Report, April 12, 1999

Lolly Gasaway

The UNC Faculty Assembly continued to advise the President of the University of North Carolina on matters affecting faculty, educational policy and the university generally. Several new initiatives are underway this year, and members of the Faculty Assembly were asked to serve on a variety of important system-wide committees and task forces. Additionally, significant internal governance matters were handled. The Assembly held four meetings this year, initiated an annual colloquium and hosted a meeting for the chairs of the faculty senates of the 16 campuses. The chair of the Assembly has met with six more faculty senates and will meet with the remaining two by May 5 to complete visits to each of the campus senates over the past two years.

COLLOQUIUM

In November, 1998 the Faculty Assembly held its first day-long colloquium. The topic was copyright use and ownership. It was attended by 32 of the Assembly delegates, 16 university librarians, 16 attorneys plus 5-6 technology transfer officers from the campuses as well as General Administration staff and President Molly Broad. Ken Crews, Associate Dean of Faculties for Copyright at Indiana University – Indianapolis was the keynote speaker, and there were several sessions led by various faculty and staff with expertise in copyright law.

The outcome of the colloquium was the appointment of a Task Force on Copyright and Intellectual Property with representatives of all of the constituent groups. A majority of the members are faculty. The Task Force is charged to make recommendations on a copyright use policy framework, a copyright ownership policy, a program of education for the campuses and to examine other intellectual property issues. The report is due March 31, 2000.

OTHER ISSUES & INITIATIVES

1. The Faculty Assembly continues to work with the President to see that campus Boards of Trustees find ways to involve faculty representation even though faculty cannot serve as voting members. Two campuses have done this formally: Appalachian State University and UNC-Pembroke. The Assembly hopes the remaining 14 institutions will follow suit.

2. Faculty Assembly representatives served on the following task forces or committees this year:

1. Task Force on Faculty Benefits – the final report has gone to the President.
2. Task Force on Faculty Worklife – studying the effects of post-tenure review and phased retirement on faculty worklife.
3. Tuition Task Force – the final report went to the Board of Governors this fall and was adopted.

3. A Task Force on Faculty Grievance Procedures on the Campuses is being formed and an Assembly ad hoc committee is working to gather information for the Task Force. There will be delegates serving on the Task Force when it is named.

INTERNAL OPERATIONS

The Faculty Assembly bylaws were amended in November, 1998 after almost ten years of working to revise them. Additionally, the Executive Committee has almost completed a thorough review of the existing committee structure and plans to make recommendations for modernizing the structure before the end of the academic year.