Provost Heather Norris' Remarks to Faculty Senate
Good afternoon. I’d like to use my time with you this afternoon to give you an update on our Hickory planning efforts.
As Chancellor Everts noted in her weekly message on Friday, planning for the academic offerings at the App State Hickory campus continues.
As Chancellor Everts and her leadership team have been meeting with members of the General Assembly, representatives from local government entities, higher education, K–12 schools, business, civic and community development leaders, Academic Affairs has been working with deans and department chairs to match current and future capacity with demand for academic programs.
In Catawba County, 17% of adults ages 25 to 44 have a bachelor’s degree.
In Caldwell County, that number is 12%.
In Burke County, it’s 9%.
Over the last few months, we have held several listening sessions with App State faculty and staff, as well as with:
- Catawba County and Hickory City Government,
- Catawba Chamber of Commerce,
- Chancellor’s Hickory Advisory Council,
- Faculty Task Force,
- Selected public and private high schools in the Hickory area,
- Hickory business leaders, and
- Community College leaders.
To date, we have synthesized more than 400 individual comments from campus and community members.
As the Chancellor has reported, common themes that have emerged include innovation, arts and culture, recreation, childcare, student support and academic areas that include business, education, health care, engineering, design and building sciences. There are also numerous possibilities for the Hickory area to engage with the university’s sustainability initiatives.
This Tuesday and Wednesday, Academic Affairs will hold additional listening sessions to ensure we have full feedback as we develop strategic, thoughtful and collaborative program offerings. We are asking faculty and staff to submit App State Hickory: Academic Programming feedback by Friday, October 28.
This Friday, the Chancellor will host a town-gown meeting with Hickory-area leaders in the morning, and an App State Hickory Advisory Council meeting in the afternoon.
We will continue to keep the App State campus informed about the progress toward determining academic programs and services for the Hickory campus.
One question we have received relates to faculty assignments to the Hickory campus. As is the case with Boone campus class assignments, we will entrust department chairs, in consultation with their deans, to “arrange effective and equitable distribution of faculty responsibilities, including teaching duties … within the department.” [Faculty Handbook 2.8 (f)]
I have updates on two additional topics. Regarding faculty bonuses, the Chancellor and I are in discussion about faculty merit bonuses. An update will be provided in the Chancellor's Friday announcement.
We also have two dean searches underway. The College of Arts and Sciences dean search committee has been formed, and the search committee has drafted a job description, which should be posted soon. The Graduate School dean search committee is in the process of being formed now.
Thank you.