses often do not understand what is happening on the campuses with technology, and we must explain how technology can help educate our students, increase retention and generally enhance the education of our students. We must clearly explain the benefits of technology to our constituents.
The URL that highlights the work of the task force is www.ga.unc.edu/its/netstudy/
Some highlights:
The FIC index (degree of deficiency/value of the campus the FCI) shows that only two campuses that are in the "good" range, three are fair, and all the others are poor with the FCI above 5% and10% respectively. At UNCG, the cost to repair buildings amounts to 37% of the value of the campus.
Non-appropriated facilities (e.g., dorms) are generally in better condition than appropriated buildings.
The University devotes about $90 million to maintenance, which is sufficient, but the large backlog of work makes it far less than what is needed.
It is possible that the University may have been getting less money than others because of how the funding calculation is done.
If the University continues with the current funding level, there will be no improvement.
These analyses only consider bringing a facility to its original condition; they do NOT include what it would take to bring a building up to modern standards. Based on working group meetings, an estimate was made of what it would cost to bring buildings up to modern standards (the FCQI). In some cases, buildings are in such bad state that they are not worth renovating and should be replaced. Using these standards, the needs come to $3 billion dollars.
One recommendation is to place a higher priority on renovation in lieu of new facilities; Science and technology facilities deserve particular attention; severe problems with residence halls on most campuses exist, and HBU campuses deserve special treatment.
Although the system has the capacity to meet current enrollment needs, this capacity is often not where the growth is occurring. Ten institutions are somewhat underutilized. Shortages are in libraries and laboratories more than in classroom or offices. By 2008, all campuses will have space needs. At present, some campuses have more needs than others, particularly the research campuses.
Classroom space will not be a problem. A major need will be for residential beds.
View the underutilized campuses (HBU, UNCP) as assets.
Set growth targets for the smaller institutions.
Fund expansion consistent with institutional targets.
Related to Equity, there seems to be no pattern of systematic underfunding or overfunding, although it appears that the HBUs have suffered from a lack of emphasis on renovation, and their smaller size limits the ability to raise funds, and institutional decisions made in past years. The current level of funding is too low : equity is not achievable with a low level of funding. The State must commit to funding all sixteen universities, setting aggressive growth targets and increase the amount of available funding.
The current capital needs (for the next 10 years) total to 6.9 billion. The University will need to prioritize needs. The order seems to be science and technology facilities; student quality of life, minority/small and underutilized campuses must grow, and we must address immediate capacity strains. While this cannot be done all at once, GA must develop a plan to do so over time. However, the current pace is too slow.
All of us can open a dialogue about this on each campus. One important thing will be to demonstrate that we use current space efficiently. GA cannot sell the need for more space when the University is using existing space for only 15 hours a week. The University can look at calendar changes, summer session, and use conversion, for example converting excess classrooms into more space that meets more pressing needs. In turn, alternative financing systems must be used, including issuing bonds.
The third plenary session was called to order at 6:56. Thirty-five delegates were present.
Executive Committee: Bill Siegfried for Dan Noland
The executive committee brought two issues for consideration:
Related to that, the committee also recommends that a Faculty Assembly task force be formed next year to explore the issues related to the enrollment surge, especially the hiring of faculty, tenure rules for non doctoral faculty and the use of part time faculty.
Second, the committee introduced a motion that: "The current governance committee be charged to develop a recommended committee structure for the Assembly and to present this for discussion at the September assembly meeting." The motion was seconded and passed without dissent.
At this juncture, the floor was open for discussion about the proposed reorganization.
From the Planning and Programs Committee: Several tasks were suggested
for reassignment.
Report of the Budget Committee: Nancy Fogarty
The committee also discussed the problems facing faculty governance,
especially the lack of support such as office space and secretarial help.
The committee suggests that the Assembly consider establishing what the
appropriate level of support should be.
The second item related to part time fixed term faculty. The Academic and
Freedom Committee met with the Faculty Welfare Committee and the two groups
agreed that there is sufficient need to conduct a fact-finding search. Based
on the data they have viewed, the committee believes that this is an issue
that the system must address and encourage Keith to address this issue next
year.
Finally, the committee spent a few minutes discussing the issue of
accepting students from "approved" instead of
"accredited" high schools. Judith Pulley assured the group that
appropriate procedures are in place to assure continuing quality.
The committee met with Kitty McCollum who reported that the Board of Governors has approved some of the recommendations considered by Faculty Assembly. For example, if the carrier allows it, we will be permitted to withdraw cash at retirement; however, if you chose cashability, you are not eligible for health benefits unless you have a monthly benefit being paid. Faculty members must be informed about this impact of this on their health care.
They have expanded the limit of funds available to faculty for investment. They will offer a Fidelity mutual fund that faculty may invest directly, increasing the variety of funds available to us for our retirement plans.
There is some expectation, although this has not been approved, that the system contribution to the ORPs may be increased, although this is still being discussed. The State health insurance body has recommended to the General Assembly that any increases in health care cost be covered for us. They may also recommend that there be a subsidy for those who cover children in their plan, although there is no provision for people who cover themselves and their spouse only. The General Assembly is considering other proposals, including a prescription plan and dental, hearing and vision coverage for children and preventative dentistry for everyone.
The welfare committee is asking for a campus by campus comparison of benefits.
Related to part time and fixed term faculty, the Welfare Committee and the Academic Freedom and Tenure committees jointly recommend that members from each committee meet and make a recommendation about how this issue could be addressed.
Members who were completing their sixth year were recognized.
Old Business: none
Lolly Gasaway made some closing comments:
She reiterated the two goals from two years ago: to increase the efficiency of our meetings and to begin to use technology to communicate. She believes we have done well with these, and especially thanked Paul Duvall for his work on our website. She also believes we have become more proactive, although we are not done with this. She specifically mentioned the task forces in GA that included faculty. This year we had three goals: to complete the Bylaws revision, to investigate committee structure, and to try to develop mechanisms to be more proactive. Our colloquium led to a task force, but we must continue to seek mechanisms to increase our effectiveness. The Bylaws were amended this year. On the goal relating to becoming more proactive, substantial progress was made but there is more to be done.
Lolly will have visited all sixteen campuses during her term. She thanked members of committees, GA staff, Roy Carroll and President Broad.
Respectfully submitted:
W. D. Siegfried