UNH Faculty Senate
Summary Minutes from 19 November, 2001
_____________________________________________________________________________________
UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
2001/02 FACULTY SENATE
NOVEMBER 19, 2001 - MINUTES SUMMARY
I. Roll - The following Faculty Senate members were absent: Andrew, Barcelona, Burger, Denis, Draper, Elmslie,
Frankel, Halstead, Miriam, Niesse, Pollard, Shippee-Rice, Simpson, and VonDamm. Excused were Afolayan, Archer,
Ashwell, Larson, Messner, Reid, Tagliaferro, Trowbridge, and Trzaskoma.
II. Minutes - The minutes of the last senate meeting were unanimously approved.
III. Communications from the Vice Chair - The senate vice chair announced that the president's search committee
has placed another notice in the Chronicle of Higher Education and has established a presidential search web site
on the UNH home page. Applications will be reviewed in December; candidates will come to campus in March; and
a new president is expected to be announced in early April. Since the senate's standing committees already have
a large number of charges, the Agenda Committee decided to set up an Academic Action Plan Task Force, which will
be headed by Bill Stine and charged with working on certain of the academic plan's goals and strategies, in order
to list specific ways to implement the goals, make them measurable, and assess progress. The task force will report
its progress to the senate this spring. The Faculty Senate's representative to the 2001/02 Faculty Awards Committee
will be Drew Conroy.
IV. Campus Planning - Allan Braun. Assistant Vice President for Facilities, said that the university plans to
update the facilities master plan to reflect the new academic plan. A consultant had reviewed the renovation requirements
of the university's buildings and had developed a facilities condition index, which is related to the deferred
maintenance and the replacement value of the building. The average facilities condition index is 0.25, and higher
scores indicate more urgent repair and renovation needs. Deans and vice presidents give information on the importance
of the activities in each building. Renovation costs are estimated by considering how much renovations of similar
buildings at other institutions have cost.
A six-year capital appropriation request of $185 million dollars was submitted to the legislature by the university
system, to cover the budget years 2002 through 2007; but the legislature appropriated only part of the needed funds.
UNH will be able to renovate Murkland and Kingsbury Halls with these funds, and the Board of Trustees plans to
ask for more funds to renovate DeMerritt, James, Nesmith and Parsons Halls. A new residence hall and dining hall
are currently being built, and Congreve Dormitory will be renovated as well. UNH is considering whether to generate
its own electricity. A campus plan for 2004 and 2005 must be submitted to the system office by January, 2002,
and to the Board of Trustees by April of that year.
V. Transportation - Dirk Timmons, Director of Transportation, said that the Transportation Committee is trying
to develop short and long-term solutions to the traffic and parking problems. The committee has members from all
campus constituencies and the town of Durham, as well as non-voting members from the Office of Facilities. The
committee is reviewing the yellow bicycle program, natural gas facilities, electric buses, and a van pooling program.
Rail passenger service will begin in December, on weekends and perhaps some holidays. However, the passenger
train will pass through campus eight times a day. Campus bus shuttles are delayed by traffic congestion, and so
extra police have been added to direct traffic and improve its flow.
The director of transportation said that he has checked faculty/staff parking lots to see if cars are being left
there overnight and if students are parking there illegally. Large fines are given to students caught with illegal
permits. Some graduate students and young staff members look like undergraduate students in the parking lots.
Graduate students can only get a faculty/staff permit if they are research or graduate assistants and have a letter
from the dean or department chair. The number of graduate students with such permits is approximately the same
as last year, and each year the Transportation Committee votes to keep this policy in place. Faculty and staff
can ride the bus free and are eligible for parking permits even if they live close to campus, and there are about
one hundred additional faculty and staff this year. Work/study students are not eligible for faculty/staff permits.
Information is being reviewed about the cost of a parking garage, perhaps near the Whittemore Center, for use for
daytime needs and also for special events on evenings and weekends. The university is also considering bus service
to Rochester and grants for capital projects. Soon smaller buses on routes with low ridership may be available.
The Transportation Committee sets the traffic fines and reviewed them last year, and the fines at UNH are comparable
to other universities. The Transportation Committee also reviews requests from deans and others for reserved parking
spaces. The minutes of the Transportation Committee will be available on the university's web site.
The chair of the senate's Campus Planning Committee said that parking planning seems to be based on sixty-five-percent
attendance but that a higher percentage of permit holders actually need parking during the late morning and early
afternoon peak times. There is no accommodation for the needs of faculty or staff who have meetings which require
returning to campus during the peak hours. Moreover, faculty are very concerned about the plan to remove parking
from the core campus. There are very long waits for shuttle buses. A parking garage would require a large initial
investment but would not need as much snow removal funds. The administration may be considering tiered costs for
various types of parking permits, and faculty have many concerns about this. Some faculty members suggested that
the senate might consider a motion that graduate students would not be eligible for faculty/staff parking permits.
A professor said that there should be a telephone number which one could call to have cars without permits towed
from lots.
VI. Adjournment - The meeting was adjourned.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Click HERE to return to the main Faculty Senate Minutes page.