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Attendance: 19 persons
1. Minutes of the previous meeting
2. Calendar for Academic Year 1999-2000
3. Report of the Provost on the Work of the Promotion and Tenure Committee
4. Report on the Work of the Ad Hoc Committee on Dismissal Procedures
The President called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. in Sewall Hall Room 301. The faculty approved the minutes of the last meeting and the proposed calendar for 1999-2000. They also listened to reports on the current work of the Promotion and Tenure Committee, the drafting and review process of the Ad Hoc Committee on Dismissal and Sanction Procedures, and Honor Council violations.
Minutes of the December 04, 1996 meeting were approved.
The calendar for the academic year 1999-2000 was approved. Stan Dodds asked that proposed calendars be distributed in advance in the future so that review could be more efficient. The President agreed to do that in the future.
The Promotion and Tenure Committee, having finished its work reviewing dossiers, is preparing a revised draft of Policy 201 on appointments, promotion, and tenure. This draft will be discussed by the Faculty Council, the deans, and department chairs on April 17th and at a meeting of the full faculty on April 30th. Should this meeting be insufficient for a satisfactory discussion, other meetings may be held.
The Committee is focusing on developing a well-defined process that will ensure due process for all faculty. The Ad Hoc Committee's work is not related to tenure review debates currently going on in various states, including Texas. Rice University currently reviews tenured full professors every five years. These reviews do not involve external review letters and are conducted by department chairs who send their letters to their deans. The reviews are intended to ensure professional development of tenured faculty. David Minter, who is a member of the Ad Hoc Committee, affirmed that the procedures proposed are not related to teaching performance or other issues at stake in the state legislatures' discussions.
Patty Bass updated the 10-year report on Honor Council violations prepared last year by Sarah Burnett. Rice University participates in a national survey of academic integrity at both public and private universities, some of which have honor codes. By comparison, Rice University's honor system is highly successful. Only a small number of violations occur each year, and far more of them occur among first-year students than among juniors and seniors, which can be interpreted to mean that students who do not come from cultures that prize academic integrity learn to value the Rice honor system. A few skeptics offered contrary interpretations, but Alan Grob pointed out that the very small number of cases cannot be statistically significant. David Minter concluded that unless we were prepared to conduct a very different kind of study, the skeptics' assumptions about the number of violators who were not apprehended could not be addressed. Patty Bass commented that working with the students who are involved with administering the process has encouraged her about the success of the honor system.
The President announced that the Board has approved for the School of Humanities the construction of an additional facility and renovation of existing space. It also approved the eventual renovation of Dell Butcher Hall for research and classroom space in the life sciences. Everyone applauded the good news.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Linda P. Driskill, Secretary of the Faculty