Present: V. Brown, L. Gregg-Jolly, D. Lopatto, W. Moyer, R. Osgood, J. Swartz, R. Vetter, E. Willis

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

The minutes and excerpts of the 3/16/05 were approved.

President's Remarks

The President noted that he had received comments from E. Willis regarding the administrative reorganization resulting from the departure of Jonathan Brand this summer. He invited further comment from members of Council.

He noted that he has recently returned from studying the relationship of the University of Chicago Law School to the rest of the University as part of their reaccreditation process.

Dean's Remarks

The Dean noted that during the next week there will be review teams on campus to perform the external reviews of the Theatre Department, the Center for International Studies, and the Prairie Studies Center.

He noted that he had received several faculty responses regarding the memorandum sent out last week reviewing the new policy for course releases for service. It was decided that there would not be a policy of providing additional course release to compensate for substantial duties the previous year.

The Dean distributed a table showing the ethnic distribution of the college from Frank Thomas.

He also distributed a table showing the ethnic and gender distribution of 13 tenure-track appointments made this year. He also updated Council on the status of faculty searches.

He noted that the Council meeting scheduled for the week of April 18 will need to be rescheduled because too many are traveling.

Council Remarks

D. Lopatto noted that Congress is concerned with how student data is currently being reported nationally through Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and there is movement to require reporting individual data by social security numbers.

V. Brown reported that the Social Studies Division will be resuming their discussion of combining the American Studies and Africana Studies Concentrations.

L. Gregg-Jolly informed council that the budget FAQs for FY2006 would be posted on the web shortly. She raised a few points of interest related to this document and the budget for council to be aware of. First, she was concerned about the sentence "For instance, next year's budget includes an increase of three tenure-track faculty positions." since this was presented as an example of strategic planning. The additional faculty hired this year (added in next year's budget) were not positions created as a result of strategic planning since the decisions to create them were made before there was even a draft of the strategic plan. The President and Dean concurred and will speak with Jonathan Brand about including clarifying language. Secondly, she raised the information that during discussions of the upcoming budget, increases in the cost of energy and funds for financial aid were presented as the two factors putting the greatest upward pressure on next year's budget. Finally, she called council's attention to the sentence: Almost $2.0 million of the increased revenue will be used to support the 5.5% increase in salaries for continuing faculty and a 3.5% increase in the staff salary pool. It is important to note that the 5.5% increase in salaries for continuing faculty really costs less than 5.5% of the salary pool for faculty (probably closer to 3%) due to the retirement of faculty who are significantly more highly paid than newer faculty.

Gregg-Jolly also noted that the assumption is being made that the major items driving the FY '06 budget are the cost of energy and tuition revenue. However, in relation to the recently articulated student concerns regarding the issue of faculty salary increases, we should remember that as senior faculty retire the cost of increasing the remaining faculty salaries decreases.

Faculty Meetings

The Dean noted that the Faculty Organization Committee has suggested that scheduled faculty meetings not be cancelled. L. Gregg-Jolly noted that when she served on that Committee several years ago the sentiment was exactly opposite in that faculty did not want their time taken in meetings in which new business, which would benefit from faculty input, was not to be discussed.

Faculty Election Cycle

The Dean noted that he had initiated action with the Faculty Organization Committee regarding the proposed changes to the election cycle for Chair of the Faculty, At-large members of Executive Council, Division Chairs, and Department Chairs. There was discussion. W. Willis moved, V. Brown seconded, approval of a resolution asking FOC to formulate an amendment to the Faculty Handbook to move elections earlier in the spring semester. The motion was approved.

The resolution recommends that the elections occur as follows.

Expanded Knowledge Initiative

W. Moyer distributed the most recent draft of the Expanded Knowledge Initiative Committee. E. Willis commented on the proposed administrative structure which involves an Office and Director. She does not want to see a situation where additional strong teachers are taken out of the faculty as is the current case with the assignment of two Associate Deans, three Center Directors, and the Director of the Rosenfield Program. She offered an alternative model which retains the current number (two) of Associate Deans, but is augmented with an assistant who can take the higher order administrative functions from the range of direct responsibilities one of the Associate Deans who could then be freed up to assume responsibilities of the Director of the Office of Expanding Knowledge. There was further discussion of this issue in relation to the current reorganization following the departure of Jonathan Brand.

The President left the meeting at 5:45 p.m.

There was discussion of the proposed remuneration to be received by the proposed Professors of Interdisciplinary Studies as well as further discussion of the effect of the proliferation of institutional structures, such as the three Centers, that draw senior faculty who are important faculty leaders away from their departments and from positions in faculty governance structures. V. Brown noted that one way to lessen the cost to the individual department would be to lessen the term of the appointment to these Professorships from the proposed six years to three years. There was an ensuing discussion which centered on the larger issue of the impact of the proposed structure on the demand for faculty time.

L. Gregg-Jolly urged that the logistical arrangements to be associated with planning and carrying out the proposed sophomore retreat involve some existing unit at the College with experience in arranging such things and not the faculty. The Dean pointed out that the existing New Student Days is largely a student life orientation and he would like the proposed sophomore retreat to be treated as an academic retreat.

Independent Study

D. Lopatto suggested that, before this subject can be reasonably discussed by the Executive Council, the Curriculum Committee should undertake to define the distinguishing characteristics of Mentored Advanced Projects and Independent Study. E. Willis suggested that an evaluation of the MAP program take place to examine anticipated vs. actual results. W. Moyer asked if a study could be done over the summer so that Council can pick this up next fall. The Dean thought it would be difficult to arrange such a study by the end of this semester. This item will continue to be discussed at the next meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:30 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese