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

The meeting came to order at 4:15 p.m. in the Nollen House Conference Room.

President's Remarks

Speaking about the Strategic Planning Steering Committee report the President noted, that as M. Montgomery recognized last spring, it is not a "plan" as such. The College is now in the process of developing a plan based on that document. Executive Council, faculty, Trustees, students and staff will all continue to participate in this process. He noted that the Trustees' current sentiment is that they would not want to "adopt" a plan, but wish to have periodic check-ins on a plan and likely costs. V. Brown asked if the Trustees do not actually ratify a plan aren't we assuming some risk that the plan may not be able to be carried out. The President noted that the Trustees may do as they wish generally, but that periodic check-ins should be enough. W. Moyer asked for a time line for the planning process. The President said that he wanted to have a final plan document by the time of the February Board meeting. V. Brown responded that this timeframe puts this issue at the highest priority for Council discussion. L. Gregg-Jolly noted that there are going to be ideas that were discussed in sub-committee last year that are probably not going to make it into the final plan document but which have great merit and deserve Council attention. D. Lopatto asked that appropriate materials be made available to him as a new Council member. E. Willis asked when the President would have the draft plan document available for Council. The President responded that he hoped it would be ready by next Council meeting and would guide members through the document at the next meeting.

Dean's Remarks

The Dean updated Council on course changes made since pre-registration.

He noted that Council needs to elect representatives to the Diversity Committee and Budget Steering Committee next week.

He distributed his 2003-04 report to the President.

The Dean also distributed the action items that have been on previous Council agendas and urged Council members to consider whether or not they should continue to be discussion topics. In regard to the free speech agenda item that remained unresolved last year, the President noted that he will be addressing this and diversity issues in his Convocation on Thursday and that this is considered, by last year's Council, to be the last response to the resolutions of the faculty.

The Dean noted that last year's Council asked the Dean's office to create a schedule of Division meetings as a service to the Division Chairs and he will be distributing such a schedule again next week.

He noted that there is a need for a meeting with Department Chairs to talk about the request for diversity initiative proposals and the faculty salary process. He suggested that Council members who are available should come to the meeting to be scheduled.

The Dean reminded Council that a number of actions were approved over the summer as part of last year's Council business. These include:

Council Remarks

L. Gregg-Jolly has heard several rumors that the College could be in trouble because we have not been spending IRS mandated 5% of our endowment each year. The President noted that the rule in question applies only to private foundations and not public charities which the College is designated as.

Faculty Salary Process

The Dean noted that last year M. Schneider and V. Brown had worked with him to bring forward a document on the faculty salary process. Since that time he has incorporated several Council members' comments and suggested changes. There are, however, several issues which remain for final resolution. Assistant Professor merit scores are set by the Personnel Committee. He asked for Council guidance on how much information should be required of faculty in this rank in preparation for the complete and promotion reviews. There was discussion of requiring a complete context statement at both points of review, specifically centered around use as a developmental tool in the full review process. Council endorsed this approach pending approval of the Personnel Committee and approved the guidelines for the faculty salary review process.

There was also a question of what to do about performing personnel reviews for the Chair of the Faculty and any other Council member who is scheduled for review during their period of service. It was recommended that the matter be remanded to the Dean who would take the recommendation of the non-involved members of the Faculty Budget Committee. E. Willis asked if there was a need to amend the Faculty Handbook to take account of these new personnel processes. The President noted that it was decided by last year's Council not to amend the handbook.

Departmental Position Announcements

There was discussion of several personnel actions. Council approved:

The Dean noted that last year Council stressed a strong procedural plan to require candidates to provide affirmative action information since the return rates were so low and the College is now working on implementing a new system of information collection system which will hopefully yield more information.

Agenda Items

D. Lopatto noted that a counseling task force, initiated in response to the student suicides the year before, had been meeting over the past year. They presented a report to the President focusing on stress on both students and faculty. He strongly urged Council receive a copy of the report.

V. Brown noted that several of the previous years' agenda items fall under strategic planning and from that standpoint should schedule items for discussion at the appropriate time during the year.

E. Willis noted that she has a student from Morocco who is here on a State Department program who believes that she will be able to complete her bachelor's degree in two years. However, following analysis of her transferred transcript, she falls far short of graduation requirements. W. Moyer noted that there are others on campus who find themselves in the same predicament. He urged that the administration inform these students right away of their status.

The meeting adjourned at 6:20 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese