ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥

The UAF Faculty Senate passed the following at its Meeting #76 on 
December 8, 1997:


MOTION PASSED
==============

The UAF Faculty Senate moves to refer the motion to approve the 
Certificate program in Microcomputer Support Specialist to the 
Curricular Affairs Committee for review.  


	EFFECTIVE:		Immediately




Signed:  John D. Craven, President, UAF Faculty Senate  	Date:  12/15/97


***


The UAF Faculty Senate passed the following at its Meeting #76 on 
December 8, 1997:


MOTION PASSED
==============

The UAF Faculty Senate moves to refer the motion to approve the 
AAS in Microcomputer Support Specialist to the Curricular Affairs 
Committee for review.  


	EFFECTIVE:		Immediately




Signed:  John D. Craven, President, UAF Faculty Senate  	Date:  12/15/97


***


The UAF Faculty Senate passed the following at its Meeting #76 on 
December 8, 1997:


MOTION PASSED
==============

The UAF Faculty Senate encourages individual departments to design 
their own criteria where appropriate to evaluate the work done 
towards developing distance education, including the creation of 
materials for such instruction.


	EFFECTIVE:		Immediately


	RATIONALE:	The ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ 
		Regulations for the Evaluation of Faculty, Section III.C.1f 
		(Effectiveness in Teaching) specifically states that 
		"Effective teachers . . . regularly develop new courses, 
		workshops and seminars and use a variety of methods of 
		instructional delivery and instructional design."  This 
		implicitly states that periodic evaluation of faculty 
		includes distance delivery-based courses as part of 
		teaching evaluation.  It is appropriate to develop such 
		criteria at the department level.  


Signed:  John D. Craven, President, UAF Faculty Senate  	Date:  12/15/97


***

The UAF Faculty Senate passed the following at its Meeting #76 on 
December 8, 1997:


RESOLUTION PASSED AS AMENDED
==============================

WHEREAS, The University of ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Faculty Senate has discussed in 
	depth the consequences of the 1996-97 academic year 
	Retirement Incentive Program; and

WHEREAS, Positions vacated in that RIP were not refilled on a one-
	to-one basis by the administration; and 

WHEREAS, The loss of faculty members to retirement in certain 
	departments caused undue hardship to certain academic 
	programs; and

WHEREAS, College deans were given the power to decide in which 
	way faculty members in their units would have input into the 
	decisions as to which positions were more important to 
	departments than others; and

WHEREAS, Recommendations from the dean's level in colleges were 
	not always followed in replacing faculty positions once these 
	recommendations reached the Provost and Chancellor levels; 
	and

WHEREAS, The RIP program unduly impacts departments with a 
	majority of senior faculty; now

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, That a faculty member be selected from 
	and by each of the departments affected by faculty who have 
	exercised the RIP option, to serve as an advisory board to the 
	Provost and Chancellor in making final decisions regarding RIP 
	replacements.   


Signed:  John D. Craven, President, UAF Faculty Senate  	Date:  12/15/97


***

The UAF Faculty Senate passed the following at its Meeting #76 on 
December 8, 1997:


MOTION PASSED
==============

The UAF Faculty Senate moves to refer the motion to approve a 
policy concerning UAF faculty and advanced degrees back to the 
Faculty and Scholarly Affairs Committee for additional review with 
instruction to give more detail and information in the rationale.


	EFFECTIVE:		Immediately


Signed:  John D. Craven, President, UAF Faculty Senate  	Date:  12/15/97


****

The UAF Faculty Senate passed the following at its Meeting #76 on 
December 8, 1997:


MOTION PASSED
==============

The UAF Faculty Senate has reviewed the draft Board of Regents' 
Policy and Regulations 09.01.00, 09.03.00, 09.04.00, and 09.05.00, at 
the request of the Faculty Alliance, and recommends that Regulation 
09.03.00 be rejected as written and makes no suggestions with 
regard to the other draft regulations and policies.  

	EFFECTIVE:		Immediately

	RATIONALE:	The basis for the draft language submitted to 
		the Board of Regents was the existing and functioning 
		UAF rules, which were specifically designed to 
		guarantee completion of the procedure in ONE semester 
		with only one meeting of a review committee, and to 
		keep it as simple as possible.  The draft procedures do 
		not guarantee completion in one semester, provide for 
		as many as three review committee meetings, and turn 
		it into a student-unfriendly procedure that will 
		dissuade many from seeking corrections of what may 
		have truly been arbitrary and capricious grading.  The 
		present UAF rules were written in response to a request 
		by the Provost (UAF Chief Academic Officer) to get this 
		issue out of his office. The draft reverses this by 
		replacing the dean with the "Chief Academic Officer", 
		hence putting it back in his office and the other MAUs' 
		chief academic officers; it is regressive. The draft 
		review does not protect faculty rights to due process. 
		The draft rules violate the fundamental axiom of 
		academe that degrees are awarded by faculty in that it 
		violates the corollary that only faculty award grades 
		that count toward degrees. Based on experience by 
		several faculty members, having two students on the 
		committee rather than another faculty member is 
		probably detrimental to the student's chance of a 
		successful appeal.  There are basic structural problems 
		with the draft.  For example, in Section B, "Resolution of 
		Disputes Regarding Academic Decisions or Actions", the 
		first sentence is general, and states that section is not 
		limited to assignment of final course grades.  The 
		second sentence limits this entire section to 
		assignment of the final grade.  It can't be both and the 
		material that follows is designed to address the 
		question of final grades, but with confusing language 
		related to the other issues.  There are other serious 
		structural problems.

		The UAF Faculty Senate's Curricular Affairs Committee 
		has spent many hours on this review and has concluded 
		there are too many issues involved for a simple markup 
		of the draft.  The UAF Faculty Senate offers to meet 
		with the drafting committee to make clear the areas of 
		concern and to aid in the creation of regulations that 
		will truly aid as opposed to hinder students.  


Signed:  John D. Craven, President, UAF Faculty Senate  	Date:  12/15/97


***

The UAF Faculty Senate passed the following at its Meeting #76 on 
December 8, 1997:


MOTION PASSED
==============

The UAF Faculty Senate moves to send the following letter to the 
Governor on behalf of the Senate after editing and inclusion of a 
statement that it was passed by a unanimous vote.  


	EFFECTIVE:		Immediately


Signed:  John D. Craven, President, UAF Faculty Senate  	Date:  12/17/97


				


December 15, 1997



The Honorable Tony Knowles
Governor, State of ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥
P.O. Box 110001
Juneau, AK  99811-0001

Dear Governor Knowles,

	The University of ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ plays a vital role in the future of our 
very young, promising state, as it is one of the keys to ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥'s 
economic, intellectual, cultural, and political development.  ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ 
is unique in many ways, and it requires an outstanding institution of 
higher learning inside its borders to help craft solutions to its 
numerous challenges.  However, in the face of repeated budget 
constraints in funding at the state level, the quality of higher 
education available in the state is being severely compromised.  
Such constraints can not continue without extensive damage to the 
University and its ability to fulfill its stated mission and goals.  
ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ does not need its University so crippled that it is merely a 
shadow of what a strong university should be.  Instead, the 
University of ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ must provide an environment in which students 
are stimulated, challenged, and encouraged to reach their full 
potential, while knowing that they are receiving a superior 
education from a healthy, outstanding institution.

	We appreciate the fact that you also hold many of these views 
about the University of ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ and have stated so publicly.  We have 
been gratified to hear you recognize the budget trimming efforts and 
sacrifices many have made and that through several assessment 
procedures the faculty, staff, and administration have actively 
sought to increase efficiency and lower costs.  Since you are aware 
of our efforts, you must know that the Board of Regents' budget 
request of 174 million dollars for the coming fiscal year is not only 
reasonable, but reflects an anticipated 10 million dollar reduction 
to the administrative branch of the University while merely 
sustaining the rest of the system at minimal levels.  Your proposed 
budget of 167.8 million dollars, which you described as "a modest 
increase," is an increase that means further reductions will occur, 
continuing the process of irreparable harm to the University of 
ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ System.  

	By unanimous vote the UAF Faculty Senate, through its elected 
representatives, has moved the adoption of this letter and, as 
faculty members of the University of ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥, stand ready to provide 
any information and assistance you may seek in a quest to more 
clearly understand the predicament of the University of ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥.  We 
can provide such assistance through perspectives gained as we carry 
out our obligations to teaching, research, and public service.  It is 
the faculty and the students that are engaged in learning, not the 
administration.  While they represent us to you, their task is greatly 
complicated by the additional obligations to the physical institution 
and support functions, further removed from the central obligation 
of a university, which is to higher education.  We can provide that 
focused perspective.


Respectfully submitted for the 
ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Faculty Senate,


John D. Craven, President


Madeline F. Schatz, President-Elect







UA