UNH Faculty Senate

Summary Minutes from 8 March 1999

I.  Roll - The following Faculty Senate members were absent:  Afolayan, 
Beller-McKenna, Bornstein, de la Torre, Farrell, Grenier, Komonchak, 
McNamara, Niman, Pugh, Reardon, Sohl, Wang, Zsigray, and Zunz.  Absent as 
work to rule were Carr and Echt.  Excused were Chandler, Coon, Gaudette, 
and Mayne.

II.  Communications with the President - The university will give 
information to the legislature this week on the operating budget and the 
capital budget.  The university will also ask the legislature to match 
private scholarship funds obtained through the capital campaign.  The 
student rally in Concord was well received by the governor and 
legislators, and the governor has received an unprecedented number of 
letters in recent weeks.  The Board of Trustees firmly agrees that we 
need a five percent increase in the operating budget plus two percent for 
academic technology.  Also, the board has formed a task force to consider 
restructuring the university system office.

III.  Communications from the Chair - The Faculty Senate chair attended 
the rally in Concord, and he urges faculty to write letters to 
legislators.  Ballots for the Faculty Senate election have been mailed.  
Please encourage your colleagues to vote thoughtfully.  The Distinguished 
Alumni Event will be held again next year, and we are preparing a letter 
to the departments asking for nominations of distinguished alumni.  The 
second edition of "Faculty in the News" will be printed and available in 
time for the college open houses.  The Financial Affairs Committee of the 
Board of Trustees met and recommended approval of the repair and 
renovation list submitted by the university.  Also a recommendation was 
made to suspend the rule that only twenty-five percent of our students 
can be from out of state.  The board's budget recommendations are 
dependent on the approval of the capital budget by the legislature.

IV.  Minutes - The minutes of the last meeting were approved unanimously.

V.  Motions from the Campus Planning Committee - The committee presented 
two motions for discussion and a sense-of-the-senate vote, in order to 
give the senate's Campus Planning Committee guidance.  The committee's 
first motion is:

"Resolved that the senate admits that expansion of campus west across the 
railroad tracks, the two railroad underpasses, and the loop road concept 
are unavoidable over the long term.  The senate goes on record as 
recommending that the Loop Road be routed to avoid serious or lasting 
damage to College Woods, even at the cost of partial loss of the athletic 
fields."

The most recent plan for the Loop Road keeps intact more of the Campus 
Woods and cuts off part of the playing field.  The baseball field may be 
made smaller and changed to a soccer field.  A professor asked that the 
university consider restoration of wet lands during this process.  The 
Loop Road is expected to be a two-lane road.  Trains may use the railroad
track much more frequently soon, and so we need at least one new 
underpass in the near future.  A friendly amendment was made and accepted 
that "the senate also recommends that the Master Plan include restoration 
or mitigation of previously filled wetlands bordering College Woods 
wherever possible".  The amended motion was approved unanimously.

The Campus Planning Committee's second motion is:  "resolved that the 
senate goes on record as rejecting the idea that large portions of 
faculty/staff parking should be moved to the West Edge lot on the basis 
of 'restoring the walking campus'".  Many faculty said that changes in 
the parking system are being considered that will make it harder for 
faculty to do their jobs.  After much discussion, friendly amendments 
were made and accepted to modify the motion and include part of the 
rationale, as follows:

Resolved that the senate goes on record as rejecting the idea that 
faculty/staff parking should be moved to the West Edge, for the following 
reasons.  Faculty are skeptical about the wording "restoring the walking 
campus" since UNH has not been a walking campus for decades, if it ever 
was one.  Faculty teaching schedules mean that many faculty members have 
specific needs for safety and flexibility in parking, and many have 
expressed concern that removing the bulk of faculty/staff parking to an 
expanded West Edge lot will not be accompanied by reliable and frequent 
shuttle service between campus and the West Edge lot.  We cannot support 
a further decrease in the number of central parking spaces without more 
effective guarantees of shuttle service good enough NOT to constitute a 
new hardship.

The amended motion passed unanimously.

VI.  Open Mike - Tim Barretto distributed a letter regarding concerns 
about revising academic policy for Associate-in-Arts degree candidates.  
The Academic Affairs Committee shares his misgivings and is also 
concerned about the lack of faculty input on the plan.  The Agenda 
Committee has also discussed these concerns with the president and the 
provost.

Ken Appel said that his department has been told that it cannot replace 
three faculty members.  The dean of his college had responded to a budget 
cut by recommending the elimination of a program, and that recommendation 
is under review by a university-wide faculty committee.  The president 
has told the dean that he will have to cut his budget in other ways, if 
this proposed program elimination is not approved; and therefore 
replacement of faculty is on hold.  If a university-wide decision is made 
to negate a proposed college budget cut, who should pay?  Other colleges 
had also proposed certain cuts, were told that they were not acceptable, 
and came up with other budget reductions.  What has happened to budget 
cuts that were proposed for administrative offices?  Today's meeting was 
adjourned.