MEETING DETAILS:

The meeting to amend and revise the UTK tenure review resolution, which has
been sent to all department heads and is in the library, will be Friday,
March 26th, from 2:00 to 5:00 P.M. in the Raccoon Mountain Room. This was
the earliest time a large room was available, but at least only the truly
motivated will be there, sacrificing what may well be a fine spring
afternoon. Please send me your ideas by post or Email if you cannot attend.
I thank all of you who have sent encouraging and supportive responses.

There will be a follow-up meeting, if necessary, on March 30th at the same
time in Brock Hall 201. I have sent a signed petition to Prof. Prevost
requesting that the resulting document be included for discussion and vote
at the next Faculty Meeting.

I know we have an aversion to following the UTK example, but in this case I
think we should ask for equal status with other campuses when such
fundamental changes are being mandated.  We should be treated under law and
policy no better or no worse than other units of the system. For example, if
they reward their top professors with actual cash bonuses, so should we.

Therefore I suggest we approach this task with the idea of revising in the
Knoxville Faculty Senate document only points obviously not pertinate to our
mission here at UTC, but retaining resolutions on merit, due process,
standards, and evaluations. This may be a case where we should claim full,
unqualified membership in the UT system, as was promised (before my time)
apparently in the 1969 merger agreement. We need to tell the system that we
are UTC, not UAG (University of Almost Georgia).

LOGRACK:

The lograck has been claimed by Guido somebody.

APOLOGY:

I have learned that some feel I made an ad hominem attack on Marilyn Helms
by my using the perhaps ill-chosen short-hand of "Helms report" or "Helms
committee" to refer to the Performance Review Committee, which I will refer
to in future as "PRC."  I know that both Dr. Helms and her committee worked
very hard on their report, and quite honestly, I think most of us wish the
result was acceptable so we can get back to our real work at the university.
So, while I think we can do much better, I apologize for any discomfort and
embarassment that I may inadvertently have caused in my hasty predawn email
last Wednesday morning.

Richard Rice
History