From mvotta@email.unc.edu Wed Apr 12 17:12:55 2006 Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 17:10:49 -0400 From: Michael Votta To: andrew_perrin@unc.edu Subject: RE: Request for Information from Candidates for Faculty Office Dear Prof. Perrin, Here are some answers to your questions. I hope they're helpful. All best, Mike Votta Michael Votta, Jr. Associate Chair for Applied Studies Department of Music, CB #3320 The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3320 (919) 962-5695 (phone and fax) 1.) To what extent to you believe faculty interests differ from those of administrators? In an ideal world they would not differ. Both groups would be committed to building a strong institution academically, and would see that goal supported by hiring and promotion policies that were both fair and rigorous, the provision of good working conditions and good facilities, by the recruitment of an outstanding student body and by financial stability. Often these groups pursue the same goal but from differing viewpoints. Administrators are responsible for providing resource to implement the faculty's vision, and therefore see resource management as being paramount. Faculty are responsible for articulating the vision and seek to transcend the "limitations" of resources. In outstanding institutions like Carolina there will never be enough resource to implement the collective vision of a highly "visionary" faculty. In the "real" world, it is difficult to judge the interests of particular individuals on the faculty as opposed to particular individuals in the administration. But those differences should be heard as individual voices, not as stereotypes. 2.) How should we maintain academic integrity in the face of increasing financial pressures? My view is that integrity is a concept that individuals can choose to apply in their work regardless of the financial situation of the university. Academic integrity is the responsibility of individual faculty members, particularly of the tenured faculty who will set the tone for colleagues and students. 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? The increasing use of fixed-term appointments vs. tenure-track faculty is a serious issue for the university, and threatens to stratify the faculty and to change the governance structure of the university.. Academic tenure is partly about freedom of speech, and partly about who actually runs the university. Clearly, administrators become more "bosses" over fixed-term faculty. I am sure that this is not in the best interest of the university academically, politically or financially. Before coming to Carolina, I was a fixed-term "Professor of the Practice" at Duke University in a department that had a mixture of tenured and fixed-term faculty, and saw first-hand how difficult it was to unify the department's faculty into a cohesive whole. It is in the best interests of Carolina to resist the trend toward fixed-term appointments. 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? Obviously, an appropriate response to the administrators involved would involve outrage and anger. Hopefully it could be made clear to those individuals that the response might not stop there but would involve the outraged faculty expressing their views to the media and directly to the major donors involved. 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 believe that either model could work, understanding that achieving balance of the two approaches is essential to providing both effective long-term and short-term leadership. In seeking this balance, the critical question seems to be, "who controls the agenda?" 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