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

The President called the meeting to order at 4:25 p.m.

The minutes of September 23 were corrected and approved.

Remarks by the President

President Osgood has received a report from an outside consultant regarding the use of gallery space in the Bucksbaum Center. The consultant has recommended reliance on traveling collections in place of major art acquisitions by the College. The report also recommends appointing a Curator/Director. This appointment would not necessarily be a tenure-track teaching position. Copies of the report will be distributed to members of the Executive Council.

Remarks by the Dean

Dean Swartz reviewed the agenda for Monday’s faculty meeting. At this meeting the faculty will be asked to vote approval of the honorary degree candidate, to nominate faculty members for election to the Personnel Appeals Board, and to approve the winter sports schedule. Planned announcements cover faculty development, transcript analysis to be conducted by the whole faculty, and the College’s agreement to participate in a HERI survey that collects aggregated data from colleges and universities to analyze faculty culture at each institution.

Approval of honorary degree for Commencement speaker

On behalf of the Honorary Degree Committee (L. Sinnett, D. Smith, E. Dobbs) and the Senior Week Committee, E. Dobbs moved, R. Grey seconded the following motion:

That the Executive Council recommend to the faculty that Fredric Michael Wertheimer be awarded an honorary degree at the 1999 Commencement exercises.

In discussion, E. Dobbs added the suggestion that "Doctor of Humane Letters" would be an appropriate degree for this nominee to receive.

The motion passed unanimously.

Mathematics/Computer Science Department proposal for search for a faculty member

B.Voyles moved, M. Pillado-Miller seconded a motion to approve this proposal. B. Voyles reported that following last week’s Executive Council discussion he met with E. Herman for clarification of the proposal.

Discussion centered on the projected schedule of leave eligibility in the department and on uncertainties regarding the anticipated date of retirements or transitions to Senior Faculty Status. Council members expressed a wish to take a broader view of the question of staffing Math 115, since this statistics course is taught by faculty members from multiple departments.

The motion did not pass.

Leaves for Writing Lab faculty and others

L.Sinnett distributed copies of two motions. The Council passed the second motion at the September 23 meeting. L. Sinnett/E. Dobbs moved approval of Motion 1. The process of adding friendly amendments resulted in a communal editing session which some thought did not make effective use of the Council’s time. B. Voyles/M. Pillado-Miller moved to table the motion so that it could be re-written and brought back to the Council next week for a vote.

The motion was tabled.

Rhodes and Marshall Scholarship Nomination

D.Smith moved, E. Dobbs seconded the motion that the Council endorse the candidacy of Jonathan Edel for the Rhodes and Marshall scholarships. Jonathan Edel is a chemistry major who is also a classical musician and varsity swimmer. He has received a Beinecke Scholarship for graduate study.

The motion passed unanimously.

General policy on faculty allocation

Dean Swartz reviewed the spreadsheet of faculty positions added since 1986. The data are sorted in two ways, by year and by academic department. Because each new salary line arises from a unique departmental situation, the spreadsheet information lacks context and background; the reasons for some additions, in particular, are oversimplified and incomplete. Dean Swartz offered to prepare for the Council a fuller table of existing tenure track positions in each department.

Since several Fund for Excellence proposals advance scenarios which imply the need for increasing the size of the faculty, some Council members expressed the hope that any anticipated or invited expansion requests from departments might be considered in groups, rather than one by one, so that the process can be fair and responsive to the "big picture" of staffing needs across the College.

Council faculty remarks

M.Pillado-Miller asked whether the original Fund for Excellence review committee, comprising the Faculty Executive Council and the Vice-Presidents of the College, would consider this year’s Fund for Excellence proposals. President Osgood replied that he does plan to convene this group to review the proposals, following wide distribution of a summary of all the proposals. The summary will come from the President’s office; the full proposals will also be available for perusal by interested members of the College. By the time the review committee meets, the College community will have had an opportunity to discuss the proposals and raise points for the review committee to take into consideration when forming its recommendations to the President.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:19 p.m.

Paula V. Smith
Secretary