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. The minutes of August 29, 2006 were approved.

President’s Remarks

He noted that he will be delivering the first Convocation of the academic year tomorrow. He will be speaking about Joe Rosenfield and his extraordinary devotion to the College.

The President reported on a recent meeting of the Trustee Budget Committee wherein they agreed, in principle, to use part of the Capital Reserve Fund to support programmatic initiatives of the the Strategic Plan.

Dean’s Remarks

There was discussion of personnel matters.

He noted that some Council members have requested relocating Council meetings to a room that is more conducive to discussion. He will investigate the alternatives, but noted that there will not be support staff or routine amenities available at an alternative site.

Council Remarks

Rebelsky noted that there have been concerns expressed about increasing number of “unofficial” athletics practice sessions scheduled later at night and with an unspoken expectation of full participation. It was decided the Dean would take up this issue with the Athletics Director.

Rebelsky also noted the discontent with the new pick-up policy for rental cars which does not allow picking cars up the day before travel is scheduled.

C. Hunter expressed a desire to have lawn-mowing outside of classroom building during class hours discontinued, as was the wish of Council last year.

Hunter also noted the fact that there were no hallway lights on in ARH on Labor Day and, while he recognizes this is a scheduled holiday, would like to find a way to make this happen in future.

Hunter also stated that he could not find the new course proposal forms on the Dean’s website. The Dean noted that the forms are located on the Registrar’s website.

E. Marzluff expressed concern about the capacity of Dining Services to meet the need for Catering Services, in view of the fact that several requests have been turned down lately. J. Meehan complained about the current $1.68 for a cup of coffee.

E. Marzluff noted that the Expanding Knowledge Initiative Advisory Board and the Geology/Earth System Science Search Committees met jointly today. They asked that Council consider the procedures for how the interim, complete, and promotion review process for people appointed to these interdisciplinary positions will work, so that these procedures could be presented to candidates during the anticipated interviews in November. She noted the draft document prepared last April by the Interim Advisory Board on “Models of Interdisciplinary Hiring” provides a good starting point for these discussions. Marzluff also noted concerns were raised over potential negative Departmental reaction to housing an interdisciplinary fellow in relation to a perceived negative impact on the ability of that Department to develop future position requests for tenure-track appointments.

End-of-Course Evaluation

The Dean distributed the existing Faculty Handbook policy for conducting Faculty Salary Reviews and a draft End-of-Course evaluation proposal intended for discussion by the full faculty. C. Hunter reminded Council that the sense of Council last year was that there was a need to develop a means by which these data are used more “evenly” by all department chairs in writing letters to the Personnel Committee. There was discussion.

Promotion to the Rank of Professor

T. Roberts reminded Council that quite a lot of work has produced the document distributed to them earlier in the week which includes proposed changes to the Faculty Handbook in relation to promotion to the rank of professor. He reviewed the various documents that led to the crafting of this version of these proposed changes. The matter now needs to go to the full faculty for discussion and approval. The President reminded Council that when it believes it has a final draft that can go to the faculty, it must first go to the College lawyer for review to assure that it complies with AAUP policy. There was further discussion of the relative importance of teaching, scholarship, and service. It was decided that further discussion of this issue would be delayed. At this time, Council will move forward with the proposed Handbook changes.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:30 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese