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 of 10/15/03 were approved.

President's Remarks

The President reported on the recent Trustees meeting. He spoke highly of a presentation given by the Dean, Jackie Brown, and Vince Eckhart on the CERA project and noted that this project is likely up for a vote soon. He said the Board also heard a report on the athletic facility and a wonderful presentation by M. Montgomery on strategic planning. He reported that the Board had a long discussion of its investment and endowment payout policies. The Board also voted to create a special committee to look at diversity issues across the College. Finally, they elected Laura Ferguson '90 and Kih Wan Kim '57 as new Board members.

The Dean reported that the Academic Affairs Committee talked principally about what their role should be. He noted that the Committee would like to schedule a meeting with the Executive Council. M. Montgomery suggested that it is a very good idea to have a group of the Trustees who could act as academic advocates with the other Board members and that having a joint meeting with them would enable Council to help them shape their role in this regard.

R. Vetter asked about progress on the idea of moving the Bookstore to a downtown location. The President responded that the issue is still under study.

Dean's Remarks

The Dean noted that Council will begin to become involved with candidate interviews as departments will begin bringing people to campus soon.

He noted that there is a faculty meeting scheduled for November 3 which has nothing on the agenda beyond approval of the minutes. M. Montgomery offered to give the presentation which was given to the Trustees on strategic planning.

Council Member Remarks

M. Montgomery noted that Tom Crady has been urging that Council have its discussion of free speech and Montgomery suggested that Council needed to do this at this meeting.

L. Gregg-Jolly suggested that the expressed will of the Council regarding the continuing provision of paper copies of the Campus Memo to faculty was apparently not being put into practice. The President stated that he would look into it.

History Department Proposal

Council took action on a personnel proposal from the History Department.

Faculty Leave Definition

The Dean noted that he had earlier distributed to Council members the memorandum which he had sent to department chairs regarding the Council's recommendation that the faculty leave definition for research and sabbatical leavesbe standardized at 3 courses. He had also distributed the comments of those chairs who had responded. L. Gregg Jolly asked if it was the Dean's intention to implement the new policy this year noting that it was clear from the feedback that the faculty want a consistently applied policy. S. Barber moved, M. Montgomery seconded, Council approval of a new policy which would standardize the definition of faculty sabbatical leave as 3 courses and that the policy would become effective at the beginning of the 2004-05 academic year. The motion was approved.

Free Speech

V. Brown asked what it was that Don Smith had objected to regarding his own motion regarding free speech, as amended in the faculty meeting of August 27, 2003. (The reader is referred to the minutes of the May 12, 2003 for the original motions regarding free speech offered by Don Smith and Katya Gibel Azoulay) M. Schneider noted that Smith had originally proposed language specifically regarding the flag flying (upside down) incident and that the amendment had stripped this reference and generalized the motion to include all free speech. The President noted that it is his reading of the faculty will that the Executive Council have this discussion and then it would be incumbent on him to hold a community wide discussion.

V. Brown suggested that the operative word in Katya's motion is responsibility. That the issue centers on the question what is the responsibility of a liberal arts college to teach students how to be responsible for what they say. The issue reaches into the question of how we think about community…do we build community by silencing difference. There was further discussion.

M. Montgomery suggested that Council organize a faculty debate to be followed by a moderated open discussion which would be handled by a different group of faculty than the debating group. He will proceed to organize this event.

Faculty Salary Process

The Dean distributed a revised draft of the memorandum he is preparing for the faculty which outlines the new faculty salary process as well as a document prepared by M. Schneider which outlines a process by which the Budget Committee will make their decisions regarding faculty salary increases. The President asked Council if they believe that either one of the documents will necessitate a change to the faculty handbook. M. Schneider responded that he believes that the suggested procedural changes sufficiently adhere to the existing handbook language that formal amendment will not be required. There was some discussion of the content of the two documents. There was considerable discussion of the differential treatment of assistant professors in this process. R. Vetter asked if other Council members think that this proposed process meets the test of transparency of process threshold demanded by the faculty. It was agreed that it did. It was decided that the document proposing a process for establishing merit will be sent out to the faculty for review and comment within the week. The new faculty salary process and the process for establishing merit will be the subject of discussion at next week's faculty meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:50 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese