WILLIAM MARSH RICE UNIVERSITY

Minutes of the Faculty Meeting

March 12, 1998

1. Minutes

2. Academic calendars for the academic year 2000-01

3. Proposal to revise Faculty Council By-Laws and to establish a procedure to implement Policy 201-97, Sections 8a and 8b

4. Report on the Rice-Bremen educational initiative

5. Announcements

1. Minutes

Minutes of the February 3, 1998 meeting were approved.

2. Academic calendars for the academic year 2000-01

The academic calendar for the academic year 2000-01 will contain 70 days in the fall and 67 days in the spring, thereby falling close to the mean number of days per semester, 67.76. Walter Isle's motion to approve was seconded by Bill Wilson. The motion passed. At the end of the meeting a question was raised about aligning Rice University's spring holiday schedule with Houston Independent School District's calendar to make the university schedule more congenial to families, a practice that has been discussed in the past as a worthy goal.

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3. Proposal to revise Faculty Council By-Laws and to establish a procedure to implement Policy 201-97, Sections 8a and 8b

Walter Isle, Speaker of Faculty Council, reopened the discussion of the draft of the procedure to be used in implementing Policy 201-97, Sections 8a and 8b, and the draft of changes to Faculty Council By-Laws. He reviewed the changes that were approved in February (see the minutes of February 3, 1998 for the exact changes).

A motion was made and seconded to approve the proposed changes to the Faculty Council By-Laws. This motion was passed.

The proposed procedures for implementing Sections 8a and 8b of Policy 201-97 were then discussed. Jane Chance reported that her comparison of the revised procedures and the AAUP model regulations agreed in most respects. However, termination for medical reasons is not included in the Rice documents (either in the policy or the procedures). She initially stated that she would like to make a motion to include the language from the AAUP model regulations in the Rice procedures, but in the subsequent discussion, the group concluded that termination for medical reasons does not fall under accusations warranting sanctions. A modification of the policy to cover this matter will be needed in the future. A vote was not taken on this issue, but consensus appeared to have been reached that once Policy 201-97 is amended, Faculty Council will develop procedures to ensure that faculty who are being terminated for medical reasons enjoy due process. Tom Haskell pointed out that in the future it will also be necessary to develop a policy on how the University will proceed if financial exigency causes a department or program to be dismantled.

In the interest of ensuring that a faculty member has a hearing panel made up of his or her peers, Jane Chance moved to delete the last clause of the first sentence in item 4 in the procedures document:

Any faculty member presented with charges such as those described in 3c will have the right to be heard by a Hearing Panel made up of five faculty members, none of whom is serving as an administrator above the department chair level.

This motion received no second and therefore was not voted on.

Jane Chance also moved to change the word "or" to "and/or" in the next to the last sentence of item (3) in the Procedures so that in stage three an accused faculty member could be represented by both an attorney and a faculty advisor or by either one of these two if the faculty member chose. This motion passed.

Jane Chance also moved to insert in the Procedures at an appropriate place a sentence from the American Association of University Professors' publication, "Recommended Institutional Regulations on Academic Freedom and Tenure," distributed at the meeting. The sentence to be added reads as follows: "At the request of either party or the hearing committee, a representative of a responsible educational association will be permitted to attend the proceedings as an observer." Chance accepted a proposal to substitute the word "appropriate" for "responsible" as a friendly amendment. This motion received equal numbers of positive and negative votes. Walter Isle, Speaker of Faculty Council, said that in view of the small number of faculty in attendance and the apparent split in opinion that Faculty Council would closely consider the addition of this sentence in preparing the final draft of the procedures.

Isle then called for an expression of the sense of the faculty. Approvals greeted the Faculty Council's work.

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4. Report on the Rice-Bremen educational initiative

Provost David Auston reported that a group from Rice made a trip in late November to Bremen, Germany to discuss the sponsoring group's proposal that a prestigious US university establish a branch campus in Bremen (all German universities are now state supported). The Rice delegation convinced the sponsors that a consortium of private US universities should act in an advisory capacity for a new private university in Germany. Rice University's proposal has drawn widespread public attention, and a delegation from Bremen recently visited Rice.

Details of this project are being formulated. The proposed private university would serve an international student body and most of the instruction would take place in English. The institution would follow a US system of curriculum, which would make it easier for US students to go there. Close to 30 percent of Rice undergraduates already choose to study abroad for one year, but only a small number of these students now come from science and engineering fields. The Bremen experiment will address some of the problems science and engineering students now face. Rice University is seeking to establish a consortium of private schools to participate in the advisory process. Several Rice faculty have enquired about going to Bremen to teach or collaborate on research. An appropriate facility already exists, so that the school can begin operating without facing long delays for construction of new facilities. Because Bremen is a city state, approval and implementation processes may be more rapid than in other parts of Germany.

Other groups have already contacted Rice about developing similar institutions; the idea seems to meet a need for producing more broadly educated experts in Germany who could ensure the flexibility of the German economy. Rice University representatives who have participated in this process are enthusiastic about the future of this collaboration.

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5. Announcements

• Response cards for commencement will be sent out soon. Last year 90 faculty members did not show up, and this situation caused serious problems for the marshals. Faculty should respond promptly to make the work of the marshals easier, since a larger than usual crowd is expected this year. Some members of the graduating classes during World War II were called to active duty without attending commencement and those individuals have been invited to return to participate in the 1998 commencement. Further, because Kurt Vonnegut will be the speaker; additional members of the community and alumni are expected at commencement.
  
  
• The Committee on Committees has concluded its work and sent its recommendations to President Gillis, who will make appointments.
  
  
• Ira Gruber announced the pending publication of the first edition of the Faculty Handbook and reported that an ongoing committee will be appointed to continually update the on-line version and periodically publish the printed version. He thanked all those who had submitted suggestions. Those present gave Ira and his committee a round of applause.

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