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 Center. The minutes and excerpts of 4-4-07 were approved.

President’s Remarks

The President complimented the Faculty Budget Committee for their work on faculty salaries. He has just received their recommendations and will approve them after mathematical verification.

He mentioned that the Board of Trustees will be coming to Grinnell in a few weeks.

Dean’s Remarks

The Dean reminded Council of their extended meeting next week. Dinner will be served.

T. Roberts moved, E. Marzluff seconded, approval of the request from the Religious Studies Department to appoint R. Jonathan Moore as a Mellon postdoctoral fellow. The motion was approved.

The Dean updated Council on the status of faculty searches.

There was a brief discussion of adding a discussion of the “No Limits” theme to the agenda for the next faculty meeting.

Council Remarks

E. Willis launched a fairly protracted discussion of the issue of ranking Athletic Director candidates when making a recommendation to the President in view of the fact that this position has one foot in the faculty and another in the administration. The President was not inclined to consider any such ranking and requested that he receive only a discussion of the candidates.

S. Rebelsky noted that he has heard good things from external visitors about the superior quality of the food served in the dining hall in comparison with many other peer schools.

E. Marzluff asked the Dean about the process he intends to follow in finding a new Associate Dean. There was some discussion of whether it would be preferable to seek an external professional administrator rather than tap the faculty again. E. Willis suggested that it would be good for Council to have a further discussion of this subject with the Dean.
Music Department Proposal

T. Roberts moved, E. Marzluff seconded, approval of the request of the Music Department to make a tenure-track appointment to Gabriel Alegria. Discussion focused, as has been the case in past meetings, on the failure or unwillingness of the Department to follow search procedures regarding diversity and disregard of Council requests that they do so. The Dean mentioned a further complicating issue with regard to the candidate’s visa. There was discussion of moving forward with this appointment as a “target of opportunity” which is within our policy. The President decided that he would present the myriad of issues to the College’s lawyer for advice. J. Meehan suggested that this case points to the need for education of department chairs in procedures associated with their various duties. The President noted that he believes that in this case it is simply a case of disregard for procedure and the requirements placed on the Chair and Department by Council. T. Roberts asked what would happen if this diversity search were to fail. The President said he believed the Department should be allowed to conduct a new search. T. Roberts withdrew his motion.

Faculty Meeting Process on Public Relations Issues

E. Willis spoke to the issue of the need for faculty involvement with the content of public relations materials that touch upon the academic program. To this end, she plans to issue a resolution in the April 16th faculty meeting. While she wants the faculty to move in a way that develops a positive relationship with all units of the College in trying to move the institution forward, and does not want this issue to become contentious, she needs to be sensitive to the fact that many faculty do not approve of this campaign theme and its many possible implications.

Faculty Position Proposals

It was decided that initial discussion of each proposal should take place without voting.

English

The Dean noted that the position description limits the entry level to Assistant Professor and wondered if this was a considered decision or if previous template material had been lifted for use without considering opening the position to persons of higher rank. He will seek assurance on this point. It was noted that Frank Thomas must sign off on the diversity plan which Council considers inadequate. T. Roberts noted that this position description does not adequately reflect the exciting developments in the field and would like to request that the Department broaden it in an attempt to attract candidates reflecting new developments and scholarly activity.

Political Science-Comparative

E. Willis noted that the Department has realized that they have curricular flexibility so they have decided to broaden the position description from one used in their recent failed search. S. Rebelsky asked about the Department need to offer quantitatively based courses. Willis stated that Strauber’s position should be quantitatively oriented so, if from this search, a quantitatively oriented person is identified for appointment the Department would be even further strengthened in this regard. The President stated that he could not approve the judicial politics and process proposal until Ira Strauber signs an SFS agreement.

Library

The Dean noted that this proposal is related to the issue of support for Geographical Information Systems (GIS) as in the recent past data support for GIS activities has been provided by the Library. There has, however, been recent administrative agreement that GIS software support should be provided by the Curricular Technology Specialists (CTSs) and upgraded data support should continue to be provided by the Library. S. Rebelsky noted that the Library is not requiring letters but that after conversation with Richard Fyffe he understands that this is the standard practice in the field. He also questioned the existence of a salary range in the position description and was told this is also standard ALA practice.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:10 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese