Faculty Council
Tuesday, October 26, 2004, 12:00 p.m.
Cohen House, Esther M. Cohen Dining Room
Present: Marj Corcoran, Steve Crowell, Lynne
Huffer (Speaker), Donald Morrison, Nancy Niedzielski, Matteo Pasquali, Bob
Patten (Deputy Speaker), Patricia Reiff, David Scott, Herb Ward and Mark
Wiesner. Absent Jose
Aranda, John Casbarian, Vicki Colvin, Rebekah Drezek and Caroline Quenemoen. Guests: Joe Davidson, Office of
the General Council.
(1) Minutes: The minutes from the
September 21, 2004 meeting were approved.
Minutes from October 14, 2004 are under review in the Presidentıs Office
and will be approved at the next meeting.
(2) Copyright policy: Joe Davidson from the
Office of the General Council presented a proposed revision of the copyright
policy to replace paragraphs 11-15 of policy 303-90. This copyright policy does not cover Patents and Software,
which is covered by Rice Policy 333.
Davidson gave a brief summary and explanation of
the copyright policy, which divides Rice employees and students into four main
categories for classification.
Davidson described each of the categories and how the copyright policy
pertains to each of these employee classifications. After review and
discussion, a motion was made and seconded to forward the copyright policy to
University Council with expressly defined amendments. The motion passed with one member opposing.
(3) Statistics for midterm renewals: A report of statistics on Midterm renewal,
provided by the Provostıs Office, was distributed to members of Faculty
Council. There were no
non-renewals for the period evaluated. These statistics will continue to be
reviewed and tracked by Faculty Council.
(4) Update on Governance Task Force: The Task Force on
Faculty and Shared Governance has completed the study of governance at Rice
University and is prepared to present their findings in a report to Faculty
Council at the next business meeting on November 9, 2004.
(5) Report on 10/11 meeting with Leebron
& Levy: Huffer
summarized items discussed at her meeting with Leebron and Levy. Results from this meeting include: (a)
an ad-hoc committee to be established to research a e-mail privacy policy, (b)
Leebron to discuss the nepotism/conflict of interest policy with University
Council and then report back to Faculty Council and (c) a decision about
on-site childcare will be made by the Presidentıs Office by Spring 2005.
(6) Recommendation to move last Faculty
meeting: Faculty
Council received a suggestion to move the last Faculty meeting of the year from
Friday to Thursday. After discussion, Faculty Council chose to not endorse the
change in meeting day, keeping the last Faculty meeting on Friday.
(7) Honor Council Appeals Board Assignments: Appointments to the
Honor Council Appeals Board were deferred to a future business meeting.
(8) Elimination of Ph.D. in Systems Theory: Graduate Council
recommended the elimination of the Ph.D. degree in Systems Theory. Faculty
Council agreed that formal discontinuance of a degree should follow the same
process as degree approvals. A
motion was made, seconded and approved to forward the elimination of the Ph.D.
in Systems Theory to the University Council.
(9) Adjournment: The meeting was
adjourned at 1:30 p.m., with the next Faculty Council business meeting
scheduled for Tuesday, November 9, 2004.
Sarah Holloman
Executive Assistant