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

The meeting came to order at 1:30 p.m. in the Nollen House conference room. The minutes and excerpts of 12-6-06 and 12-12-06 were approved.

President’s Remarks

The President noted that he is very pleased with the two recommendations for EKI appointments.

He noted that the first of the wind turbines is under construction at CERA.

The President noted that he had received word from the Mellon Foundation of the approval by their Board of Trustees of a $1.5 million endowment of our postdoctoral fellows program. We will be matching that amount over a four year period from the Capital Reserve Fund.

Council members asked him about his progress toward finding a replacement for Frank Thomas as diversity officer in view of Thomas’ imminent move to part time employment status. The President stated that he has been talking with colleagues at other institutions about the position and has decided that the new person should have the title “Special Assistant to the President for Diversity and Achievement” and should report directly to the President. He intends to advertise following the holidays.

He reported on a recent meeting in Chicago of some of the Board of Trustees, Eliza Willis, Elaine Marzluff, Chris Hunter, and Mark Edwards who is a public relations consultant from Massachusetts who has worked with the College previously. During the meeting Edwards was convincing in his presentation of the avenue he believes would be most successful in rolling out a significant public relations campaign. His advice centers on the “No Limits” slogan rolled out earlier for the View Book. The President noted that this advice which will be accepted is at variance with trying to identify institutional strengths such as has been articulated in the Strategy 6 draft document. S. Rebelsky asked if the implementation of the “No Limits” campaign would have resources behind it. The President assured him that this effort would be provided with the necessary resources to maximize effectiveness. C. Hunter noted that he was impressed to hear the depth of the Trustee discussion surrounding this issue. E. Willis noted that the Trustees are in agreement on the “core” of the Grinnell education and experience and that we will now need to articulate this internally to gauge faculty response.

Dean’s Remarks

The Dean reported that the Academic Subcommittee of the Budget Committee is still working on the 2007-08 budget.

Council Remarks

E. Willis asked whether Council needs to take formal action since it proposed to dissolve the elementary education certification program next semester.

E. Willis announced that the Trustees will hear two presentations from faculty at their next meeting. One presentation will be made by faculty involved in SWAG (Scholarly
Women Achievement Group). The second presentation will be by Karla Erickson who will discuss her research with MAP students last summer.

C. Hunter noted that the resolution of the Social Studies Division concerning Strategy 6 had been distributed to Council.

Position Description for Athletic Director

C. Hunter moved, E. Willis seconded, approval of a position description for a new Athletic Director. The motion was approved.

Personnel Actions

Council acted on numerous personnel proposals including leave replacements, requests for unpaid leave, and proposals regarding tenure-track appointments.

The President left the meeting at 3:25 p.m.

Strategic Plan Performance Indicators

Marci Sortor joined the meeting at 3:30 p.m.

She distributed a document which presents the performance indicators for the Strategic Plan which have been agreed to by the Audit and Assessment Committee of the Board of Trustees. She reviewed the history of the development of these indicators. T. Roberts raised questions about the process by which the latest draft of metrics will be approved. He noted that last year the faculty were asked to devote substantial thought to a set of metrics focusing on the Strategic Plan. These were then rejected in favor of the current draft of much more general metrics. But the faculty has not been given the opportunity to offer substantial input on this later version, only to "tweak" it.

J. Meehan questioned the “why and to what end” of these particular performance indicators. E. Willis questioned the timing for implementing the assessment since large elements of the Strategic Plan will not have been put in place. C. Hunter noted that the reality of the situation is that the Board is exercising its responsibility in a way which it thinks is appropriate. It was agreed that in light of this reality a committee should be formed to examine the proposed metrics and make sure that they are properly articulated. Hunter noted that the Strategic Plan nomenclature will not work to satisfy the NCA reaccreditation needs which focus on our mission and not the Plan and thus assessment efficiency cannot be achieved. It was decided to constitute a committee which administrative and faculty representation to pursue this matter.

EKI Proposal

Sortor distributed a proposal from the EKI Advisory Board that identifies certain major issues associated with implementation of the EKI, particularly associated with the new interdisciplinary appointments, and proposes certain means of addressing those issues. She presented an overview and invited comment.

The meeting adjourned at 4:20 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese