|
|
UAF Senate News |
| Volume 3, Number 3 |
April
30, 2004
|
|
RECAPPING THE 2003/2004 ACADEMIC YEAR
2004-2005 Directory, Faculty Senate Members
2004-2005
Faculty Senate Committees
Faculty Senate Meetings, 2004-2005
|
RECAPPING
THE 2003/2004 ACADEMIC YEAR
Marshall Lind Retiring. As Chancellor Marshall
Lind will retire at the end of this academic year after a long and distinguished
career in education in Alaska and his exemplary service to UAF, we will
miss him dearly. I was in a quandary with this topic, because I did
not want to imply that I thought that Marshall's departure was a "positive
development" during a fiscally difficult period at UAF. However,
I decided to look toward the future and focus on the positive aspects
of getting a new Chancellor "on board" who will bring new
perspectives and different expertise to UAF. I would like to ask all
faculty to be actively involved in the Chancellor's search that is currently
in the on-campus interview stage. Your input is crucial for selecting
the best person for the job. Outstanding Senator of the Year Award. Jane Weber
and C. Peter McRoy were nominated and confirmed to receive the Outstanding
Senator of the Year Award. Congratulations! Our New President-Elect. Michael Hannigan, Associate
Professor of Social Work, Northwest Campus in Nome, was elected UAF
Faculty Senate president-elect. Congratulations and I am looking forward
to working with you this upcoming year! New Unit Criteria. The Ad Hoc Committee on Unit
Criteria has been working with several units this year to put unit criteria
for the evaluation of faculty forward for approval by the Faculty Senate.
As a result the following units now have unit criteria in place: Science
and Engineering units of the College of Science, Engineering and Mathematics;
School of Education; School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences.
Hopefully, a few more units will have unit criteria on the agenda for
the last meeting of the year on 3 May 2004. For those units that have
not prepared unit criteria for approval by the Faculty Senate, please
begin working on these at your earliest convenience because it will
benefit everyone involved in faculty review. New Faculty Senate Committees. Two new committees
have been established. A permanent Committee on the Status of Women
was established to address perceived inequalities in treatment of women
at UAF. A standing Unit Criteria Committee was established to be able
to effectively review new and revised unit criteria, which will be an
ongoing process. New Academic Program and Courses. The following
new programs were approved by the Faculty Senate and the Chancellor:
Certificate, Yup'ik Language Proficiency; A.A.S., Yup'ik Language Proficiency;
BA in Social Studies; Minor in Leadership and Civic Engagement. A BA
in Child Development and Family Studies was also approved by the Faculty
Senate, but is still awaiting approval by the Board of Regents. Faculty
Senate committees approved numerous new courses. Listing each of these
courses here is not possible, but please contact the Faculty Senate
Office if you would like to receive additional information (fysenat@uaf.edu). Changes in programs and policies. The Faculty Senate
amended the following policies and programs: BT degree; Natural Science
area of the Baccalaureate Core Curriculum; UAF Graduate Academic Standards;
UAF Academic Honors policy; Attendance policy; Academic Bankruptcy for
Returning Students' policy. UAF Policy Concerning Classified and Proprietary Research.
Last but not least, the Faculty Senate unanimously approved a revised
UAF Policy Concerning Classified and Proprietary Research. The faculty
members of a reconciliation committee that consisted of three faculty
representatives and three administrative representatives drafted this
revised policy. This reconciliation committee was formed after Chancellor
Marshall Lind vetoed the original policy. Although Marshall has indicated
that he will not sign this motion, I am hopeful he will not veto it.
Therefore, UAF most likely will have a comprehensive policy on classified
and proprietary research in place after the last Faculty Senate meeting
of the year that will provide Faculty Senate oversight with an advisory
recommendation to the Chancellor. This will require the establishment
of a new Faculty Senate committee: Faculty Research Oversight Committee
for Reviewing Classified or Proprietary Research Proposals Issues That Require Substantial Improvement Faculty Liaison Position Eliminated. UA President
Mark Hamilton eliminated the Faculty Liaison position for the upcoming
academic year, instead considering the creation of a Vice President
for Academic and Student Affairs. Faculty governance bodies unanimously
supported the Faculty Liaison position across the UA system. The current
status of the new Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs position
has not been communicated. Outcomes/Performance Based Budgeting. Detailed
and carefully researched input into the outcomes/performance based budgeting
process by the UAF Faculty Senate and the Faculty Alliance have largely
been ignored by the Statewide Administration. We will continue to communicate
our concerns and suggestions concerning this process to the Statewide
Administration and we hope that they will be more responsive in the
future. Outcome to be Determined Classified and Proprietary Research. President
Hamilton has instructed the UA General Counsel to draft regulations
on classified and proprietary research. We hope that the UAF Policy
Concerning Classified and Proprietary Research will be used as a template
and that these new regulations will not be used to circumvent the UAF
policy, which was passed unanimously by the Faculty Senate. Many faculty
members and UAF administration representatives have spent a lot of time
and effort over the last two years developing this comprehensive UAF
policy. Plans for the 2004/2005 Academic Year PAST,
PRESENT AND FUTURE Good communication is difficult for any organization to
maintain on a consistent basis. Its foundation is based on trust and
accuracy. This past year, the belief that faculty truly are concerned
about the future of the institution has increased at both the campus
and with statewide administration, there is much more both sides can
do to go beyond talking at each other to talking with each other. Without
that, feedback and consultation can take on an air of animosity, when
none was intended. To that end, I encourage faculty to continue to be
engaged with the development of measures of accountability, both in
quantitative and qualitative metrics, targets and incentives. As faculty,
we are entrusted with the academic integrity of the institution. I have enjoyed tremendous support this year from senate
leadership as the Senate and Faculty Alliance have been proactive, working
with the chancellor and the provosts of the three campuses, to establish
criteria that make sense for UAF’s report card on how well we perform.
For future interactions, we should continue to provide that leadership.
Without it, dictates will be imposed from above that will not accurately
reflect our mission or the output of our campus. That also means there
is a responsibility to do the research, ask the questions and formulate
the responses that are substantive and credible. Otherwise, we will
tend to sound like those students we admonish for handing in assignments
without doing the homework. Looking internally, I am pleased that we now have a committee
to look at questions about inequities regarding gender in our departments
and on our campus. I look forward to solutions that will lead to a faculty
that is more representative of the students we serve and mentor, in
all areas, beyond gender alone. That is the nature of change and evolution,
work that makes us better faculty members, creating a better product
of education, meeting the needs over our self-interests. It has been a pleasure to serve as president this past year. I am fully confident in your new leaders as they take up the continuing challenges we face next year, some the same, some new. I look forward to continuing to support them as a returning senator. THE
ENGAGED UNIVERSITY A 2001 Chancellor’s Summit at UAF explored the
role and future of the Land Grant Institution. At that summit, Dr.
Edgar Boone of North Carolina State University emphasized the Engaged
University as a model to increase the university’s visibility
within the state and its role within communities. This year a presidential workgroup tasked certain faculty
from all three MAU’s to determine how UA is already engaged and
how to increase community understanding of and participation in the
university activities to encourage more effective engagement in the
future. What is engagement and how do we do it? Engagement is…
We do it by…
Most of these are mentioned in the University’s Strategic Plan
2005. Each academic unit or department has programs that might well
be described as "engagement activities"- internships, service
learning, community advisory boards, outreach programs and research
projects that involve two-way communication in planning and implementing
those programs, and many more. In the next few days, you will receive an e-mail from Pete Pinney
(ffppp@uaf.edu) on behalf of the Engaged University Committee asking
if you would identify activities that you are involved with. The committee
is developing a working definition of Engaged Activities and then
will be working on a process to make these great activities visible
to others within the UA System, to members of our community and those
who support the university. Your response to that e-mail will be of great assistance to the committee
and to UA as well. Thanks in advance – The Engaged University
Committee.
2004-2005
UAF FACULTY SENATE COMMITTEES
2004-2005
For more information contact Sheri Layral at 474-7964 or email fysenat@uaf.edu. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Last modified April 30, 2004, Sheri Layral, Newsletter Coordinator |