February 2025 Faculty Senate Newsletter
What’s New
Action on suspension of Global Diversity, Domestic Diversity, diversity intensive program requirements
Following the release of Chancellor Rogers’ February 6, 2025 memo (PDF) suspending the Global Diversity and Domestic Diversity requirements and diversity intensive program requirements at ECU, Dr. Ticknor, Chair of the Faculty, met with multiple offices across campus to discuss the way that the suspension would be carried out at ECU. The Office of the Registrar added disclaimer language to the catalog entry for the Domestic and Global Diversity Course Requirements (in 2024-2025 University Undergraduate Catalog, Academic Advisement, Progression and Support Services, Additional Requirements for Degrees) that reads:
“Domestic and Global Diversity Course Requirements SUSPENDED ON FEBRUARY 6, 2025 BY ACTION OF CHANCELLOR ROGERS’ FEBRUARY 6, 2025 MEMO ISSUED UPON GUIDANCE FROM UNC SYSTEM SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR LEGAL AFFAIRS AND GENERAL COUNSEL TRIPP’S FEBRUARY 5, 2025 MEMO.”
The Global Diversity and Domestic Diversity designations, themselves, are not suspended. Dr. Ticknor directed the General Education and Instructional Effectiveness Committee to suspend approval of new Global and Domestic Diversity designations. Though the designations are not suspended, new requests were suspended because units may have elected not to designate their courses now that the degree requirement has been suspended, and also because it may have resulted in the need to reorganize their program if the course was required for students. The General Education and Instructional Effectiveness Committee website has been edited to reflect the removal of the degree requirement and current suspension of new designation requests for Global and Domestic Diversity courses.
The suspension of the requirement and of diversity intensive program requirements may necessitate Level I revisions to some programs. The Undergraduate Curriculum Committee has elected a subcommittee of the members of Educational Policies and Planning Committee to handle review and approval of those program revisions. The Undergraduate Curriculum Committee will continue to review courses that units may wish to revise so their program of study does not require completion of courses that are diversity intensive.
Action on Unit Codes
Last year, the changes to UNC Policy 300.8.5, Equality Within the University of North Carolina required many changes in the East Carolina University Faculty Manual, and immediately made portions of unit codes in many units unenforceable. At that time, to prevent a requirement for mass revision of the unit codes, a disclaimer was added to the unit code listing which made clear that when there are conflicts between unit codes of operations and associated guidelines and UNC policies, the UNC policies control. Given more recent communications from the UNC System Office, the Office of University Counsel (OUC) determined that the disclaimer was insufficient and directed the removal of links to twenty-three unit codes that had language out of compliance with 300.8.5. The codes were redlined by OUC with language redacted by the Office of the Provost, and the redacted codes were sent to the deans and units. They were sent to the Educational Policies and Planning Committee as provisional codes for review, then approved by the Faculty Senate. The provisional codes were sent to the Chancellor and upon approval by the Chancellor, the codes will be re-linked on the unit code listing. After that, the usual review process for provisional codes will be in effect, with the affected units given three semesters to submit their code for full unit code review.
Faculty Officers Nominating Committee elected
At the February 25, 2025 Faculty Senate meeting, the Faculty Officers Nominating Committee was elected. This committee consists of five members elected from the ranks of the elected members of the Faculty Senate. They will submit a slate of candidates for the Chair of the Faculty, Vice Chair of the Faculty, and Secretary of the Faculty officer positions. Election of the officers will take place at the April 29, 2025 Faculty Senate organizational meeting. Nominations for these positions can be sent to any member of the committee, and communications soliciting nominations will be forthcoming soon. The members of the committee are:
- William Staub, School of Music, Chair (staubw@ecu.edu)
- Charity Cayton, College of Education (caytonc@ecu.edu)
- Ron Cortright, Department of Kinesiology (cortrightr@ecu.edu)
- Michael Daniels, School of Social Work (danielsm@ecu.edu)
- Rachel Roper, Brody School of Medicine (roperr@ecu.edu)
Celebrating 60 Years of Faculty Senate: Five other meetings that occurred on February 25th
In celebration of 60 Years of Faculty Senate, please read highlights from the five other meetings that occurred on February 25th (PDF), in 1986, 1992, 2003, 2014, and 2020. Many of the topics and challenges that we were facing in those years are recurring today. Let’s take this opportunity to reflect on our history and use the information from the past to inform our future.
Reminders
Faculty Personnel Deadlines
Below are the deadlines for personnel actions that are coming up soon:
- Advancement in Title – the 1st Tuesday in March (March 4th this year) is the deadline for deans to make their recommendations to the Provost. The 3rd Tuesday in February (March 18th this year) is the deadline for the Provost’s decision.
- Reappointment of Probationary-Term Faculty – For 9 month faculty, the 1st Tuesday in March (March 4th this year) is when the unit administrator’s recommendation is due to the dean, and the last Tuesday in March (March 25th this year) is when the Dean’s recommendation will go to the Provost. For 12 month faculty, the 3rd Tuesday in March (March 18th this year) is the deadline for the committee recommendation to go to the unit administrator.
- Promotion and Tenure – spring before decision year – the 4th Friday in March (March 28th this year) is when the tenure committee submits a list of external reviewers to the unit administrator and selects materials to be sent to reviewers.
- Promotion and Tenure – fall and spring of decision year – 1st Tuesday in March (March 4th this year) is when the Provost decision/PAD goes to the Chancellor.
Workload Guidelines Listing
All units except one have sent in their approved workload guidelines, and they now appear in the Faculty Workload Guidelines Listing.
Faculty Regalia Rental
Faculty interested in renting regalia for spring commencement should do so online by March 23, at this regalia rental link. Pickup of rental regalia will begin on April 25th at the Main Campus Student Center in Dowdy Student Stores. If you have questions, please direct them to John Palmer, General Merchandise Manager at Dowdy Student Stores, via email.
Unit Election Results Deadline
Unit Elections for Faculty Senators and Alternates are due to the Faculty Senate office email by Monday, March 31, 2025.
Upcoming
The General Education and Instructional Effectiveness Committee and Chair of the Faculty Ticknor are holding a forum on Wednesday, March 5, 2025 at 3:00 PM in Joyner East 201 to present their report on the review of ECU’s General Education program. The forum will be recorded, and a survey soliciting further feedback will be sent out shortly thereafter. The committee will use the feedback as part of a final recommendation, which will be presented at the March 25, 2025 Faculty Senate meeting. If you have any questions, please direct them to Professor Avian White, chair of the General Education and Instructional Effectiveness Committee, or Professor Anne Ticknor, Chair of the Faculty.
The next Faculty Senate meeting is March 25, 2025. It will be held at the East Carolina Heart Institute, rooms A-D, and will also be livestreamed with the recording available after the meeting.
Notice
Amended Committee Report from January 25, 2025 meeting
The name of an item in the Educational Policies and Planning Committee report at the January 28, 2025 Faculty Senate meeting was amended in the resolutions sent to the Chancellor and posted on the Faculty Senate resolution listing. The report text was for a graduate certificate, and listed the name change as “Business Analytics,” when the actual name change was “Business Analytics and AI Applications.”