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The Faculty Council's last meeting of the academic year, held April 23,
included an update on the state budget process, discussion on a labor code for
University licensees, and a series of year-ending reports and resolutions.
Acting Chancellor William McCoy briefed the council on the University's
progress with the state legislature on budget issues ranging from faculty
salaries to capital projects.
The licensing discussion consisted mainly of a report by Faculty Chair Richard
"Pete" Andrews on the recommendations made by the Licensing Labor Code Advisory
Committee, and accepted by McCoy.
Regarding the budget, McCoy said that he has not been to Raleigh yet, but that
he plans to visit the General Assembly soon to promote the University's budget
priorities.
"I see it as part of my job, to be an advocate for this University," McCoy
said. "And we have a lot to talk about."
McCoy said that the UNC system report by consultant Eva Klein, which
identified $7 billion in needed and overdue capital projects statewide, has
some good news for the University, in that the report identifies a long list of
needs for Carolina, particularly in research and laboratory space.
He added that UNC President Molly Broad and State Treasurer Harlan Boyles are
working on new financing methods to help fund the $7 billion in needs.
"I believe that the legislature will be interested in these ideas," McCoy
said. "And that could be positive for the things we want to do."
Also during his remarks, McCoy pledged to be open and consultative in his
approach to managing the University while Chancellor Michael Hooker is on
medical leave.
The discussion on labor codes had been requested at the March Faculty Council
meeting, when the Licensing Labor Code Task Force had not made its
recommendations.
Andrews, who co-chaired the task force with Director of Auxiliary Services Rut
Tufts, briefed the council on the task force's recommendations, which had been
made only the day before and accepted by McCoy hours before the Faculty Council
meeting (see page 4 for story on the recommendations).
The recommendations included a commitment to full disclosure of factory
locations and determining and stipulating a living wage for workers.
Andrews said the recommendations had the unanimous support of the task force
as well as the Students for Economic Justice, who had pushed both Hooker and
McCoy to take a more aggressive stand toward apparel licensees.
"I am proud of chancellors Hooker and McCoy and our trustees for supporting
these principles," Andrews said.
In other business, the Faculty Council:
* Supported a recommendation to create a new method for students to evaluate
instructors.
The new evaluation tool is modeled on one from the University of Michigan,
said Elliot Hirshman, chair of the Task Force on Student Evaluation for
Teaching.
Hirshman said that the three principles the task force agreed on were: an
opportunity for written comments; flexibility to represent the varying needs of
different departments and schools; and interpretations made for job evaluations
must recognize that the results must be used in the context of peer
evaluations, patterns over time and course characteristics.
The new evaluation method includes multiple choice questions, four questions
for written comments and several optional questions that faculty members or
departments may add as they deem appropriate.
The need for a new method for students to evaluate teachers stemmed from the
Faculty Council raising concerns in the spring of 1998 about the Carolina
Course Review, the method used since the 1970s. Those concerns included skewed
scores, especially in small classes, and the use of such scores in making
personnel and salary decisions. Faculty members also voiced concern that the
raw data from the course review was posted on the Internet.
Acting Provost Edward F. "Ned" Brooks said he expected the new form, or
something close to it, to be used to evaluate courses in Fall, 1999.
* Passed a resolution urging the University to take immediate steps to cover
all necessary costs of instruction by faculty and, especially, graduate
students. In addition, the resolution asked the provost to establish a task
force to study disparities of teaching resources across departments and
schools.
The resolution came after reports that many graduate teaching fellows were
having to pay for items such as texts, photocopies and other classroom
expenses. These reports were forwarded to the Faculty Council by the Graduate
and Professional Student Federation, which endorsed a similar resolution.
Brooks said he expected the task force to be appointed promptly.
"We will get that task force working quickly and I hope we can have a report
by the middle of the fall," Brooks said.
* Heard a report from the Intellectual Climate Implementation Committee.
Donna LeFebvre, the committee chair, said that great progress has been made in
creating the First Year Experience, an effort to promote intellectual effort
during the freshman year.
Brooks added that other accomplishments are the Office of Undergraduate
Research and starting the Center for Public Service.
* Voted to abolish its Committee on Established Lectures and reassign three
such lectures to other groups.
Those reassignments move: the John Calvin McNair Lecture in Science and
Theology to the Department of Religious Studies; the Martin Luther King Jr.
Lecture on Civil Rights to the Office of the Chancellor; and the Weil Lecture
in American Citizenship to the Institute for the Arts and Humanities.
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