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 November 28, 2007 were approved.

President’s Remarks

The President was traveling.

Dean’s Remarks

The Dean made several personnel announcements.

Council Remarks

E. Willis distributed a memorandum to Council from the Curriculum Committee regarding MAPs and the issue of faculty compensation for Independent Study. She noted that the Committee believes there is a need to address the issues surrounding verifying and assuring the quality of the many forms of Independent Study undertaken by faculty and students at Grinnell. The Committee believes that there is a need to compensate all that occurs beyond the requirements of the major which is seen as an overload. The Committee would like Council to make recommendations for limits on the number of Independent Study students that a faculty member could supervise during one semester and amount(s) of compensation for this supervision. S. Rebelsky noted that the view that any supervision of student work outside of the classroom teaching expectations (overload) has been reversed since he was first appointed. Willis replied that it is believed that compensation for MAPs is the driving force behind this reversal of faculty expectations. There was discussion. It was decided that this issue would be placed on the second semester Council agenda.

S. Rebelsky noted that while he appreciates Steve Briscoe’s e-note regarding chaining bicycles to handrails, he has received many complaints regarding the lack of bike racks. The Dean responded that Facilities Management is working to acquire additional racks.

B. Ferguson reported that he has received a request from the Chair of the History Department for an update on when information will be received on the status of the requests for term replacements. The Dean replied that he has been informed.

J. Cummins noted his extreme pleasure at the recent decrease in unwanted spam from his email and thanked the efforts of ITS in this regard.

J. Meehan noted that she has received inquiries regarding the schedule for computer replacement. The Dean replied that ITS has settled on a three to four year schedule depending on the working condition of the unit.

S. Rebelsky asked the Council to place the call for proposals for departmental position requests on the next agenda so that they can begin working on them over the winter break.

Leaves for Assistant Professors

E. Willis remarked that she is grateful for the President’s announcement that in 2009-10 there will be enough money for three Harris leaves to be awarded. She also noted that when asked about junior leave proposals for a full year leave the President had said to leave the procedure as is so that each proposal will be treated on individual merits and according to individual circumstances. There was discussion of the many issues surrounding such requests. Willis asked the Dean for comparative information regarding peer institution practice with regard to full year pre-tenure leaves. She believes that Council should have a discussion of the need to tie increased expectation for scholarly productivity to full year leaves. K. Jacobson also raised issues surrounding unspoken elevated expectations for teaching quality from untenured faculty. She believes Council should link this conversation to the 2+2 teaching load option for the first year. S. Rebelsky asked what process could be followed to pursue this. Jacobson suggested that such a change would require department buy-in, so perhaps that is a good first place to start an inquiry. The Dean stated that the departments would need to agree to give up courses that would have been taught and that those could not include tutorials or statistics. The Dean suggested that Division chairs meet with department chairs to see how they might adjust to this idea. Willis also suggested that pre-tenure faculty need strong mentoring and direct exposure to the teaching practices of established classroom teachers in order to learn better methods of instruction, particularly in leading discussion. She reminded Council that when this conversation took place last year Council had decided that a “best practices” document be produced for use by departments with new tenure-track faculty, but this had not been done yet. She hopes to take on this project this year.

The meeting adjourned at 3:10 p.m.

Secretary
Karen Wiese