Present: S. Barber, V. Brown, L. Gregg-Jolly, M. Montgomery, R. Osgood, M. Schneider, J. Swartz, R. Vetter

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

The minutes and excerpts of 2/25/04 were approved.

President's Remarks

The President reported that he had received a report from the consultant studying options for relocating and improving the Bookstore. The consultant recommended against relocating the Bookstore downtown for financial reasons and the President noted that he accepts that recommendation. R. Vetter asked about plans for Library storage. The President responded that the issue is being studied.

Dean's Remarks

The Dean updated Council on the status of faculty searches.

He reported that the Committee on Academic Standing is working on a draft policy change regarding transcript entries when a student withdraws and will be providing it to Council for comment soon.

He distributed a document which detailed the College's appointment of Consortium for a Strong Minority Presence fellows.

Council Members Remarks

M. Montgomery noted that he has noticed over his tenure as Chair of the Faculty and member of Executive Council that the process of interviewing candidates for faculty searches takes up a significant amount of Council members' time.

M. Schneider followed up on information provided by the Dean and President by email in response to some specific questions he had regarding budget overruns experienced this year. The President noted that much of the overrun was caused by higher than projected fuel costs ($400,000 additional) and higher financial aid need by the incoming class of freshmen ($600,000). He noted further that the College has historically spend more than our peers on financial aide, student services, and faculty size as it manifests itself in salary and benefits and historically less on instructional support.

M. Schneider noted his concern that the College budget is so "full" that a budget overrun of the magnitude of $1 million can be so easily absorbed by cuts in various unit budgets while at the same time the faculty are being told that there is not enough money to be able to appoint a second CSMP fellow next year. He also noted that cuts to the Library budget ($40,000) will impact the instructional program because the Library has put a halt to regular collection acquisitions for the remainder of the year. He asked if this money will be replaced in next year's Library budget. He was told that it would not. There was discussion. V. Brown asked Schneider where this line of questioning was going. He replied that he believes that the Budget Steering Committee should be integrally and consistently informed about the status of budget expenditures so that when decision-making (of the nature that had taken place this year in order to accommodate overruns) needs to take place the mechanism of the committee can act to improve communication with all members of the college community.

Senior Faculty Status Eligibility

The President noted that he shared the plan with the Board of Trustees Budget Committee and they have asked for additional detail but he believes that it will be approved since there is essentially no budget impact. When the SFS changes to the Faculty Handbook are agreed upon then we will move this through the College's lawyer. The President proposed that this policy change become effective July 1, 2004. The Dean noted that he already has a proposal from a faculty member who wants to do this.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:00 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese