Faculty concerns about the state of the University and its service to students will be brought before the University Board of Regents on Friday.
Professor Fred Morrison, Faculty Consultative Committee chairman, will present the first report of the academic year, highlighting issues the FCC would like to deal with throughout the year.
“It’s a review of what the faculty and student government system is doing and what issues concern us,” Morrison said.
Major FCC issues include support for faculty professional development, incidental research and libraries and technology, as well as more graduate teaching and research assistants and competitive salaries.
“We must focus not only on the physical infrastructure of the campus, but also on its intellectual infrastructure,” Morrison said in his written remarks to be presented Friday.
Competitive faculty and staff compensation has been discussed often in the past several months because the 1999 state Legislature only gave the University enough for a 3 percent faculty pay raise rather than the 5 percent raise University officials requested.
To deal with these issues, the FCC has developed joint administration-faculty task forces to look at each topic individually. The task forces will make reports to the FCC throughout the year.
“We have appointed a special faculty-student committee to improve our policies and procedures relating to student academic misconduct,” Morrison said.
In addition, recent allegations of academic fraud in the men’s athletic program have caused faculty to look at how they and University administration are responsible for athletic issues, Morrison said.
“Academic integrity must be upheld,” his remarks said.
Morrison said his report will also discuss recent FCC and University Senate accomplishments, including grants management, intellectual advances and a successful semester transition.

Erin Ghere covers University faculty and welcomes comments at [email protected]. She can also be reached at (612) 627-4070 x3217.