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

The meeting came to order at 1:15 p.m. in Room 203 in the Rosenfield Student Center.

The minutes and excerpts from September 5, 2007 were approved.

President’s Remarks

The President noted that the Les Duke Invitational was held over the past weekend and was an excellent event. He thanked Will and Evelyn Freeman for what they do to organize this event each year.

He reminded Council that September 15 is the last day for nominations for Academic Dean. He will arrange for each candidate that is going forward to meet with Council privately. He has also heard from a number of faculty members concerning the shape of the Dean’s Office and he would like to meet with Council privately on this matter as well. S. Rebelsky asked if the Trustees vote to approve the recommendation of the President. The President responded that this is the procedure.

Dean’s Remarks

The Dean asked for Council approval of the Call for Proposals from departments and concentrations for Mellon Postdoctoral Fellows. Council approved.

The Dean noted that there are a large number of complete and tenure reviews to be carried out this fall.

He reviewed the items on the Faculty Meeting agenda for September 17th which currently includes election of two faculty to sit on the Personnel Appeals Board and a review of activities of the EKI by Marci Sortor. Council members suggested that a discussion of proposed changes in the use of end-of-course evaluations in the merit salary decisions of the Faculty Budget Committee be added to the agenda as part of what will become a larger discussion of the salary process.

There was a discussion of faculty voting which included questions about what constitutes a “regular” faculty member, implications for Faculty Handbook revision, and development of conflict of interest policy relating to faculty voting. It was decided that this could not be brought before the Trustees for consideration at their October meeting since the conceptual framework and appropriate language for crafting proposed Handbook changes still needs to be worked out. The President suggested that he, the Dean, E. Willis, and S. Rebelsky meet to work out draft language that can be given to the College lawyer for review with the intention to bring this to the Trustees for consideration of approval at their winter meeting.

The Dean noted that he has been working on the various issues experienced by many faculty and students during the fall registration process, including special issues concerning first-year students, the process of assigning students to registration groups by ascending numerical order, establishing priorities for students in courses that overfill, changing the add-drop notification requirements, etc.

The Dean stated that he will be attending a meeting of the Deans of the Independent Colleges of Iowa on Thursday. He will be meeting separately with the Deans of Luther, Cornell, and Coe Colleges about establishing a collaborative program of Arabic language instruction. This would be centered at Grinnell and made possible by the appointment of an Arabic language instructor at Grinnell and installation of video-conferencing technologies at the other three institutions.

Council Remarks

S. Rebelsky noted that he has heard from many people that the second-year retreat went very well and he commended all who worked to make that successful. The President stated that he had read all of the student evaluations and was very pleased with their overwhelmingly positive reaction to being offered the opportunity to think reflectively about their education with those from Career Development, alumni, and faculty participation.

Rebelsky noted that the Science Division requests that Council consider the significant problems at registration, particularly the problem that insufficiently many slots in introductory courses are available to meet the needs of our individually mentored curriculum. Rebelsky noted that although Curriculum Committee will be considering the registration process, Council can consider related issues such as expanding faculty lines. For example, Council might consider the possibility of adding faculty in areas of the curriculum which need to serve large numbers of students at the introductory level. Both B. Ferguson and J. Cummins echoed that concern on behalf of the social studies and humanities division faculty. The Dean reported that he intends to report on how we got to our current enrollment which exceeds our projected target for three years from now. The President noted that next year’s target will be reduced by approximately 20 students. E. Willis alerted Division Chairs that the Curriculum Committee will be bringing a discussion of this issue to the Division meetings soon and the Chairs should be prepared to allocate sufficient time for a lengthy discussion.

J. Meehan asked the President if there has been any progress on dealing with the lack of a sufficient number of coat hooks outside of the dining hall. He responded that he was unaware of such detail, but would look into it.

S. Rebelsky asked why the College Catalog is not distributed to upper-level students. The Dean responded that this action was taken at the request of student environmental groups which claimed that the Catalog was simply being thrown away and unnecessary distribution represented a serious waste of resources. The President noted that anyone who wishes to have a Catalog can pick one up at the Student Affairs Office.

Council Review of Key Public Relations Material

E. Willis volunteered for this assignment because she also sits on the Admission and Financial Aid Committee which is the group that does much of this review so there would be no learning curve for her.

Change to Faculty Handbook on Appointments made at the Associate Professor Rank

The Dean distributed suggested changes to the Faculty Handbook. He reviewed the rationale for the changes regarding the probationary period and the objective of achieving greater flexibility when appointments are made at the Associate Professor level. There was discussion about the time to tenure review with such appointments. The Dean urged Council maintain flexibility by not codifying this in the Handbook and leaving it to the negotiation between the Dean and the incoming faculty member upon initial appointment. E. Willis noted that since the position advertisement template has been changed for all ads to include “Appointment at the Associate level is also possible” it is urgent to make these decisions now. Council agreed to take this to the next possible faculty meeting so that it will be possible for the President to present it to the Trustees in October. The Dean will send this draft language to the College lawyer for review.

Use of End-of-Course Evaluations in the Faculty Salary Process

E. Willis reviewed the proposed changes to the use of the end-of-course evaluations by the Faculty Budget Committee. A memorandum will be offered to the faculty member who is writing a context statement and to the department chair who is writing the letter which provides a list of examples of activity that should be presented to the Budget Committee that would help them assign merit scores. Such a list might include innovation and use of classroom materials. J. Cummins urged making this information available to department chairs immediately since many are now preparing to engage in this process. Members of the Budget Committee also plan to meet with these department chairs to review the changes in the process.

The President left the meeting at 3:00 p.m.

Academic Year Council Meeting Agenda Items

E. Willis would like to make discussion of the future role and/or continuing existence of the Interdisciplinary Advisory Board beyond the projected five-year term of the EKI. K. Jacobson again urged prioritization of resolution of registration problems. The Dean responded by asking Council to identify which issues it would like to discuss so that information specific to that issue can be collected for an efficient analysis and discussion. B. Ferguson urged Council to take on the task of long-term academic planning and not become bogged down by constantly emerging issues.

The meeting adjourned at 3:25 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese