The primary job of the Chair of the Faculty Assembly is to advocate for quality education. As the “corporate” university model is used to develop various measures designed to assist us in achieving our mission, it is more important than ever that there be an active voice speaking out in support of quality education. Too often, easily measured managerial metrics – seats & sections, graduation rates, research dollars, paper processes, etc – are substituted for the real goal of educating students. Only faculty directly assess educational attainment; our judgment is essential.

 

It is important that we continue shared governance with our colleagues at the General Administration. We are all proponents of education in the university system. The Faculty Assembly Chair is the spokesperson for our collective decision-making. Yet, the Faculty Assembly Chair must speak softly in this bully pulpit. However, that does not mean that our voice must be still or unheard. The Board of Governors, System President, and General Administration must always be well aware of the views of the faculty. This means that the Faculty Assembly Chair must engage in “Speaking Truth to Power.”

 

Since the Faculty Assembly does its work through a committee structure focused on specific charges – Academic Freedom & Tenure Benefits & Welfare, Budget, Development , Governance, Historical Minority Universities, Planning, Programs, & Administration, and Technology, we sometimes forget that all of these areas are important, not because they benefit faculty, but because they are important to providing a quality education. 

 

 

Here on the faculty Assembly I serve as chair of the Faculty Benefits & Welfare Committee. At NC State, I have served as Chair of the Faculty. I have also served as a faculty senator, chairing the faculty senate personnel policy committee. As a faculty member at NC State, I have chaired the University Research Committee and served on the Group Insurance & Benefits Committee. Administratively, I have served as Interim Department Head and MPA Director.

 

I am a Professor of Public Administration at North Carolina State University. I teach professional MPA classes in Human Resource/Personnel Management, Negotiations/Labor Relations, and Organizational Behavior. I authored Performance Appraisal in the Public Sector: Techniques and Applications (1992) and Strategic Human Resource Management (2002) along with over fifty refereed articles and book chapters.