The UAF Faculty Senate passed the following at its Meeting #76 on
December 8, 1997:
MOTION PASSED
==============
The UAF Faculty Senate moves to refer the motion to approve the
Certificate program in Microcomputer Support Specialist to the
Curricular Affairs Committee for review.
EFFECTIVE: Immediately
Signed: John D. Craven, President, UAF Faculty Senate Date: 12/15/97
******************
The UAF Faculty Senate passed the following at its Meeting #76 on
December 8, 1997:
MOTION PASSED
==============
The UAF Faculty Senate moves to refer the motion to approve the
AAS in Microcomputer Support Specialist to the Curricular Affairs
Committee for review.
EFFECTIVE: Immediately
Signed: John D. Craven, President, UAF Faculty Senate Date: 12/15/97
******************
The UAF Faculty Senate passed the following at its Meeting #76 on
December 8, 1997:
MOTION PASSED
==============
The UAF Faculty Senate encourages individual departments to design
their own criteria where appropriate to evaluate the work done
towards developing distance education, including the creation of
materials for such instruction.
EFFECTIVE: Immediately
RATIONALE: The University of Alaska Fairbanks
Regulations for the Evaluation of Faculty, Section III.C.1f
(Effectiveness in Teaching) specifically states that
"Effective teachers . . . regularly develop new courses,
workshops and seminars and use a variety of methods of
instructional delivery and instructional design." This
implicitly states that periodic evaluation of faculty
includes distance delivery-based courses as part of
teaching evaluation. It is appropriate to develop such
criteria at the department level.
Signed: John D. Craven, President, UAF Faculty Senate Date: 12/15/97
******************
The UAF Faculty Senate passed the following at its Meeting #76 on
December 8, 1997:
RESOLUTION PASSED AS AMENDED
==============================
WHEREAS, The University of Alaska Faculty Senate has discussed in
depth the consequences of the 1996-97 academic year
Retirement Incentive Program; and
WHEREAS, Positions vacated in that RIP were not refilled on a one-
to-one basis by the administration; and
WHEREAS, The loss of faculty members to retirement in certain
departments caused undue hardship to certain academic
programs; and
WHEREAS, College deans were given the power to decide in which
way faculty members in their units would have input into the
decisions as to which positions were more important to
departments than others; and
WHEREAS, Recommendations from the dean's level in colleges were
not always followed in replacing faculty positions once these
recommendations reached the Provost and Chancellor levels;
and
WHEREAS, The RIP program unduly impacts departments with a
majority of senior faculty; now
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, That a faculty member be selected from
and by each of the departments affected by faculty who have
exercised the RIP option, to serve as an advisory board to the
Provost and Chancellor in making final decisions regarding RIP
replacements.
Signed: John D. Craven, President, UAF Faculty Senate Date: 12/15/97
******************
The UAF Faculty Senate passed the following at its Meeting #76 on
December 8, 1997:
MOTION PASSED
==============
The UAF Faculty Senate moves to refer the motion to approve a
policy concerning UAF faculty and advanced degrees back to the
Faculty and Scholarly Affairs Committee for additional review with
instruction to give more detail and information in the rationale.
EFFECTIVE: Immediately
Signed: John D. Craven, President, UAF Faculty Senate Date: 12/15/97
*******************
The UAF Faculty Senate passed the following at its Meeting #76 on
December 8, 1997:
MOTION PASSED
==============
The UAF Faculty Senate has reviewed the draft Board of Regents'
Policy and Regulations 09.01.00, 09.03.00, 09.04.00, and 09.05.00, at
the request of the Faculty Alliance, and recommends that Regulation
09.03.00 be rejected as written and makes no suggestions with
regard to the other draft regulations and policies.
EFFECTIVE: Immediately
RATIONALE: The basis for the draft language submitted to
the Board of Regents was the existing and functioning
UAF rules, which were specifically designed to
guarantee completion of the procedure in ONE semester
with only one meeting of a review committee, and to
keep it as simple as possible. The draft procedures do
not guarantee completion in one semester, provide for
as many as three review committee meetings, and turn
it into a student-unfriendly procedure that will
dissuade many from seeking corrections of what may
have truly been arbitrary and capricious grading. The
present UAF rules were written in response to a request
by the Provost (UAF Chief Academic Officer) to get this
issue out of his office. The draft reverses this by
replacing the dean with the "Chief Academic Officer",
hence putting it back in his office and the other MAUs'
chief academic officers; it is regressive. The draft
review does not protect faculty rights to due process.
The draft rules violate the fundamental axiom of
academe that degrees are awarded by faculty in that it
violates the corollary that only faculty award grades
that count toward degrees. Based on experience by
several faculty members, having two students on the
committee rather than another faculty member is
probably detrimental to the student's chance of a
successful appeal. There are basic structural problems
with the draft. For example, in Section B, "Resolution of
Disputes Regarding Academic Decisions or Actions", the
first sentence is general, and states that section is not
limited to assignment of final course grades. The
second sentence limits this entire section to
assignment of the final grade. It can't be both and the
material that follows is designed to address the
question of final grades, but with confusing language
related to the other issues. There are other serious
structural problems.
The UAF Faculty Senate's Curricular Affairs Committee
has spent many hours on this review and has concluded
there are too many issues involved for a simple markup
of the draft. The UAF Faculty Senate offers to meet
with the drafting committee to make clear the areas of
concern and to aid in the creation of regulations that
will truly aid as opposed to hinder students.
Signed: John D. Craven, President, UAF Faculty Senate Date: 12/15/97
******************
The UAF Faculty Senate passed the following at its Meeting #76 on
December 8, 1997:
MOTION PASSED
==============
The UAF Faculty Senate moves to send the following letter to the
Governor on behalf of the Senate after editing and inclusion of a
statement that it was passed by a unanimous vote.
EFFECTIVE: Immediately
Signed: John D. Craven, President, UAF Faculty Senate Date: 12/17/97
***************
December 15, 1997
The Honorable Tony Knowles
Governor, State of Alaska
P.O. Box 110001
Juneau, AK 99811-0001
Dear Governor Knowles,
The University of Alaska plays a vital role in the future of our
very young, promising state, as it is one of the keys to Alaska's
economic, intellectual, cultural, and political development. Alaska
is unique in many ways, and it requires an outstanding institution of
higher learning inside its borders to help craft solutions to its
numerous challenges. However, in the face of repeated budget
constraints in funding at the state level, the quality of higher
education available in the state is being severely compromised.
Such constraints can not continue without extensive damage to the
University and its ability to fulfill its stated mission and goals.
Alaska does not need its University so crippled that it is merely a
shadow of what a strong university should be. Instead, the
University of Alaska must provide an environment in which students
are stimulated, challenged, and encouraged to reach their full
potential, while knowing that they are receiving a superior
education from a healthy, outstanding institution.
We appreciate the fact that you also hold many of these views
about the University of Alaska and have stated so publicly. We have
been gratified to hear you recognize the budget trimming efforts and
sacrifices many have made and that through several assessment
procedures the faculty, staff, and administration have actively
sought to increase efficiency and lower costs. Since you are aware
of our efforts, you must know that the Board of Regents' budget
request of 174 million dollars for the coming fiscal year is not only
reasonable, but reflects an anticipated 10 million dollar reduction
to the administrative branch of the University while merely
sustaining the rest of the system at minimal levels. Your proposed
budget of 167.8 million dollars, which you described as "a modest
increase," is an increase that means further reductions will occur,
continuing the process of irreparable harm to the University of
Alaska System.
By unanimous vote the UAF Faculty Senate, through its elected
representatives, has moved the adoption of this letter and, as
faculty members of the University of Alaska, stand ready to provide
any information and assistance you may seek in a quest to more
clearly understand the predicament of the University of Alaska. We
can provide such assistance through perspectives gained as we carry
out our obligations to teaching, research, and public service. It is
the faculty and the students that are engaged in learning, not the
administration. While they represent us to you, their task is greatly
complicated by the additional obligations to the physical institution
and support functions, further removed from the central obligation
of a university, which is to higher education. We can provide that
focused perspective.
Respectfully submitted for the
University of Alaska Fairbanks Faculty Senate,
John D. Craven, President
Madeline F. Schatz, President-Elect
ⓒ UA