Present: President Osgood, Dean Swartz, E. Dobbs, B. Ferguson, M. Pillado-Miller, T. Moore, D. Smith, B. Voyles

The President called the meeting to order at 4:17 p.m. in Nollen House.

Dobbs moved and Voyles seconded that D. Smith serve as temporary secretary to the Council. The motion passed unanimously.

Dobbs moved and Pillado-Miller seconded that H. Scott, Associate Dean, and P. Smith, Associate Dean, be invited to attend meetings of the Executive Council this year to provide the Council with information and advice as needed, to hear the Council’s discussions, and to assist the Council with its work; further, that H. Scott act as the Council’s secretary for this year, until other arrangements can be made. The motion passed unanimously.

Dobbs moved and Voyles seconded that J. Brand, Secretary to the College and Special Assistant to the President, be invited to attend meetings of the Executive Council for the coming year, at Council’s activities and thus to serve effectively in his office. The motion passed unanimously.

J. Brand, H. Scott, and P. Smith joined the meeting. H. Scott assumed the office of Secretary.

Remarks by the President

The President stated that his convocation address this Thursday on “The Grinnell College Master Plan: Themes and Principles” would be the first in a series of forums for discussion of the College Master Plan. He will hold a special meeting for the Council to discuss the plan next week. This will be followed by the second faculty meeting of the fall semester, Monday, September 6, which will be devoted to a discussion of the plan. He intends to facilitate as many discussions as he can prior to taking the plan to the Trustees during their September 23-24 meeting on campus.

The President reported positive responses to the new view book. There has been some concern raised, however, about the list of faculty at the back of the book which is not inclusive of all faculty positions.

Remarks by the Dean

The Dean announced resignations of six faculty members over the summer

The Dean expects position descriptions in the near future from several departments and programs.

D. Smith, P. Smith and Brand worked last year on corrections to the Faculty Handbook to make it consistent with the new Trustee Bylaws. D. Smith continued working on this over the summer. Since pages with changes were not reissued last year, the goal is to get this work completed quickly and approved by the faculty this semester if possible.

H. Scott has asked to be relieved of the secretarial responsibility for the Council and the Dean asked for suggestions from Council members on how this might be accomplished. This will be discussed at the next Council meeting.

An appeal from a decision of the Committee on Academic Standing involving academic dishonesty has come to the Dean. Three members of Executive Council have been asked by the President to serve on an Appeal Sub-Committee for this case in accordance with the guidelines set forth in the Faculty Handbook.

Proposal for East Asian Language and Literature Positions

The Council began a discussion of a revised and expanded Fund for Excellence proposal from the Chinese Concentration Committee and members of a summer workshop on Japanese/East Asian Studies to add Japanese to our curriculum and to create a department of East Asian Languages and Culture.

The discussion will continue at the next Council meeting.

Agenda Items for the 1999/00

Council approved the following list of agenda items for discussion during the 99/00 academic year (the items are not listed in order of priority):

1. EOC evaluation study and report to faculty

2. Discuss Campus Master Plan (September 3 meeting)

3. Review of American Studies

4. Supervision of departmental reviews

5. Reconsider CSMP procedure

6. Discussion of faculty rank:

a) the use of the title “lecturer”
b) definition of “full-“ and “part-time” faculty
c) titles for visiting faculty
d) the appropriate role of temporary one-year appointments in departmental and college-wide business

7. Develop a grievance procedure

8. Review departmental chair duties and course relief for chairs

9. Concentrations

10. Size of the college: should we decide to move to 1500?

11. Draft new description of Executive Council’s role for Faculty Handbook

12. Discussion of Implementation of Mellon postdoctoral program

13. Discussion of ways in which to add more ethnic diversity to the faculty

14. Department learning assessment progress

15. Discussion of policies on closed courses and dropping students

16. Discussion of NCA Consultant/ Evaluators Report

17. Discussion of appeal procedure for reappointment considerations

Remarks by Council Faculty Members

Voyles requested that the Council agenda packet indicate if the President will not be present at that meeting or if he has to leave early; he also requested that agenda items be arranged so that the President is present for the appropriate discussions.

Voyles requested that the agenda packet with written materials be sent out as early as possible to give Council members maximum time to review them.

Voyles requested that the administration prepare an organizational chart for the faculty on all of the position and title changes announced at the first faculty meeting on Wednesday morning.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:18 p.m.

Helen Scott
Secretary