Present: Dean Swartz, Associate Deans H. Scott and P. Smith, E. Dobbs, R. Grey, M. Pillado-Miller, L. Sinnett, D. Smith, and B. Voyles

Remarks by the Dean

The Dean reviewed the agenda for the faculty meeting scheduled for Monday, December 7. The President will comment of responses to his November 25th memo on Fund for Excellence proposals; the Chair of the Faculty will ask the faculty to approve nominees for the honorary degree at the 1999 Commencement; the Director of Institutional Research will report on the transcript analysis discussions.

The Dean is working on a revision of pp. 30-32 in the College Catalog on Elements of a Liberal Education. He will bring a draft to the Curriculum Committee for endorsement and will post the draft on the Web for general comments before bringing this to the full faculty. This revision and the discussions which will ensue will be useful in revising the Vade Mecum and will be useful in a restructuring of New Student Orientation to provide a stronger academic focus. Faculty will be asked for suggestions for ways to provide more of an academic focus to New Student Days.

Next regularly scheduled meeting of Executive Council will be Wednesday, December 16. There will be no meeting on Wednesday, December 9 since the Dean and the President will be out of town. Council will meet with the President and the Dean Sunday afternoon, December 6, at 4:00 p.m. to discuss responses to the President's November 25th document on Fund for Excellence proposals.

Discussion of Staffing and Personnel Issues

Pillado-Miller moved and Sinnett seconded a motion to approve a proposal from the Music department for accompanying and keyboard position. The motion was discussed and unanimously approved.

Voyles moved and Sinnett seconded a motion to approve a proposal to fill a two-year temporary position in physics. The motion carried by unanimous vote.

Continued Discussion of Issues Surrounding Personnel Considerations Policies

Council continued its discussion of P. Smith's document "Division of Responsibilities: Faculty Executive Council and Faculty Personnel committee."

Council endorsed Sinnett's draft statement to replace the statement currently in the Faculty Handbook regarding time in rank before tenure (see November 18 Council Minutes). Council will propose to the full faculty that the current statement (Faculty Handbook, page 25, 3. d.):

That Assistant Professors be considered for promotion and for tenure (see 4. a.) in the sixth year in rank at Grinnell College, or the eight year in service, whichever comes first. At the request of the individual and the department, and with the assent of the Dean of the College, the consideration may be deferred for no more than two years.

be replaced with the following:

Under normal circumstances, consideration for promotion and for tenure may not be delayed. However, at the request of the individual and the department, and with the assent of the Dean of the College, consideration may be deferred for no more than two years when the individual has taken an earlier family or medical leave.

Council next returned to the discussion begun at the November 18th Council meeting on the issue of the faculty review calendar. With our current review calendar, faculty members following the "normal" sequences do not know the result of their tenure review until March of the year prior to the leave. This delay could create problems in arranging the leave, scheduling courses, and appointing leave-replacement faculty members since faculty are no longer granted a sabbatical leave if they are denied tenure. The Dean reviewed the changes that were made last year in our leave policy: 1) a new non-competitive research leave was instituted for all tenure-track faculty usually in the fourth year of service 2) eligibility for the Harris leave was modified so that if a faculty member begins teaching with one year credit towards tenure review, that faculty member has only one opportunity to apply for the Harris; if a faculty member begins teaching with two years credit towards tenure review, that faculty member will not be eligible to apply for a Harris 3) if a faculty member is denied tenure that faculty member will not be eligible for sabbatical leave 4) faculty members taking a Harris leave or a research leave will reset the sabbatical leave clock. In order to address the problems arising from changes in our leave policy, the Dean proposed the following:

We rescind the re-setting of the sabbatical clock for untenured faculty who take a research or Harris leave and institute a new policy. All faculty will be eligible to apply for a sabbatical leave (tenable in the following year) in the year following the year they are reviewed for tenure (presuming a positive tenure review) or the sixth year, whichever is later. This ensures all sabbatical applicants are tenured, provides a disincentive to delay tenure reviews, and gets us out of the tangle of tenure review and sabbatical planning.

This new policy would mean that, normally, faculty members granted tenure would have their first sabbatical leave in their eighth year whether or not they took a research leave or were granted a Harris leave in their fourth year.

Grey moved and Pillado-Miller seconded a motion to recommend to the President and the Board of Trustees that the Dean's proposal be approved. The motion passed unanimously.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:55 p.m.

Helen Scott
Secretary