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

The meeting came to order at 4:15 p.m. in room 226 of the Joe Rosenfield Center. The minutes and excerpts of 2-28-07 were approved.

President’s Remarks

The President stated that he is hosting the two swim teams for dinner this evening to celebrate both winning the Conference championship for a combined 6th year in a row.

He noted the massive amount of tree limb removal and shredding taking place on campus following the storm and urged all to accept the elevated noise level for a short period.

Dean’s Remarks

The Dean noted that he and the President would be traveling next week and may not make it back in time for the Council meeting. He suggested that Council has two items on their agenda which they could easily undertake without the Dean and President present. First, Henry Reitz is scheduled to talk with them about the plans for our reaccreditation self study. Second, E. Willis has suggested that Council have further discussions regarding how to proceed with the “No Limits” public relations theme.

The Dean updated Council on the status of faculty searches.

Council Remarks

E. Willis noted that she has received a formal proposal from the Early Career Faculty group requesting that review letters be shared with tenure-track faculty for development purposes. She will place this item on Council’s agenda for discussion.

She noted that she has received several comments from faculty regarding the procedures followed for closing the College during the recent storm. Several faculty members perceived issues with chain of command in the manner of making such an announcement to the community. She requested, and the President agreed, that procedures be reviewed and a set of procedures be clearly articulated.

Willis noted that there has been a good deal of discussion following the faculty meeting discussions of faculty voting last week.

Council took action on making recommendations to the faculty for several honorary degree recipients at Commencement this year.

E. Willis asked about the issue of decoupling the Athletic Director position with that of Chair of the Physical Education Department. The President responded that he believes the situation should be maintained for at least a year while a new Athletic Director takes his/her position in the Department. C. Hunter noted that this issue has been a subject of conversation in the AD candidate interviews so far. There was discussion.

T. Roberts noted that tonight is the first lecture in this year’s Gates Lecture Series. Anne Monius will talk about the literary culture of religions.

J. Meehan noted that she has received complaints regarding the insufficiency of stipends for faculty participation in summer workshops as well as the requirement for a final report.

She also reminded the President that she would like to know if it will be possible to teach class in the Rosenfield Center next spring in the 11:00-12:00 slot. The Dean responded that after looking at use patterns so far this year there is quite substantial and growing use of the rooms for lunch meetings and this will need more time to see if we can manage to use the rooms for classes immediately before and after lunch.

EKI Fellow Nomination

T. Roberts moved, E. Marzluff seconded, approval of the recommendation of the EKI Advisory Board, to appoint Kathleen Skerrett as Interdisciplinary Fellow for the next three years. The motion was approved.

Music Department Personnel Action

The Music Department is still in the midst of reviewing applications. This agenda item is not ready for discussion.

Faculty Retention Strategies

There was a discussion of various issues associated with faculty retention, including mentoring of new faculty and reviews. E. Willis asked if this issue could become part of the duties of an Associate Dean or the new Special Assistant to the President for Diversity and Achievement. The President thought this a good idea. Council agreed that a handbook of best practices for mentoring early career faculty would be a good idea and asked the Dean to take the lead in preparing a draft of such a guide.

Executive Council Involvement in Faculty Search Interview Process

J. Meehan brought the issue of the involvement of Executive Council members in on-campus candidate interviews to Council for discussion—noting her own belief that it serves no purpose and takes a significant amount of time. T. Roberts suggested that the Council interviews give a candidate exposure to faculty members outside of their proposed department and serves to remind the candidate that the College has general education responsibilities and that they will have many colleagues outside of their department. The President agreed that Council should not be involved with interviews with candidates for term appointments. It was agreed that, while it is possible to fulfill this purpose with only one Council member involved in the tenure-track interview, the current practice of having two Council members involved helps socialize new EC members into the process and communicates to candidates that TT positions are positions in the institution as a whole.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:30 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese