The Rambler (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 93, No. 8, Ed. 1 Wednesday, March 30, 2005 Page: 1 of 8
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The students' voice since 1917
March 30, 2005
Fort Worth, Texas
Vol. 93, No. 8
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News Briefs
April Fools'
Look for The Lambler,
a special April Fools' edi-
tion of The Rambler,
inside.
Table tennis
The Texas Wesleyan
table tennis team will
compete in and host the
National Collegiate Table
Tennis Championship
April 1-3 in the Sid W.
Richardson Center. Ad-
mission is $5 per day or
$10 for the tournament.
University Day
University Day will be
held from 9:25 a.m. to 7
p.m. on April 5.
There will be events
all day in the Carter
Conference Room and in
the Orientation Room in
the Eunice and James L.
West Library.
The presentations will
be made primarily by stu-
dents of projects and/or
research that they have
done in collaboration with
a faculty member.
The schools/programs
represented include arts
and sciences, education
and the CRNA program.
The keynote speaker, Dr.
Franklyn Jenifer, currcnt
president of the
University of Texas at
Dallas, will be .in Martin
Hall from 9:25 a.m. to
10:30 a.m. He has been
president of UTD for nine
years.
Presentations by stu-
dents will run from 10:45
a.m. to 7 p.m., with a
break for lunch.
Career fair
Texas Wesleyan
Career Services is hosting
a career fair for students
from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on
March 31. Students, alum-
ni and the community arc
invited and should be pre-
pared for on-the-spot
interviews.
MBA open house
Students interested in
pursuing a graduate
degree in business are
invited to an open house
from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30
p.m. on April 5 in the
Armstrong-Mabee
Business Building. This
event is sponsored by the
school of business and the
office of admissions.
RSVP to Robin Lasher at
(817) 531-6500 or rlaser
@txwes.edu.
Poetry reading
Aries is hosting an
open mic poetry reading
at 12:15 p.m. on April 7 in
the Bragan Fellowship
Hall located in the
Polytechnic United
Methodist Church.
Faculty, student
parking reassigned
Nici Sandberg
NEWS EDITOR
Religion and English
professors are in the final
stages of moving into their
new offices in the
Polytechnic United
Methodist Church. With this
move, a number of faculty as
well as student parking
spaces are being relocated.
These professors are now
parking between the
Armstrong-Mabee Business
Building and the church,
which was previously labeled
student parking.
"The only change we
made was the parking
between the church and the
school of business. It is now
faculty parking. We re-
stripped and numbered it last
week," said Ken Dunson.
director of facilities.
"It wouldn't make sense
for them to park in the park-
ing lot behind Elizabeth
[Hall] and walk all the way to
the church," he said. "But
maybe there should be a
space-for-space switch so
students would not lose out."
In order to supplement
the student parking that is
now occupied by faculty,
Sheri Parker, coordinator of
library operations, reissued
the former faculty parking.
Students may now park in the
12 spaces in the Mulkey lot
and across the street next to
the "yellow house." accord-
ing to Parker.
"I've reassigned the
spaces. They just haven't
been painted yet," she said.
The spaces will not have the
word "reserved" painted on
them as they do now. They
will be blank like the other
student parking spaces.
On the hunt
Photo by Whitney Kowler
Bethany Houze, 5, joins in the hunt lor Easter eggs in the March 22 event sponsored by
Student Life. About 30 children from the Wesleyan community showed up to en joy free
food, candy, balloons and games. See page 2 for more photos.
Faculty Assembly meets, decides
to 'wait and see' on further action
Nici Sandbf.rg
NEWS EDITOR
The Faculty Assembly met on March 10 to dis-
cuss several matters that are of concern to faculty
members, including the faculty handbook and
American Association of University Professors
(AAUP) guidelines as well as the financial state of
the school.
Dr. Michael Sewell, mass communication pro-
fessor, reported his findings concerning a legal con-
ference at Stetson University. The conference is
important to Wesleyan faculty because it revealed
that it is necessary for the AAUP guidelines to be
incorporated into the faculty handbook to protect
professors from censure.
"The principles of AAUP have provided the
framework for the concepts of shared governance,
academic freedom and tenure policies at institu-
tions of higher education, including Texas
Wesleyan," said Dr. John Hall, president of the
Wesleyan chapter of the AAUP, in an interview.
"The current faculty handbook not only has poli-
cies in these and other areas that conform to AAUP
standards, but also specifically cites AAUP as the
'default' for other issues."
According to the first page of the Texas
Wesleyan faculty handbook, "For all policies and
procedures not covered in this handbook or in other
university policy and procedure manuals, including
those of the Board of Trustees, the AAUP Policy
Documents and Reports [current edition] apply."
Dr. Ben Hale, chair of the Faculty Council said,
"The current faculty handbook states that in matters
not covered by the faculty handbook, the AAUP
guidelines should be used.
"Last year there was a revision put forward that
would have removed any direct reference to the
AAUP in the faculty handbook. It was discovered
this year that such an action would have
severely damaged any future
conflict resolution that went to "// is my contention that the faculty
court." must make every effort to make our
According to Hale, the facul- concerns known and to strongly
ty approved actions taken by the request appropriate administrative
Faculty Council to revoke all the responses and actions to ensure the
changes made to the handbook health and well being of Texas
since November 2002. Wesleyan."
Therefore, the policy now gov- /> j0i,n Hall Wesleyan," he continued,
erning the faculty has AAUP ref- President of the Wesleyan Chapter of.4 A UP "There exists, in my
erence. opinion, a serious commu-
to balance the budget each year. The trustees told us
that there is currently about $6 million of unre-
stricted endowment." Hale said. "At the current
rate of use without replenishment, Wesleyan could
run out of unrestricted endowment in five or six
years It wouldn't be 'broke.' However, it would be
forced to spend a lot less or find new sources for the
money."
Currently, the university's budget is about 85 to
95 percent dependent on tuition, but should be
around 60 percent, as noted in the
meeting.
Hall said the meeting
was constructive.
"I was pleased to see a
serious discussion regard-
ing issues that I personally
see as critical to the health
and well being of Texas
&
Photo by Nici Sandberg
Dr. Ben Hale, chair of the Faculty Council, says the
faculty revoked all changes made to the faculty
handbook since November 2002.
"The current handbook situation war-
ranted, the officers of our chapter felt, a review by
the national AAUP," Hall said. "There arc proposed
changes that seem to offer the administration much
more discretion in matters significant to tenure and
academic freedom and thus, we are very con-
cerned."
During the March 10 Faculty Assembly meet-
ing, it was noted that the administration prefers not
to have AAUP in the handbook, but that President
Hal Jeffcoat is in favor of tenure.
Jeffcoat said in an e-mail interview on March 4.
"Some members of the faculty have taken issue
with matters pertaining to revision of the faculty
handbook and the protection of tenure. I. too. sup-
port the protection of tenure, but I also think the
handbook could be better written with less ambigu-
ity. Faculty committees have been considering this
question for a couple of years."
The financial state of the university, declining
enrollment and proposed changes to the General
Education Curriculum were also discussed I here
were reports to the faculty on meetings with the
president and with trustees. According to I laic, the
trustees also expressed a willingness to have facul-
ty serve on trustee committees.
Hale also expressed concern at the meeting for
recent comments made by Bill Bleibdrey. senior
vice president of finance and administration,
regarding the budget.
"It appears from what [Bleibdrey] told faculty
at a budget hearing that Wesleyan is using about SI
million to $1.5 million of unrestricted endowment
nication gap between faculty,
administration and board regarding not only policy
and handbook issues, but financial and stability-
ones as well," he said.
"It is my contention that the faculty must make
every effort to make our concerns known and to
strongly request appropriate administrative
responses and actions to ensure the health and well
being of Texas Wesleyan. To do otherwise is to
abdicate an important faculty responsibility and to
betray a trust placed in us by the students we
teach," Hall said. "1 am pleased to see us con-
fronting the issues and anticipate that we will con-
tinue to do so."
Hale said. "The Faculty Assembly went very
well. There was a lot of information to communi-
cate. some of which was rather complex. There was
plenty of time for everyone to ask questions and
talk about things.
"What happens in the near future depends a lot
on future interactions with the administration. The
faculty is in a 'wait and see' mode to see whether
things improve."
Something still in question is the possible con-
tract extension for Jeffcoat.
"Many faculty are concerned about how well
the university is being managed," Hale said. "If
endowment is declining and enrollment is declin-
ing, why would the president be given a multi-year
contract renewal'?"
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Fowler, Whitney. The Rambler (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 93, No. 8, Ed. 1 Wednesday, March 30, 2005, newspaper, March 30, 2005; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth253342/m1/1/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Wesleyan University.