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 October 13 meeting were approved.

President's Remarks

The President made no remarks.

Dean's Remarks

The Dean noted that Council members had approved position descriptions for Mellon postdoctoral searches in music and political science by email since fall break began.

Council decided not to meet on Wednesday, November 24th.

Jonathan Brand entered the meeting at 4:25 p.m. to update Council members on the status of 2006 budget planning. He reviewed the major assumptions currently being used in the modeling process which include an increase in the budgeted number of students to reflect our actual enrollment and more generous need-based financial aid packages.

Brand noted that the current budget model does not meet our goal of reducing the contribution of the endowment to the base budget. W. Moyer asked about the capital reserve fund. The President noted that it is not due to be phased out until 2008. L. Gregg-Jolly expressed concern with the level of unrestricted giving.

Brand left the meeting at 4:50 p.m.

The President noted that even though it is necessary to model the 2006 budget at this time once the strategic plan becomes firm the budget will be fundamentally different.

The Dean noted that he has invited the Center Directors-Armstrong, Andelson, and Schrift-to attend the Council meeting next week to respond to the proposed Center review guidelines.

Council Remarks

E Willis reported on the first meeting of the faculty subcommittee of the Diversity Committee this year. The subcommittee discussed the recent resolution on diversity passed by the Board of Trustees (10/04) and is working on a definition of diversity and related issues. L. Gregg-Jolly reminded Council of the agreement reached by last year's Council that individual cases should be judged on the merits of the candidates and not on preferenced racial or ethnic identity alone and expressed concern over this recent Diversity Committee decision. There was discussion of the application of the theoretical thumb on the scale at the point of the search, the appointment, and at tenure review. L. Gregg-Jolly once again reminded Council members that they agreed to review the Strategic Planning report of the diversity subcommittee to inform further discussions and requested that it be placed on the agenda. D. Lopatto asked when the Expanding Knowledge Committee will report to Council. W. Moyer responded that the gist of what is being discussed in that committee will be reported at a meeting of full faculty on the 22nd.

Wilson Proposal

Council members discussed a proposal brought to them by Doug Caulkins regarding a major expansion of the activities funded by the Wilson endowment. V. Brown asked the President about the size of the Wilson endowment. He responded that it is currently around $11 million and noted that the current program activity level is insufficient to spend the allocated budget each year which results in faster growth of the corpus. He noted that he believes this proposal is incredibly complicated and proposes to launch the College down a road for which there is not beta test. The Dean suggested that a portion of what is proposed--the proposed new chair (not four as appears in the proposal), increased funding for internships and visiting alumni seminars--represents only an incremental increase in what we are already doing. There was some discussion of the potential to use Wilson funding to support the Grinnell in Washington program, but the President noted the relative lack of intersection between that program and the restricted nature of the Wilson endowment.

L. Gregg-Jolly expressed concern with the fact that the College is currently involved in a great deal of institutional-level planning and assessment activity at present (e.g. concentrations, centers, etc.) and believes we should not over-extend the faculty with ever more academic program expansion. D. Lopatto stated that if the goals of the Wilson program are intended to be integrated into the academic program, then he would advise a concerted curricular development effort including an analysis of campus climate rather than just the incorporation of the existing courses identified in the proposal.
V. Brown expressed enthusiasm for bring more visiting alumni business leaders to campus. L. Gregg-Jolly suggested a summer faculty curricular development workshop as a mechanism for determining interest among other faculty. The Dean noted that in order to have this move forward he will be asking Caulkins to significantly revise the proposal along the line of this discussion and to significantly revise his Senior Faculty status proposal.

Jon Chenette entered the meeting at 6:00 to discuss the center review guidelines he had recently drafted. There was discussion of the effectiveness of using surveys and focus groups as tools for obtaining campus-wide assessment information.

The meeting adjourned at 6:30 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese