Association Vice-President Kathleen Cohen called the meeting to order at 12:15 p.m. President Steve Shapiro is out of town.

Professors Richard Bizot and Pritchy Smith are the two finalists for Distinguished Professor. Their vitae are in the FA packet and voting takes place for all elections today.

Dell computers for personal use can now be purchased at a discount. Get in touch with Steve Shapiro or Kathy Hughes for information.

Announcement of winners of all UNF awards will be made the week of April 12.

Summer Faculty Association meetings will be held at 12:45 in the same room as usual; the May meeting is on the 13^th.

Elections are today; vote in library today after the meeting and tomorrow.

Revisions to the Association bylaws will be on the web soon.

Don Farshing spoke for the United Way. Consult the packet of information you received for instructions on how to contribute.

Chris Rasche announced that the first syllabus seminar will be held today from 1-4 p.m.; another is scheduled for April 23.

Kathy Cohen announced that all Faculty Association legislative items through FA99-10 have been approved.

Academic Program Committee - Joyce Jones
The next meeting is April 13; the agenda is already set for that meeting. The committee will continue to meet in May and June to avoid a fall backlog, but no program changes can be enacted until September.

Academic Standards Committee - Simin Vaghefi
The committee has two items on today's agenda.

Academic Technology and Support Services Committee - Dennis Gay
The committee met March 10 and discussed an assessment fee increase to support technology. April 14 is the next scheduled meeting at 10 or 10:30, depending on the committee's preference.

Adjunct Affairs Committee - Allen Tilley
An item from the committee is on the agenda today; no more meetings are scheduled for this year.

Budget and Legislative Information Committee - Sheila Mangum
The committee will meet May 11 in the Faculty Association rooms at 12:15.

Faculty Affairs Committee - Judy Solano
The committee has two items on the agenda today; the committee will meet April 16 at noon in the Faculty Association meeting rooms.

Nominations and Elections Committee - Diane Tanner
There are two voting stations at the meeting today. Voting will continue in the Library lobby until 4 pm today and from 9 am until 1:30 pm Friday, April 2. Kathy Cohen thanked Diane and her committee for all their good work.

Promotion and Tenure Committee - Bill Slaughter
There were nine candidates for tenure and the committee recommended eight of them favorably. There were eight candidates for Associate Professor and the committee recommended seven of them favorably. There were seven candidates for Full Professor and the committee recommended three of them favorably. One candidate was a candidate for tenure only. Two candidates for tenure were also candidates for Full Professor. One candidate for Full Professor who was not recommended favorably by the committee withdrew at that stage in the process. Provost Kline accepted all of the committee's recommendations.
*Corrected after the meeting

Executive Committee - Kathleen Cohen
The committee will meet April 20 to set the agenda for the May 13 meeting.

Graduate Council - Bill Wilson
The committee meets tomorrow; its past minutes are on the web.

Safety Advisory Council - Ted Stumm
No report.

President Anne Hopkins
Faculty were given a handout with old institutional budget priorities listed; her goal is to make prioritization more collaborative. This summer we will develop ways to revise those priorities. Different areas of focus may be examined each year, with the whole list of priorities scrutinized every four years or so.

Three different kinds of processes are at work in budgeting: a consultative "vertical" process; a legislative process; and an internal "horizontal" process to give a university-wide perspective. Time lines (for 1999) are included for action. Arrows on the chart show the direction of recommendations. She hopes more people will participate and that budget will then be better supported. She included in another handout the proposed foci for next academic year. (See attached UNF Institutional Priorities)

Legislative Liaison Report - Janet Owen
The legislative session is halfway finished. Janet distributed a handout on educational issues showing budgetary requests vs. appropriations from the Florida Senate and the House. We will lobby hard with the conferees on issues where we have primary concerns. Enrollment is a big political issue pitting the State University System against the community colleges over funding. It is too early to know how policy issues will be compromised; opinions on tuition increases differ, too. (See attached University of North Florida Issues)

General Education - Hank Camp
He gave an overview of the work done by task forces and the General Education Council as they explored the purpose and goals of General Education. How can we enhance general education at UNF? Various approaches were considered and a pilot project in learning communities is the outcome.

Freshman Interest Groups, "FIGs," were identified by the pedagogy committee, leading to summer development of four FIGs for fall; they will be thematically-based and faculty-linked. Students will co-register for courses. April 9 is the deadline for FIG proposals and the response is good so far. Call Hank with any questions.

United Faculty of Florida - Gary Harmon
A Rights and Responsibilities workshop was held last week. Gary thanked Joann Campbell for her part in talking about the contract.

On April 29 Provost Kline and Promotions and Tenure Committee Chair Bill Slaughter will offer a dossier workshop for faculty going up for promotion and tenure next year and for their chairs. It will meet during the noon hour in the Faculty Association rooms.

The new contract was ratified at 98% affirmative votes, but with a light voting pattern across SUS; that likely indicates general approval. Half of the proposed $6 million "bonus" (above 2.6%) was to go to remedy imbalances in salary, but legislators appear to be balking at this allocation. Some feel we are already well-paid, compared with faculty in the Southeast region. He asked for help in contacting legislators to put pressure on them to support the contract.

Pali Sen: What is the status of faculty parking?
Bob Fagin replied that designated parking is a contentious issue being debated now by the Parking Committee.

Nick Wilson: What is the status of the Y2K problem?
Bob Fagin: he thinks we are okay at UNF. Our basic systems are Y2K compliant as is the network and PCs.

Susana Urbina: Can we think of an alternative to using the garage roof for an observatory? Conditions are bad with the lights off.
Bob Fagin offered to meet with her to find a solution to the problem.

Item #1 FA 99-11: Submitted by the Academic Programs Committee
Donna Mohr moved the item (Computer and Information Sciences, program change and new course in Master of Science); the item passed.

Item #2 FA 99-12: Submitted by the Academic Standards Committee
Simin Vaghefi moved the item (Revision of Latin Honors Distinction Policy) and it passed.

Item #3 FA 99-13: Submitted by the Academic Standards Committee
Simin Vaghefi moved the item (Revision of Graduate Grade Point Average Policy).
Martha Rader: Discussion included these questions: Did you discuss the problem of major-hopping by students? Some move into easier areas to assure a better GPA.
Simin: yes, it was discussed.
Bill Wilson: that's why these changes were undertaken...the only courses that count are those taken under one's program of study.
Martha: what happens to grades not in a new program of study?
Bill: they are not counted toward graduate GPA, but are on the transcript.
Minor Chamblin: is there any indication on the final transcript which courses enter into GPA calculations and which do not?
Bill: the final GPA is not interpreted; information on calculation is in the catalog.
Minor: we can anticipate some confusion with transcript computation; the explanation needs to be on the transcript itself.
Dale Clifford: she supports counting post-baccalaureate courses being included, but the mechanical problems need to be worked out, perhaps with a footnote on graduate transcripts. Dale then moved to send the item back to committee which should seek input from Deborah Kaye.
The motion was seconded and passed. The item will be returned to the committee.
Item #4 FA 99-14: Submitted by the Adjunct Affairs Committee.

Al Tilley moved acceptance of the item (Recommendations on Adjunct Faculty).
Chris Rasche noted that recommendations do not necessarily become policy; we would be sending a message up the line.
Nick Wilson: he does not want to see adjunct raises take away from proposed full-time faculty and staff salaries. But where else will it come from?
Susana Urbina question re adjunct pay:
Al Tilley reported that the current rate of adjunct pay is from $1500 to $2250 per course.
Kathy Robinson asked about teaching awards.
Al said they should include everyone: "part-time" includes adjunct status.
Len Lipkin asked how the suggested salary was calculated and Al replied that it was based very roughly on hypothetical increases over the years. Discussion came from the floor on miscellaneous matters relating to base salaries.
Al said $3000 is a modest floor for adjunct salaries.
Nick Wilson then proposed an amendment: that adjunct raises come from elsewhere than faculty or staff salary resources.
David Courtwright commented that adjunct pay comes from OPS.
Al then spoke against the amendment: Can we say that any dollar used might have been used for my salary?
The Wilson amendment failed.
Minor Chamblin: are we enabling adjuncts in this recommendation to be eligible for monetary awards?
Al: Yes.
Judy Solano then amended the main motion to stipulate that additional teaching awards be developed for adjunct faculty. That way, adjuncts would not compete against us for our awards.
Chris Rasche spoke in support of the Solano amendment. Since adjuncts would have trouble being competitive with full-time faculty, a whole new set of awards are needed for adjunct faculty.
Al decided he would not accept the amendment as friendly and noted that 1/3 of our teaching at UNF is done by adjuncts; it is therefore appropriate to let them stand for regular teaching awards. He believes that as a morale issue adjuncts need to be considered.
Chris: logistically that may be a problem. The rules of the competition should be different to enable adjuncts to get something. We are saying we want more money for them.
The Solano amendment passed, changing part #7 of the recommendations to develop these special awards.
Judy Solano also questioned part #5 of the recommendation dealing with adjunct search procedures; she argued that it is hard to honor the intent given the lack of time chairs are often given to obtain an instructor.
Al Tilley: all this says is that there has to be some regularized way of choosing adjuncts. Susana Urbina asked about part #4: does the goal of equal proportion apply across summer, too?
Al: yes.
The entire recommendation then passed as amended.

Item #5 FA 99-15: Submitted by the Faculty Affairs Committee
Judy Solano moved the item (Revision to Item #4 of Final Exam Policy), which refers to the need to count final exam hours in our calendar in order to fulfill minimum credit minutes. There is no option whether or not to use the time of the final exam.
Jay Huebner: does this apply to all courses, even those with labs?
Lynda Lewis: any course that is assigned a final exam slot must have those minutes covered. The item passed.

Item #6 FA 99-16: Submitted by the Faculty Affairs Committee
Judy Solano moved acceptance of the item (Revision of Policies and Procedures for the University Appeals Committee).
Minor Chamblin explained the reasons for these revisions: the committee's procedures must be consistent with the overall appeals process.
Stuart Chalk: where would responsibility for these revisions be housed?
Judy: they're not recommending major changes, except that the chair of the Appeals Committee not be the chief Student Affairs officer but elected from among the committee. The revision gives more balance. Most appeals are academic, therefore Academic Affairs is the appropriate focus of appeals.
Lucy Trice proposed a friendly amendment to page 6, line 3, after "case" to read "or for any other reason."
The amendment was accepted as friendly and the item then passed.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

______________________________
Elizabeth Lane Furdell,
Faculty Association Secretary