UNH Faculty Senate

Summary Minutes from 1 February 1999

I.  Roll - The following Faculty Senate members were absent:  Bornstein, 
Chandler, and Pugh.  Excused were Bogle, Echt, Keim, Mayne, McMahon, 
Morris, Roh, and Williams.

II.  Communications with the President - President Leitzel said that 
Nesmith Hall will undergo repairs to remove worn floor tiles which 
contain asbestos.  The occupants of half the building at a time will
move to other locations while repairs are made.  Full renovation of the 
building is expected in about five years, but repair on the tiles is 
needed now.  The university has made a request for state funding for 
capital improvements for the next six years.  The first biennium would 
hopefully include Pettee Hall, Murkland Hall, the southern railroad 
crossing, a design for Kingsbury Hall renovations, and NH Public 
Television equipment.  State matching funds are needed in order to 
qualify for federal dollars for NH Public Television.  The Social Work 
Department will occupy Pettee Hall when its renovation is completed.

The alumni advocacy network is now in place, and alumni and parents are 
focusing on the governor's budget request.  The faculty union ran a radio 
advertisement which referred to increases in the university system's 
budget, but the president maintains that most of the increase is for 
buildings and cannot be converted to salaries.  A professor asked that 
the university lobby for a change in priorities.

III. Communications from the Chair - The chair welcomed the faculty who 
have joined the senate this semester.  Governor Shaheen sent a letter to 
the senate chair, saying that she had asked for an increase of six 
percent in funding for the university's 1998/99 budget but that the 
legislature had not set the funding at that level.  The governor's letter 
will be available on the senate's web site.  Chancellor Farrell also sent 
a letter responding to the senate's motion on funding for the system 
office. That letter and the senate chair's reply to it will be 
distributed to the senators.

The Distinguished Alumni Event will be held on February 7, 8 and 9.  
Please attend and encourage your colleagues to attend also.  Some 
committee meetings may be changed in order not to conflict with these 
events.  Senate committees can meet on February 15; and the Faculty 
Senate will meet on February 22, in order to allow the committees time to 
work on their charges.

The Programmatic Review Committee for Engineering Technology will include 
Todd DeMitchell as chair, Steve Fan, Chris Balling, Robert Henry, Paul 
Brockelman, Ted Howard and Victor Benassi.  The Faculty Senate chair met 
with Jim Washington and Walter Eggers regarding a faculty advisory 
committee for admissions and enrollment management.  The second 
installment of "Faculty in the News" will be available by the end of 
March.  Please continue to submit news articles about faculty.

IV.  Minutes - The minutes of the December 7 Faculty Senate meeting were 
approved.  

V.  Report on the McNair Graduate Opportunity Program - This program 
provides mentoring for program participants, and faculty are encouraged 
to volunteer as mentors and to tell their students about the program.  
The McNair Program is a ten-week residential research program from June 1 
to August 6, for twenty people.  The student participants receive room, 
board, a $2000 stipend, and workshops on writing, research and GRE test 
preparation.  The faculty mentors receive an $800 stipend for the summer.

Each student participant must be a low-income and first-generation 
college student or an under-represented minority, have junior standing 
and demonstrated academic ability, be a citizen or permanent United 
States resident, and plan to pursue a doctoral but not a professional 
degree.  The Chronicle of Higher Education publishes annually which 
categories of students are under represented.  Faculty and students are 
encouraged to contact the program in Hood House by February 19.

VI.  Master Plan Review - Although everyone agrees about the necessity to 
renovate certain buildings, there seems to be little agreement on the 
senate's Campus Planning Committee or among the faculty about some other 
elements of the master plan, especially the concept of a walking campus, 
parking and the loop road.  Two maps were distributed, the first showing 
current parking and the second presenting the future parking and loop 
road proposal.  Several parking lots on the main campus would be 
eliminated.  The president is asking for two railroad underpasses, and 
train traffic on the line soon will at least double.  Married student 
housing and the mini-dorms would be torn down.  People are also concerned
that the loop road will threaten College Woods, not only by removing a 
small portion of the woods but also by noise and air pollution.

Plans exist to slow down traffic through the downtown on Main Street, by 
adding traffic islands and narrowing the street.  Some faculty said that 
they have no faith in the capacity of this institution to provide and 
maintain shuttle buses at five minute intervals and that parking on the 
periphery and transportation to and from campus would take too long and 
require many additional hours a week.  Please send comments to the Campus
 
Planning Committee by March 1.

VII.  Adjournment - Today's meeting was adjourned.