Present: C. Hunter, E. Marzluff, J. Meehan, R. Osgood, S. Rebelsky, T. Roberts, J. Swartz, E. Willis

The meeting came to order at 4:15 p.m. in room 226 of the Joe Rosenfield Student Center. The minutes and excerpts of 12-15-06 were approved.

President’s Remarks

The President noted that over the break he had traveled to Nanjing to sign the next five-year agreement with Nanjing University. While he was there he delivered a paper on “Judicial Independence in Eighteenth Century England and the United States” which was well received. He then traveled to Tokyo where he visited Waseda University and was impressed by what he saw. From there he traveled to Korea to meet with Trustee, Kihwan Kim. Finally, he has recently returned from Florida where he met with various trustees.

He announced that Jim Sumner will be leaving the College in his full-time status as Dean of Admission and Financial Aid to return to Oregon for family reasons. He will remain on a part-time basis to advise the new Dean. We will be constituting a search committee and advertising the position soon.

He noted that he has been receiving a good response to the advertisement for the position of Special Assistant to the President for Diversity and Achievement. There have been responses from people with a wide range of backgrounds.

Finally he noted that the final work has been done on the Rosenfield Center over break and work is progressing as planned in Cowles and the Noyce Science Center.

Dean’s Remarks

The Dean noted that work to bring the 2007-08 budget into balance continues. Substantial funding for the Strategic Plan, including funding for new faculty positions, is included.

The Dean reported that over break he had traveled with Elaine and Sam to Chicago to attend a meeting of recently tenured professors sponsored by the Grinnell-Oberlin Faculty Career Enhancement grant from the Mellon Foundation. He also conducted a review of the honors program at Denison and was part of a panel discussion on disruptive technologies at the January meeting of the AAC&U in New Orleans.

He noted that interviews are underway in many departments and reviewed the status of these interviews.

Council Remarks

E. Willis reported on a conversation she recently had with Marci Sortor and the Dean regarding the Second Year Retreat in which they agreed that the issue of continuing the program should be brought for a full faculty vote. She has prepared the following resolution which she will bring to the faculty at the January 29 meeting.

“The Executive Council proposes that the Second Year Retreat be continued on an experimental basis for an additional three years, after which time the Faculty shall vote on whether to establish and support the Retreat as an annual event.”

There was discussion about the relationship/role of the EKI fellows and the Second Year Retreat, if any. It was generally agreed that as the Second Year Retreat evolves Council should consider whether this responsibility belongs with the fellows or a different committee such as the Tutorial and Advising Committee. E. Willis moved, E. Marzluff seconded, the Council propose this resolution at the January 29 faculty meeting. The motion was approved.

C. Hunter asked what further process, if any, needs to be put in place to officially discontinue the elementary education certification program in the Education Department. The Dean responded that a review of the faculty handbook reveals no guidance on the unique situation of the Education Department, which offers no major. In this case, he believes that the action already taken by the Executive Council and the President is sufficient, though course additions and deletions need to be approved by the Division and the Curriculum Committee using the normal process. Council members agreed that the Handbook does not require action by the full faculty.

E. Marzluff noted that the due date for CFD (formerly CSMP) proposals is February 2 and asked the Dean to remind departments of this and of the change in how applications are accessed.

Marzluff distributed a petition signed by many faculty which asks the administration to offer the Chair of the Faculty a three course reduction during their tenure as a reflection of the heavy duties of the Chair. There was discussion. Council expressed strong support for the recommendation.

Request for Unpaid Leave

Council reviewed a request for unpaid leave.

German

Council discussed personnel issues in the German Department.

History

Council discussed a request from the History Department.

Faculty Meeting—January 29, 2007

The President noted that the possibility of a capital campaign and the “No Limits” theme is currently scheduled for discussion. He asked if there are faculty who were previously involved in the development of this concept for the Viewbook. E. Willis said that she had made these inquiries and had discovered that while some faculty had been involved with pieces of the content, none had been asked to provide input to the concept and some, in fact, are rather resentful of this fact. Given this situation, the President suggested that this subject simply be introduced at the January 29 meeting and scheduled for full discussion at a later date so that faculty have a chance to think about it. Willis asked the President about his expectations for the role of the faculty in not only developing the public relations campaign but in vetting the theme “No Limits” in the first place. He responded that the whole thing should be on the table, but noted that the Board’s response has been very favorable. He believes that it would be more productive for faculty to add detail to a theme than to blow it out of the water from the beginning. Willis and Marzluff noted that at present—at best—there is no faculty support for this theme. Willis insisted on a process for faculty involvement. The President responded that to discuss this in a meeting with faculty cannot produce detail, but could be expected to gauge the sentiment of the faculty. If they are in general agreement then the matter should go to an ad hoc committee for refinement.

The meeting adjourned at 6:35 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese