Present: R. Osgood, J. Brand, J. Swartz, B. Grey, K. Kamp, J. Mohan, J. Mutti, B.Voyles.

The meeting came to order at 4:15 p.m. in the Nollen House Conference Room. The minutes and excerpts of 11/7/01 were approved.

President's Remarks

The President noted his attendance at the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) Presidents' meeting in Chicago on November 12th and 13th. He stated that one thing that emerged from the meeting is a recognition that it is the role of the Deans to manage the ACM programs, while the Presidents focus on the larger institutional issues facing the ACM colleges. He noted that it was made public that the Dean of Coe has been named the President of Pitzer.

He noted that the Budget Steering Committee met this morning and that a memorandum will be distributed shortly. There will be many discussions held this year that will become the basis of the budget prepared next fall.

Dean's Remarks

The Dean also remarked on his attendance at the recent Deans' meeting at the ACM in Chicago. He noted that the ACM is likely to continue to focus on off-campus study programs and faculty development. They recognized the need to make proposed ideas for faculty development workshops more relevant to a larger group of ACM faculty. He remarked on fairly recent A.W. Mellon Foundation support for a number of collaborative initiatives through the ACM-Global Partners Project, Information Technology, and the start-up and initial program costs for the Midwest Information Technology Center (a consortial program of the ACM and GLCA located in Ann Arbor).

This is the first year of the Grinnell in Washington program. The Dean noted a fairly weak applicant pool. He has sent out feelers to Macalester and Lawrence to see if they are interested in sending their students to the program.

He distributed a list of associate professors who have been in rank for sufficient time to be eligible to be considered for promotion to full professor. He noted that he has sent a note to all eligible associate professors and their department chairs regarding the criteria for promotion. The President stated that he believes as we move through the planning process Council needs to discuss the current policy on promotions.

Education Department Proposal

The Dean stated that Council needs to bring the discussions regarding the Education Department proposal to a close. B. Grey asked for a vote. J. Mutti moved, K. Kamp seconded, to approve the Education Department's request for an early decision to allow them to move forward with a replacement proposal. The motion was approved.

Discussion of the Academic Planning Process

B. Grey noted that, by consensus expressed in the Special meeting of the Council held on November 10th, it was decided that the Executive Council will be moving forward with the planning process. He reintroduced the issue of who will assume the major responsibility for moving the process along and on schedule. He noted that this process will require a high level of staff work. On the other hand, he once again noted that this is a period of high faculty hostility toward the administration and a high level of staff input is likely not to win faculty buy-in. He exhorted Council to decide whether to commit to doing the work, to agree that it needs staff work, or that the project is too much work and Council will not continue the process. J. Brand left the meeting at 5:50 p.m. in order that Council continue this discussion unencumbered by his presence.

K. Kamp stated that additional faculty need to be involved in the process, perhaps by Council subcommittee appointment. J. Mutti echoed the sentiment expressed by some faculty (at the Council led faculty meeting during the special session of Council on November 10) that circular discussions need to be avoided to eliminate frustration of faculty who believe that nothing ever gets done as a result of their participation in larger institutional discussions. In his view, this means that Council needs staff support to help draft documents which can be discussed by the faculty, and on the basis of those discussions decisions can be made. J. Mohan urged regular two-way communication between the Council and the faculty body be maintained.

The President suggested that he believes that J. Brand can ably staff the needs of Council by managing the schedule, and by drafting documents which respond to Council's stated needs as expressed by the Chair of the Faculty. B. Voyles asked if these additional duties of the Chair be explicitly known to all who might be considered for future position as Chair. The President noted that there are many governance issues which need to be discussed as Council moves through the academic planning process.

The meeting adjourned at 6:30 p.m.
Secretary
Karen Wiese