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Faculty Advisory Council
Joel Dunnington (FAC Chair, UT MD Anderson Cancer
Centre) called the meeting called to order at 1002. Approval of the minutes:
approved with no corrections (revised sent out on email). UTFAC Executive Council
Minutes--Dunnington:
·
Board of Regents:
·
Purchase of the Walmart property for UT Pan American
·
Passed changes in the ethics and conflict of interest polices
for board members of the UT Investment Management Company (UTIMCO)
·
No news re: candidates for Chancellor (have not asked for
any consultation form the UT FAC)
·
RFP proposal for faculty satisfaction survey continues to
be worked on. Dunnington will follow
up with Ed
Sharpe (Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs).
·
Campus reports should be sent to Terese Verklan (FAC Secretary,
UTHSC-Houston) 7 days prior to the general FAC meeting. Verklan will email
the campus reports to all members 2 days prior to the meeting, along
with the to do List. This will also help keep the verbal
campus reports to 5 minutes.
·
Daniel Stewart is the new director of the Employee Group Insurance (EGI).
Gaulden (UT PB)
is a representative on the EGI Advisory Committee. However, the meeting
notices arrive so late, his ability to attend is severely limited. The
issue will be discussed with Mr. Stewart.
·
The federal regulation for the New Freedom of Information
law was passed last year. Beth Lynn Maxwell from the Office of General
Counsel (OGC) will discuss the final draft later in the day.
·
The Mathematics Department at UT San Antonio continues in
conflict resolution counseling at this time.
·
Students at UT Dallas will be developing a web page concerning
evaluation of faculty teaching on their campus. OGC has reportedly said
this was permissible, but the students comments would have to
be anonymous. The web-based critique falls under the 1st
Amendment freedom.
·
Assignment to committees have been sent out:
·
Academic Affairs: Community College Transfers;
Florida and Illinois Transfer Studies; Academic Integrity; Rights on
the Web; Status of the Women in Academics Study
·
Faculty Quality Committee: Faculty
Satisfaction SurveyRFP; Exit Survey; Privacy; Freedom of Information;
Sexual Orientation Statement
·
Governance: Academic Hires; Letters of Appointment;
Upward Evaluation of Administrators; Indemnification of Faculty on Committees;
Grievance Out of San Antonios changes
·
Health Affairs: Freedom of Information;
Graduate Medical Information Payments Decreased; Daniel StewartNew
Director of EGI; MSRDP Billing
·
UT-Austin: was found not to be totally compliant with SACS
in that SACS questioned the computer literacy and quality of jobs obtained
after graduation with a liberal arts and sciences degree. It is believed
that SACS just wanted to challenge a leading institution to purposively
demonstrate that their students were really prepared. UT-A is now working
to accommodate SACS recommendation. Shelley Payne (UT-A): SACS has a statement
that the graduate is expected to be computer literate upon graduation. It was argued that many of the courses offered
require the use of computersstudents are expected to take one
of these prior to graduation. By adding a statement of this type to
the general education degree, we should be able to satisfy the SACS
criticism. It is really very similar to the current writing
course requirement. All SACS wants to see is that the graduate has the
basic knowledge to use a computer. Michael
Moore (UT-Arlington): we have also added an oral
competency, that of speech, in response to the SACS visit. The students
can demonstrate their skill level by taking an existing course that
has presentations or the students may take a formal course. For all
newly admitted students, it must be documented (checked off) that the
student has met this requirement.
Robert
Nelsen (UT-Dallas):
The oral competency is already a requirement in the common corewhy
did SACS want this? Moore:
I dont know, but we didnt have a speech requirement until
then. Ralph
Liguori (UT-El Paso): Was SACS asking to validate natural science
and liberal arts degrees? Payne:
SACS wanted us to demonstrate that we had some type of exit examwe
argued that the individual faculty already assesses learning in each
class/degree. They want some kind of assessment tool, along with stating
in the catalog how the assessment will be done. If we can deal with
the computer literacy piece, they may back off on this. James
Stokes (UT HSC-Tyler): Is the proposal for a super TASK really from
SACS, rather than being independent? Payne:
No, that was independent. Nelsen:
The TASK document is circulating around the legislature right now. It
is being discussed that it is a good form of assessment.
Beth Lynn Maxwell (Office of General Counsel)Update
on OMBs Revision to Circular A-110 Regarding Public Access to
Research Data Through the Freedom of Information Act
Maxwell
distributed three handouts: copy of the role; article from the Chronicle
of Higher Education and a list of frequently asked questions. Rule: Published research data created with federal
money has to be made available to the general public upon request. Origin: The Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) was reluctant to release information regarding
their studies which prompted Senator Shelby (Alabama) to make this his
mission. It was proposed that the issue be studied for one yearthe
study was never done. Senator Shelby subsequently inserted two sentences
in the Appropriation bill just before it was passed, the bill was not
debated and the OMB was then stuck with the two sentences (the rule).
In response, there were over 12,0000 comments and letters re the new
rule pointing out the numerous problems. It is believed that the rule
is there simply because of the EPA, however, it impacts technological
research, health research, open up propriety business secretes, etc.
The rule did not define what the research activity really iscould
be anything, preliminary data, not necessary peer reviewed, any research
data (NIH has a study on defining this). There is also no guidance on
what type of data was included under this rule (incomplete, not published,
etc.). The rule
now has definitions. Research data is defined as recorded factual material
accepted in the scientific community necessary to validate research
findings (excludes trade secrets, confidential information, intellectual
property, etc.). Published data is defined as data in a peer reviewed
scientific journal, or if a Federal agency cites the data to support
something. The final rule has been tweaked to include
the definitions. The door is still left open to enable the rule to be
revised within the next 3 years once the initial requests have been
reviewed. The rule
is now in effect. The first real test has been that of the US Chamber
of Commerce requesting the EPA for its researchthe request was
made November 1999 and the EPA has not yet complied. Liguori: Does the rule have to be renewed at the end of the year? Maxwell: It will be renewed every
year. Jerry Mclarty (UT HSC-Tyler): Large industry
may also be behind thisthe tobacco industry is very interested
in looking at the EPA data. And so was the NRA.
Maxwell: There was a certain web site,
that entered you into a sweepstakes if you said that you were in favor
of the bill (rule) and your vote counted yes! 55% of respondents were
thus in favor of the bill (rule). Please call me if you get a request
of informationrequests are likely to be made to attack certain
regulations in process, like the EPA or some federal regulatory body.
Moore: Will the state be likely
to adopt a similar rule? Maxwell: No. This goes through the Freedom of Information Actthe people
receiving this information are not trained to evaluate what constitutes
research data. FOI Act has two exemptions commercial business
interests and confidentialitythus, this shouldnt come down
to the State level. If there is any federal money involved, however,
the data needs to be released. Dunnington: If you have a core grant at your institution, then all of the data
is fair game. Maxwell: Yes, everything is open. Your data is validated on a regular basis,
the EPA doesnt have to do this. Betty Travis
(UT-San Antonio):
How long do you have to keep your research data? Maxwell: 3 years after the submission of the final financial report. If the
PI chooses to keep the data for longer, then you will be asked to provide
that information. Mellick Sykes (UT HSC San Antonio): This
addresses the middle set of data that is not published, but is higher
level than preliminary results. There
have been investigators that have published erroneous conclusionsthis
would allow that someone could look at their data. Maxwell: But thats not the heart of the rule. In scientific publications,
you do present your data. This rule is not a vehicle to test the credibility
of the science. Marvin Chasen (UTMDACC): You could question
the results by writing a letter to the editor and then the author can
respond. If this conflict continues, does this put the editor on the
spot to initiate an investigation? Maxwell: This process could be used
to demand the data that supported the conclusions. FOI Act is not equipped to deal with these types of requests (data,
reimbursement, etc.), so there will need to be much more tweaking of
the rule. There are still many issues that need to be addressed such
as, for example, who will pay for the researcher to comply with this
request? The person requesting the information cant just make
a blanket requestthey must state why they want it, identify the
specific study, identify the specific publication, exactly what data
it is that they want access to, etc. The request to the EPA is actually
still pendingare talking about a shield of secrecythey think
the Shelby amendment is way too broad. McLarty: Are there restrictions on what can be done with the data once the
person requesting it receives it? For example, can someone else publish
results? Maxwell: The institution owns the
data. It would really be incredible if that person requesting the information
subsequently publishes after looking at the data. Ivor Page (UT-Dallas, Past-Chair, UT
FAC): There could be a major discovery that has preliminary work that
is kept very confidential. You may not be able to protect your work
effectively now when you publish preliminary results. The researcher
may not want to say anything until he/she wins the Nobel prize! Maxwell: Thats a good pointthats why the rule will be evaluated
every 3 yearsto see exactly how the request and the data from
those requests are being used. Sykes: The scope of this appears
to be so narrow that I dont see it stealing intellectual property. Maxwell: We are talking more about
the publications. Much of the researchers work is protected (preliminary,
not published, etc.) and it will be decided if it was research or not.
Personal notebooks will never be classified as research. See 2nd
page of frequently asked questionsit defines what is research.
Georgia K. Harper (Attorney, Office of General
Counsel)Confidentiality of Mail and Personal Email, and Who has
the Authority to Publish Information on the World Wide Web?
Privacy
issues are becoming more of an issue due to the increased use of the
world wide web and email systems. Two articles pertain hereemployee
privacy and publishers liability for what is published on line.
Privacy
law is a patch workthere really is no one thing that gives rights.
There is tort law, statutory parts of federal law that protect electronic
communications. The electronic communications privacy act does not really
apply hereit extends the wire tapping law into the electronic
environment. This only protects the information while it is in transit,
however, it doesnt apply to the employer, the owner of the communication
system. In addition, the Freedom of Information Act and Open Records
also work against privacy. In contrast, there is the Family Education
and Right to Privacy Act, along with a constitutional right to privacy
(4th amendmentlimits search and seizure), and rights
to sexual privacy. These areas
of the law are very difficult to understandit all comes down to
whether you had a reasonable expectation to privacy in that particular
situation. The employers policy sets the stage/groundwork for
this. An employer can decide ahead of time whether what you do in your
office is private or not. Our policy is found in Business Procedure
Memorandum (BPM) 53, which can also be found online. All state agencies
had to adopt a similar policy to be in complianceemphasizes that
the information network is state property and belongs to the state,
and is there for us to do our jobs. Our mission defines what we use
it forwe are here to teach and establish an environment of inquiry.
BPM 53 also sets out when the system owners and operators have the right
to look at what is on the system. Thus, there is not a reasonable expectation
of privacy at the University of Texas (employee privacy policy outlines
5 reasons why you do not). There are some universities who have said
that email is private and will not looked at it. There has
been related litigation: An
employee sued the employer because the employee sent a message that
was unprofessional to his supervisor. The supervisor subsequently used
the message as a part of a disciplinary action. This action was made
public and the employee was punished. The court dismissed it out of
handit was not reasonable to expect privacy in an emailthe
situation was likened to being at the watercooler. In addition, even
if you did have an expectation of privacy, it was not unreasonable to
share the highly offensive content as the company has an interest in
preventing inappropriate/unprofessional/illegal activity on the emailthis
interest is put before the privacy rights of the individual. Linda Phillips
(UTMB):
What if the email is labeled highly confidential? Harper: There was a case involving
Microsoftthe company went into the persons computer directory
and found those files. The court said that the computer was there for
you to do your jobyou have no reasonable expectation of privacy.
Sykes: What if you received a personal
mail at work? Harper: The US mail has rules that
do not apply to email. Moore: Unless the mail is marked
personal and confidential it can be opened. Harper: Yes, once it hits the office
we can open it. The US government
doesnt operate the email system. Getting something out of the
mailbox is like an interception rather than getting it off the web where
it resides, especially after it has already been opened on the server. Page: If an employer were to systematically
read the facultys email on a regular basis like surveillance,
would the employee have a case? Harper: There are guidelines in the
4th amendmentunreasonable search and seizure may provide
a framework for the investigation. If an employer suspects wrongdoing
(illegal/unprofessional, etc), the faculty can be investigated. The
emails may be the evidence you need. I dont know if you know but
you can enter a persons name at Deja News and get a list of every
message they have ever submitted to Deja News! This is legitimate. On
the other hand, if there is a malicious reason to do this, that doesnt
fit in with the guidelines of the 4th amendment or the exemptions
with BMP 53 when we reserve the right to look at what is going on on
a persons computer. James Turley
(UT-Houston HSC): There may
be problems when Health Information Protection Act (HIPA) is used. Harper: HIPA requires us to keep
certain things confidentialis it private from the public or from
ourselves? There are 2 laws that seem to conflict, federal law always
trumps state lawBMP 53 would be trumped by HIPA. This would be
sorted out when the request was made for the information Nelsen: When does the individual have to be notified that searches of their
email are being done? Harper: Notification is not a part
of any of the laws. Nelsen: Is there a retention date
on how long the employee can keep the information on file? Harper: Document retention schedules
guide thisbut this only applies to the original. A copy can be
kept forever. David Farquhar
(MDACC):
Our chief information officer says that all email is archived. They
can look into it anytime they want. Harper: This is true, but there are
some important distinctions. For example, preparing for disasterwe
have a rolling back up of everything on the system. Also we have to
send to the state archives, all kinds of stuffthere is some sort
of record that goes back for long time, but to what extent it is accessible,
with respect to document retention schedules, is unclear. Ralph Liguori (UT-El Paso): If I do state business on my home computer,
does that open the home computer to search? Harper: That is possible, but with
limitations. If you didnt take the original file home, we cant
insist on the copythe same is true in the electronic environment.
Liguori: An airline went after an
employee who was supporting a sick outthey seized his records
for this. Harper: They needed to have probable
cause to do this. It appears to be work related so they would need to
have a reasonable basis for going after his home computer records. James Stokes
(UT-Tyler HSC):
Does an individual have any right to encrypt files? Harper: That is extremely controversial.
The individual could be compelled to de-encrypt. Because we are state
employees, we cant use encryption to circumvent the open records
act. It also runs into things like HIPA where we do have to encryptbut
this is not subject to the open records act (30 exemptions). Stokes: Lets say that an employer
is keeping email without cause and we are not notifiedif we are
to insist that anything sent needs to be encrypted, it could prevent
the employer from looking without having the key. Harper: But if someone invokes the
open records act, then we would not be in compliance and the person
in charge would be liable for not being able to do de-encrypt the filethe
institution would be in violation of federal law. There is a policy
in the works prohibiting encryption unless the content is exempted.
The problem is that you dont really know what is exemptthus
there is a default to the thought that everything is subject to open
records. Also keep in mind that BMP 53 does not permit curious surveillancepeople
cant just look at email. Stokes: The word audit
is pretty broad. Harper: If this activity is occurring,
bring it to the attention of the Ethics officer at your institution.
The U. T. System K-16 InitiativeEd Sharpe,
Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Ivor Page, Past-Chair,
FAC, UT-Dallas
The K-16
committee was established by the System composed of people from the
System. The committee has been meeting since last summer. The problem
identified is, that for the State of Texas we needed to produce 20,000
more bachelor degree students per year for the next 10 years. UT-Austin
produces less than 20,000 bachelor degree students per year. If this
goal cannot be met, it is forecasted that we will have an unskilled,
uneducated population that can not compete economically or work effectively
in business/economic endeavors. Economic trends project that household
incomes would decreaseand increases in poverty would be seen.
Another issue is that our drop out rates are higher in every grade level
when compared to the national averagethis also needs to be addressed. The problems
lie in a number of areas: by the time the students reach 3rd
grade, they are behind in their readingcant get them back
up to speed after this. It has been shown that if reading lags at 5th
grade it will always be a problem. 2nd problemdropout rate at algebra 1, which
is needed for entry to Universitycant support technological
career/advanced learning. Reading and mathematics skills lag and the
student can never make it to college. Mathematics and reading levels
tend to be poor if the student takes a lot of vocational classes. There is a major discrepancy between economic groups and
ethnicity. Minority families and children do have the same aspirations
for economic security as Anglos. On examination, there is only a very
small proportion of ethnicities represented in college/university. Poor
school districts suffer from inadequate supplies, equipment and poorer
qualified teachers. This lack of resources has devastating effects on
the education. Three inadequate teachers in a row dooms the student
to failure. There is a large proportion of teachers who are not certified
to teach the content they are providing. A students score of As
in the substandard school system tend to translate into Cs at
the better schoolsare about 4 grade levels behind their counterparts
in the better districts. We must do more than improve retention without dropping
standards. Money is very significant indicator of successwill
take a lot of money and brave legislation to close the ethnic gap. How to use U.T. System to assist in solving the problem,
not just for Texas, but for the nation:
·
PowerPoint presentation at a Board of Regents meeting introduced
them to the importance of this issue.
·
Texas has four million students and 1,042 school districts.
The State Board of Education and the legislature has different rules
under which they operate. Higher education has 800,000 students in 6
university systems and 50 community college districts. This adds up
to about 500-600 board members thus involved with the governance of
education. The State of Georgia has one Board of Regents that is responsible
for both the universities and the community colleges. The Challenge:
who speaks for higher education, and what is the best means to accomplish
the goal given the amount of autonomous agencies involved. The Coordinating
Board is supposed to be orchestrating things, but it is acting much
more like a regulatory agency. This is the collision of the two worlds
in Texas.
·
We want to reach the national average each year: 17,000 more
associate degrees and 20,000 more bachelor degrees to achieve the national
average. There will have to be a focus on the lower socioeconomic class
to make the gains. The U.T. Board of Regents has given strong support
from their Academic Affairs committee to do this.
·
U. T. components: All components are involved in the project
to varying degrees. For example, the El Paso collaborative for academic
excellence includes the community college and the three largest school
districts in the area. The Uteach program at UT-Austin is nationally
recognized.
·
U. T. System: The office of Academic Affairs is trying to
involve itself in programmatic activities instead of regulatory ones.
·
Felipe Alanis, Assistant Vice Chancellor, has an ongoing advisory
responsibility to Jim Nelson, the Texas Commissioner of Education
·
The U. T. System K-16 Leadership Council has representatives
from all components.
·
The U. T. System K-16 seminar was held January 30-31/00. Participants
included community colleges, academic presidents, five community college
presidents, superintendents, Jim Nelsen, and Charles Miller (Chair of
the Academic Affairs Committee of the Board of Regents).
·
Have developed an agenda for long term collaboration that
includes an advanced placement program, mathematics in grades 8-13:
the Algebra I Project to develop successful qualified teachers), UT-H
Reading K-3: Professional development initiative;
·
Beyond U.T. System:
·
The Chief Academic Officers of the 6 University systems meet
monthly for discussions;
·
Texas Association of Community Colleges and the U. T. System
superintendents advisory group created;
·
Texas school alliance includes both the largest and the smallest
school districts to improve the number of students coming out of public
schools; the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board; State Board
of Education Certification; Texas Business and Education Coalition (TBEC);
Education Trust Initiative. The guiding principles in the Initiative:
Accountabilityfocus on student achievement as key outcome measure;
Equity close the achievement gap between ethnicities; need for
change and improvementbuild on public school reform movement;
data-driven actions; value of collaboration; sustained effort.
Nelsen: How is this funded? The
Chair of the Appropriations Committee says there is no money for this. Sharpe: Currently there are discussions
looking into a legislative approach for this. We are also looking into
federal level and private sources. Craven: What is the State Board of
Educator Certification? Sharpe: It used to be part of TPA.
It develops the test that teachers must pass to be certified to teach
in public schools. Craven: If teachers then dont
know how to teach Math and Science, what does that mean about the State
board of educator certification? They really are not ensuring that the
teachers are competent. Sharpe: This is more demand for teachers
than is supplied. Thus they are not all certified, and we know that
some of them are not qualified. There
is nothing more important than getting able teachers in the classroom. Corbett Gaulden
(UT-Permian Basin): Senator Bivins says we want more people to go to community colleges
for the first 2 years and you say that we need 20,000 more bachelor
degrees per year. Someone needs to educate the legislature about the
problem/issues. Sharpe: Those figures are based on
the national average. We need to work with the legislature to determine
how to best meet the needs. There are some very good things going on
in some of the community colleges hereneed to work with them to
turn out the best graduate. Moore: Is there any momentum to
creating a single board that will cover both universities and the community
colleges? Sharpe: I dont think
this is getting serious attention. It would be too much responsibility. Moore: Accountability of the objectives
and the TEAF proposal is circulating. Do you think that this
will be tied together? Sharpe: I dont think that proposal
has gained any momentum. Stokes: What is the drive for the
numbers related to the needed graduates coming from? Sharpe: The view is an economic oneif
we dont produce a broad range of people ready for the workforce,
we will be in economic crisis. Dunnington: How is big business supporting
the education? They want good deals and dont want to pay taxes
for a period of time. In my area, the kids are not tested until they
fail 2 grades. If the school finds out they have learning disabilities,
the school district then has to take care of themmeaning Special
Education. The school district takes a long time to determine if and
when the child has problems. This is not helping the situation. Sharpe: Remedial work that needs
to follow the problem is not occurring like it should. We may see something
addressing this at the legislative level soon. Ross Sherman
(UT-Tyler):
The proposal to establish literacy centers at all UT components was
not carried in the legislature. Where is this now? Sharpe: The proposal did not get
into the higher education coalition that went forward. We are taking
a broader view and including the community colleges now. We are going
to try to put together a legislative package to go forth.
CAMPUS REPORTS
University of Texas at ArlingtonMichael Moore · The Faculty Senate has adopted and/or finalized the following policies:
-
Upward Review
of Administrators - mostly minor changes. Ready for final approval
-
Grievance Policy
- mostly minor changes. Ready
for final approval.
-
Family Leave
Policy - to create consistency across campus and expand coverage. President Witt as agreed to the policy.
-
Privacy Policy
- Requires that employees be notified that most means of communication
are not private. Also requires
the president be the only one to order any monitoring.
-
Post Tenure
Review - Added section for those who have joint appointments. Also now requires that the administration notify
faculty members when the process has been completed.
-
By-laws have
been amended to require that the Chair of the Senate be a current member
of the Senate or a past member.
·
Enrollment
is up 5 percent for the Spring. Officials
are crediting much of the gain to Winter session and to distance education.
-
Wintersession
and Maymester raise potential difficulties related to faculty salaries. These courses are capped at $3500
for most faculty. However, summer
courses are paid at a rate of one-tenth of the nine month rate. University officials have indicated that they would like to raise
the rates, however, the recent announcement for Wintersession 2000 show
no movement.
·
President Witt
announced that faculty and staff would be eligible for 4% raises based
on merit.
·
Some bad news.
The university learned that the bricks on nursing and business
buildings are literally falling off and will need to be replaced to
the tune of $12.5 million. This was money that we had hoped to use for new construction.
·
Administrative
Departure. Our former Dean of
Engineering who had been named a vice-president in charge of the Riverbend
Campus has left the university to become a dean of Engineering in Florida.
·
The university
has taken the plunge in major media advertising with television spots
on the local NBC station. The
advertisements air during the Today Show, Jay Leno and Saturday Night
Live. The first spot focuses
on distance education and future ones will focus on Maymester, Riverbend
Campus, and other aspects of UTA. The
early reports are that ads are generating more inquires into the university.
How do you compensate your faculty in special sessions? 1/10 of their rate in the summer. Administration wants to cap the compensation at $3500/course irregardless of the faculty members salary. Senior faculty are finding
it difficult to continue in light of being Medicare eligible. Physicians
do not want to see them. How
are the other campuses handling this? Shelley Payne
(UT-A): You have paid family leave? Moore: Yes, the policy is posted on our web page.
The University of Texas at Austin--Martha Hilley
·
Active legislation
has not been prevalent this academic year.
To date the Faculty Council has acted on seven formal legislative
reports. All may be found on
the Faculty Council web page http://www.utexas.edu/faculty/council/. A quick survey of legislative action includes:
·
Recommendation from Rules Committee on U.T System Faculty Advisory Council Representatives
[The Chair and the Past Chair shall represent U.T. Austin on the U.T.
System Faculty Advisory Council.]
Approved by the Faculty Council on September 20, 1999. Approved by General Faculty October 12, 1999,
and transmitted to President on October 13, 1999. Approved by President
December 22, 1999.
·
Recommendation from Rules Committee on Faculty Council Executive Committee [The Executive Committee of the Faculty Council
(a standing committee of the Faculty Council). a. Composition: The Chair, and
Chair Elect, and Past Chair of the Faculty Council; the Secretary of
the Faculty Council; one Faculty Council member (elected by the voting
members of the Faculty Council) from each of the following standing
committees: Faculty Advisory Committee on Budgets, Educational Policy
Committee, and Faculty Welfare Committee; and the Chair (or the Chair
Elect in the absence of the Chair) of the Graduate Assembly.] Approved by the Faculty Council on September 20, 1999.
Approved by General Faculty October 12, 1999, and transmitted
to President on October 13, 1999. Approved by President December 22, 1999.
·
Recommendation from Educational Policy Committee on Changes in Policies Concerning
Grades Awarded with Credit by Examination [1.That the University of
Texas at Austin continue to award credit by examination either with
letter grades or with the symbol CR but that letter grades
for credit by examination not be counted in a student's UT Austin grade
point average. 2.That the catalog
and other official publications of UT Austin be amended to reflect this
change in policies.] Approved
by the Faculty Council on November 15, 1999. Transmitted to President
November 16, 1999.
·
Report from the Faculty Council ad hoc Committee on Course Instructor
Surveys Evaluating
Teaching Effectiveness and Excellence. Approved by the Faculty Council
on November 15, 1999. Transmitted to President November 16, 1999.
·
Report from the Educational Policy Committee on changes in the Basic Education
Requirement. Calls for the addition
of a statement regarding basic use of computers as well as the definition
and assessment of student computer competency. Approved by the Faculty Council on March 20,
2000.
·
Report from the Committee on Committees concerning the creation of
a standing faculty committee on academics and athletics. Defeated by the Faculty Council on March 20,
2000.
·
Report from the Committee of Counsel on Academic Freedom and Responsibility
on the mid-probationary review policy.
Recommendation was amended to proceed no later than the
fourth probationary year and be completed in the same semester as it
was started. The full text is available at the Faculty Council
web site. Approved by the Faculty
Council on March 20, 2000.
·
Major issues
other than legislation have included:
1)
Cancellation
of the Kissinger Speech
2)
Reorganization
of the upper administration
·
The proposed
reorganization will allow President Faulkner more
time to focus more global issues, including the outside community.
Dr. Faulkners plan calls for ten (10) vice presidents instead
of the
current seven (7). Duties
of some of the current vice presidents will change under the new plan.
·
There will
be a new office of campus services (portfolio will include human resources,
facilities, police, utilities, parking, environmental health and safety).
An office of information technology will be formed as well as an office
of public affairs.
Travis: Was the athletic committee not formed? Payne: A large report was just completed that suggested changes for the athletic
committee that should be addressed by the President first. Thats
why we didnt go forward with it.
The University
of Texas at BrownsvilleTerry Jay Phillips
1.
Enrollment
Goal 20,000 in 2010: The administration has set this as a goal. At the general faculty meeting in January,
a resolution was passed which stated that the faculty could only support
this goal if there were the proper resources available. The faculty feels that the institution is already at the limit of
the services it can provide without major new resources in the way of
space, new faculty, new support staff, etc. and to propose a goal of
such huge enrollment increases (more than doubling in ten years) without
proper consideration of the resource implications would be imprudent.
There was a retreat of the VPs held in late February, to
determine the resources needed to reach this enrollment goal. 2. An assessment plan for general education curriculum is being formulated. The various academic departments that administer courses under the general education core were assigned the task of devising the methods of assessment of each individual course to determine how the various Competencies and Perspectives, designated by the THECB are being met in each course.
3.
The current
Provost has announced that he will be stepping down. He has indicated that he will serve until a
replacement can be found. The
Provost told the Deans Council that some of the reasons for his
decision dealt with frustration in relation to the lack of resources
to hire new faculty and increase current faculty salaries.
The University
of Texas at DallasRobert Nelsen *Enrollments
are going through the roofup 11% this spring.
How much in the fall? 8
to 10% overall, maybe 12% or more. Actual acceptances are up 30% from
this time last year. We have no place to put any of these people. No
new dorms will be built until 2002.
Portable classrooms have been ordered.
*The
odious code of conduct that I kept warning about has become "compliance
training." We are currently in the middle of (in my opinion) a
major catastrophe. The access to media web training module is a joke,
absolutely misleading, and an embarrassment to the System and to the
Board of Regents. I asked our President to take down the web site (as
was done in El Paso); he refused in spite of my sincere and adamant
protestations. The Senate, therefore, passed a resolution
stating that the faculty considered all of the modules as the view of
the administration only, that taking any of the modules did not constitute
an agreement to comply with the administrations views, and that
faculty retain their rights to speak and act according to normal academic
and legal standards as the faculty understand them. More to come. This issue is clearly on its way to the courts. On
our end, we are rewriting the access to media site, but that site is
only one of the myriad of legal and ethical problems that the Systems
policy muddies and fails to address.
*The funding of TA's has come to a headthe TAs were about to go on strike. The administration has offered a proposal ($1000, $500 tuition reimbursement, annual raises on the basis of the annual percentage offered to faculty, etc.). The TAs have said yes .. The Deans are unhappy because each school will have to cut its budget by 2.5% to pay for the raises. The raises still leave the teaching assistants $500 dollars below what UTD considers (in published form) the minimal subsistence level of the graduate students to be.
*If
the administration changes the grades of any of our students (they have
always been able to do this), the faculty will at least be notified
from here on out.
*UTD
has been given the right to write a policy on non-discrimination on
the basis of "sexual orientation." The Senate tried to do
this by just adding the words to the catalogue, but failed. The actual
policy to be put in handbooks, etc., will work just as well.
*The
Senate added wording to the catalogue to make it clear that the catalogue
is not a contract and that faculty cannot be sued on the basis of changes
in the catalogue.
*
The System's lawyers in Austin have, according to the administrations
opinion, given the students permission to put up anonymous pages (without
censorship or limits regarding language, tone, content, or number) for
open comments about professors. These
pages will appear on the UTD web site and will therefore be supported
by UTD (and System) money. The
debate on campus is, to say the least, rancorous.
Next month the faculty will be considering a motion to be sent
to the President asking him to refuse to use University funds to support
such a site.
Payne: With respect to the compliance
documentwe have no training piece, it is just expected that you
will be in compliance with the relevant state laws. Farquhar: We had an open forum for faculty that resulted in a fiasco. Although it is anonymous, the email can always be traced, and when that was made known, the amount of inflammatory remarks decreased greatly.
The University of Texas
Pan American--Sue G. Mottinger
1.
Administration
Evaluation: The UTPA Faculty
Senate is conducting an evaluation by the faculty of the President, Provost/VPAA, Deans,
and the Director of the Library. Opinions
based upon a Likert scale will be reported to the Faculty Senate and
shared with each administrator. The Chair of the Faculty Senate will
share written comments with the appropriate administrator.
2.
Dean Searches:
There are two dean searches occurring:
Dean of the College of Business Administration, and Dean of the College of
Social & Behavioral Sciences. Each
search should be completed before the end of the spring semester.
3.
Curriculum: The UTPA faculty passed a referendum for a
51-advanced hour minimum requirement for all degree programs at the
university. A core curriculum oversight committee that includes faculty
and administrators has been established.
4.
Faculty Salary:
A Faculty Senate committee recently completed a study of summer school compensation and overload compensation for faculty.
The report, including recommendations, was submitted to the President.
At this time, discussions and negotiations are occurring with the President
and Faculty Senate.
5.
President &
Faculty Senate: By invitation,
the President of UTPA addressed the Faculty Senate at its March meeting. Legislative issues and faculty salary are on
the agenda.
6.
Construction: The general-purpose classroom and student union
building constructions are progressing. A groundbreaking ceremony will take place in
the spring for the new on campus, apartment style, residence housing. 7. | ||||||||||||||||