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Saturday September 25th

Faculty

Screenshot of the Faculty Executive Meeting on Monday, June 22, 2020, where there was discussion on racial equity in the upcoming school year.

Faculty Executive Committee discusses fall semester, racial injustice at UNC

By Rachel Crumpler | Jun. 23, 2020

Two UNC professors presented a roadmap for racial equity that has been in development for over a year at Monday's Faculty Executive meeting.  The roadmap calls for sustained actions over the course of three years, including renaming campus buildings in an inclusive process, establishing faculty advisory groups on racial equity and holding an annual UNC Board of Trustees meeting with Black and Indigenous faculty, and faculty of color. 

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The Graduate Student Petition and a previous Graduate and Professional Student Federation (GPSF) Meeting in Kerr Hall on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2019.

Graduate workers continue to petition UNC, demand not reopen in-person instruction

By Rachel Crumpler | Jun. 21, 2020

In a petition published June 12, graduate workers have expressed concerns about the safety and logistics of returning to campus for in-person instruction this fall. Workers demanded that UNC not reopen in-person this fall, does not layoff or furlough staff and grant them a one-year time-to-degree extension, among other demands. The University has said the Carolina Roadmap was developed with feedback from multiple parties, are working to refine the plan and will make "whatever adjustments are needed in real time.”

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DTH Photo Illustration. A student sits at a desk on March 16, 2020. UNC students and professors are preparing for online instruction.

From jazz to LFIT, UNC professors plan how they'll take their classes online next week

By Allie Kelly | Mar. 16, 2020

With the transition to online learning coming up on March 23, UNC professors are planning on how to make their classes remote. For some areas of study like music and physical fitness, this online transition presents unique challenges.  The University has extended spring break by a week to give professors time to prepare for online learning. For some professors, this means figuring out how to teach instrumental music over Zoom. For others, this means seeking help from other professors across the country. 

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Waitlists and frustrations grow as UNC's computer science department tries to keep up

By Hannah McClellan and Cynthia Dong | Nov. 26, 2019

Student participation in the computer science department at UNC has skyrocketed over the last decade, but issues have emerged from the department's inability to accommodate its newfound demand. While the number of declared or intended computer science majors has increased by more than tenfold since fall 2009, the department's faculty total has risen only 8.2 percent over the same time period.  While the University recently extended a hint of incoming relief, the expectation remains that class cuts, reduced enrollment availability and other restrictive measures will make life increasingly difficult for computer science majors.

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Unsustainable scholarship: How private companies control research in higher education

By Preston Lennon | Sep. 18, 2019

Academic research is a staple of university libraries. Faculty depend on it for their own research, and students need it for their studies. But because of private publishing companies, who play a confusing and controlling role in the process of research creation, UNC Libraries is sounding alarms about the system's flaws.  The publishing companies make money by selling research journal access to university libraries in confidential deals. UNC Libraries said there's an imbalance in the process, because tax payers subsidize research authoring, then subsequently have to pay again for research access.  Rebels against the publishing giants advocate for open access — publishing online for free without paywalls — and say that continuing to buy into publishers' demands will impair scientific progress.

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