Minutes Related to Civil Engineering of General Faculty Meeting (September 5, 2001)
MINUTES RELATED TO CIVIL ENGINEERING
Tom Werner's Presentation on the Engineering Issue
There is a very short time available to get informed faculty input on the civil engineering issue. The administration and the board began an initiative to find ways to strengthen engineering at Union. Some of the suggestions do not require additional resources, but they did identify the need for five additional tenure lines, three in computer science and two to lead the way in converging technologies. Dean of Engineering Balmer was told that no additional resources would be forthcoming. He had to find the resources from within. His recommendation was to eliminate the civil engineering department. Last spring the Faculty Executive Committee asked the Academic Affairs Council to appoint a sub-council to study the recommendation and to consider other options.
Under the leadership of chair Barb Danowski, the AAC appointed Chris Duncan from visual arts, Dave Hayes from chemistry, Tom Jewell from civil engineering, Byron Nichols from political science and Kimmo Rosenthal the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education. The committee became known and the Resource Allocation Sub-Council or RASC. The FEC was delighted with the makeup of the committee. The college owes them all a great deal of gratitude.
He described the protocol for providing informed faculty input on the report. The report will be on schedule, the target date Friday, September 14. It will be large, possibly 100 pages. One copy will be sent to small departments, two to larger departments with individual copies to AAC and FEC members along with any faculty member who requests one. He asks faculty to look at the report very carefully to be able to give informed input to the board. The report will not be distributed electronically because of its sensitive nature.
There will likely be four or five options listed, including the elimination of civil engineering. The administration will choose one of these options to deal with the engineering issue. A general faculty meeting is scheduled for Wednesday Oct. 3 to discuss the proposals that emanate from this report after an evaluation from AAC. It is anticipated that a mail ballot faculty vote will be conducted following this meeting. It will be counted and evaluated before the Oct. 12 trustees meeting. The faculty vote will NOT be binding on the administration but will serve as a clear sense of the faculty on the preferred options. Division meetings will be scheduled after the release of the report, and members of RASC will be asked to attend those meetings.
President Hull underscored that the information in the report is sensitive. It is important for faculty to be informed but to keep the information within the institution.
Submitted by Steve Leavitt