Minutes of Faculty Council Meeting

22 October 1998 - 12:00 noon

Faculty Club

Present: Wilson (speaker), Akin, Aranda, Bayazitoglu, Caldwell, Cox, Driskill, Ghorbel, Gibson, Yunis. Guest: Helena Michie. Absent: Dharan, Meade, Patten, Rea, Wittenberg.

The agenda consisted of: (1) SpeakerÕs Announcements (2) Spousal Hiring Policy, (3) Guidelines for Faculty Appointments, Promotion, Tenure and Renewal of Contracts.

(1) SpeakerÕs Announcements: The minutes of the previous meeting had been previously approved by electronic mail. Wilson informed Council of the following:

(A) The matter of awarding degrees in December as well as May will be brought before the faculty at a future faculty meeting. It is likely that honors would still be given in May, but it is helpful to students in their job search to have their degrees awarded in December.

(B) Tony Gorry has reported to the Administration that our Year 2000 program is well under way and seems to be in order.

(C) The next Faculty Council meeting will be held at noon on November 10, place to be determined.

Wilson asked for a volunteer to serve on the University Committee on Faculty and Staff Benefits. Ed Cox will serve during the fall semester and Carl Caldwell during the spring semester.

(2) Spousal Hiring Policy: Helena Michie, the University Committee on Affirmative Action co-chair, accepted CouncilÕs invitation to participate in the discussion of this subject. Although affirmative action is only one issue considered in making recommendations concerning spousal hiring policy, it is an important one, and Council wants input from this committee. During the discussion, it was decided that more research is needed regarding the effects of spousal hiring on diversity at Rice. It was thought that this information might be available statistically. At the next Affirmative Action Committee meeting, Michie will present various points as they relate to affirmative action to determine the committeeÕs opinions on both procedural guidelines and a policy document. After their meeting, CouncilÕs subcommittee on Policy will meet with them to get their feedback.

(3) Guidelines for Faculty Appointments, Promotion, Tenure and Renewal of Contracts: Council reviewed the October 19, 1998 Revised Draft of "Guidelines for Faculty Appointments, Promotion, Tenure and Renewal of Contracts" being developed by the P&T Committee. Two specific issues were discussed. These two issues dealt with the deanÕs authority to prevent a departmentÕs recommendation from going forward to P&T and the solicitation of opinions other than those gathered by the department. After a discussion of these two points, Wilson asked for a straw vote on how many Council members thought the deans should be required to advance the dossiers of all candidates recommended by their department for promotion. All eight members still in attendance agreed that this should be the policy. They also agreed that all supplementary opinions should be seen by the candidateÕs departmental colleagues who would be invited to write responses that would accompany the supplementary letters to P&T.

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

Joan Reid,

Secretary