Present: J. Cummins, B. Ferguson, K. Jacobson, J. Meehan, R. Osgood, S. Rebelsky, J. Swartz, E. Willis

The meeting came to order at 4:15 p.m. in room 226 of the Rosenfield Student Center.

The minutes and excerpts from January 30, 2008 were approved.

President’s Remarks

The President noted that the Board of Trustees is due in Grinnell for their annual February meetings. They are expected to adopt the proposed budget, which shows an increase in the base budget as we implement more of the Strategic Plan. E. Willis asked how many positions are available in that budget to be allocated in April by Council for either EKI or departmental expansion requests. The President responded that we have (pursuant to the Strategic Plan) budgeted for three EKI-related positions and at least one non-EKI position projected per year for the next three years. We have also added, in some years, more than the budget projected to meet a diversity opportunity or in light of special circumstances.

He reminded Council members of the reception planned at 1205 Park Street on Friday.

Dean’s Remarks

The Dean updated Council on the status of faculty searches.

The Dean noted that off-campus study applications are normal this year (250 semester applications overall, but that there are 52 applications for Grinnell in London).

He mentioned that Henry Reitz will be visiting Council next week to bring a proposal regarding the engagement of various constituencies of the College community with the reaccreditation Self Study.

Council Remarks

Willis met with the early career faculty group today and that they see an issue with recommendations of Council that department chairs share review letters with those who have been reviewed after the review is complete. The group did an informal survey last year and found that as many as 20% of department chairs do not do this. Council decided that this subject should be added to a faculty meeting agenda for discussion this semester.

E. Willis urged the Dean to quickly make the changes to the proposed Faculty Handbook language governing interdisciplinary appointment reviews as agreed to in the recent faculty meeting. The President thought that this could be brought to the Trustees within two weeks.
Council members discussed inconsistency of adherence by departments regarding standards/processes put in place to obtain a diverse pool of candidates. The President offered to talk with the Diversity Officer about enforcing those standards.

Rebelsky reported on confusion among the EKI Advisory Board members regarding the number of positions included in the current year budget earmarked for EKI appointments vs. expansion appointments.

J. Meehan realized that there are various department chair practices for sharing the candidate interview comments of Council members with the members of their departments, noting the potential for a chair to steer members of the department in one way or another without benefit of full information. The President also complained that dossiers are not uniformly complete noting that there is inconsistency in the inclusion of transcripts and letters of reference. He urged the Dean to take the necessary actions to address these issues.

Executive Council noted the very high quality of candidates for faculty positions.

E. Willis noted that she had received email regarding the inconsistent practice/policy with regard to staff and faculty options for taking snow days without taking personal leave in bad weather. The President suggested that the answer to this problem is to change the academic calendar to build in a certain number of reading days which could be cancelled without adversely affecting the classroom schedules.

Consideration of Proposals for Tenure-Track Offers

All approvals were obtained electronically.

Consideration of CFD Proposals

The Executive Council discussed two CFD proposals.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:00 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese