UNC Employees Renew Efforts For BOT Input

Griffin disclosed Sunday his plans to establish a task force of former forum chairmen to develop a report about the importance of employee representation on the BOT.

The task force's formation is the latest effort by the Employee Forum to play a larger part in the University's policy formation process.

The forum passed a resolution Nov. 7 asking for representation after the BOT rejected a similar proposal from the Employee Forum and Faculty Council two weeks earlier.

Griffin hasn't received a response from Chancellor James Moeser to the most recent resolution.

At the BOT's September meeting, the board rejected a motion to create nonvoting positions for faculty and staff representatives.

During the board's discussions, members expressed concern about opening the door to other groups that also might want a seat.

"Once you start down that road, we could have a committee twice the size it is now," said trustee Jim Hynes during the group's September meeting.

Composed of all 10 former Employee Forum chairmen, the new task force will meet for the first time Friday afternoon, when it will brainstorm ideas and develop a plan of action for approaching the issue, Griffin said.

It hopes to prepare a report and to present it to the BOT by the end of the academic year.

"It will give us a channel for unfiltered communication to the board and back from the board," Griffin said.

Former Employee Forum Chairman Linwood Futrelle said he hopes the task force can add clout to the forum's resolution and convince the board that the group needs to be represented equally.

"The students (have a voice) and we don't, and that's just not the American way," said Futrelle, who was forum chairman in 1998. "We care deeply and we want to have the voice. If you have one (group represented), you should have all."

While the Employee Forum is pushing forward, Faculty Council Chairwoman Sue Estroff has found a different avenue to influence the board.

Estroff formally became a member of the BOT's University Affairs Committee on Nov. 20 even though she missed the meeting because of a conference.

Committee Chairman Rusty Carter said it was a reasonable first step in getting the faculty a voice.

"We are actively trying to find a way to give faculty a conduit to the board," Carter said at the committee meeting.

Griffin said he would not be satisfied with a position on a BOT committee.

"I will take any form of communication I can get," he said. But, he also said, "I would like to see the employee chair sit on the Board of Trustees."

Even if he accepts a committee position, Griffin said, it wouldn't end his efforts to get direct access to the board.

"I'm not a quitter," he said. "We may not be successful. It may be 10 to 20 years before we get that seat, but I think that it's a goal we need to work toward."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.