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 House Conference Room.

President's Remarks

The President noted that he and the Dean visited the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in Palo Alto on Monday at the invitation of the Foundation to discuss a range of topics.

The President discussed a presentation on strategic planning that he plans to give to the faculty at the September 20th faculty meeting.

Dean's Remarks

The Dean noted that since there was no business and Monday is Labor Day it was decided that there would be no faculty meeting until September 20th.

He stated that there have been additional changes in course offerings to accommodate students who had been closed out of certain classes.

He noted that it has been standard practice that several members of Executive Council meet with candidates who are brought to campus for interviews for tenure-track positions. For term appointments it has been the appropriate Division Chair responsibility. His office will be creating a schedule for these interviews.

He distributed a call for proposals for two year post-doctoral positions. He noted that we currently have two grants from the Mellon Foundation to support the appointment of post-doctoral fellows. He introduced the notion of using these fellows to support interdisciplinary teaching by our faculty. L. Gregg-Jolly that she has heard some complaints about the fact that the presence of these fellows displaces our regular faculty from the classroom and calls for a reduction of the use of temporary faculty. The Dean will distribute the call for proposals to department and concentration chairs with copies to members of the Executive Council. The President noted that post-doctoral fellows are an important resource for our faculty and students.

Council Remarks

In advance of the election of a Council member to the Diversity Committee, E. Willis raised issues related to the functioning of that Committee. She noted that a faculty member who had previously served on the Committee related a disappointing experience and had suggested that, with the advent of the strategic plan and its focus on diversity, it might be an opportune time to redefine the Committee and its charge. The President noted that with the Court's decision in the Gruder case (in re: University of Michigan affirmative action policies) there is a serious need for the College to define the nature of the diversity that we are seeking and the educational objectives we wish to achieve by employing this definition. In light of the need for further discussion, the election of a Council representative to both the Diversity and Budget Steering Committees was delayed to the next Council meeting.

Spanish Department Position Announcement

There was continued discussion of the Spanish Department position announcement. The Council approved the announcement as presented by the Department.

The President left the meeting at 5:50 p.m.

Diversity Proposals

The Dean summarized the thinking of the Executive Council last year with regard to the process of treating diversity proposals received by Council from the departments. Council believed that if a department presented a proposal to advertise for a diversity position there should be no reason to not allow that. It is at the next stage-when a department brings a proposal to Council to recommend bringing a candidate to campus-that an issue arises and Council becomes involved in prioritizing. L. Gregg-Jolly noted that there was considerable unhappiness with the process last year by departments who went to considerable work to present a proposal to Council only to be denied a position. She suggested that it is important for Departments to understand the criteria by which the Council will review these proposals and approve an interview. She noted that the decisions taken by Council last year were on a case-by-case basis in relation to the perceived contributions to the College and curriculum and it is not necessarily a competition between departments for only a few positions. E. Willis asked how candidates are brought to campus. The Dean responded that in most cases it is one at a time.

There was discussion of a position description brought by the Economics Department. Council gave conditional approval.

The meeting adjourned at 6:30 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese