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

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

President’s Remarks

The President was traveling.

Dean’s Remarks

The Dean distributed a proposal by the EKI Interim Advisory Board recommending three faculty members be appointed as the first Interdisciplinary Fellows. This will be discussed at the next Council meeting.

He noted that the Strategic Plan Implementation document is now on the College website and a message noting its location has gone out to the faculty.

He stated that a memo has gone out to all units administering budgets asking for their 2007 budget request. The Budget Steering Committee will begin processing them soon. This prompted some discussion of additional projected expenses associated with near-term energy price projections, bringing new buildings on line, etc.

The Dean responded to an issue brought up at the last meeting regarding departmental job advertising policy. When his office receives a job ad for placement the practice is to follow the recommendations of the department regarding where and how to place the ad. If there is no departmental recommendation the staff use their own judgment. He did note that there has been significant migration across the disciplines toward electronic placement.

The Dean asked if Council members thought that centralizing an electronic place for the Dean’s Office to share information on departmental business would be better than the current method of centralizing all business with the Chair. If so, he will pursue this.

Council Remarks

D. Lopatto remarked on a very well done article, "On the Prairie, Letting a Thousand Flowers Bloom ," on CERA that appeared in the September 30 issue of the Chronicle for Higher Education.

Mathematics and Computer Science Proposal

The Dean noted that Council has received a proposal from the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science to restructure the Department into two departments. D. Lopatto moved, W. Moyer seconded, approval of the proposal from the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science to restructure the faculty and programs of the Department into the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and the Department of Computer Science in order to make the administrative structure reflect the academic and programmatic identities of the two disciplines and to provide additional visibility for both disciplines.

E. Willis asked about the impact of this proposal on the ability of the Departments to supply tutorials. The Dean said there would be no change. She asked about the effect of having fewer people to serve as Chair. It was agreed there would be no change from current practice. She noted that the language of the proposal seems to move away from the interdisciplinary intent of the Strategic Plan. Lopatto responded that the field of Computer Science is increasingly interdisciplinary because of its application in many fields. W. Moyer asked if the Dean thought there would be a problem with students majoring in both fields. The Dean noted that there is no prohibition against double counting in the same division, but for all double major applications we look at whether a student takes courses in areas of a liberal education as outlined in the catalog. Lopatto also noted that he challenged them to answer the issue of needing to cover additional courses (in the other department) in any given year and the response was that they would not be willing to do so. The Dean noted that they have been informally divided for many years, although remaining collegial. The motion was approved.

Faculty Eligibility to Vote

The Dean noted that since he has been in his position there have been a number of questions on who gets to vote on what. He provided Council with the relevant parts of the faculty handbook. He noted that the Faculty Organization Committee now wishes to clarify this issue. He further noted that sometimes the FOC wishes to be proactive on issues and at other times wishes to perform as secretary to Executive Council. FOC has now asked Council how it wishes to proceed. W. Moyer asked if consistency of policy could be achieved at both the division and departmental levels. The Dean explained that there is significant variability within departments that would make this untenable. E. Willis suggested that there is no justification for giving people the right to vote on issues that will never affect them because of their contract status, other than to give them the impression of inclusivity. While Hunter noted that most departmental decisions in Sociology are made by consensus, it was acknowledged that there are other departments where a vote is necessary to resolve disagreement. Willis spoke in favor of the Council taking on this issue since there are serious policy implications and requested FOC to take on the role of crafting the changes to the faculty handbook. There was discussion of the various types of contracts in place at the College and the attendant situations faculty with varying stakeholder levels find themselves in. It was agreed that the Council would set the principles guiding the policy and ask FOC to attend to the details of implementation.

Center for Prairie Studies

As with the discussion of the Center for International Studies at the last meeting, Council members were asked to discuss the Center for Prairie Studies within the framework of the following four questions:

• What are the major contributions that the center is making and how important are they to the mission of Grinnell College? Are they essential, important, or unimportant?

• Are these contributions distinct?

• Are there important contributions that the center could make which it is not now making effectively?

• What adjustments should be made in the operation of the center?

A discussion ensued.

The meeting adjourned at 6:15 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese