UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
FACULTY SENATE
26 JANUARY 1998	MINUTES SUMMARY

I.  Roll - The following Faculty Senate members were absent:  Balling, 
Barkey, Bogle, Cooper, Doucet, Henke, Herold, McNamara, Morgan, and Sohl.  
Halstead, Laudano, McMahon and Straussfogel were excused.

II.  Discussion with the President - The recent ice storm served as a 
rehearsal for UNH of how to respond in such emergencies.  Electrical 
power is necessary not only for light and heat but also to drive the 
sewage system and to keep alive plants and animals at the greenhouses and 
many research projects.  Ten more portable generators will be acquired, 
and emergency plans are under review.

The president has offered the resources of the university to the 
legislature, in its effort to respond to the Claremont decision.  
Discussions of "adequate" education should include consideration of 
higher education.  Dennis Meadows will help to design a one or two-day 
workshop funded by the NH Charitable Fund.  The university will present 
testimony to oppose house bill 1595 to impose an eight percent meals tax 
on campus for non-resident students and also faculty and staff.  Churches 
and hospitals are exempt from this tax, and the university should also 
have the right to feed its people.  In addition, the president will 
testify against a bill that would require SAT scores of 1100 and 
thirty-three percent in-state students, for athletic scholarships.

The Alumni Association is working with alumni, parents and students, to 
build a state-wide advocacy network of grass-roots support for state 
funding for higher education.  The Faculty Senate leadership has 
contacted the President of the Alumni Association to discuss how faculty 
could facilitate this effort.  A reception will be held this spring for 
legislators who have attended UNH.  In addition, UNH will move ahead on 
private fund raising and on external funding of research and more 
industrial support, as well as increased enrollments in areas such as 
professional masters level programs.

The United States Congress formed a National Commission on Higher 
Education to look into the cost of education to students.  A draft of the 
report was circulated, but congress sent the draft back for revision.  
The report is now twice as long and contains much more language on cost 
containment and productivity.

Contract negotiations will begin again this spring.  It would be 
unfortunate if the system office repeated its past pattern.  A new chief 
negotiator has been hired, and informal talks have begun.  A fair 
procedure to assess and acknowledge merit is needed.

III.  Communications from the Chair - The chair welcomed the new senators 
and asked them to contact their Faculty Senate committee chair.  As a 
follow-up to the governor's visit, the senate chair asked for ideas on 
what the faculty can do to improve UNH's image in the state and to 
facilitate better funding for higher education?  In addition to meeting 
with the President of the Alumni Association, the Faculty Senate leaders 
will meet with the alumni trustees and with Amanda Merrill and other 
state legislators.  Please inform the senate chair if you would like to 
participate in these efforts.  Howard Mayne will serve on the Faculty 
Awards Committee.  Julie Brinker and Sharyn Zunz will share a seat on the 
MUB Board of Governors.  By February 2 in conjunction with the senate 
chair, all Faculty Senate committee chairs should confirm when each of 
the committee's remaining charges will be presented to the senate.

The Enrollment Management Report recommended creation of a new position 
to oversee areas such as admissions, financial aid, and registration.  
There will be a national search to fill this position of vice provost.  
Funding for the position will come from the current administrative 
budgets within those areas, except for an eighteen-month patch of 
temporary funds.  The president offered to talk with the Faculty Senatešs 
Academic Affairs Committee about this matter, but the committee did not 
see a need at this time.  The president has confirmed that faculty will 
be involved in the search for the new vice provost for enrollment 
management.  A search for a new UNH-Manchester dean is also underway.

News reports about Vision 2000 were distorted.  A copy of the letter from 
the Executive Officer of the Council of Presidents to the Coordinator of 
the Presidentšs Commission on the Status of Women is available from the 
senate office.

IV.  Minutes - The minutes of the November 24 senate meeting were 
approved unanimously.  A transcript of the December 8 meeting with the 
governor has been distributed.

V.  Library Renovation - Library renovation is on schedule; and 
completion is expected by May, with the library opening before fall 
classes start in September.  Information is available on the library web 
page regarding the summer moving schedule.  Faculty should inform the 
library which materials will be needed for summer session, so that those 
materials can be kept in New Hampshire Hall during the summer.  The 
library will be closed for two weeks after the summer session in order to 
complete the move.  Floor plans and carpet samples were shown in the 
senate meeting.  The same number of faculty carrels will be available 
close together in the top part of the library, as will roomy reading 
rooms.  However, the plan is to permanently close the back door to the 
library, in order to reduce costs and increase security.  Many faculty 
expressed concern about this plan.  Suggestions were made to use a closed 
circuit camera in the area or to put a current workeršs desk within view 
of the door.  Handicap access is important, as is accessibility for all 
those from the far half of the campus.

VI.  Electronic Rosters - Faculty will now be able to access class lists 
electronically at the beginning of the first day of class.  Requests 
should be made one week ahead of time to Bev Comtois or Nicole Zid.  
Student's grades and social security numbers must stay confidential.  
Final grades may be submitted to the Registrar's Office electronically as 
well, using a specific format explained in the materials handed out at 
this senate meeting.  The grades would be emailed to Bev Comptois, who 
would produce a printed copy which would be sent to the faculty member 
for confirmation.  The faculty member would sign and return this 
confirmation along with any AF or IC green cards, to the Registraršs 
Office.

VII.  Academic Computing - Pedro deAlba and Ray Greenlaw are the Faculty 
Senatešs representatives to the Academic Computing Committee.  A new 
email policy states that all on-campus email belongs to the university 
system and thus is not private.  The same apparently is true of papers in 
campus offices.  Faculty are concerned about privacy and especially about 
intellectual property rights, for example of ideas which faculty may 
discuss on email with colleagues from other universities.  A suggestion 
was made that the committee should seek legal counsel on this matter from 
someone not connected with the administration.  There should also be a 
policy to protect faculty who develop course materials in electronic 
form.

Policies about hyper links on web pages are unclear and changing.  Some 
links could seem peculiar but be for a legitimate academic purpose, for 
example related to a course on propaganda and persuasion.

The university has only 220 seats in the computer clusters available to 
students, and many more are needed.  Also, software supported by the 
university often changes without warning.  We need clarity on how that 
process is determined; and faculty should have input in the process, as 
well as advanced notice.  The university pays for software licenses for 
mainframes but should switch many of those funds to pay for personal site 
licenses instead.  More classrooms should be wired so that a professor 
could download displays from his laptop computer or tap into the 
mainframe and download from that.

Faculty would like more responsive computer support, with a quicker 
response, a more user-friendly attitude, and an understandable 
vocabulary.  Perhaps the committee could get survey data regarding the 
funds and positions available at other schools for computer support and 
service.  Also, faculty would like to have the direct phone number of CIS 
people expert in various software packages.  Faculty need an access point 
where computers can be brought to a repair site by car.  Please give any 
additional input to Pedro deAlba and Ray Greenlaw.

VIII.  Open Mike - Concern was expressed about potential changes in 
health insurance benefits.

IX.  Adjournment - The meeting was adjourned.