Present: C. Hunter, D. Lopatto, E. Marzluff, W. Moyer, R. Osgood, T. Roberts, J. Swartz, E. Willis

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

The minutes and excerpts of 4/12/06 were approved.

President’s Remarks

The President announced that the Board of Trustees will be in town for their spring meeting April 27-28. The Academic Affairs Committee will be dining with Richard Fyffe, the new Librarian of the College and there are various meetings with students planned.

Dean’s Remarks

The Dean updated Council on the status of faculty searches.

Council discussed a proposed change to the Faculty Handbook regarding department chairs. The Faculty Organization Committee is proposing adding a new paragraph in Section III. B. 1. Election, as follows.

After: “In departments of fewer than four members, the President shall appoint the chair after consultation with the Dean of the College. Department chairs should be elected or appointed from among the members of the department who hold the rank of associate professor or professor.”

Add: In rare and extraordinary circumstances, the President, after careful consultation with the Dean of the College and the Chair of the Faculty, may remove a department chair from office and appoint a temporary chair until a new regularly-elected department chair can take office.

W. Moyer moved, E. Willis seconded, approval of the proposed change and to take this to the full faculty. The motion was approved.

Council also discussed a proposed Faculty Handbook amendment on Promotion. It was agreed that there was no disagreement in Council about the intent or content of the proposed changes. T. Roberts will revise the language as discussed.

The Dean noted that the EKI Interim Advisory Board received a proposal from the Music Department after they had reviewed the other proposals. They reviewed it and their summary comments for Council are as follows.

Music Position Proposal
The IAB noted that the proposal uses a kind of logic to suggest that a position in jazz could contribute to American Studies. It was not clear to the Board by courses currently taught about jazz and the American musical tradition did not count, and members did not find evidence that the department of Music had conferred with the American Studies group. The Board did acknowledge that in this time of flux, conferring with the AMS group might not have come to mind. The Board also noted that such a position could contribute to Cultural Studies, an area that has been explored by several faculty members this past year.

Council Remarks

E. Willis noted her concern over the faculty approval of a revised, and expanded, sports schedule at the recent faculty meeting. Willis and E. Marzluff called for the Office of Institutional Research to conduct research on the effect of additional student athletic commitment on their level of stress. This could lead to a Council meeting with the coaches next year.

Diversity Guidelines

The Dean noted that the Diversity Policy dated 4/06 originated many years before as the College Affirmative Action Plan. Last year the Diversity Steering Committee developed a Diversity Statement and parts of that has been incorporated into the draft Grinnell College Diversity Policy. This document focuses on employment related policy. E. Willis noted that the Diversity Steering Committee was charged by the Council last year to draft a response to the Gruder decision and the resulting Diversity Statement encompasses all or many of the opportunities to enhance diversity at the College and should be viewed as a complement to the Diversity Policy.

Strategic Plan: Strategic Focus #6…Raise the College Profile

The President reminded Council that throughout the strategic planning process there was much discussion of how to raise the public profile of the College. He has drafted a discussion document dated April 11 which highlights specific areas of strength around which the College could pursue its goal of raising the profile of the College

These areas should not be innovations, but areas which resonate well with our history and which characterize the institution. He stated his intention to discuss this with the Board of Trustees next week with the purpose of exploring a commitment to support activity in these areas. Discussion ensued. He asked Council for their comments and said that if there is any Board interest there will be wider campus discussion.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:15 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese