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

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

President’s Remarks

The President welcomed Council members to the new academic year.

He announced that he is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and Chair of the search committee seeking to replace the current President, Elizabeth Hayford, who will be retiring later this year. Susan Schoen is serving as Secretary to the Search Committee. He asked Council members for any recommendations they might have regarding suitable candidates.

He noted that as Council was adjourning last spring Frank Thomas decided to begin a phased retirement. He is scheduled to leave full-time status in December, 2006. He will then move to half-time. Associate Dean, Brad Bateman, will be assisting departments with the diversity aspects of their searches. Thomas will continue as adjudicator, acting under the College Affirmative Action Policy. The campus Diversity Steering Committee is composed of faculty, administrators, and students and will continue in its current form. However, the President stated his intention of creating an administrative group that will have the authority to take necessary action to achieve the diversity objectives of the Strategic Plan.

Dean’s Remarks

The Dean also welcomed new and returning Council members and noted that the agenda will be full this year. He reviewed Council etiquette and protocol.

He noted that over the summer the previous Council members approved several position descriptions for positions that were approved last spring. The advertisements have been placed. He noted that part of Brad Bateman’s duties as Associate Dean will be to enhance our ability to recruit more diversity pool candidates. He reviewed the decisions of the previous Council on this issue.

He noted that we have a search currently underway for Librarian of the College. The search committee includes one member of Executive Council (D. Lopatto), two Librarians (Gail Bonath and Phil Jones), and representatives from the other divisions (Pablo Silva and Margarita Pillado).

He distributed a list of tenure-track searches that will be conducted this year which will involve Council members as part of the interview teams and asked for volunteers.

The Dean reported on medical and family leaves taken this year.

Council Remarks

D. Lopatto noted that he has recently been made aware of new federal legislation requiring colleges to produce special programming to acknowledge “Constitution Day”. He asked what action the College would take. W. Moyer noted that the Rosenfield Program would arrange for some type of activity to satisfy compliance.

D. Lopatto noted his satisfaction with the new View Book, remarking that he thinks that it is “spectacular”.

Lopatto acknowledged the hurricane disaster in the southern United States and noted that there are several academic institutions in dire straits. He wants the College and the President to stand ready to help if drawn upon.

C. Hunter noted that he has observed students walking through the construction zone on 8th Avenue and believes it to be a particularly dangerous area. He urged that protected walkways be constructed since students are prone to taking shortcuts.

Hunter also noted that flu shots were not available at Registration this year and asked when they would become available. It was agreed that the shots will be made available later in the semester.

Elections

The Dean noted that each year the Executive Council elects one member to serve on the Diversity Steering Committee and Budget Steering Committee, respectively. E. Willis was elected to serve another year on the Diversity Steering Committee and E. Marzluff was elected to serve on the Budget Steering Committee.

American Studies and Expanding Knowledge Initiative

W. Moyer distributed a list of faculty serving on these two Committees. He talked about the activities of the Interim Advisory Board. This group met three times over the summer and is aware that it needs to produce specific recommendations some time soon. However, the board does not want to proceed in a piece-meal way and wants to ensure that its recommendations are integrated into a clear vision for the future of interdisciplinary teaching at Grinnell College. The board is developing a calendar of items to be accomplished, spring, summer and fall over the next several years. This fall the board will select the interdisciplinary fellows, do some preliminary Second-Year Retreat planning, set EKI priorities (e.g. interdisciplinary courses across the divisions), and when priorities are set, it will call for proposals.

W. Moyer noted that the American Studies Planning Committee approved by the Executive Council last year is now organized and planning to meet soon. Henry Reitz has agreed to serve as Chair. The committee will develop a comprehensive plan for the further development of American Studies at Grinnell. It will engage in a dialogue with the Interim Advisory Board to ensure that this plan is consistent with the goals of the Expanding Knowledge Initiative. Hopefully, the American Studies Planning committee will have a document to present to the Council via the Interim Advisory Board by the end of the semester.

Agenda Items for 9/18/05 Faculty Meeting

The Dean noted that aside from degree candidate approval which needs to be done on this date in order to be ready for the Trustees to act at their meeting at the end of September, there is no other agenda item. He called for ideas. W. Moyer will report on the response to the call for EKI fellows. The President will talk briefly about implementing the whole Strategic Plan. D. Lopatto would like Tom Crady to introduce the staff and review student support services. C. Hunter would like to hear a presentation and discussion of the POSSE experience to date.

Update on Strategic Planning

The President noted that the Board of Trustees adopted the Strategic Plan without comment last spring. He is now working on an implementation plan (which will be released) and budget projections (which will not be released) which will carry the College forward from 2006 to 2010. He presented the format of the Implementation Plan.

Strategies	Tactics	Issues & Concerns	Suggested Measures for Performance	Costs/ Revenues
(from the Plan Document)
1. Academic	a) Add 12 faculty
2. verbatim	b) …verbatim
…
6.

E. Willis asked who is working with him on this. He responded various administrators are working on areas where they have responsibility. Marci is overseeing the process and Jon Chenette is editor-in-chief.

The meeting adjourned at 5:55 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese