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

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

The minutes and excerpts of 3/10/04 and 3/31/04 were approved.

The President and Council members welcomed Wayne Moyer to Council in his role as the newly elected Chair of the Faculty.

President's Remarks

The President made no remarks.

Dean's Remarks

The Dean updated Council on the status of faculty searches.

He distributed data on doctoral recipients by race and gender across disciplines as requested by L. Gregg-Jolly. Gregg-Jolly thanked Frank Thomas for his assistance in providing these data.

The Dean noted that he had earlier distributed electronically a copy of the memorandum proposed to be sent to the faculty which describes the change to be made to the year in which one is eligible to begin Senior Faculty Status, as well as exact wording changes to the Faculty Handbook. These documents will be discussed at the next faculty meeting.

The Dean announced that the Tutorial Committee has recommended to the Curriculum Committee that the requirement that Tutorial instructors send written evaluations (or narratives) on their students' academic performance to the Registrar be abolished. There was enthusiastic response among Council members.

Council Member Remarks

R. Vetter mentioned that the Humanities Division will be holding their election for Personnel and Curriculum Committee representatives at their next Monday meeting.

M. Schneider noted that he would not take time during this meeting to discuss statistics on athletes and grade distribution and free speech because of a rather full agenda for this meeting. He does, however, wish to have these discussion before the end of the year.

L. Gregg-Jolly also reminded Council that they are to hold a discussion of faculty gender issues with regard to grant and leave applications to the unfinished agenda for this year.

Consideration of Faculty Position Requests

The Dean distributed data on enrollments over the past ten years for each of the departments making a position request. It was suggested that Council members have a global discussion of the process that it will follow in the consideration of these departmental requests. There was discussion.

The proposals to be discussed by Council include:

L. Gregg-Jolly noted that currently there are two positions created under the diversity initiative which are not filled and asked if they are to be retained. The President stated that these two positions have been built into and retained in the budget but that Council never agreed that these positions would be forever labeled as diversity positions. L. Gregg-Jolly noted that the College has experienced some problem with retention in these diversity positions. She suggested that we create another diversity position so that there would be an average of five faculty in diversity positions at any one time.

L. Gregg-Jolly asked whether the near-term outcomes of the Strategic Planning Process would include some movement on the issue of temporary appointments. The President suggested that Council hold any approval of any leave-proofing proposals until there is some vetting of this issue by the Strategic Planning Committee.

The Dean suggested using a triage approach to the discussion of proposals as has been successfully used by Council in past years.

M. Montgomery left the meeting at 5:50 p.m.

There was discussion about the curricular investments made in recent history by the College.

There was discussion of whether there are contextual issues in the various departments that require Council to consider additional background information prior to their discussion of position requests. It was agreed that the Dean would provide appropriate information as requested.

M. Schneider noted that he had been asked by Charles Cunningham to convey his disappointment in not being able to find a qualified minority candidate for a physics appointment. The President, Dean, and Council offered their sincere appreciation for all of Charles extreme efforts in this regard.

The meeting adjourned at 6:05 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese