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 11/16/05 were approved.

President’s Remarks

The President noted that he will be hosting mid-year graduation at his house this evening.

He talked with Council about general facilities planning issues.

He announced that he will be interviewing candidates for the position of President of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest this weekend in Chicago.

Dean’s Remarks

The Dean updated Council on the status of the search for Librarian of the College. He noted that the search committee has identified three candidates and are bringing them to campus for interviews.

The Dean updated Council on the status of pre-registration. The Registrar is working on several areas of significant over-enrollment, particularly in statistics.

The Dean distributed draft memoranda intended to inform the faculty and the wider campus community of the results of Council’s deliberations on the Center reviews. He asked for comment by next Council meeting.

He announced that he will be attending a meeting of Chief Academic Officers sponsored by the American Council on Education this weekend and then will go to Washington, D.C. to conduct POSSE interviews.

Council Remarks

There were no Council remarks.

Proposal for Unpaid Leave

Council addressed a proposal for an unpaid semester leave.

Chemistry Department Personnel Proposal

Council addressed a staffing proposal from the Chemistry Department.

Japanese Language Staffing

The Dean reviewed the history of Japanese language and literature at Grinnell. He then updated Council on the implementation status of the Freeman Foundation grant to the College for strengthening East Asian Studies—which for Grinnell means strengthening all things Japanese. He noted that the Freeman Steering Committee met recently to review the budget-expenditure situation in relation to future programming. A discussion ensued. The sense of the Council was to support the continuing part-time teaching with a stronger emphasis on non-language courses (culture and literature) to better infuse the curriculum with courses on Japan.

Promotion to the Rank of Full Professor

The President pointed to the language of the Faculty Handbook on procedure for consideration for promotion to the rank of Professor:

The Dean of the College will consult department chairs and the Executive Council on faculty members to be considered for promotion to the rank of Professor. If the President, the Dean of the College, or a majority of the Executive Council wishes to have any person considered for promotion but the person has not been considered by the department or the Divisional Personnel Committee, the President or the Dean of the College will request such consideration, and the reporting procedure will be that outlined above. [pg. 39]

The discussion focused on the problem of not being able to find candidates who are willing to come forward for review and consideration of promotion. It was suggested that there is no incentive to do so, rather several strong disincentives are present. First, there is no material difference in salary upon promotion. Second, there is a fear or shame factor at work which is not negated by the salary incentive. These two combined form the perception of risk without opportunity for reward. There was discussion of the need to clarify the criteria for review.

The President noted that the classic articulation of criteria in consideration of promotion to full professor includes continuing scholarly production of peer reviewed contributions to the field, continuing high level of performance in the classroom, and concrete contributions to the College. He does not see how one can get more specific than this.

It was agreed that there is a problem of transparency of process and criteria and that steps would be taken immediately to begin to clarify this and to build trust among the faculty and provide clear guidance to those applying the criteria. W. Moyer suggested that, with the new three-year review cycle in place, the Budget Committee will be seeing a lot more material and should be in a position to identify faculty who are meeting these expectations but who are not yet at the point in time when they could be considered and pass this information on to the Dean so that when the time is right they may be brought up. He also suggested that he is willing to discuss this with the faculty at the next faculty meeting. T. Roberts and E. Willis suggested changing the guiding language of the faculty handbook to make the process and criteria clear and offered to draft the new language.

D. Lopatto noted that there are Associate Professors in the Science Division (Library) to whom these criteria do not apply. The President suggested that they be directed to the Faculty Handbook which spells out policy on this issue.

The meeting adjourned at 6:10 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese