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

The Dean called the meeting to order at 4:17 p.m. in Windsor House explaining that the President is present due to the cancellation of his plans to travel to England; these plans were canceled due to the suicide death of sophomore Carl Grimm Monday morning.

Remarks by the President

The President praised our Public Relations Office and the Grinnell Regional Hospital for their careful and professional handling of the news media coverage of the suicide death on our campus. The Dean commented on criticisms he has heard about the lack of timeliness in the notification of the faculty. This was due in part to the complexities of the case requiring a longer time period to generate an accurate report; this document was not ready for posting until noon on Monday.

The President reported on the meeting of the Board of Trustees on Thursday and Friday, October 8 and 9. The trustees were pleased that they had more opportunities than in the past to interact with faculty and students. This was greatly facilitated by inauguration events since a greater number of trustees stayed for the cocktail hour and dinner on Friday evening. The President explained that each of the trustee meetings this year will focus on an in-depth look at one area of the college. The October meeting focused on Admission and Financial Aid. The February meeting will focus on our use of faculty resources using Swarthmore and Carleton as comparison institutions, and the June meeting will focus on budget structure and spending again using Swarthmore and Carleton as comparisons.

Report from Charles Shepard, outside consultant on the Fine Arts Center

Council discussed the report from Charles A. Shepard, Director of the Lyman-Allyn Art Museum at Connecticut College. Mr. Shepard was invited by the President and by Trustee Elizabeth Ballantine, to visit campus August 18-19 to offer suggestions about the role of the new Fine Arts Gallery and about the dedication of our new Cesar Pelli-designed Fine Arts Center which is planned for September 23-25, 1999.

Planning for the gallery and for the dedication will be carried out by the Trustee Fine Arts Committee and the faculty committee appointed by the President last August. The faculty committee includes two faculty members from each of the following three fine arts departments -- Art, Music, Theater -- and the Director of the Print and Drawing Study Room. The trustee committee and the faculty committee will merge and be joined by Elizabeth Dobbs, Chair of the Faculty, as we move forward in this planning process. The President stated that the gallery is likely to receive mid-level funding from the Fund for Excellence for a period of two years after which it will be evaluated to assess its success in operating in support of our academic programs. Dobbs suggested that the Fine Arts Center Committee consider coordinating the dedication of the Center with next year's Public Events Committee's scheduling of events.

New policy for scheduling events

The Dean reported that, in an effort of make the scheduling of campus events more efficient, he has asked the Office of Special Services to act as the coordinator of all details pertaining to such scheduling. He distributed to Council a draft of a brochure on Scheduling Procedures from that office. Council offered a number of suggestions for improvements in the draft document. Council will return to a discussion of the new policy once the Dean and the Office of Special Services have had a chance to iron out some of the areas of concern to Council.

Proposed policy on scientific misconduct

The Public Health Service Act requires that Grinnell College have a set of procedures for investigating and reporting instances of alleged or apparent misconduct involving research activities supported with funds made available under the PHS Act. Such misconduct includes fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, or other practices that seriously deviate from those that are commonly accepted within the scientific community for proposing, conducting or reporting research. It does not include honest error or honest difference in interpretations or judgments.

Council reviewed the document prepared by Frank Thomas in compliance with the PHS Act. Several suggestions were made for clarification or amplification. Dobbs asked how our internal Committee on Academic Standing honesty procedures interact with the procedures required by the PHS Act. The Dean will bring this document back to Council for further discussion.

1998-99 Council agenda items

Before starting on a discussion of agenda items, Council asked the President to explain how and when the Fund for Excellence proposals will be discussed. The President responded that he has gone over all of the FFE proposals very thoroughly and has formulated a position on these which he will begin discussing with various campus groups immediately after fall break. The President has already scheduled an open forum with the students and requested that the Dean schedule discussions with faculty and staff.

Council reviewed the agenda items it discussed at its September 9 meeting and set timelines for items remaining on the agenda:

1. A standard list of comparison schools has been compiled and presented to the Board of Trustees.

2. Faculty salary pool policy (the trustees would like a recommendation from the President by the February meeting) -- Council will discuss this the last meeting of this fall semester.

3. Student evaluation of teaching -- Sinnett will be prepared to lead this discussion at the November 4th meeting of Council.

4. Role of Executive Council in personnel matters -- P. Smith will be prepared to lead this discussion at the October 28th meeting of Council.

5. American Studies staffing -- Council will discuss this spring semester.

6. Faculty allocation policy -- Council has already begun discussions of this topic; after the Dean has gathered further information and prepared a document, Council will return to this discussion.

7. Supervision of department learning assessments -- the Dean will circulate to Council all of the reports that have been received to date; a discussion of these reports will be put on the Council agenda prior to the visit by our NCA review team November 16-18.

7A. Supervision of department reviews -- a process has already been put in place for this supervision; in its role as long-range planner, Council will receive a summary report prepared by P. Smith on the review, the department's response and planned follow-up activities. After Council discussion, the Dean and the division chair will talk with the department about the issues raised.

8. Evaluation/development of faculty -- this topic will be put on the agenda after Council has completed its discussion of student evaluation of teaching.

9. Faculty status: Lecturers -- the Dean will prepare a document for council on the rank of lecturer; Council would like clarification about how this rank is used throughout the College.

10. Grievance procedure -- Council will discuss this topic second semester.

11. Leave policy for untenured and tenured faculty members -- Council will return to this topic once the Fund for Excellence discussions have taken place.

12. Advising system -- Council will discuss this topic after the all-faculty discussion on transcript analysis has taken place.

13. Associate Professor rank and Senior Faculty Status -- Council has already discussed and determined that there is no policy in place preventing an Associate Professor from moving into Senior Faculty Status; the related topic of criteria and procedure for promotion to full professor will be discussed under number 4 above.

H. Scott left at 5:53 p.m.

14. Length of service in probationary period -- no time was set for a Council discussion of the questions of appropriate and fair guidance of faculty members who for various reasons, including family and parental leaves, seek to defer the tenure review. In some cases, these deferrals may lead Grinnell college's practice to be out of step with AAUP guidelines on maximum number of years before consideration for tenure.

15. Tuition remission for Grinnell students studying off campus -- the Council plans to take up this question when there is fuller comparative information to consider. Currently, tuition remission students must pay in full for off-campus study, including the Grinnell-in-London program. Dean Swartz and Associate Dean Scott will collect information on the practices of other ACM colleges. An initial inquiry suggests that Colorado College is unique in providing support for students on tuition remission to study abroad. Providing support for Grinnell-in-London, but not for outside programs, is one possibility; another is to facilitate applications for educational loans that would enable these students to study abroad.

Council Faculty Members Remarks

A council member voiced concerns heard from colleagues who hope that the college book store will keep its academic focus. The basic questions of what the college wants in a book store will be addressed by the Campus Master Plan in consultation with the Library and Book Store Committee.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:10 p.m.

Helen Scott/Paula Smith
Secretaries