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Wednesday, 07 December 2005 02:21 |
| Charles Tolley
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By DAVID FORBES
The chairman of the UNC Asheville Board of Trustees has resigned, Chancellor Anne Ponder announced at a meeting of UNCA??s Faculty Senate last Thursday.
She said that Charles Tolley is leaving the position, and the board, because of family obligations.
?®We were informed 10 days ago, and effective today, Charles Tolley is resigning his trusteeship,?∆ Ponder said. ?®He has many pressing family obligations and he??s recognized that those prevent him from carrying out his duties to his full abilities.?∆
The chancellor added that she understands Tolley??s decision to step down.
?®I so respect people who know that they must tend to their family obligations and know the time has come to make a decision like this,?∆ Ponder said. ?®In his talks with me, he was unshakable about that.?∆
Tolley will remain involved with the university, Ponder said, even though he will no longer be a trustee.
?®He loves and supports the university,?∆ she said. ?®He has enjoyed his time as a trustee, and will continue his support of the university in any way he can.?∆
Tolley has been a member of the board since 1999, and was elected as chair of the trustees during the summer.
Vice Chair Janice Brumit will act as the board??s chair until a replacement is approved by Governor Mike Easley.
?®She is a very capable woman and I hope you will extend your support to her,?∆ Ponder said.
UNCA already has a nominee to replace Tolley, she added, but is not yet revealing the person??s name.
?®I have conferred with her (Brumit), and after the appropriate
political and organizational conferring, we will be making a nomination
to the governor,?∆ Ponder continued. ?®We already have a replacement
nominee, but I do not feel comfortable giving their name, because
that??s just not right.?∆
In her remarks at the meeting, Ponder also praised the faculty for its
aid in helping the campus community after the death of Shelton
Elizabeth Sanders, who was found deceased in her dormitory room on Nov.
18.
?®For those of us who spend our lives in education, the death of a
student is particularly tragic,?∆ Ponder said. ?®You have done an
excellent job in working to calm and reassure the campus after the
student??s death. Your reaction also hoped to minimize our own
speculation over what had happened.?∆
She singled out an unidentified faculty member, who drove to Sanders??
home in Lumberton to pick up her distraught family members and bring
them to Asheville.
?®The devotion he showed in driving down there to pick them up was amazing,?∆ Ponder said.
Meanwhile, Ponder noted that the school is working on strategic
planning, including consultation with Faculty Senate??s Institutional
Development Committee and that she is working on a variety of issues
related to ?®what kind of university we want UNCA to be,?∆ and how she
will proceed in that direction.
One of the largest questions for the campus to address, Ponder said, is the size of UNCA??s enrollment and campus.
?®I??ve been asked that question a lot,?∆ she said. ?®I will be conferring
with you in the coming months about what steps can take us where we
want to go and what size we need to be.?∆
In addition, there will be extensive research conducted, but Ponder
said she hopes to have a recommendation ready to present to the office
of Erskine Bowles, the UNC system president, ?®by the middle of the
spring so they can include that element in their planning.?∆
Another area Ponder is scrutinizing for the university??s strategic
planning is separating some of the functions currently handled by
Provost Mark Padilla, who oversees both student affairs and academic
affairs, into separate departments.
Ponder noted that she believes the unification of those offices had
aided UNCA in the past, but that it is simply too much for one person
to handle.
?®Having that many functions under one department is looking like it??s
more than one person can handle over a long period of time,?∆ Ponder
said. ?®Mark has done a heroic and very capable job, but that??s one area
we??re looking at reorganizing to be more efficient and effective.?∆
This reorganization will accompany UNCA??s attempt to fill many
administrative positions that are currently vacant or have people fill
them on a interim basis.
Foremost among these, Ponder said, is appointing someone to deal with
the external affairs of the university ?? something she said is
increasingly needed as UNCA takes a more prominent role in the
community.
?®We really need someone handling those external affairs,?∆ Ponder said. ?®That??s going to be very, very
important in the months and years to come.?∆
In other action, the faculty senate:
?ÿ Learned the current status of a resolution it passed in October
recommending the appointment of ombudsmen for faculty and staff to
decrease a ?®climate of fear?∆ among employees who feared retaliation.
Ponder noted that she had received the resolution and was still considering the appropriate action.
?®I??ve returned it to you, letting you know that it has been received and is under consideration,?∆ she said.
?ÿ Heard a presentation from Padilla on a $356 campus-based tuition
increase that UNCA will request from the UNC system Board of Governors
in the spring. If approved, the increase will take effect during the
2006-07 academic year.
The increase is around 10 percent above UNCA??s current tuition, Padilla noted, and is needed under a plan developed in 2001.
?®Two years ago, we raised tuition by $225; then the next year we got a
$600 raise on out-of-state students only,?∆ Padilla said. ?®This is in
line with what we expect to get UNCA??s cost in line with comparative
colleges. It??s worth noting that our tuition is already extremely low.?∆
Moreover, he said, UNCA??s requested increase from the board of
governors ranks fourth among the seven institutions in the UNC system
requesting such an increase for next year.
?ÿ Discussed plans for the annual holiday party, to be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday in the Grove Arcade.
Ponder said that the party is notable because, for the first time in
UNCA??s history, both faculty and staff will be invited to the same
party, instead of the university holding separate celebrations.
?®Everyone is invited to this,?∆ Ponder said. ?®You can come when you want and wear whatever you want to.?∆
Ponder currently resides in an apartment in the Grove Arcade with her
husband while UNCA undertakes the construction of the Pisgah House, a
new residence located on a five-acre site on W.T. Weaver Boulevard near
the U.S.D.A. Forest Service Southern Research Station.
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