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

The meeting came to order at 4:19 p.m. in the Nollen Conference Room.

The minutes and excerpts of the 5/4/05 meeting were approved, as amended.

President's Remarks

The President stated that he needed to leave the meeting at 5:30 p.m. for a multicultural dinner. He waived any further remarks.

Dean's Remarks

The Dean updated Council on the status of faculty searches.

The Dean reported that pre-registration appears to have proceeded smoothly. He distributed a chart showing the number of registration cards submitted on each day of the pre-registration period. This chart demonstrates that card submission accelerates toward the end of the pre-registration period, with 33.9% of the cards submitted on the last day. This suggests that publication on the Registrar's Web site of the number of seats remaining in each class on a daily basis does not create an undesirable rush for students to register early. E. Willis inquired about when the College might switch to electronic registration, and the Dean responded that the Curriculum Committee is actively looking into that possibility.

The Dean has been talking with faculty members about the Associate Dean opening. He has set an informal deadline of May 16 for nominations and welcomes Executive Council members to discuss the position with him and convey their views of the characteristics the College needs in a new Associate Dean at this time. He reported that interest in the position appears to be higher than in the recent past. V. Brown urged the Dean to keep in mind the needs of departments for retaining effective teachers when particular departments have already contributed heavily to service and administrative roles at the College.

The Dean led a discussion of FOC's proposed revision of the election cycle for faculty leadership positions. He would like to place this on the Monday May 16 Faculty Meeting agenda. W. Moyer moved approval of the revision. E. Willis seconded. The motion was approved.

Council Remarks

There was extended discussion of the recent visit of a Humanities Center external review team.

Departmental Position Proposals

The Dean summarized the status of Council's tentative decisions from previous meetings on position proposals.

Library Director Position

The Dean called attention to the two draft proposals for a Library Director position: one prepared by the President and the Dean, the other prepared by the Library faculty. The President spoke of his desire to have a description that sells the College, sounds enticing, mentions special collections, and highlights technology; conceivably such a description would combine elements from each of the drafts. The Dean called attention to two problematic aspects of the Library faculty draft: mention of the position being tenure-track, and assuming that the Library will necessarily incorporate the audio-visual center in the future. Both of these are possibilities but should not be assumed at this time.

V. Brown and the President conveyed differing views of whether the job description or the College sales pitch should come first in the listing, but the Dean pointed out that the Chronicle or other media would likely print the two sections in contrasting font sizes, allowing them to be readily distinguished.

The Dean proposed a structure for a seven-member Library Director search committee:

The President expressed a preference that the Dean be the Chair of this committee to show the institutional importance of the Library Director position. The Dean indicated that he would ask that applications be routed through the Dean's office rather than through the Library. Both indicated that they have encouraged individuals among the current Library faculty to apply for the position.

V. Brown asked about the timetable for the search committee's work and for advertising the position. The Dean responded that the committee will begin meeting soon to develop the final position description, that the position will be advertised over the summer, and that review of applications would begin around November 1. The committee's position proposal will come back to Council for approval, probably in June.

Council assented to the Dean's proposed structure for the committee. The Dean will now converse privately with Council Members and others to identify specific individuals to fill the committee positions.

Expanding Knowledge Initiative Committee

W. Moyer reported that the EKI Committee favors continuity in leadership to keep the committee's momentum going, presenting the committee's view that Marci Sortor's primary duty in the Associate Dean portion of her new position should be as Chair of the new Expanding Knowledge Initiative Committee. The President expressed his and the Dean's agreement with that recommendation.

The President left the meeting to attend a multicultural student dinner.

There was discussion of the composition of the EKI Committee.

American Studies Committee

W. Moyer proposed the membership of a new American Studies Committee. R. Vetter asked if the Committee's primary task would be to re-form an American Studies Department. W. Moyer said that was part of the task but that more important was to determine where American Studies goes from here. The Dean echoed that question: where does American Studies want to go curricularly, and is a Department or some other structure the best way to accomplish that?

ISC Proposal to Eliminate Curricular Development Stipends

The Dean indicated that ISC is open to the idea of considering support for purchase of books in carefully defined circumstances as part of its proposal to support expenses rather than stipends for individual curricular development projects. L. Gregg-Jolly stated that she might support the ISC proposal now, with the idea that stipends could be built back into the ISC support structure later as strategic areas for support emerge from EKI and Executive Council discussions. V. Brown indicated her preference that stipends be reserved for cases when people explore new areas and move into interdisciplinary work. E. Willis added diversity as a priority area for support and spoke of the importance of a stipend in pushing her to develop a Global Development Studies class. Stipends were an important incentive that she was reluctant to see go away. W. Moyer stated that the EKI Committee might define the areas that are important to favor through stipend incentives. The Dean spoke about the way stipends promote a faculty culture of expecting payment for piece-work, which D. Lopatto characterized as "billable hours." E. Willis expressed her desire not to do away with stipends but to find a better way to manage them. V. Brown speculated that maybe development of a complete course should warrant a stipend but development of a module should only get support for expenses. L. Gregg-Jolly indicated that a stipend helped motivate her to develop a genetics and race module for a bio course. V. Brown asked if EKI would have a separate budget for curricular development support, but several Council members expressed their preference that all curricular development activity continue to be funded through ISC. V. Brown said that EKI should set priority areas for funding and that we might suspend stipends temporarily until these priorities emerge. E. Willis moved approval of the ISC proposal with the following replacement for the first sentence: "ISC will suspend, for 2005-06, the practice of paying stipends to faculty for individual curricular development projects, awaiting guidance from the EKI Committee and Executive Council on the resumption of stipends for areas of curricular development of strategic importance to College." D. Lopatto seconded this motion. The motion was approved.

Next Meeting

Council will meet again next week at the usual time.

The meeting adjourned at 6:17 p.m.

Acting Secretary
Jon Chenette