UNH Faculty Senate
Summary Minutes from 6 March 2000
UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
FACULTY SENATE
MARCH 6, 2000 MINUTES SUMMARY
I. Roll - The following Faculty Senate members were absent: de la Torre,
Draper, Garey, Macieski, McCann, McConnell and VonDamm. Absent as
work to rule were Barretto, Carr, Christie, Echt, Garland, Planalp, Reardon,
Roh, Stine and Williams. Excused were Beller-McKenna, Carroll,
Mulligan, and Nordgren.
II. Communications with the President - The president said that the
University Curriculum and Academic Policies Committee will now be
responsible for decisions on the UNH curriculum which were formerly
made at the system level. The UCAPC will monitor the total picture of
academic offerings at the university. The process of adding academic
positions will be moved from the system to the university campus as well.
Term positions which are not permanent will be approved at the unit level,
and permanent positions will need the provost's approval.
The administration has testified regarding a New Hampshire legislature bill
on student scholarships. The university does not intend to have a student
lottery for dormitory space next year. Instead, the university will reduce the
rent for space shared by more people than usual in the Gables and
Woodside apartments. UNH is trying to get approval to build another
dormitory and dining facility. That will add to the students' board and
room rates by 1.5 percent more than the inflation rate for three years.
Local residents will vote soon on a school bond issue, and sixty percent of
the votes will be required for passage of the motion. However, if the issue
is not decided at that vote and a special election is called, the bond issue
will then need a majority of the registered voters to pass. Since many
university students became registered voters in Durham during the primary
race, this addition of large numbers of students to the list of registered
voters will make passage of the bond issue at a special election more
difficult; and townspeople are concerned that students could thus be the
deciding factor on this local issue even if the students do not vote in that
election. Therefore the president would like to encourage good voter
turnout by townspeople for the initial election, which is based on the
number of actual voters rather than the number of registered voters. The
president is not taking a position on passage or defeat of the bond issue but
hopes to avoid a perceived problem of university student interference in
local affairs, which might occur if the issue goes to a special election.
A professor noted that responsibility-center management will begin at a
time when most deans will be newly arrived on campus. The president
replied that many of the new deans will have experience with similar
budgetary systems. The Chancellor Search Committee is now interviewing
eight of the semi-finalists and will pick three or four candidates for
interviews with others in the near future.
Another faculty member said that a recently-distributed policy on email
privacy says that all electronic data, information and email communications
stored on any computer by university students, faculty and staff will be
governed by the same privacy policies pertaining to telephone conversations
and sealed postal mail but that, if there is a non-legal, institutional need to
retrieve any form of electronic information, the UNH president will review
the justification of need and make the final decision on campus access to
private electronic information. The professor asked under what
circumstances the president would decide to tap phones or open mail. The
president responded that the need would have to rise to a very high level
and that she only knows of one case, which was in Nebraska when a staff
member committed a felony. The president confirmed that she would not
approve an interference of privacy unless there were a crime at the level of
a felony and one which might involve university liability. A professor
suggested that there was a case last year when a faculty member's email
was accessed; and the president said that she would look into that, because
she was not aware of any such case. She added that, although reports in the
press may have indicated that email regarding a possible faculty strike was
accessed by someone other than the recipients, this was not true and the
documents in question had been distributed in printed form by people who
had received them legitimately. A professor asked what would happen,
under university policy, in the following hypothetical example: if a faculty
member were sending to faculty and students email advocating the
abolishment of Christianity. The president replied that there is no
institutional need for interfering with that kind of exchange.
III. Communications from the Chair - The senate chair said that he has
approved the academic calendars for the next three years, because they
follow the guidelines previously approved by the senate, except that one
reading day will occur on a weekend, in order that a day for a fall break can
be added around Columbus Day. The academic calendars for the
subsequent years will be more difficult, because Labor Day falls earlier in
those years. Some potential members of the University Curriculum and
Academic Policies Committee have not yet decided if they are willing to
serve; and so the UCAPC slate is not yet ready for presentation to the
senate.
IV. Motion on Constitutional Amendment - Jim Farrell moved and Guy
Petty seconded a motion to amend article 4, "Officers of the Faculty
Senate", in order to strike out "A slate of candidates will be presented by
the out-going Agenda Committee two weeks before the election.
Additional candidates may be nominated from the floor" and to insert the
following:
Faculty Senate officers and at-large members of the Agenda
Committee must be nominated in a regular open meeting of the
senate at least two weeks prior to the election of new officers. Any
continuing or incoming faculty senator is eligible to hold any
Faculty Senate office. Nominations may be made by any senator,
whether continuing or not. Election of officers shall be by
members of the incoming senate only.
A two-thirds vote is required to change the senate constitution. The
alternate motion will not come to a vote unless, after the vote on the first
motion, a senator moves to put the alternate motion on the table. Under the
current wording of the constitution, any senator can make nominations at
will; and the vice chair does not necessarily become chair the next year.
After much discussion on the value of balance, democracy and
apprenticeship and the suggestion of many alternatives, the vote on the
main motion failed, with eight ayes, fourteen nays and two abstentions.
This is a quorum since the chair does not vote.
Funso Afolayan moved and Guy Petty seconded the alternate motion which
was distributed by the senate chair on February 21. The senators voted to
table that motion, by a voice vote.
V. Transportation Policy - The chair of the senate's Campus Planning
Committee said that the committee has reviewed a previous transportation
report and found it not relevant to our current needs. The Campus Planning
Committee has modified some of the wording of its motion to read as
follows:
No significant changes in the current parking and
transportation policies, procedures, and infrastructure should
be implemented until after an origin and destination study
(which was also called for by the sustainable transportation trip
report and recommendations) encompassing the transportation
behaviors of faculty, staff, and students is compiled and
analyzed by the University of New Hampshire and the town of
Durham.
Furthermore, the true cost of the current situation and any
proposed plan and its impact should be analyzed and compared
to the current situation. The true cost should include, but not
be limited to, pollution, time on campus, commuting patterns,
subsidies for parking and public transportation, handicapped
accessibility, campus visitors, safety and security, capital cost
of any new systems, and cost to commuters. The University
Master Planning Committee should use the results, along with
the recommendations of the Transportation Policy Committee,
in developing the university's master plan.
A friendly amendment was made and accepted to change "compiled"
in the first sentence to "completed". The amended motion passed, with
twenty-three ayes and one abstention.
VI. Minutes - The minutes of the last Faculty Senate meeting were
approved unanimously.
VII. Adjournment - The meeting was adjourned.