Minutes of Faculty Council Meeting

31 January 2000 - 12:00 noon

Faculty Club

Present: Ambler, Bayazitoglu, Caldwell, Cox, Droxler, Patten, West, Wittenberg, Wiener, Wilson. Absent: Akin, Dailey, Dharan, Mutchler, Rea.

The agenda consisted of: (1) Approval of Minutes, (2) Bachelor of Science Degrees (3) Reinstatement of the Education Council, (4) Request from the AAUP, (5) Report from Appeals and Grievances, (6) Other Business

(1) Approval of Minutes: The Minutes of the November 25 Faculty Council Meeting were approved.

(2) Bachelor of Science Degrees in the Wiess School of Science: The request from Dean Kathy Matthews of the Wiess School of Science to establish Bachelor of Science degrees in several of the departments, as well to change the requirements for several of the Bachelor of Arts degrees, to make them more flexible, was discussed. Council unanimously approved the request, and moved to forward the proposal to University Council.

(3) Education Council: A request from Meredith Skura, Acting Chair of the Education Department to reinstate the Education Council was considered. The Education Council was removed at the recommendation of an ad hoc committee appointed in 1995 to review the status of then active standing committees. Professor Skura argues that the faculty engaged in determining teacher certification requirements for various fields, as well as advising certification candidates perform a reasonably substantial job, and should receive acknowledgement for having done important university service. After some discussion, Council voted to support the request, and to send it on to President Gillis for his consideration.

(4) AAUP Request: Council received a letter from Susan McIntosh of the local AAUP chapter requesting that Council look into three issues: 1) how much is Rice relying on part-time and non-tenure track for teaching duties across campus, and how has this changed over the years; 2) revision of section 8.c of Policy 201-97 which deals with termination of faculty resulting from the discontinuance of a department or program; and 3) a review of the Research Misconduct Policy (324-99) insofar as it is somewhat vague in its interface to 201-97 and the three-stage process for dealing with severe sanctions outlined in the Faculty Council's Procedures for Investigating Accusations Warranting Severe Sanctions, Including Dismissal, Against Faculty Members. Issues 2) and 3) were referred to the Policy Subcommittee for consideration. Wilson will appoint an ad hoc subcommittee to look into the first issue.

(5) Other Business: Council received a report from the Appeals and Grievances Committee.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:15 p.m.

Bill Wilson, Acting Secretary