The Faculty Council met on February 19th. Materials from the meeting as well as a link to the recording can be found on the Faculty Governance website. President Ryan Collins and Chief of External Relations and Advocacy Maian Adams attended the meeting and compiled the following notes.
- Faculty Council Chair Mimi Chapman provided opening remarks in which she:
- Condemned recent violence against Asian Americans and noticed history of American discrimination against Asian Americans (e.g., Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese Internment Camps).
- Acknowledged the controversy at Fayetteville State University surrounding the appointment of their new chancellor Darrell Allison. Dr. Chapman indicated that she had received communication from the chair of the FSU Faculty Senate, which passed a resolution calling for the rescinding of Chancellor Allison’s appointment.
- Dr. Chapman introduced a resolution of the General Faculty “On Supporting UNC Chapel Hill’s Asian, Asian-American, and Pacific Islander Community,” which passed by unanimous consent.
- Remarks from Kevin Guskiewicz
- Reflected on the one-year anniversary of the campus closure due to COVID-19.
- Anticipates a full return in-person teaching in the fall, with some level of safety measures still in place. Classes will start on August 18.
- Hopes to return to a more normal campus environment.
- Most students, faculty, and staff will be eligible for vaccines on April 7.
- There will be a commencement/reunion ceremony for the Class of 2020 in October.
- Drs. Fauci and Corbett will be our commencement speakers. Fauci was particularly interested in speaking because of all the COVID research and treatment development happening at UNC.
- Discussed the READDY Initiative to discover and develop drugs for clinical trial testing in anticipation of future viral pandemics.
- Talking with members of Congress about the RISE Act to supplement federal research funding.
- Expressed solidarity with Asian American community members in the face of the increase in violence against this population.
- Remarks from Provost Blouin
- Orange County’s COVID positive rate fell below 1% this past week, NC below 5%. UNC now has a positivity rate of 0.8%. Thanked everyone for their commitment to keeping the campus safe.
- Still discouraging international travel, primarily due to concern over variants; exceptions have to be approved by the Provost’s Office.
- VITAE program, which has been in place since 2000 and played an important role in diversifying faculty, has been paused temporarily due to restrictions on spending. This is a temporary pause and will be resumed once the budget stabilizes (most likely by this summer).
- Contrary to some public press, the Community Engagement Centers have not experienced significant budget cuts and have in fact been restored to pre-COVID funding levels.
- Chancellor and Provost have lifted the moratorium on multi-year fixed-term faculty appointments, granting more flexibility to the deans.
- Question from Harry Watson: What is the University doing to preserve its academic standing in the face of these budget cuts, particularly concerns that reduced funding for University Libraries might reduce UNC from an R1 to an R2?
- Chancellor: Doing everything we can to preserve the mission of the University. Have restored some of the recent budget cuts that would have negatively impacted University Libraries.
- Provost: Working closely with Elaine Westbrooks to ensure University Libraries has the resources it needs to be successful, but need to be aware of certain challenges like predatory
- Comments from Larry Chavis
- Challenged Bob’s comments that Centers, particularly the American Indian Center, are not facing budget cuts. Expressed frustration over the continued underfunding of the AIC and the difficulty of supporting 4 full-time staff on a personnel budget of $150K.
- Announced his intention to resign as Director of the AIC at the end of the academic year.
- Shared several comments he had received from students, faculty, and community members in support of his comments at the last meeting.
- Budget Update (Chancellor Guskiewicz, VCFO Nate Knuffman, VCHR Becci Menghini)
- Due to quick measures taken in April/May 2020, UNC has not faced budget cuts as severe as other institutions.
- Measure UNC is currently taking should allow it to balance the budget by June 2022, if not December 2021.
- Have taken steps in the Chancellor’s and Provost’s Offices to consolidate and reduce overall administrative salary costs.
- Budgets are “moral documents” that help define who we are and where we want to go.
- All units submitted budget reduction plans to meet 1.5% personnel and 7.5% operating budget cuts for FYS 2021 and 2022 in February; will be approved and returned by F&O by March 2021.
- Units are largely focused on eliminating vacant positions, including senior leadership positions, consolidating programs, and optimizing space.
- Carolina received an additional $25.5 million from the latest round of HEERF Funding (Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund). State of North Carolina has received additional funding from American Rescue Plan.
- State budget office has revised its FY 21 forecast to show an expected 15% increase in revenue over FY 20, which both reduces the likelihood of cuts but also could create some funding for deferred maintenance.
- Current bill pending before the General Assembly would give institutions more options for across-the-board furloughs (but this does not mean UNC would use this authority). The bill would also provide flexibility for voluntary early retirement, which UNC would leverage.
- UNC Endowment (Chair of the UNC Investment Fund John Townsend)
- Total Assests of the UNC Investment Fund as of the end of February are $8.3 billion (among the Top 25 in the United States).
- Of that $8.3 billion, slightly more than $5 billion are for UNC Chapel Hill specifically; the rest is for the other 16 schools.
- The $5 billion for UNC Chapel Hill consists of thousands of individual accounts that have been established over the course of time to fund professorships, fellowships, scholarships, etc. Many have hundreds of millions of dollars in assets.
- More than 92% of these assets are restricted by their terms established at the time the gift was made. For example, if you have a Kenan Professorship, the endowment that supports that professorship can only be used for that purpose. It cannot be redirected to other needs.
- Common misperception is that the endowment is just a big pot of unrestricted money. The funds invested in the endowment are intended for the perpetual benefit of UNC, with the goal of compounding the value each year.
- Able to disseminate about 5% of the assets each year.
- In recent years, the investment fund has performed very well. Since January 2022, the Fund has appreciated almost 22%.
- Why not increase the spending rate when the market is doing so well?
- Restrictions are still in place, so that money would still have to be used for the designated purpose.
- Professional recommendation is that the state needs to do another bond issue. We are in a period of historically low interest rates and NC has a AAA credit rating (the highest).
- Divestment does not have a direct effect on the company being targeted.
- For example, if we sell Exxon stock, someone else will want to buy it.
- Investment funds like this one are decreasingly dependent on fossil fuel assets anyway because they are not earning as good of a return; investments increasingly reflect the growing “digitization” of the global economy.
- It is possible to renegotiate older donations if the donor is still living.
- To his knowledge, the Investment Fund was not going to provide the money for the SCV settlement, but he wasn’t involved in those conversations.