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 a.m. in the Nollen Conference Room.

President’s Remarks

The President thanked the Dining Services staff and student workers for their hard work in getting the new operation underway. He noted that the “Out Takes” option and reduced price tickets for faculty and staff will begin soon.

Dean’s Remarks

The Dean made no remarks.

Council Remarks

Several Council members made comments about various sections of the Dean’s report to the President. There were issues with a perceived incomplete characterization of the faculty diversity hiring efforts during 2005-06, and with description of the framework created by the Administration which defines academic program initiatives to be pursued under Strategy #6 section of the new Strategic Plan which is still under consideration. One member noted a factual error in the characterization of the new chemistry search approved by Council last year as an EKI related search rather than a “special” search and asked that this be corrected in the report of the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies to the President.

S. Rebelsky reported on an issue emerging from discussions of the Budget Committee regarding the use of end-of-course evaluations in determining merit pay. He reminded Council that the faculty had, years ago, voted not to use the end-of-course evaluation data for this purpose. E. Willis suggested that this issue be reopened for faculty discussion. The President favors making the qualitative data from end-of-course evaluations available to Chairs but this information should not be the only input. It was agreed that this would be placed on the Council’s agenda for discussion this fall.

E. Willis reported on a concern voiced by a faculty member regarding the lack of proper arrangement of classrooms in advance of scheduled classes to be held in those rooms (in this case ARH 120). She believes that the college should find the means for ensuring that rooms are in the faculty member’s desired configuration for the first classes of the day. She also suggested faculty members should return rooms to the “standard” configuration at the end of their class sessions. The Dean noted that there are different pedagogies and preferences among faculty who use the same classroom during any given day and this make standardized configuration difficult to achieve.

History Position Proposal and Position Description

There was discussion of a revised position description for a previously approved position.

Geography

The Dean reminded Council of the EKI origin of the positions which were approved by Council last year. The search committee has now provided position descriptions for a human geographer and an earth systems scientist.

Political Science

There was discussion of staffing issues in the Department.

The President left the meeting at 5:30 p.m.

Faculty Meeting Agenda Items

The Dean noted that he and E. Willis would like to make sure that the business of Council that is appropriate and necessary for discussion with the full faculty be scheduled for faculty meetings in an efficient manner. Council members suggested that a clear message regarding EKI proposals be given to the faculty early in the semester. They also wanted discussion of copyright policy, promotion to professor and faculty voting rights to be on agendas this semester.

Executive Council Agenda Items

The Dean distributed an updated copy of the list of potential Council agenda items for discussion this year. These items are continued discussion of process for promotion to professor, faculty voting, preparation for reaccredidation review, process for review of faculty w/ interdisciplinary teaching responsibilities, posse mentoring process, class size and closing policies, sharing of departmental review letters with faculty under review, assignment of advisees, role and review of part time faculty, role and organization of interdisciplinary concentrations, creation of senior lecturer status, review of policy for course credit for independent student work, and promotion and tenure of members of the PE department and library. E. Marzluff reminded Council that last year Council members also had identified several other items for discussion this year—an assessment of study leave and Harris awards, strategies for retaining diverse faculty, and an assessment of student athletes and culture.

The meeting adjourned at 6:05 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese