February 5, 2009

CEFO Minutes
James Conrad, President
James Bowen, President Elect
Ertunga Ozelkan, Secretary
Stuart Smith, Parliamentarian

M I N U T E S
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING FACULTY ORGANIZATION (CEFO)
Thursday, February 5, 2009, 12:30 PM
CARC, Room 101

The following individuals signed the attendance sheet:
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING: R. Johnson, R. Smelser, D. Rowe
OFFICE of STUDENT DEVELOPMENT & SUCCESS: C. Blat, J. Braganza, K. Franco, C. McDaniel
ENGINEERING COMPUTING SERVICES: J. Stein
CIVIL ENGINEERING: J. Amburgey, J. Anderson, D. Boyajian, S. Chen, J. Gergely, J. Graham, M. Kane, P. Pulugurtha, W. Sanders, D. Weggel
ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING: R. Adams, N. Bousaba, L. Casperson, J. Conrad, M. Hasan, Y. Kakad, E. Stokes, T. Weldon, J. Xie
SYSTEMS ENGINEERING AND ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT: C. Lim, E. Ozelkan, Y. Sireli, S. G. Teng,
ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY: T. Cavalline, C-S. Cho, R. Coowar, B. Gehrig, D. Hoch, J. Gresser, J. Hildreth, P. Kabengela, J. Kimble, A. Kitts, S. Kuyath, D. Murphy, T. Nicholas, M. Noras, R. Priebe, P. Schmidt, D. Sharer, B. Sherlock, R. Swan, Sara Mc Millan,
MECHANICAL ENGR & ENGR SCIENCE: H. Cherukuri, G. Elliot, J. Hill, R. Hocken, C. Y. Lee, L. Sharpe, Stuart Smith, N. Srivastava, M. Uddin, T. Xu, H. Zhang, N. Zheng
GUESTS:
Documented attendance: 65 total
Documented attendance of voting faculty: 49
Total Voting Faculty: 106
Quorum of voting faculty: 53

1. Welcome and Call to order (CEFO president, Jim Conrad)
The meeting was called to order around 12:35pm.

2. Approval of Minutes (Ertunga Ozelkan)
The minutes for the previous two meetings (regular CEFO meeting on Nov 13, 2008 and for the special CEFO meeting on November 20, 2008) were both approved on a voice vote.

3. Quick Announcements:
Stuart Smith College Documentation and processes: Stuart indicated that there are documentation missing for many COE committee procedures. He indicated that Ron Smelser is working on the creation of a standardized document library.
Harish Cherukuri Graduate Faculty Designation: Harish indicated that the Graduate Council is still working on the final procedures. As of now, two concerns that were brought to Graduate Council s attention were lack of appeals process and restrictions on associate graduate faculty member to chair student committees.
Jim Bowen/Ertunga Ozelkan Nominations for CEFO and committees 2009-2010, Ertunga presented on behalf of Jim Bowen who could not be at the meeting. He talked about the new nomination committee process led by Jim Bowen. He also shared a list of existing committees and highlighted committee positions to be filled during the upcoming elections. Ertunga indicated Jim will be distributing the nomination forms soon for the process to be completed by the end of March. Elections will take place in April.

4. Research presentation (James Amburgey, Civil Engineering)
James talked about his research area related to water . His specific research interests include drinking water (such as treatment processes), bioterrorism detection methods, and recreational water quality and treatment.

5. College update (Dean Johnson)
EPIC: planning for EPIC is underway. There were 2-day meetings on lab design. The project is over-budget but not sure by how much. Estimators are working on it. Also talking to companies for LED lighting related issues. Details are being coordinated with each department chair.
Budget: originally 7% (currently 8%) budget reversal. faculty startup money has not been impacted. State money cannot be spent other than for instruction. BSS staff is following new budget processes. Provost is holding some of the COE money but will give back if not needed. SC has deeper cuts (~ 17%). Wyoming is one of the few states without cuts. Next year, expect more cuts, but enrollment growth is expected to be funded. Not expecting to let staff go.
Minimal # of students requirement for classes: new process to avoid offering too many small classes. Special approvals will be allowed.

6. Minor change to College Policies and Procedures for Appointment, Reappointment, Promotion, and Tenure (Jim Conrad)
This was related to section E.3.3 Service part of the Policies and Procedures for Appointment, Reappointment, Promotion, and Tenure document. Jim proposed that in section E.3.3 two words that say may to be changed to will so that service work is included in the evaluation. This change was accepted on a voice vote.

7. Faculty Comment – Engineering Transfer Admission Change (Ron Smelser)
Some procedural standards need clarification for transfer admissions . Ron is working on this to make the requirements more precise, such as 2.5 GPA, having completed pre-calculus. Catalog change is needed for Engineering but not for ET. It was asked whether we should vote for this. Ron indicated that this is not a voting issue. Karina Franco (Office of Student Dev. and Success) added that this clarification will help in setting expectations with the students.

8. Faculty Comment External references for reappointment cases (Jim Conrad)
It was brought to faculty s attention that external review requirement for reappointments were not consistent across the departments. There was a discussion whether to make it optional to departments. Dean Johnson suggested that the procedure to say departments may request external review for the reappointments. There was a preliminary hand voting for this proposal. One person was against it and the rest of the attendees were for it. The College Review Committee will identify the correct wording for this addition to the College promotion and tenure document, and this change will be voted on at the next meeting

9. Adjourn (Jim Conrad): The meeting was then adjourned by Jim Conrad at (approx.) 1:45 PM.

Please submit additions or corrections to Ertunga C. Ozelkan, CEFO Secretary at ecozelka AT uncc DOT edu