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Here's what you missed at Wednesday's Chancellor's Advisory Committee meeting

Chancellor advisory committee

(From left) Ariana Vigil, Laurie McNeil and Secretary of the Faculty Vin Steponaitis, consider a point presented by Chair of the Faculty  Leslie Parise regarding a revision of the Chancellor Advisory Committee's charge during a meeting in South Building on Wednesday, March 20, 2019. The revision concerned the committee's power to nominate candidates for Secretary and Chair of the Faculty.

CORRECTION: Due to a production error, an earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Leslie Parise in the photo caption. The caption has been updated with the correct name. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for this error. 

The Chancellor’s Advisory Committee met Wednesday, led by committee chairperson Joy Renner, to discuss updates to the committee’s charge and personnel action. Interim Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz was absent from this meeting because he was attending the UNC-System Board of Governors meeting at Appalachian State, according to UNC Media Relations Manager Jeni Cook.

The committee advises the chancellor in matters of importance, with special attention to policies and programs, recommendation for corrective action and the appointment of vice chancellors, deans, other senior administrators, the faculty marshal and the faculty athletics representative, according to the committee’s charge. 

The committee’s charge is due for an update after years of stagnation, Renner said. The proposed changes to the committee’s charge will be brought to the Faculty Committee on University Government next fall, and it will be considered in the spring of 2020.

“This is a draft. It’s still going to change,” said Secretary of the Faculty Vin Steponaitis. “Nothing’s happening with that right now.”

One proposed change to the charge includes a new subsection which specifies the committee’s responsibility of nominating candidates for chairperson of the faculty and secretary of the faculty. This responsibility is also stated in a different part of the Faculty Code. Faculty member Ferrel Guillory voiced his concern that the Faculty Executive Committee would want to share that power. 

The Faculty Executive Committee serves as an advisory committee to the chairperson of the faculty, according to the committee’s charge. Guillory said in his experience working for a non-profit, the executive committee usually holds the reins.

“If I were on the Faculty Executive Committee, I’d want part of that power, too,” Guillory said. “... Who nominates is really crucial, and I just want to make sure that you guys are thinking this through.”

The Chancellor’s Advisory Committee, however, has been around much longer than the Faculty Executive Committee and has traditionally held this power, Steponaitis said.

“In our system, the oversight of the nomination process for the office has always rested with the Advisory Committee,” Steponaitis said. “To me, the Advisory Committee and FEC are both equally important committees. They take different slices of the pie.”

The committee went into a closed session for approximately an hour to discuss personnel action. After the meeting, Renner said the committee did not discuss the appointment of a new chancellor. 

The committee will meet again on March 27 from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. for further discussion.

@lizzi_thomps

university@dailytarheel.com

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