Dear Colleagues,
The Provost has provided the following corrections to the minutes of last
Tuesday's faculty meeting:


>Marcia,
>
>Below are corrections to the minutes of the faculty meeting which you
>circulated recently. My comments apply only to that portion of the minutes
>relating to my presentation at the meeting.
>
>In the first paragraph, the change in admissions standards relates to the
>Test of English as a Foreign Language or TOEFL (not TOFOL).
>
>In the third paragraph, the sentence beginning with the word "Finally"
>should read as follows: "Finally, a one-time longevity bonus will be paid
>to faculty and staff at the rate of 70 dollars for each year of service for
>faculty and staff, with a minimum bonus of $210 for those who have been
>employed three years or less, and a maximum of $1750." The next sentence is
>ok. The following sentence should read: "The first four priorities were
>funded in full: chronic deficits, additional faculty positions, salary
>compression adjustments, and library acquisitions; one-half of the fifth
>priority was also funded, raises for adjunct faculty.
>
>In the next paragraph, in the second sentence after the words
>"computational engineering" delete the parenthetical reference to the
>SimCenter. I made no reference to the SimCenter in my budget presentation,
>and in fact I have no budgetary responsibility for or authority over the
>SimCenter. Only the computational engineering faculty who are engaged in
>instruction in the masters and doctoral programs and who are tenured
>faculty are the budgetary responsibility of Academic Affairs.
>
>In the next numbered item (#2), the sentence should read: "Also, $280,000
>must be rolled into the budget next year and an additional $370,000 the
>following year to cover 17 faculty . . ."
>
>In the next numbered item (#3), the reference to the "UTC Foundation
>professorships" should be to the "UC Foundation professorships."
>
>Later in that paragraph, the sentence beginning "Last spring . . ." should
>read: "Last spring the faculty senate passed a resolution asking for
>$400,000 per year for at least five years to bring salaries up to minimum
>levels, and we need to do this for academic affairs staff as well; the cost
>for each of the next two years, including fringe benefits, will be $476,000
>per year, or a total of $952,000 for faculty, and $90,000 per year, or a
>total of $180,000, for staff."
>
>Thank you.
>
>John
>
>
>At 04:19 PM 9/19/2004 -0400, you wrote:
>>Richard Rice called the meeting to order at 3:15,
>>
>>The minutes of April 20, 2004 were corrected as follows: Under the
>>discussion of the freshman seminar, Jocelyn Sanders corrected her comment
>>to read: "The freshman seminar committee is determining the means of
>>assessment."With that correction, the minutes were approved.
>>
>>Motion: To allow Marcia Noe to serve her third year on the Faculty
>>Administrative Relations Committee (Honerkamp/Churnet).  Motion failed.
>>
>>Nominations were made to replace Marcia Noe on the Faculty Administrative
>>Relations Committee.  June Hanks and Sheila Van Ness were nominated.  June
>>Hanks was elected.
>>
>>The deans introduced the new faculty members for the 2004-2005 academic year:
>>
>>Dean Burhenn introduced the following new faculty members from the College
>>of Arts and Sciences:
>>Bret Clough, Deborah Kreiss, and Bradley Reynolds, Biological and
>>Environmental Sciences;
>>Daron Janzen and Howard McLean, Chemistry;
>>Kimberley Carr, and Angel Geoghagan, Criminal Justice;
>>Jacqueline Boals, April Cooper, Paul Guest, Matthew Guy, Bryan Hampton,
>>James Inman, John Jones, and Paige Joynter, English;
>>John (Matt) Matthews, III, Tracy Poole, and Martha Pratt, Mathematics;
>>Ahn Jooyong and Jan Cochrane, Music;
>>Mark Fisher, Dennis Plaisted, and Brian Ribeiro, Philosophy and Religion;
>>Peter Groves, Physics;
>>Julie Buck and Melissa Gratias, Psychology;
>>Stephanie Stokes-Eley and Jillian Zwilling, Theatre and Speech.
>>
>>Dean Casavant introduced the new faculty members from the College of
>>Business: Debbie Archambeault and Kristy McManus, Accounting.
>>
>>Dean Bailey introduced the new faculty members from the College of
>>Engineering and Computer Science:  Deng Hongmei will join the Department of
>>Computer Science in January.
>>
>>Dean Tanner introduced the new faculty members from the College of Health,
>>Education, and Professional Studies:
>>
>>Kristi Gibbs, Graduate Studies Division;
>>Mark Gillen, Graduate Studies Division, Counseling;
>>Melody (Gaye) Stone and Donna Emerson, Human Ecology;
>>Steve Arnold, Assistant Coordinator, Nurse Anesthesia;
>>Cheryl Newton, Social Work;
>>Cowan Kaye, Bonnie Warren-King and Dolly Gerregano, Teacher Preparation
>>Academy;
>>Kelli Hand, Nursing.
>>
>>Theresa Liedtka is the new Dean of the Library.
>>
>>         Richard Rice mad e the following report from the faculty senate:
>>The new EDO process is being clarified by the Handbook Committee.
>>Cumulative Performance Review will continue.  Richard referred to Betsey
>>Darken's e-mail on this subject. The enrollment cap situation and peer
>>group situation are in abeyance. The Lupton faculty travel fund will
>>continue.  Marvin Ernst is coordinating this program.  The Football
>>Committee is chaired by Tom Rybolt and two student members will be chosen.
>>The committee will do a cost-benefit study of UTC's football program.  A
>>final report will be given only at the end of this football season.
>>Perhaps the faculty or the faculty senate may wish to make recommendations.
>>No classes will be held on Wednesday, November 24, but the University will
>>be open for business on Wednesday, November 24.  The University will be
>>closed on Thursday, November 25 and Friday, November 26.
>>
>>         Chancellor Frederick Obear expressed his pleasure at returning to
>>the Chancellor's office and said that the Chancellor's Search Committee had
>>met with System President John Peterson that morning.  We have a record
>>head count and FTE for the institution.  Head count is 8689 students, a 2%
>>increase over last year.  We have a record freshman enrollment--1502
>>students, an increase of 91 freshmen.  Our African American student
>>enrollment is also at a record high: 19.9 of our students is African
>>Americans, and 27% of the freshman class is African Americans.  Centennial
>>High School in Nashville joins our list of top ten feeder schools.  We also
>>had a very successful recruiting and alumni event in Memphis in connection
>>with last weekend's football game.  Many of our incoming students are
>>products of the joint enrollment program.  Our students who are 25 years
>>and older is a group that continues to decline, probably a function of our
>>increase in student housing.  We have 2500 students in residence on campus.
>>The SIMS Center has achieved its 5-year enrollment goal and has exceeded
>>its enrollment projections.
>>         Since July 1 we have brought in $3,000,000 in gifts, including a
>>$300,000 scholarship gift to Mathematics from Dorothy Shelton in memory of
>>Marge Watson, and a $750,0000 gift from Brenda McKenzie has been received
>>by the College of Business.
>>         We are still having problems getting dorms open; students are still
>>living in hotels and in temporary space on campus.  The Federal Government
>>has approved the transfer of 200 acres of land in East Hamilton County to
>>UTC for environmental and wildlife teaching and research space and for
>>recreational use.  Our construction boom continues on campus.  Ground will
>>be broken on Collins Street for special interest facilities (largely
>>fraternities and sororities) during this fiscal year.  The Wellness Center
>>will break ground by the end of the calendar year.  The Strength and
>>Conditioning Center now has an architect and we anticipate a spring
>>groundbreaking.  We have an additional 8 and a half million dollars in
>>capital maintenance projects going on this year.  The Chancellor asked
>>everyone to join with him in creating a campus environment that will
>>attract good candidates to the Chancellor search.
>>
>>         The Provost made the following report:  He is pleased to have Fred
>>Obear as interim chancellor.  The Ed.D degree in Educational Leadership has
>>been approved by the UT Board of Trustees and by THEC.  The program will
>>begin next May with the first cohort and two new faculty members for the
>>program are being aggressively recruited to begin in January; next year a
>>third faculty member will  be added to the program. Last spring the faculty
>>senate approved an articulation agreement for students transferring to UTC
>>from Tennessee Board of Regents two-year and four-year schools.  The senate
>>stipulated that the agreement must be reciprocal.  The TBR Board approved
>>the articulation agreement with the reciprocity clause.  The transition
>>from 128 to 120 hours for graduation has been approved.  The increase in
>>ACT score from 16 to 17 and the increase in TOFOL score to 550 for
>>admissions standards have been approved by the UT Board.
>>         We have three new major initatives this fall:  a mission review,
>>chaired by Marvin Ernst; a budget review committee, chaired by Richard
>>Cassavant; and a quality enhancement plan, required by SACS.  We lost 32
>>faculty, including 8 on their last year of phased retirement and added 43
>>new faculty this year, 17 on tenure track and 26 on term appointments.
>>Freshman Seminar is being reviewed and we are looking at what other school
>>are doing; a task force to redesign and test a freshman seminar program is
>>being implemented this year.
>>         The compensation package for faculty for the current fiscal year
>>(2005) includes a 3% across-the-board raise that accrues to the base
>>salary, and also a $250.000 pool to be divided among faculty and staff,
>>with $100,000 of that pool going to faculty.  Also in the current year's
>>budget are $250,000 for compression and equity adjustments; $210,000 of
>>this will go directly to salaries.  Deans have submitted recommendations
>>for individual allocations of that $210,000 which have been sent to
>>Knoxville for approval from the vice-president for finance of the UT
>>system.  He anticipates that those faculty recommended for compression and
>>equity adjustments will see this raise in their September paycheck.
>>Finally, a one-time longevity bonus will be paid to faculty and staff at
>>the rate of 70 dollars for each year of serv ice for faculty and staff who
>>have been here three years or longer to a maximum of $1750.00.  Last spring
>>$1,901,000 was requested from the budget committee for academic affairs;
>>$1,100,000 was approved.  The first four priorities were funded:  chronic
>>deficits, faculty salaries, salary compression, and library.  Some
>>discretionary funds have been made available to the Colleges for the deans
>>to disperse according to their priorities.
>>         The budget for next year and the year after that are of primary
>>concern:  Academic Affairs has some serious unfunded needs: a number of
>>faculty teaching at UTC are paid with gift funds.   We have three different
>>groups of faculty that need to be rolled onto the budget:  1).computational
>>engineering( Sims Center); five  have been granted tenure .  This will cost
>>$1, 040,286. 2. Also, $280,000 must be rolled into the budget to cover 17
>>faculty who are teaching general education courses on soft money.  3). the
>>Ed.D. program will hire three faculty at the cost of $100,000 each; these
>>people are now being paid out of a grant from the UC Foundation and
>>eventually all of this money will have to  be covered by the state budget.
>>UTC Foundation professorships also roll into the budget eventually from the
>>Foundation's budget; the total cost of this plus promotions is $120,000 per
>>year.  Two full-time academic advisors now being paid out of the Lupton
>>Fund need to be rolled into the budget.  Last spring the faculty senate
>>passed a resolution asking for $952,000 over two years to bring salaries up
>>to minimum levels. and we need to do this for academic affairs staff as
>>well.  Finally graduate assistantships, currently being funded from a
>>number of sources, including the UC Foundation, need to be rolled into the
>>budget at a cost of $537,463 over a two-year period.  In addition, some
>>non-salary issues needed to be added to the budget: equipment ($1,640,000).
>>This includes the cost of both replacement of equipment and the staff
>>needed to maintain equipment, and faculty travel ($500,000), and library
>>acquisitions (15% increase in the acquisitions budget + $250,000 over two
>>year), academic department operating budgets, which have not had an
>>increase in over a decade (10% increase), and Center for Excellence in
>>Computer Applications ($505,000).  THEC will not fund CECA beyond this year
>>because it has been funding essential technological infrastructure costs
>>and not things that a Center of Excellence should be funding.  The total
>>comes to $7,000,000 over two years.
>>         The Provost identified several possible sources of funding for
>>these priorities: enrollment increases, surpluses in scholarship funds
>>($1.1 million dollars), $500,000 in unfilled faculty lines, a tuition
>>increase, a higher state allocation to higher education, and internal
>>reallocations (cutting existing programs).
>>
>>Questions and Comments from the Floor:
>>
>>         Mike Russell asked if the Provost's program as outlined above meant
>>that there will be no new faculty positions added for next year.  The
>>Provost said that it is unlikely that we are going to be adding positions
>>when we have vacant positions that still need to be filled.  Mike then said
>>that some departments, including his, have a real problem staffing general
>>education courses.  Will there be a program to convert adjuncts to
>>full-time instructors?  The Provost replied that this is a less costly way
>>of meeting student demand but not a good long-term solution.  He would
>>rather see new assistant professors with a nine-hour teaching load and some
>>research expectations on the tenure track than a assistant professors with
>>twelve-hour loads and no research expectations.  However, converting
>>adjuncts to full-time instructors is probably the way we will go for the
>>next couple of years.
>>
>>         Leila Pratt said that we will not get $7,000,000 no matter what we
>>do.  How would the Provost prioritize his list?  The Provost said we might
>>get half of the $7,000,000, and that we could get by with $3.2 million for
>>FY 2006  and $3.4 for FY 2007.  He will not prioritize his list because if
>>he does, the bottom items will disappear.  Leila asked if that because of
>>the contractual obligation to the faculty, the salary costs must be met.
>>The Provost said that the answer was yes.
>>
>>         Verbie Prevost announced that she had agreed to chair the
>>Chancellor's Search Committee because this is the first time in the history
>>of UTC that a person had not been assigned from Knoxville to chair it and
>>that President Peterson has assured her that he will not micromanage the
>>search from Knoxville.
>>
>>The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m.
>>
>>Recorded by Marcia Noe, Faculty Secretary
>
>John Friedl, Ph.D., J.D.
>Provost and Vice Chancellor
>for Academic Affairs
>The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
>102 Founders Hall, Dept. 5555
>615 McCallie Avenue
>Chattanooga, TN 37403-2598
>Phone: (423) 425-4633
>Fax: (423) 756-5559
>Email: [log in to unmask]
>