Faculty Senate

By Tom Laue, Faculty Senate Chair

At the Faculty Senate meeting of Oct. 6, President Hart announced that the university is nearing the completion of the master planning process. The university will be examining projected student enrollments and incorporating those data into the master plan. The president expressed her commitment to the long range plan that increases family-style housing and provides good day care facilities for new faculty, visiting faculty and graduate students.

The president said that the university will follow through on the ideas generated at the summit meeting on celebratory behavior. She noted that cultural changes are needed at the levels of the university, town, state and country in order to change the notion that fomenting civil unrest is a valid means of expressing joy or disappointment with the outcome of sporting events. Changes of this sort come about slowly, and the president asked for the faculty’s help with the university’s efforts.

In response to a senator’s concern that there will be sufficient resources to implement the Discovery Program, the president replied that the administration is committed to full implementation of the Discovery Program. She believes that, if done correctly, the university can reallocate faculty resources and will not need new faculty lines.
Jennifer Murray, the vice president for communications, spoke to the senate to outline the charges for this office, and to express how she intends to carry out those charges. The office is charged to promote the academic mission of UNH nationally, to improve visibility and understanding of the role of UNH within the state, to work with UNH Foundation and alumni, and to raise public awareness on engagement and outreach. The goal is to create a distinct identity for UNH as a leading student-centered public research university. There was some concern expressed over the use of “marketing” as part of the office title. Murray responded that she understands this concern, but marketing is integral to what the office does on behalf of the institution.

In response to a letter sent to President Hart by the Graduate Student Organization and copied to the Faculty Senate, Doug Bencks, university architect and director of campus planning, addressed the senate about concerns over Forest Park. Concerns focus on the plans to demolish in the near future 12 Forest Park apartment units and the daycare center playground, when there is a waiting list for both apartments and the daycare. Bencks noted that all of Forest Park is slated for demolition because the buildings are old and difficult to keep in repair. The immediate problem is the construction of a railway underpass to the west campus, which will not require vacation of apartments, perhaps as early as the summer of 2004. This possibility was included in the apartment leases. It is not anticipated that there will be any loss in daycare as a result of the underpass construction, and campus planning is working closely with the affected tenants to find other housing for them in Forest Park.

It is recognized that the underpass development may result in a short-term decrease in family housing. However, the Campus Master Plan calls for an increase in the number of family style units to 370, and the importance of this housing has been stressed by a number of campus groups. Four potential sites for the new housing are being considered, each having about 100 units. The current daycare center will be replaced, and probably included in one of these new housing centers.

There was some skepticism on the part of the faculty about the level of interest in the university administration for the proposed new housing. Bencks responded by saying that this time the president has made a commitment on these issues, and that such a commitment has not been made before.

Terri Winters updated the senate on the upcoming changes to Blackboard. Currently 335 faculty members teach 671 courses using Blackboard, and there are about 11,500 students using Blackboard. In conjunction with the planned January upgrade of Blackboard, a single integrated and comprehensive point of access (i.e. a portal) to information, people and processes based on who the user is and the user’s preferences is being developed. Software could be added to this project that would allow student’s papers to be submitted electronically to be checked for plagiarism. The cost for the software would be about $7,600 for UNH.