Faculty Senate Chairs'
University Faculty Meeting
Speeches
General Faculty Address - August
26, 2002
By Paul Gates, 2002-2003 Faculty Senate Chair
Good morning! On behalf of
the Faculty Senate, I, too, welcome each of you, my colleagues,
to the Fall 2002 semester and Appalachian’s 103rd academic
year.
The last time we convened as a faculty,
in mid-January, the Chancellor warned that the state budget deficit
was "approaching 1 billion dollars." Later in that meeting, we
held a forum on academic freedom, which we discussed mainly in
the abstract.
Oh, how things have changed in the
intervening 7 or 8 months.
Since January, both of these issues
have surged to the fore --- one as a challenge to the University's
ability to carry out its mission as a public institution and
the other as a challenge to the very idea of a university.
As we've watched the deficit figures
in the daily press balloon to more than 1.5 billion dollars,
we've also seen an accompanying failure of leadership in Raleigh. Afraid
of election year fallout, legislators are unwilling or unable
to summon the courage to create a realistic revenue plan, and
the Governor touts the uncertain benefits of a lottery as the
solution. Meanwhile, the state's gilt-edged credit rating ---
and the University --- suffers.
Even if Appalachian's budget is cut
by 3 to 3 1/2 %, as now seems likely, the method by which that
will be achieved is irresponsible at best. Those seemingly modest
cuts depend almost entirely on draining one-time money from the
Hurricane Floyd, tobacco settlement and highway trust funds.
It doesn't take an economist to gauge the effect of using finite
sources of money to pay recurring expenses. That Band-aid
approach may well get us through the fall, but an additional
reversion of funds come February or March is highly likely, further
imperiling Appalachian's reputation for excellence. It
is this reputation across the Southeast which brings us applicants
in numbers far beyond what we can accommodate on campus and allows
us to build and educate a capable, involved student body. I'm
reluctant to go much beyond next spring, but preliminary economic
forecasts don't see any improvement for 2003-2004, which will
mean that cuts in addition to those we will be asked to bear
this year are on the way.
What are we as a faculty to do? Please
bear with me for a few minutes --- I've got an idea. But
first, the other problem:
Over the last 3 weeks or so, the
papers have also been filled with accounts of --- and commentary
on --- the controversy generated by the selection of Approaching
the Qur'an as the summer reading book by our colleagues in
Chapel Hill. As this whole unfortunate story unfolded,
it became, whether through ignorance or malice, an affront to
the First Amendment and an assault on academic freedom.
I'm willing to give the plaintiffs
in this case the benefit of the doubt, to the extent that their
belief that recourse to the federal courts over a university
reading assignment is a total misunderstanding of what education
is and the role of a university in that process. Although
not a complete presentation of all facets of Islam --- and the
book's author, Michael Sells, has admitted as much in published
interviews --- the book is at least a starting point in the effort
to acquaint students with one of the least understood --- and,
since September 11 --- most controversial of the world's religions. That's
what Chapel Hill was trying to do --- introduce an idea and begin
the process of education. That one brief discussion ---
however imperfect --- constitutes impermissible indoctrination
is an argument almost beyond belief.
As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
once wrote, "There is no such thing as a false idea." There
are unpopular ideas and ideas that may make us uncomfortable,
but the role of the university is to expose students to, and
have them grapple with, that universe which contains those ideas.
In that way, they sharpen their critical thinking skills, discover
the truth for themselves and thereby are better equipped to defend
their beliefs and prevent them from becoming merely dead dogma. In
my law class I constantly remind students that the best litigators
and appellate advocates understand, and could argue, their opponents'
cases just as well as their own. As John Stuart Mill put
it, more famously and succinctly, in On Liberty: "He who
knows only his own side of the case knows little of that."
Somewhat more troubling was the Board
of Governors' failure to protect the University by passing a
resolution in favor of academic freedom, although the drubbing
the Board took in the press was not entirely deserved. As explained
to me by Dick Veit, Chair of the Faculty Assembly, the resolution,
which received wide support in discussion and received a comfortable
18-10 majority vote, failed on procedural grounds. Because
it did not come from a committee, it required 2/3 in favor, or
19 of the 28 votes present. At least some of the negative votes
were cast solely in an effort to avoid antagonizing the Legislature
in a difficult budget year, but political expediency can never
be allowed to trump the core principle of academic freedom, especially
when it had already been violated by the House Appropriations
Committee. That's the Board's job --- to protect the University
from the vagaries of politics.
And that's the real tragedy and concern
--- that the Committee voted to prohibit the use of public funds
for an educational endeavor at a public university. Legislators
have no business meddling in university reading assignments conceived
in the best professional judgment of the faculty. Such action
jeopardizes the academic integrity of the entire University System.
So, in the spirit of defending academic
freedom, I'd like to offer a brief resolution to the faculty,
as has been done at the opening meetings of several of our sister
institutions, for your consideration and action:
Resolved:
The faculty of Appalachian State
University reaffirms the commitment of this community of scholars
to academic freedom and the fair exchange of ideas, as well as
our commitment to examining different cultures and conflicting
values, with the confidence that thoughtful study and intellectual
inquiry are fundamental to this University and the goals of the
faculty.
(Note: The resolution was approved
unanimously by voice vote.)
If it were ever the case, at minimum
these two issues amply demonstrate that universities can no longer
take it for granted that we and our contributions to the commonweal
are understood and valued. Faced with these continuing
challenges, we need, more than ever, an involved, participating
faculty --- in short, we need ever more faculty governance. Certainly
we need your efforts on campus committees where much of the work
involves drafting policy recommendations --- but also in other
venues where we make our case for what faculty do and why public
support of universities is absolutely critical to the economic
and social fabric of this state.
This has begun over the last few
months, with individual faculty writing letters to the editor
and administrators questioning state legislators pointedly on
their views and actions in Raleigh regarding the University.
Frankly, we all should be doing this.
What we also need is a concerted
effort to reach not just the legislators --- after all, we number
only about 600 and so are relatively easy to dismiss --- but
the parents of our 12,700 or so students who are depending on
us to deliver a quality education to their children and also
the taxpayers who more indirectly reap the benefits of an educated
and talented workforce. Who could possibly be in a better position
to convey the message that support --- both financial and philosophical
--- for public higher education is vital than those who are closest
to it and who are uniquely equipped to deliver it?
Turning briefly to the Senate's plans
for the year, I first want to insure that the Senate fulfills
its role as a reliable conduit of information to the faculty,
making communication with faculty more effective and less cluttered
and difficult to get to. I also want to make the Senate
responsive to your needs and concerns, so if you'll contact
me directly, I'll see that the issue is directed to the proper
committee for action, or brought to the attention of the proper
administrator for discussion. And either way, I'll keep you informed.
As for specific issues, this year
the Senate will be primarily concerned with those that touch
on the larger areas of salaries, benefits and workload.
If you'd like to continue this discussion,
I invite you to stay while I get together some senators with
expertise on the various committees and address these issues
in more detail. If you can't stay --- thanks for coming
this morning and my very best wishes for a productive semester.
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