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

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

The minutes and excerpts from October 17, 2007 were approved.

President’s Remarks

The President was not in attendance.

Dean’s Remarks

The Dean noted that Council would soon have a revised interdisciplinary proposal for a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow. E. Willis noted that since this is an interdisciplinary proposal the usual procedure for designation of the mentoring arrangements in the proposal to Council will need to be suspended until the actual candidate is identified so that an appropriate departmental home can be also identified.

He noted that he has recently had a meeting with members of the Communications Office on the subject of how we can better communicate faculty accomplishments. We have various audiences, variation of demand for timeliness, and other issues to be dealt with. He reported on an idea which he presented at that meeting which involves creating a web-based system for allowing faculty to share scholarly and/or non-scholarly accomplishments of our faculty. This idea was embraced by Council with the understanding that the operation of such a system is completely unknown at this time.

He distributed a draft of the agenda for the 11/15/07 faculty meeting.

Council Remarks

E. Willis noted that she had recently had a meeting with Charles Powell and Severin Roberts regarding improving communications between the Office of Development and the faculty. She reported that he wants to talk about faculty culture. She thought there are faculty who would like to have a more active relationship with Development and Alumni operations of the College. He asked her how to go about building this relationship. Willis suggested that perhaps the first step would be a meeting with the Council outside of a regular Council meeting to explore what is desirable from both perspectives and identify different ways into this new frontier.

K. Jacobson reported having heard numerous complaints from department chairs regarding the limited amount of time allowed between receiving the request for department budgets and the deadline for submission. This was particularly true for the request for a five-year outlook which was determined by most to be impossible to accomplish in such a limited period of time.

Music Department Proposal

There was discussion of a request for interviews by the Music Department. The request was approved.

Mathematics and Statistics Department Staffing Proposal

There was discussion of a proposal for a term appointment to be made in the Department due to an unplanned resignation. The proposal was approved.

Compensation for Leave without Pay

The Dean noted that occasionally we have requests from faculty members for leave without pay ranging from a one course reduction to a full year. Pay has been reduced proportionately at a rate of 20% per course. The application for leave without pay comes to Council for a recommendation. The Dean has communicated with colleagues at two sets of similar institutions (ACM and Mellon 8 Group) and asked for their practice in this regard. The majority of respondents follow a policy similar to that of Grinnell. The Dean brought this practice to Council for discussion. J. Cummins asked what guidance is provided by the faculty handbook. The Dean responded that the only requirements are that a faculty member must have been teaching continuously for two years and be in the fourth year of appointment, however there have been exceptions to this policy over the years depending on the situation. Cummins thought that this brings several issues to light: money, what reasons are considered legitimate, who decides, and the need for term faculty as replacements. Cummins asked whether this policy should distinguish between untenured and tenured faculty. The Dean argued against establishing a firm policy. E. Willis worried that without a policy in place there may be questions raised regarding the lack of transparency of this process of decision-making. K. Jacobson noted that there are issues of fairness involved where different faculty members find themselves more or less able to afford a pay cut. There was discussion. The Dean noted that Wellesley College has a requirement that requests for pre-tenure scholarly leave be preceded by the submission of three external proposals. E. Willis connected this issue with the unresolved issue of the Harris leave program and called for this discussion as an agenda item for the next Council meeting. Council will revisit many of these issues at a subsequent meeting.

The meeting adjourned at 3:15 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese