Present: R. Osgood, J. Brand, J. Swartz, P. Smith, H. Scott, B. Grey, D. Kaiser, K. Kamp, J. Mohan, J. Mutti, B. Voyles.

The meeting came to order at 11:30 a.m. in the Nollen House Conference Room.

Council members voted to invite Associate Deans, H. Scott and P. Smith, and Vice-President, Jonathan Brand, to regularly attend their meetings. They also invited K. Wiese to serve as Secretary.

President's Remarks

The President updated Council members on the various Campus Plan projects. He noted that the construction had obviously begun on the Welcome and Admissions Center with a target completion date of fall semester 2002.

The President reported on the Fund for Excellence, reviewing items which were funded and are now complete or terminated, those which are on-going but have not been moved into the base budget, and those which are on-going and have been moved into the base budget. While there are items which have been moved into the base budget, this does not mean that they are frozen there forever. B. Voyles asked if there are plans to evaluate most of the items that are projected to be moved into the base budget. The President responded that this is one of the agenda items for the Budget Committee this year. K. Kamp asked that a plan for this evaluation be made available to the faculty. The President stated that he would think about how such a plan might be structured. K. Kamp suggested that such an evaluation should rely on internal institutional resources rather than an outside consultant. B. Voyles stated that he would expect the full faculty to have a voice in the process. J. Mohan asked about the current budget status of a specific item which had been funded under the Fund. The President noted that once an item is moved out of the Fund and into the base budget he ceases to be responsible and decisions are made by the person responsible for that budget. D. Kaiser asked what the total commitment of the Fund was. The President responded that $33 million had been committed over the five-year period, and of that 50% was directed at programs and 50% was directed at facilities and properties. Finally, he noted that there are two main reasons for the Fund coming to a close-the endowment was shrinking relative to where it was a few years ago and there was a sense among the Trustees that the process was exhausting many people.

The President noted that three or four years ago our endowment, which is heavily invested in blue chip stocks, exceeded $1 billion surpassing the endowments of many of our peer institutions. Subsequently, our peers' endowments grew to exceed ours because their portfolios' are heavily invested in tech stocks. For the year ending July, 2001 we will probably report that the endowment has increased by 25%, which will be the strongest performance in relation to our peers.

Dean's Remarks

The Dean welcomed both continuing and new members of Council, stating that this would be an important year for Council in their consideration of the larger picture issues of the academic program. It is his goal that the Dean's Office provide the full support necessary to the work of the Council.

He noted specific actions that were taken by Council over the summer. There were various part-time position actions, which do not normally go through Council, taken over the summer and at this time we are fully staffed.

The Dean noted that there will be a review of the Noun Program this year.

He noted that over the past year the College has been working on two fairly large and significant proposal for consideration of external funding. H. Scott reviewed the nature of a proposal being submitted to the Lilly Endowment, Inc. for "Theological Exploration of Vocation." The Dean reviewed the scope and nature of a collaborative proposal (Grinnell and Oberlin) being submitted to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for "Faculty Career Enhancement."

The Dean stated that Council has purview over policy for personnel reviews and the Personnel Committee has purview over procedures for personnel reviews. Last year there was a request to appoint a committee to review the way we approach advisees about their experiences in relation to informing the personnel review process. This committee has decided that this is a matter of procedure-not policy. However, in the future Council may want to address advising at the institutional level.

Last year Council made recommendations to the President for new faculty positions. Then during the summer detailed position descriptions were approved for most of those position. At this time Council has two position descriptions for consideration of approval in Music and Biology.

K. Kamp asked about the decisions made with regard to those position allocations unresolved by the end of the semester. The President stated that he had approved an Orchestra position as a tenure track position, but had decided not to go forward with a Statistics position. B. Voyles asked for a listing of and rationale for the positions which were approved. The Dean reviewed the personnel actions taken:

Regular and Tenure-track Searches
English--Post-Colonial Literatures, replacement
Music--Orchestra position, replacement
Biology-Addition, regularizing a long-term temporary appointment
Library-Reader Services Librarian, replacement
History was authorized to do a search in 2002-03 for a Historian of the British Empire, replacement

Diversity Initiative, regular and tenure track
Human Geography
Political Science (American Politics)
Sociology

Other
Psychology-2 year term as an expansion for curricular development
Political Science-2 year leave replacement
Sociology-2 year leave replacement

While examining the position description in Music, J. Mutti asked why there is no mention of the other duties which will be expected of the successful candidate, such as contributions to general education. The Dean volunteered to work with the Music Department to revise the position description to reflect those duties.

B. Voyles moved, B. Grey seconded, approval of the position description for a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Biology. He stated that this is a tenure-track position that was advertised as part of the diversity search process last year and was unsuccessful. He noted that the position description remains "uncharacteristically" vague in order to attract a broad pool of candidates. D. Kaiser raised an issue with the wording of the affirmative action statement as it appears in the position description. Specifically, he objected to the reference to the faculty as "staff" of the College. He suggested that "appointing a highly qualified faculty" as a substitution. The President agreed to accept "appointing a highly qualified faculty and staff" for the purposes of moving forward with the Biology Department's recruitment process and it was generally agreed that this issue would receive further attention at the institutional level. B. Grey noted that this type of constant differentiation among classes of institutional employees made him highly uneasy. The motion was approved.

The Dean noted that last year the Dean's Office worked on trying to put all of the position descriptions in one place in the Chronicle of Higher Education, thus drawing attention to the range of available positions. It is his intention to continue this process in all searches which results in greater efficiency and effectiveness.

B. Voyles noted that there are two errors in the Council Agenda for this date. The Psychology position is not leave replacement but, rather, a term appointment. The Human Geographer position is not necessarily in the Anthropology Department, but will be determined by the disciplinary strength of the successful candidate.

The Dean noted that there is a need to elect a Council member to the Diversity Committee. B. Grey nominated K. Kamp. The Council voted to approve the nomination.

The Dean reviewed the recent history of the position of Public Services Librarian. B. Voyles moved, D. Kaiser seconded, approval of the position description for the Public Services Librarian. The motion was approved.

The Dean passed around a draft agenda which includes items for Council discussion and action during this academic year and asked that it be discussed at the next meeting.

Other Remarks

The President invited Council members to dinner at his home with members of the Board of Trustees on October 5th at 6:00 p.m.

The President briefly discussed the idea of doing academic planning which was suggested by D. Smith several years ago. He noted that some progress had been made in this regard by last year's Council. While Council members met with some members of the Board of Trustees to discuss this subject, it was common opinion that this was premature. The President's of Oberlin (Nancy Dye) and Macalester (Mike McPherson) have been suggested as resources that could assist Council in their efforts. J. Brand suggested that long-range planning is quite a complex process which, in his perception, requires a process specialist. If Council agrees, such a person needs to be contracted fairly soon. D. Kaiser noted the Oberlin model of "yoking" various constituencies of the college together throughout the planning process. The President noted that, generally, such broad-based academic planning has failed at other institutions.

The meeting adjourned at 1:35 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese