Present: R. Osgood, J. Brand, J. Swartz, H. Scott, P. Smith, W. Ferguson, B. Grey,
K. Kamp, T. Moore, M. Pillado-Miller, B. Voyles.

The meeting came to order at 4:20 p.m. in the Nollen House Conference Room.

The minutes and excerpts from the 10/11/00 meeting were corrected and approved.

Remarks of the President

The President stated that he is planning a follow-up to the discussion mediated by J. Collins at the recent Board of Trustees meeting. He suggested that he engage campus discussions among a faculty group, the Student Government Association, and the staff. The objective of these discussions will be to articulate a set of "tactics" from the College's mission statement. The President would then invite several Trustees to discuss these tactics with Council. K. Kamp asked about the ground rules for this process, e.g. will this discussion take place within the framework of a "steady-state" budget? The President suggested that the operating budget will increase, but the percentage of endowment allocated to the operating budget will not change significantly or will go down.

Discussion of the Personnel Appeals Procedure

The Dean stated that the goal of this revised procedure is to identify two pathways to redress. If a flaw in the process of hearing a case is discovered then there can be a request for reconsideration of the case. If there is appropriate reconsideration, then there can also be an appeal. The latter cannot be based upon the assertion that there has been a "wrong" decision made by the Personnel Committee. The idea is to offer the appellant a fair and just procedure. Our schedule has been "compressed" to get the process over quickly, but may not allow the individual faculty member adequate time to decide upon and prepare an appeal. This revised procedure, then, provides what is considered an appropriate length of time to launch an appeal and for the Board to consider the appeal, which could effectively extend the period of consideration by the Board beyond the academic year. The President noted that this revised procedure also streamlines the appeals process by investing all action within a single Board.

B. Grey moved, M. Pillado Miller seconded, approval of the revised personnel appeals procedure for consideration by the full faculty as an amendment to the faculty handbook. The motion was approved.

The Dean noted that K. Kamp will be bringing a proposal to Council that will request consideration of a program which would make available part-time faculty teaching positions to accommodate the interests of qualified partners of full-time faculty.
B. Grey noted that the convocation scheduled for 10-26-00 by Arthur Spears might be very stimulating given recent discussions and efforts to improve the diversity of the faculty.

The President and J. Brand left the meeting at 4:55 p.m.

Continued Discussion of the End-of-Course Evaluations

The Dean opened a discussion of a memorandum he had written to Council dated 10-20-00. He stated that the intention of the memo is to explain what the end-of-course evaluation data are and what they mean. He also wanted to present the data graphically to show the institutional context and the effects of the confidence intervals.

A lengthy and animated discussion ensued.

Council Members Remarks

B. Voyles noted that there is an issue regarding proposed lighting of the athletic fields in relation to the continuation of the astronomy program and suggested that Council discuss this matter with some urgency as a decision is pending. It was agreed to discuss this in the presence of the President since there are both practical and policy decisions which need to be made.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:15 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese