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 4/26/06 were approved.

President’s Remarks

The President noted that the Board of Trustees and its various Committees met last Friday and Saturday, April 28-29, in Grinnell.

He noted that they asked him to serve for an additional three-year period coincident with the full implementation of the Strategic Plan; this would extend through fiscal year 2011. He has agreed.

The Board heard a presentation from the Environmental Coordinator at Middlebury College, Nan Jenks-Jay who urged the College to take a holistic view of environmental conservation rather than a simple focus on energy consumption.

He called for the constitution of a structure to plan for the NCA re-accreditation process scheduled to take place in two years by the end of this year.

Dean’s Remarks

The Dean updated Council on the status of faculty searches.

Council Remarks

C. Hunter noted that he has heard from several faculty members who are unhappy that Frank Thomas has been scheduled to make a presentation on diversity at several faculty meetings this spring and has not been able to do so because of competing agenda items. Hunter would like to see this happen before the end of the semester.

Hunter also noted that several untenured faculty members are asking about merit scores and how they carry over from the interim review to the full review. For the latter the person being reviewed is asked for a context statement, whereas for the second year review the person being reviewed has no opportunity for input. Those concerned faculty members are asking for the ability to provide a statement earlier than at the moment of full review.

Position Proposals

The Dean noted that in view of the new requirement that departments present their diversity search strategies as part of their position proposals Council should take a broad view of these strategies and provide feedback to departments on those which have especially promising approaches. He also noted that during a recent meeting with members of the Diversity Committee of the Board of Trustees it was suggested that we refrain from referring to searches as “diversity” searches and to instead refer to them as “special” searches. T. Roberts asked how Council should be considering proposals for positions which were previously approved as diversity positions and later vacated…are they now to be treated as regular, replacements, or new position requests? The Dean responded that Council has historically treated a position that was originally filled as a diversity appointment and later vacated as returned to the pool to be considered for reallocation. He argued that Council could decide to maintain that view. D. Lopatto argued that if our procedures for standard searches is effective it should yield good diversity results. E. Marzluff noted that the standard searches conducted this year indicate that we have not yet reached that level of effectiveness. T. Roberts asked how Council should think about expansion of the faculty. The President responded that there are three positions approved as diversity positions that are already in the budget. He stated that College could make four appointments and not affect the budget. Roberts asked about the importance of maintaining the number of positions currently identified as diversity positions. E. Willis argued that our goal should be to place a priority on enhancing faculty diversity in all of our searches. Recent changes in our procedures are moving us closer to achieving that goal though we are not there yet. We run the risk of losing ground if we fail to maintain those slots that were originally designated for special searches.

Council continued their discussion of the position proposals.

The meeting adjourned at 6:30 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese