September 22, 1994: Vol26n3: At FSEC: feedback from president's talk

THE dialogue that President William Greiner sought to begin with his
address to the voting faculty Sept. 13 continued the following day
with a meeting of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee.
	Faculty Senate Chair Peter Nickerson opened the meeting by
asking for reactions to Greiner's address. Several FSEC members took
the opportunity to report that they had received positive feedback
from many of their colleagues and that they felt the address was well
received, one describing it as "extremely positive."
	William George, a professor of Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering, applauded Greiner's move to reexamine tenure credentials.
Noting that he knew of outstanding faculty members whose tenure was
threatened for having earned too little in grant money, George urged
Greiner to "state categorically that research, service and quality
undergraduate instruction would be considered equally."
	However, Mathematics Professor Samuel Schack criticized the
speech as "jawboning that doesn't amount to much." Schack, unmoved by
Greiner's call for greater emphasis on public and community service,
urged the president to not challenge "the primacy of research and
scholarship" as the mission of the university.
	If Greiner wants faculty members to change their working
priorities, Schack suggest a carrot-and-stick approach. "The faculty
knows what the rewards system is," he asserted. "There are reasonable,
fairly obvious, incentives to improve teaching and service that have
never been put forth."
	Dennis Malone, a professor of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, called it a "good dialogue" and attributed its success to
Greiner's move to publish his remarks in advance in the Reporter.
 - Steve Cox, Reporter Staff