UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 7, Page 1
October 15, 1992
Three faculty remembered during semi-annual meeting
At the semiannual general faculty meeting Monday, University
President David P. Roselle said the state has asked the University to
trim its request for 1993-94 support by $1.7 million.
Specifically, the University has been asked "to budget in a way
that changes how we (make) utility payments and how we (make) health
care payments," Roselle said. The state's final budget will not be set
until late spring, however, leaving several months for University
administrators to work with state legislators and the governor's
office, he said.
"I believe the budget situation for the state is more rosy than
that, and that that decrease, probably when it comes to budget time,
will be rescinded," Roselle said.
"A very similar budgeting request was made of us last year," he
noted, adding that the University was able to have the funding
restored before the final budget was prepared.
In other business, Roselle also announced that the University has
hired the Honeywell Corp. as an energy consultant. Together with
University staff, the company has begun to evaluate campus energy
needs and work to reduce costs.
After the meeting, David E. Hollowell, senior vice president,
said a pilot program to reduce the cost of lighting, heating and
cooling seven buildings on the Newark campus will begin soon. He said
administrators believe that a campuswide energy program, which would
begin Jan. 1 if the pilot plan succeeds, would save the University
$200,000 per year.
Also at the meeting, Roselle enumerated the priorities of the
University.
The top priority of the University is to remain competitive, in
terms of salaries and benefits, with such schools as Penn State, the
University of Virginia, Princeton University, the University of
Maryland and Johns Hopkins University, Roselle said.
"There is no great university that does not have a great faculty,
and there is no great faculty that does not have a great supporting
cast in the way of staff," he said.
The University's second priority is to increase the number of
scholarships available to students.
Roselle cited the fact that the University currently has the
largest Honors class in its history.
The University's third priority is to enhance the physical plant,
including buildings and equipment, he said. Toward that goal, 82
percent of the classrooms on campus have been renovated in recent
years, he said.
In other business, Roselle suggested the elimination of regularly
scheduled general faculty meetings.
"It used to be that the University was governed by meetings of
the faculty as a whole," he said. "When the Faculty Senate was voted
into being, the idea was to keep this meeting...just in case. It seems
to me now that the Faculty Senate is working."
Roselle suggested that general faculty meetings could be called
whenever it is deemed necessary by the faculty or administration. He
said there has only been one occasion since he joined the University,
in May 1990, where the semiannual faculty meeting came "at precisely
the right time." The rest of the meetings he has attended seemed to
come "in between crises," he said. Roselle asked those in attendance,
who voiced support for the idea, to see that the matter is considered
by the Faculty Senate.
At a faculty member's request, Roselle also updated attendees on
the status of investigations into the Sept. 20 incident at the
Christiana Towers. The University had a number of meetings with
several groups during the last month and currently awaits reports from
University and Newark police, he said. The reports will be reviewed
"to teach and to learn as much as possible" and will be forwarded to
the state's Human Relations Division for its review, he said.
Also at the meeting, memorial tributes were given for three
faculty members who died during the past year.
Steven E. Hastings, professor of food and resource economics,
presented a tribute to Dr. Raymond C. Smith, professor emeritus of
food and resource economics, who died of leukemia on March 5, at the
age of 72.
The chairperson of his department for 19 years, Dr. Smith was a
"highly effective teacher who was noted for his remarkable patience
and willingness to assist students outside the classroom," Hastings
said. A graduate of the universities of Missouri and Illinois, Dr.
Smith "pioneered in the use of computers" in his field.
David M. Robinson, professor of electrical engineering, presented
a tribute to Dr. Bruce C. Lutz, professor emeritus of electrical
engineering, who died Oct. 3 after a long illness.
After spending eight years in the University's physics
department, Dr. Lutz moved into the electrical engineering department
in 1955, the same year he finished his doctorate at Johns Hopkins
University. He retired from the University in 1984.
"Prof. Lutz helped start the Ph.D. programs in engineering and
supervised the first Ph.D. student in electrical engineering," said
Robinson, who was that first student. In addition to work for the
Philadelphia Phillies and Maryland State Road Commission, Dr. Lutz
"poured himself good-naturedly into every phase of the academic life
and seemed never to lose touch with the human spirit or his own good
spirits," Robinson said.
Irwin G. Greenfield, Unidel Professor Emeritus of Engineering,
presented a final tribute to Dr. C. Ernest Birchenall, distinguished
professor emeritus of metallurgy in the chemical engineering
department, who died May 24 at the age of 70.
Greenfield said Dr. Birchenall devised "fundamental, quantitative
and scholarly criteria" for the College of Engineering's Applied
Science Program. In 1965, as a fellow in the American Society of
Metals, Dr. Birchenall was designated as the Sauveur Lecturer, the
most prestigious honor to a research scientist in the field of
metallurgy," he said.
A graduate of Temple and Princeton universities, Dr. Birchenall
was a "witty man with a wry sense of humor," as well as a "consummate
trumpeter and tennis player," Greenfield said. Dr. Birchenall also
"was influential in the development of the governing rules for the
Faculty Senate," he said.
-Stephen Steenkamer