From mberner@sog.unc.edu Tue Apr 11 15:06:06 2006 Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 15:01:34 -0400 From: "Berner, Maureen" To: Andrew J Perrin Subject: RE: Request for Information from Candidates for Faculty Office -----Original Message----- From: Andrew J Perrin [mailto:andrew_perrin@unc.edu] Sent: Monday, April 10, 2006 9:37 PM To: candidates@perrin.socsci.unc.edu Subject: Request for Information from Candidates for Faculty Office To Whom it May Concern - I am writing to you as a candidate for Faculty Chair, Faculty Council, or another important elected office. I realize this is a busy time, but I and some other concerned faculty would like to learn more about the candidates' ideas on several important issues before we vote. I would very much appreciate it if you could provide responses to the questions below. Feel free to add more ideas or information as you like. I will forward your responses on to other interested faculty, and I will also post them to an informal website for the purpose at http://perrin.socsci.unc.edu/fg . Thank you in advance for your time. Since balloting begins this Wednesday (April 12), I would prefer to receive your response by then. If, however, you can't make that time, I'll be happy to post and forward your ideas whenever you can get them to me. 1.) To what extent to you believe faculty interests differ from those of administrators? Faculty and Administrators have different areas of responsibilities, constituents, stakeholders, and demands. Both support the institution's mission, but advance the mission in different ways. However, we both (I hope) have the same end goal in mind. 2.) How should we maintain academic integrity in the face of increasing financial pressures? The question depends a great deal on how one defines academic integrity. If one needs a certain amount of money to maintain academic integrity, and we don't have enough, then to maintain academic integrity, we need more money or to do less. There is no way around it. I'm sorry, but I have worked on and do research on budgeting. This is a very difficult question to answer in the abstract in a short answer, and my answer is obviously simplistic. I do agree that academic integrity is vitally important and should be considered with any decision having a budgetary impact. 3.) What are your views on increasing inequalities within the faculty based on, for example, tenure-track vs. fixed term appointments and differing salary levels? I would like more information, but at the most basic, I would prefer being at an institution that made specific, proactive, informed choices about the institution's structure, and then implemented policies to support that choice, rather than let change happen incrementally. It should be a conscience choice, given known constraints, with an understanding of ramifications. 4.) How would you respond on behalf of the faculty if you found out that administrators had circumvented serious faculty consultation to pursue major outside funding for a controversial new curriculum? Given my background in teaching survey research, I am not sure this is an unbiased question. :) 5.) Would you prefer to see a faculty governance system that is focused on prominent University issues (e.g., academic freedom and educational policy) or one that is more focused on faculty's specific needs (e.g., benefits and salary)? Or, alternatively, how would you seek to balance the two? I would seek to balance the two. How would I do this? By giving priority to decisions that had to be made, the level of impact, the appropriate role of the Faculty Council. I am not sure how I could balance the two, but I would do my best to represent the faculty on the issues that were of greatest import to them. Once again, thank you for your time. Very best wishes, Andrew Perrin ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Andrew J Perrin - andrew_perrin@unc.edu - http://perrin.socsci.unc.edu Assistant Professor of Sociology; Book Review Editor, _Social Forces_ University of North Carolina - CB#3210, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3210 USA New Book: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/178592.ctl