August 18, 1994

CEFO Minutes (J. Carter, Secretary)

M I N U T E S

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING FACULTY ORGANIZATION Thursday, August 18, 1994 @ 12:30 PM 101 CARC Building

Dr. David Young opened the meeting at 12:35 PM, welcoming all faculty and staff to a new academic year. The following signed the attendance sheet:

COLLEGE OF ENGR: R. Snyder, S. Middleton, P. Bovender, R. Gwaltney, L. Hudson, C. Lilly, J. Power, N. Svhul. COMPUTER SCIENCE: M. Allen, K. Chen, B. Chu, G. Epstein, J. Frazier, M. Hadzikadic, J. Lee, R. Lejk, J. Maitan, T. Mostafavi, J. Quinn, G. Revesz, H. Razavi, R. Shaw, K. Subramanian, B. Wilkinson, J. Xiao. ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY: F. Auchey, N. Byars, J. Carter, J. Chaffin, C. Liu, R. Lollar, T. Owen, J. Patten, R. Priebe, W. Routt, W. Shelnutt, D. Smith, M. Sue, E. Willis. CIVIL ENGINEERING: D. Aldridge, D. Bayer, J. Evett, J. Graham, D. Hanks, H. Hilger, R. Janardhanam, G. Murgel, J. Wu, D. Young. MECHANICAL ENGR & ENGR SCIENCE: I. Bodur, R. Dubler, H. Estrada, Y. Hari, J. Hill, R. Keanini, R. Kim, D. McClintock, G. Mohanty, E. Munday, S. Patterson, J. Raja, S. Smith, S.T. Smith. ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING: K. Daneshvar, D. Dennis, A. Edwards, M. Feldman, R. Greene, S. Mahaffey, M. Miri, W. Smith, F. Tranjan. CAMERON A.R.C.: J. Hudak, H. Leamy, T. Rufty. ENGR RES & IND DEVMT: J. Roblin. COMPUTING SVCS & LABS: T. Brown, J. Grant, A. Ledford, T. McInnis, D. Rowe. GUESTS: None. Total documented attendance: 80.

I. Introduction of new faculty and staff. The new chair for ME&ES is Robert Johnson from the University of Illinois. David Young will be the acting chair for the Civil Engineering department. Joe Quinn will be chairing the Computer Science department for a year. Harry Leamy introduced Stewart Smith, visiting professor and John Hudak, clean room engineer. Ed Braun introduced Dan Rowe, the new manager of laboratory operations. Farid Tranjan introduced Michael Sleva, visiting professor. Secretaries: Tina Power in the central office, and Kathy Rich in Mechanical Engineering.

II. Approval of minutes of the April 28, 1994 meeting. Motion made, passed.

III. MOSAIC, John Grant. The transition of MOSAIC workstations to Solaris 2.3 will be taking place during the next week. The transition of student units will be done my next Monday noon. Most of the applications have been installed as requested. Work is still taking place on printer drivers.

IV. Faculty Reward Task Force, Nan Byars. The committee has been meeting since the Spring semester and through the Summer at a frequency of about every two weeks. The committee is charged with examining issues concerning the current faculty rewards system and coming up with recommendations for change by the end of this semester. A survey was distributed to provide some initial faculty input. More surveys will be forthcoming. The current survey should be returned to Nan Byars by August 19th if possible.

V. UNCC Progression Requirements, Rick Lejk. New brochures have been distributed, blue in color, and these supersede the older brochures. They apply to all freshmen and transfer students who entered last fall, and any students who have been readmitted after a two-year absence. A surcharge is included for students who take extra credit hours over the progression limits. W grades are also included in total progressive hours. Repeat grades are not replaced, but averaged in with all other grades. The student can eventually exclude four grades from progressive surcharge hours, and consequently from GPA calculation. Call Dr. Lejk if there are any questions. Grades are excluded using a form. After the course grade and hours have been recorded it cannot be changed. Such decisions are irreversible.

VI. COE Laboratory Operations, Ed Braun. Henry Leamy and Ed Braun have spent approximately eight months looking into solutions to problems concerning current laboratory procedures. It was concluded that we need a working leader in the department. Interviews took place over the summer, and culminated with the hiring of Dan Rowe as the director of the engineering laboratories. Laboratory resources should be faculty driven, with the faculty, through the laboratory committees, providing guidance to Dan Rowe. Chairs of the laboratory committees will constitute the committee which works directly with Dan.

This new process will take the administration out of the loop and place it in the hands of the faculty. Laboratory workers will be working as a team, not representing any specific discipline. It will be a college-oriented laboratory. It will be a new way of doing business and should provide an improvement in service. Problems in breakdown in lab procedures are to be taken to the lab director instead of to the committee. His phone extension is 3975. Evaluation of the new methods and procedures will be continuously reviewed by the laboratory committees.

VII. Evening Services Task Force, Silvia Middleton. A campus-wide task force has been reviewing the type of services and curricula which are needed and can be guaranteed for our evening students. We will need to be proactive in arranging evening schedules, so consideration of this issue should be taking place at this time. The Uptown Center is included in the program and is to be staffed by full-time faculty.

There will be a mandatory meeting at Monday at 1:00 PM for al teaching assistance and graduate students who will be on the payroll. The meeting will be held in Smith 219. The Computer Science department will be holding a separate meeting for their students at the same time.

There are opportunities to work with US. First, a program which works with highly motivated high school students. More information will be forthcoming.

VIII. Peer Review of Teaching, David Young. Last Spring the faculty supported and adopted a policy of peer evaluation of the teaching skills of untenured faculty. Action needs to start on this issue this semester. Steps need to be taken to initiate in-class visits. Rafic Makki is serving on a campus-wide committee which is taking part in a similar task.

IX. William States Lee COE Dedication, Harry Leamy. Duke Power will be taking part with UNCC in the dedication of the college on November 22, 1994. There will be major events including a “distinguished panel discussion” held in the morning. This panel will include members from Duke Power, Bell Communications Research, Milliken, NSF and two or three additional people at similar levels. The title for the discussion is “Re-Engineering Engineering Education”. It will be moderated by a professional moderator. This will be followed by the unveiling of a piece of art and the actual dedication ceremony. After a provided lunch workshops will be held with local engineering managers who will moderate discussions with COE faculty and students on the subject of implementation of notions coming out of the morning panel discussion. A dinner will be held in W.S. Lee’s honor. It is possible that we may be able to have the Governor in attendance. It is intended that there is student participation in all activities pertaining to the dedication.

X. Creative Projects Laboratory, Bill Shelnutt. A meeting was held last summer in support of the creative projects laboratory with about fifty companies invited. Eight companies showed up and made for a successful meeting. We need to take advantage of the opportunities which will be available to us through this program. Duke, Acor, Jordan Graphics, Ingersoll-Rand, Square-D all a potential for opportunities for our students to work on industrially sanctioned projects. The list of topics may be distributed for team and individual projects. These projects may be short or long-term, disciplinary or interdisciplinary. Contact Dr. Shelnutt if you are interested in taking part in the project. Please put effort and support behind this project, since there are many benefits to be gained from it.

XI. College Promotion and Tenure. It is necessary that a special , temporary, College of Engineering Review Committee be formed to review a single case which came before the 1993-1994 committee. “A procedural irregularity occurred in the formation of the 1993-94 College of Engineering Review Committee (CERC)”. This irregularity was used in the successful appeal of a decision made last year. The committee was elected by closed ballot and included Dr. Rajaram Janardhanam, Dr. Mike Allen, Dr. Mehdi Miri, Mr. Ron Priebe and Dr. Rhyn Kim.

XII. Office of Continuing Education. Requirements for continued competency for registered engineers will create a need for working with this college to help put a program together. Credit should be available for faculty members when courses are taught or papers and books are published.

XIII. Dean’s Comments, Dean Snyder.

The executive committee responsible for working with Dan Rowe in the setting up of Laboratory Operations will be made up of David Young, Bill Smith, and J. Raja. Committee assignments are forthcoming. Dr. Snyder thanked Rich Wolny for the work he did during the last four to five years serving between the dean and the faculty, “the rock and the hard place.” He will still be working on a variety of special projects. I9 verification of all new hires. Secretaries have been told that people will not be placed on the payroll until the I9 is verified. Grants and Contracts. The COE is taking part in a major experiment in the university whereby the college will be able to establish and manage its own contracts up to $300,000.00. A plan will be created for phasing in this responsibility. We must do this in a manner better than what has been done in the past. It is required that all faculty file report forms for all work done outside for pay. This must be done without exception. Budget. Salary letters should be in the mail. The plan is for pay increases to appear in the December 31st paycheck. The operating budget is essentially the same as last year following a 2% cut. There will be very little effect caused by the cut. The equipment budget cuts will not be very noticeable. The amount is in the range of $650,000. When the student MOSAIC fee is added in, the total comes to $1M to $1.25M. There will be no new program money. The budget focus this year was in the area of faculty salaries. Academic Planning. The central role for academic planning is played by the planning document. Appendices to the document are available in the departments. Revising these documents is worth while. The departments are to have completed their documents by the 15th of December, 1994. The college planning committee will do another draft of the planning document to be turned over to the Vice Chancellor and to faculty governance. Another iteration will take place next year for completion by January 30th. It is still to be a living document, able to change as needed. Key features of the college plan include its continuing assessment and exit interviews with students. Past efforts at exit interviews have proved to be “revealing”. We have data confirming to us some of those areas which need to be reviewed and addressed. We need to know where we are, where we are going, and how we are going to get there. Long-term space needs. The opening of the new classroom building will not have much effect on space needs of the college. The only way to get new space is in the erection of a new building. The planning processor for new facilities will be underway. A task force may be created. If we are not in line in the next nine months we may not be in line for a very long time. Homework must be done before approaching Drs. Dubois and Woodward with the subject. Curriculum Revision. Task forces are coming up with a plan for the integration of the freshman-sophomore years into the junior-senior years. This exercise must be completed by this fall, since new curricula must be presented in the Spring. Academic Progression Requirements. CEAPCC has looked at the changes in the academic progression requirements. There are some implications which affect the college that still need to be addressed. Enrollments. Projections show we will not bit university enrollment projections this semester. We lost two positions (twelve in the university.) We stand to lose two more. It is urged that we be as accommodating to new students as possible. We will add students to courses through the sixth of September. Be careful about drops. W grades are going to be kept in student records with the hours added to their progression hours attempted. There is more and more evidence that we should be sensitive to the needs of the non-traditional students. This population is greater than 50% of enrollment. For the most part the university is not very accommodating to this large group of students, the College of Engineering in particular. Lock-step curriculums, insufficient evening schedules, limited course offerings and limited advising support do not take this population into account. The needs of every student cannot be addressed, but needs of non-traditional students and strategies to meet those needs must be addressed. Exit interviews revealed that there is an “unfriendly” attitude on the part of faculty in helping students in job placement. This also needs to be addressed. International Option. Students can satisfy humanities, behavioral and social science requirements and prepare for international experience under our current general education opportunities. This should be discussed in faculty meetings. This route should be introduced to our students, giving them a maximum number of opportunities. We need to continue to develop teamwork among ourselves. Opportunities present themselves which involve all departments working together as we look to the future.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:03.

Addendum to April 28, 1994 Minutes.

During the April 28, 1994 meeting of the College of Engineering Faculty Organization, elections were held for several college-wide committee chair positions. The chair positions were listed in the minutes, but the alternate positions, those individuals receiving the second highest number of votes for each position was not reported. This was an oversight. The following is a list of the chair positions and alternates which were elected at that meeting: CEAPCC: H. Estrada, chair; J. Chaffin, alternate.
CSAC: M. Allen, chair; I. Bodur, alternate.
FAPSC: M. Miri, chair; E. Braun, alternate.
FCGC: G. Mohanty, chair; Y. Kakad, alternate.