Minutes of Faculty Council Meeting

10 November 1998 - 12:00 noon

A227 Abercrombie

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

The agenda consisted of: (1) Curriculum Review (2) Spousal Hiring Policy, (3) Promotion and Tenure Procedures, (4) Salary Report, (5) Academic Freedom Statement.

(1) Curriculum Review: Council discussed the ramifications of the vote against the proposed curriculum changes on the second reading. Among the points considered were:

A. The foreign language competency requirement, which passed, was written to complement the new curriculum. How will this impact the present curriculum?

B. Perhaps the RobertÕs Rules of Order is not the best way to handle a vote on curriculum.

C. A different set of rules other than the ones currently in place should be developed; the status quo is not really viable.

D. It was suggested that an objective means of getting suggestions and comments should be in place before developing a proposal. However, it was pointed out that the present committee went to great lengths to do that before starting their deliberations.

E. What are the incoherencies with which we are now faced? As Aranda serves on the Committee on the Undergraduate Curriculum, he will get their help in determining the answer to this question.

There was a consensus that action is warranted and that Council would like to support and work with the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee to come up with a new proposal; the curriculum needs more than a band-aid. Wilson will talk with Gerald McKenny, chair of the Committee on the Undergraduate Curriculum, to express CouncilÕs support, and to explore ways in which we can work together on this issue.

(2) Spousal Hiring Policy: A spousal hiring subcommittee of the Affirmative Action Committee is being formed and they, along with Faculty Council's Policy Committee, will meet with Kathy Keneally. The Affirmative Action Committee subcommittee will be primarily interested in the effect of spousal hiring on affirmative action. The Policy Committee will seek Keneally's help in obtaining additional information that will shed light on a wider range of issues. The two subcommittees will prepare a joint report that includes recommendations for revisions to draft documents on spousal hiring produced in the summer.

(3) Guidelines for Faculty Appointments, Promotion, Tenure and Renewal of Contracts: At the previous Faculty Council meeting, 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. They specifically addressed two issues: (a) the deanÕs authority to prevent a departmentÕs recommendation from going forward to P&T, and (b) the solicitation of opinions other than those gathered by the department. After the last meeting, Wilson talked with the provost and came to the conclusion that on the first issue, (a) above, the deans and faculty have been operating under different perceived guidelines. After a lengthy discussion, Council decided to invite David Auston to its next meeting in order to get a better understanding of the situation, and to have an opportunity to express the feelings of Council on these issues.

(4) Salary Report: The Report on Faculty Salaries and Compensation, 1997-98 was distributed and discussed. It was suggested that in the future it would be helpful if there were a way to measure the purchasing power of salaries - not just how we are doing relative to other universities but also how we are doing relative to inflation. It was also pointed out that there is not information on how men and womenÕs salaries compare. At one time women were behind and there was an effort to correct this inequity; how do women stand now? Gibson wanted to look into one possible error in the report. After this has been done, the report will be distributed to the faculty.

(5) Academic Freedom Statement: Last spring Council asked Tom Haskell to prepare a draft of a statement about academic freedom for the Faculty Handbook. This statement was distributed and Wilson asked council to read it, email any suggestions or recommendations to him, and be prepared to discuss it at the next meeting.

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

Joan Reid, Secretary