UNH Faculty Senate
Summary Minutes from 24 January 2000
UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
FACULTY SENATE
JANUARY 24, 2000 MINUTES SUMMARY
I. Roll - The following Faculty Senate members were absent: de la
Torre, Draper, Macieski, McCann, VonDamm and Williams. Absent
as work to rule were Carr, Christie, Echt, Garland, Planalp, Reardon,
Roh, and Stine. Excused was Keim.
II. Communications with the President - The president said that she
and the vice president for financial affairs met this morning to discuss
the capital budget, and the president hopes that the Faculty Senate's
Campus Planning Committee will invite Alan Braun to discuss details
of the capital budget. Recently, UNH has not received a
proportionate share of the capital budget sent to the system, and that
situation needs to be addressed. The university has assessed the
renovation needs of eighty core university buildings which comprise
ninety percent of our usable space. If the Facility Condition Index is
greater than one, this means that the building has problems. The
impact, of the need for renovation, on the learning situation in those
buildings is also being ranked. A large number of engineering
students go out of state, because the engineering buildings here are
so old. The projected cost of building repair that is overdue is $176
million; and yet in the current biennium, the legislature assigned only
$80 million for the capital budget for the entire system. The above
assessment-of-needs figures do not even include the auxiliary
buildings for which the university is responsible. The president said
that there must be a major effort to deal with the university's
renovation needs, and she asked that some members of the senate
review the situation carefully
A professor said that he is impressed with the effort that has gone
into documenting and working for a solution of the renovation needs,
and he asked that similar effort be put into dealing with the faculty's
needs. The president replied that we need a new process for
collective bargaining, and she added that the administration is trying
to obtain independent data on how UNH faculty salaries rank with
those at comparable institutions. She said that perhaps we can use a
similar type of documentation and assessment for the operating
budget, which includes salaries.
President Leitzel said that various long-term academic plans are
being reviewed to see if their targets are consistent with each other
and worthy of completion. The Faculty Senate's Academic Affairs
Committee chair is participating in this review. Regarding
enrollment, February 1 is the deadline for new student applications,
and we will have a better idea then how this year compages with last
year. However, the current estimate is that applications are up by
twenty-four percent, which includes a thirty percent rise in out-of-
state applications and an eight percent rise in in-state applications.
The quality of the applicant pool looks stronger than last year, and
concern has been expressed about having sufficient funds for more
merit scholarships. Students are attracted to this university by the
honors program and by research opportunities for undergraduates.
III. Communications from the Chair - The Faculty Senate chair said
that the president has decided to move forward with responsibility-
center management. She has received written assurances from the
system office that the units at UNH will be able to carry forward
funds and also to move funds from one category to another. The next
step is approval of RCM by the Board of Trustees. The Academic
Planning Steering Committee met last week to work on creating a
comprehensive academic plan. The twenty-six members of this
committee include twelve faculty, among whom are the Faculty
Senate chair and the chair of the senate's Academic Affairs
Committee. The Academic Planning Steering Committee intends to
meet frequently and have a plan ready in the fall.
IV. Minutes - The minutes of the last Faculty Senate meeting were
approved unanimously.
V. Disposal of Property - The Campus Planning Committee, through
its chair, presented a revised motion on property disposal as follows:
Many UNH properties, both in the vicinity of the UNH
campus and across the state, are classrooms of the university.
They are used as teaching tools, and as sites for both graduate
and undergraduate research (and sometimes in collaborative
usage with UNH Cooperative Extension). This often involves
long-term research which cannot be readily carried out on
other lands not controlled by the university. As such, these
properties should not be considered for disposal or change of
status in any way without faculty assessment of the affected
properties. The senate acknowledges that a policy to assess
the impact of a sale of property exists; however, the
implementation of that policy is deficient. The senate calls
for a clear, written statement of the policy's implementation
structure, ensuring consultation with affected departments
and faculty, and continuing to require an academic impact
statement prior to any action being taken to dispose, or
change the status, of any university property. Any advisory
committee created to deal with real property disposal should
include at least one faculty member who is also a member of
the Faculty Senate.
Jim Farrell moved and Steve Bornstein seconded alternate wording
for the motion as follows:
The university shall conduct an academic impact study prior
to the disposal or sale of any university property. An
academic impact report shall be submitted to the Faculty
Senate Campus Planning Committee, with copies to the
Faculty Senate Academic Affairs Committee. Such study
shall evaluate the importance of the property for current or
future teaching or research. Academic departments and
individual faculty, whose work would be affected by the sale
or disposal of university property, shall be given the
opportunity to respond to the academic impact report. The
Faculty Senate shall offer a recommendation to the president
on the sale or disposal of the property within 30 days of
receiving the academic impact study (or, if the university is
not in session, at the first full meeting of the senate
subsequent to the issuance of the report).
After much discussion, friendly amendments were made to this
alternate wording, to change the first sentence to "The university's
campus planning office shall conduct an academic impact study prior
to the disposal, sale, or change of status of any university property"
and to add to Professor Farrell's version of the motion a final
sentence stating "The Advisory Committee on Real Property should
include at least one faculty member who is also a member of the
Faculty Senate". The senate agreed that changes due to continuing
timber management would be considered a change of condition and
not a change of status. A professor suggested that there should be
some sort of registry so that faculty members could record which
pieces of property are important to their research or teaching.
Concern was expressed that the Farrell version might require too
much of the senate's time. The senate voted on his wording as
amended; and it failed with thirteen ayes and fourteen nays, including
the tie-breaking vote of the senate chair.
A professor expressed concern about damage done to university
fields and drainage ditches when a jeep was driven over them for a
survey. A faculty member suggested that any motion should
explicitly include leasing and not just sale of lands. The senate wants
all faculty members who would be affected by a proposed change of
land status to be consulted before any decision is made. After many
friendly amendments, the original motion was amended and
passed with twenty-five ayes, no nays, and two abstentions, as
follows:
Many UNH properties, both in the vicinity of the UNH
campus and across the state, are classrooms of the
university. They are used as teaching tools and as sites for
both graduate and undergraduate research (and
sometimes in collaborative usage with UNH Cooperative
Extension). This often involves long-term research that
cannot be readily carried out on other lands not
controlled by the university. As such, these properties
should not be considered for disposal or change of status
in any way without faculty assessment of the affected
properties. The senate acknowledges that a policy to
assess the impact of a sale of property exists; however, the
implementation of that policy needs to be clarified and
formalized. The Senate calls for a clear, written statement
of the policy's implementation structure, ensuring
consultation with affected departments and faculty and
requiring an Academic Impact Statement prior to any
action being taken to dispose or change the status of any
university property. In addition, faculty should be
consulted prior to any physical evaluation of university
property preparatory to such action. The Advisory
Committee on Real Property should include at least one
faculty member who is also a member of the Faculty
Senate.
VI. Thompson School Course Access - If a UNH student takes a
course at any other accredited school similar to the Thompson
School, the student could receive credit for the course at UNH.
However, at the present time there is no mechanism for this to happen
when a UNH student takes a course from the Thompson School on
campus; and so the motion, presented by the Academic Affairs
Committee and distributed with the senate agenda, would eliminate
that contradiction in current policy. These courses may be used for
major or minor requirements only if specifically approved by the
department granting the major or minor, and the Kinesiology
Department has stated that it will not approve the use of such courses
for major or minor requirements. Some faculty in WSBE and the
Nursing and Kinesiology Departments wanted the motion to say that
no action may be taken in this regard if it would negatively affect the
department's accreditation. The motion on Thompson School
course access, which was attached to the senate's agenda, passed
with twenty-four ayes and three nays.
VII. Report on the Status of HHS 798 - Faculty have questioned why
this course is not offered by an academic department and why the
teacher is not a faculty member. The four-credit course is taught by
Cathleen Grace-Bishop, who is the associate director of Health
Services. Faculty expressed concern that the administration is
starting to teach and to bypass the faculty role at the university. A
member of the Faculty Senate's Academic Affairs Committee said
that HHS 798 does have faculty approval, since the course was
developed by faculty in the School of Health and Human Services
and the course went through college-level approval processes. Some
courses are taught by non-faculty members and supervised by a dean.
Is there a policy on this? Is one needed? Could we create a
mechanism whereby a staff member who qualified to teach a course
due to his/her expertise could be granted ten percent faculty status?
Can a department seek adjunct faculty status for a staff member?
These matters could be reviewed by the senate's Academic Affairs
Committee.
VIII. Adjournment - The meeting was adjourned.