Meeting: Faculty Senate Meeting, October 9, 2002, Wooten
Hall, Room 322
Absent: Bruce Bond,
Azzedine Boukerche, Gene Cho, Steve Cole, Barbara Cox, Dornith Doherty, Juliet
Getty, Melinda Levin, Eugene Osadchy, Sue Parks, Jane Perberton, Debbie Rohwer,
David Shiner, Gay Woods
Guests: Norval Pohl, President; Suzanne LaBrecque,
Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs; John Todd, Special Assistant to
the Vice President for Academic Affairs; two student association members
Opening: Jeffrey Oxford, Chair of the Faculty Senate, called
the meeting to order at 2:05 p.m. and welcomed the following new Senators: Dorinth Doherty (Visual Arts, Group I),
Bruce Bond (English, Group II), David Shiner (Physics) and Bob Benjamin (2nd
term, Group III), Steve Cole (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate and Law, Group
V), Gene Cho (Music History, Theory, Ethnomusicology) and Eugene Osadchy
(Instrumental Studies, Group VIII), and Lew Taylor (Management, At-large). He then welcomed President Pohl and invited
him to report to the Senate.
Report of President Pohl: President Pohl addressed several current issues, as follows:
1.
Parking and Transportation. The issue of parking has been addressed in
the student newspaper and through an E-mail correspondence from Richard
Rafes. There is a possibility of a new
garage west of Chilton hall and east of the PUB, but this would be a highly
expensive venture.
2.
Residence Halls. A new
small 200-250 bed residence hall is targeted for fall 2003, with hopes for a
600-800-bed unit by fall 2004.
3.
The 12-year plan for the College of Engineering. The state budget is not
particularly inviting for the upcoming year.
Two UNT projects that have been promoted by Dick Army may be dropped,
since Army is not returning to the federal legislature in February. President Pohl met with Senator Hutchinson,
who considers the lame duck Congress unlikely to make decisions on issues such
as the UNT projects. We will know in
late November if Congress is willing to deal with our issues. Also, at the state level, the economy is not
good, but there is hope for some monies; most is targeted for health care. Education may not receive any increases in
the budget.
4.
Sponsored Research. The UNT
obtained sponsored research funds are not sufficient to keep UNT classified for
the Excellence Funding. We need 15
million dollars and have only 13 million.
We will know our status by March or April.
5.
Closing the Gaps. The
Coordinating Board released a report addressing resources necessary for and
listing costs related to “Closing the Gaps.”
The CB took the self-reported targets of institutions and looked at the
needs by region. UNT is projected to
obtain a 41,000 level of enrollment by 2015.
To meet the needs of the Metroplex area, 114,000 more students need to
be accommodated for higher education.
The area needs four and one-half million more square feet in building
space. Metroplex institutions of higher
education need 3150 more faculty to accommodate these students.
6.
Current Searches. Two searches
are underway. Five top candidates were
selected for the Dean of Engineering; one candidate will be interviewed
Friday. The VP for Research and
Technology Transfer search is also underway, with three candidates coming in
for interviews. The Provost search is
still under development. A letter
inviting faculty member participants/members is not yet out, to fill the slots
for a 20-member screening committee.
Don Gross is the chair of this search committee.
7.
Enrollment. The UNT enrollment for fall 2002
has reached 30,192, representing a 4% rise in true growth, with a 4% increase
in retention.
8.
Communication. The President now has a web
page. An E-newsletter has been
established and sent out to external audiences, including donors and
legislators. Next will be a similar
newsletter for faculty and staff; later the same will be provided for
students. To provide more student
access to information, the president of the student association has been
invited to attend the President’s staff meeting. Students have asked for a separate athletic fee but that will
require legislative action. Students
have also asked for a student regent to be appointed.
9.
Projects. Salaries and teaching loads –
Salaries are market driven. President
Pohl has no interest in equal salaries for faculty and recognizes there are
salary variances that occur even within a particular discipline. The number of faculty members has increased
over the past ten years, yet the percent of tenure/tenure track faculty has
decreased. President Pohl presented an
hypothesis that full and associate faculty members do not generate sufficient
tuition from faculty load to pay for their salaries. Assistant Professors cover their salaries and generate some funds
for overhead. Lecturers and adjuncts generate
significant funds above their salaries.
Tenure or tenure-track faculty members presently generate 38% of
semester credit hours at UNT. He
intends to look at the number of centers at UNT and related release time for
faculty, as well as to look at sizes of graduate classes. He stated that we “need to economize” and
tie the dollars saved by effective strategies back to the generating faculty
and departments. He intends to
re-examine a faculty track system, possibly developing a research track, a teaching
track, and other variations.
10.
Web-courses. For fall 2002, 49% of the
head count members are taking some form of instruction via the Web, with 18%
enrolled in courses that qualify as distance education. Of those, 51% are taking courses via some
form of Web instruction, with 12% fully Web-based.
11.
Historically Underrepresented Vendors (HUV). HUV vendors are targeted for increased UNT
purchases. To count as a HUV vendor,
the vendor must meet state qualifications requirements.
Faculty Senators were given
opportunity to make comments or ask questions.
Senator Plummer encouraged the President to consider research time that
is part of teaching activity. President
Pohl responded that excellence funding defines “funded research” as appropriate
for excellence. Senator Oxford asked
when the budget would be out. President
Pohl responded that he believed the budget was already out to deans.
Report from Provost Kesterson:
Provost Kesterson was out of town.
Approval of September 11, 2002 Minutes: Minutes were approved as circulated.
Old Business: None
New Business: None
Committee Reports:
1.
Committee on Committees, Senator Tarlton.
A written report was provided on the back of the Senate agenda, with
additional nominees orally named by committee chair Tarlton. Nominees include the following: David Shiner for Evaluation of University
Administrators; Robert Aki for Faculty Awards; Yvonne Chandler, David Tam,
Barbara Wilhite and Joseph Huff for Faculty Participation in Governance;
Bharath Josiam for Mentor; Doug Root for University Curriculum; Sue Parks and
David Shiner for University Elections; Steve Austin and Cathy Sassen for
Student Code of Conduct; Mitty Plummer for Charter and Bylaws; Dennis Mueller
for Executive Committee; Pamela Padilla for Committee on the Status of Women;
Rick Reidy for University Library; and Rick Reidy for Visiting Lecture Seminar
Series.
Nominees were
approved as proposed and distributed.
2.
Fine Arts Committee. Lindsay Keffer, committee chair, provided a
written report describing the activities of this committee and the status of
the Fine Arts Series. The Series is
approaching its 100th season in 2004. The report was accepted as
distributed.
3.
Visiting Lecture Series Committee. Monika Antoneli, committee
chair, also provided a written report detailing activities of the committee.
The report was accepted as distributed.
Information Items: Dr. LaBrecque reported on
the following items for Provost Kesterson:
1.
The University Core Curriculum Oversight Committee. Three
areas of the core curriculum were submitted for fall 2002 assessment (science,
English composition, and mathematics).
In spring 2003, visual and performing arts, humanities, English
literature, and wellness are scheduled for assessment.
2.
Institutional effectiveness and external accrediting bodies now require
outcome measures for assessments. All
courses in all programs will be required to provide outcomes data.
3.
The Director of the Center for Women’s Studies appointed a task force
last year to study why women leave UNT.
The findings were presented to Dr. Pohl who then appointed Dr. LaBrecque
to chair an ad hoc committee to further study this concern. Senator King noted that potential women
candidates for faculty positions turn UNT down because we do not have a family
medical leave policy; she also noted that UNT does not have a women and
minority vita bank. Dr. LaBrecque
responded that UNT does have a family medical leave policy.
Vice Chair’s Update – Lou Pelton Senator Pelton
presented a PowerPoint review of questions the Executive Committee posed in its
last meeting with UNT administrators:
1.
In reference to recent newspaper reports and quotes from President
Pohl, the President was asked to respond to those quotes. He responded that he has
no definite plans for
changing the tenure/tenure track system at UNT; however, while UNT will not be
a leader in this perceived national and state
movement, UNT will respond to the trend.
2.
On the issue of over 100% remuneration for faculty on special projects,
there is not a 120% ceiling policy, but is an operational procedure and will be
discussed at the council of Deans when the October retreat
occurs.
3.
Related to eligibility requirements for Regents Professor, President
Pohl suggested that the faculty handbook should define what is meant by
“administrative appointment.” The issue relates to whether someone on administrative leave is
eligible for Regents Professor status.
The Executive
Committee recommended a name
change for the faculty development leave policy and guidelines, to state
“Developmental Leave,” removing the term “faculty” since more than faculty are
involved in this policy.
4.
Regarding UNT Foundation funds, President Pohl acknowledged that funds
are down 19% over last year. He
expressed concern that endowments
cannot be paid as scheduled, as the current funds are very
limited.
Senator Windsor questioned the
point of the discussion on this last issue.
Pelton responded that it was basically for information purposes, plus to
discern and discuss the impact on faculty, resources, and scholarships. Senator Miles suggested that there are
actually two parts to the issue. One is
the impact of loss of foundation funds, which is obviously significant. The other is the question of what UNT might
do to cover these losses, to possibly restructure the disbursement of funds.
Chair’s Update – Chair Oxford noted that
all items on his list have already been covered and discussed.
Committee of the Whole: No
issues were brought forward.
Senate Chair Oxford adjourned the meeting at 3:15.
Respectfully submitted by: Frances van Tassell, Faculty Senate Secretary