BOG Meeting and Latest News

The BOG met this week in Chapel Hill. It is quite a challenging time for the University.

Naturally, talk of the budget dominated. The House budget would be particularly devastating to all of the campuses and much of the public presentation Thursday morning detailed exactly why and how. While Friday morning included better news (the House has "found" some money that can be applied to education and the Governor is backing our priorities), we cannot forget that even the Senate version of the budget means significant cuts will be taken. And furlough authority is also in that version of the budget.

But the Senate budget is looking to be the best of all possible worlds and the staff at GA is working around the clock to keep up with things and achieve the best results. If you are in communication with anyone there, you should thank them for their hard work on our behalf. It has been a uniquely challenging year and things are moving more rapidly than ever before.

Here are the conferees on the budget and you should continue to be in contact with them about your concerns for our future and the real impact the cuts are having on our campuses. http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gascripts/confcomm/confcommittee.pl?BillChamber=S&BillID=897&session=2009

But we also need to be looking to how to be in communication with President Bowles about furloughs, and offering him new kinds of budget management tools as the planning will start ASAP for the next two year cycle. As faculty, we specialize in thinking creatively and over the long haul. We need to use those talents now.

I also spent time talking with GA folks about a whole range of issues that will be on the Executive Committee Planning Retreat agenda at the end of the month.

In other news, Hannah Gage was reelected as chair of the BOG, Peter Hans will continue as the Vice Chair and Estelle "Bunny" Sanders as the Secretary. All terms are for two more years. They are an effective leadership team and should help us make the transition between Presidents far more smoothly. The Faculty Assembly has a good relationship with the BOG now and we want to continue to build on that strong foundation.

The Screening Committee is at work in the Presidential Search. We need to monitor this process as closely as possible in such a closed process. But I encourage everyone who knows people on the Screening or Interview committees to be in touch and encourage them to consider the importance of academic experience, creative thinking about the future, and a diverse pool of candidates.