President reviews budget situation,
Middle States and more

UD President David P. Roselle announced to those in attendance at the semiannual General Faculty meeting April 9 that the University is in for a round of belt-tightening, similar to what happened in 1991.

Roselle said that the state has a revenue shortfall, and there will be a 3 percent reduction in the funding the state had anticipated appropriating for UD in fiscal 2001-2002. The decrease will be about $3 million, with the result that the state appropriation will be approximately 2 percent greater than the appropriation for the current fiscal year.

"Economic downturns are not new," Roselle said. "We expected this was going to happen. Moreover, the reduction will affect all state agencies. UD is not being singled out by the state."

Roselle said the University's approach to belt-tightening will be the same as it was in 1991.

"Faculty, staff and students must be the highest priority," he said. "We're going to take care of people and live up to our promises. After that, everything else is fair game as we introduce required economies in the operation of the University. New projects, especially those that have not yet been started, will be carefully examined," he said.

Also in his remarks, Roselle said that the Campaign for Delaware has raised $252 million. "We have already exceeded the five-year goal by a considerable amount," he said. The original goal set for the campaign was $225 million.

The president also provided details of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education's glowing reaccredidation review. "We made the Dean's List!" Roselle said.

The first part of the reaccredidation process, a self-study, began in the fall of 1999, with 90 faculty, professional, staff, and student members serving on various committees. The commission's 10-member Evaluation Team visited the campus Feb. 25-28.

"The report from the Evaluation Team was overwhelmingly positive," Roselle said.

According to the report, "UD has every reason to take enormous pride in what it has accomplished over the past 10 years"; the physical plant "has few if any peers among public universities"; and "would be the envy of most private colleges." The team said it was "enormously impressed by the high level of morale that pervades the faculty, staff and students" and added, "these substantial achievements could not have happened without extraordinary leadership from the senior administration."

Roselle then presented the Evaluation Team's comments, all complimentary, related to the physical plant, technology, study abroad, the honors program, students services, continuing education, distance learning and the library. Descriptors, such as "a national leader in technological innovation" and "library staff shares a deep commitment to providing high quality collaborative services," were highlighted.

While the team made no mandated recommendations, it did suggest that the University make a commitment to look at ways to further diversify the faculty.

"UD hasn't achieved its goals in that area," Roselle said, adding that efforts will be intensified.

At the April Faculty Senate meeting that followed the General Faculty meeting, Kristen Wing, University Bookstore liaison, distributed packages of blue and gold M&Ms with information packets. She urged the faculty to submit their book orders by the stated deadline, noting that, as of the April 9, only 65 percent of the faculty had ordered their textbooks. She said the bookstore was offering bookstore gift certificates to the first 20 faculty members who placed their fall orders by the deadline of April 15.

After a presentation on WebCT, the software that allows faculty to incorporate the web into their teaching methods, the Senate voted to create majors in health services administration within the College of Health and Nursing Sciences and hospitality information management in the College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy.

In other business, the Senate adopted two new minors in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources in operations resources and resource economics.

Mathematician and linguist memorialized at meeting

Two UD faculty members– Richard J. Crouse and Elizabeth E. Bohning–were recognized with memorial tributes at the April 9 semiannual General Faculty Meeting.

Prof. Crouse, who died Dec. 8 at the age of 61, taught mathematics at the University for 33 years. Clifford W. Sloyer, mathematical sciences, said Mr. Crouse taught a "methods" course for preservice teachers and supervised the department's student teaching program. He published numerous papers on mathematics education that included enrichment activities for mathematics teachers.

Sloyer said he and Prof. Crouse coauthored a two-volume text, Mathematical Questions from the Classroom, which has been widely used at colleges and universities around the country since its publication in 1977.

Prof. Crouse also coached the Newark Wildcats girls' softball team for three decades, leading the team to three championship seasons.

William W. McNabb, international programs and special sessions, described Prof. Bohning, foreign languages and literatures, as dedicated to research and teaching in the field of German studies. She died Nov. 30.

Prof. Bohning, known to her colleagues and friends as "Betty," had 43 years' service to UD, including twice as chairperson of the then-Department of Modern Languages, McNabb said.

"Thanks to Betty's guidance and leadership, the unique living-learning student residence, Deutsches Haus, came into being," he said. McNabb called Deutsches Haus "the foundation residence" of the German community on campus today.

With support from colleagues, McNabb said, Prof. Bohning founded the national German honor society, Delta Phi Alpha, which, today, has thousands of members. Her research and writing were highly respected both nationally and internationally, he said.

"Betty's students (in whose number I include myself), colleagues and friends will recall not only her high standards of professionalism but also her personal integrity and social comportment, especially her ardent and passionate love for learning, and her efforts to instill a similar love in others," McNabb said.

–Barbara Garrison