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Attendance: Approximately 70
Announced Agenda: 4 items
President Malcolm Gillis called the meeting to order at 4:30 pm. Alan Chapman served as Parliamentarian. No guests from the Media were present.
1. Minutes of 10/21/99 Faculty Meeting - APPROVED as circulated (see Minutes).
2. Faculty Meeting By-laws -
Having been slightly amended (Stephen Baker) and APPROVED on FIRST READING at the 10/21/99 Faculty Meeting, the By-laws were brought up for discussion and SECOND READING by Faculty Council Speaker Bill Wilson. Bill said that Faculty Council had discussed the document and proposed an amendment to the Baker amendment that would shorten the first sentence of Article 3 Section 3.5 as follows:
"Agenda. The agenda for a meeting of the faculty is established by the President and the Speaker of the Faculty Council."
With very little discussion, the amendment was unanimously APPROVED.
The amended Faculty Meeting By-laws motion was then unanimously APPROVED on second reading. The final version is shown as ATTACHMENT A.
3. Non-thesis Master's Degrees -
To initiate the discussion, Gillis called on Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies Jordan Konisky to explain a statement he had placed in the General Announcements (p. 73) listing the requirements for a non-thesis masters degree that had not been approved. The non-thesis masters degree was approved on FIRST READING (of TWO required) at the 10/21/99 Faculty Meeting. Jordan apologized for his premature action and asked the faculty to "bail him out" by approving the degree program on SECOND READING. His detailed explanation to the faculty is shown as ATTACHMENT B.
In the absence of Chair of the Graduate Council Kate Beckingham, Moshe Vardi explained the rationale behind the non-thesis masters degree and led the discussion on the matter. He claimed that such a program is widely used in universities across the U.S. Gus Armeniades agreed that such a "professional" masters degree already exists at Rice in the School of Engineering under the heading of the various departments, e.g. a Master of Chemical Engineering (M.Ch.E.) or master of (other department name). He wondered if the needs of the social sciences for such a degree could be met in a similar way by calling the degree Master of Sociology or Master of some other discipline. Vardi said that such an idea had been carefully considered by the Graduate Council and rejected because it would be too cumbersome to try to keep up with a plethora of names. He sympathizes with the desire for consistency, but he has found that in fact there is very little consistency anywhere on this subject.
The question was called, and the full motion was APPROVED for the SECOND time by a vote that was almost unanimous. Herb Ward said he voted for the motion in order to "bail out" Jordan Konisky. [Hope he enjoyed the steak dinner!]
4. Other reports and announcements -
Gillis announced that the next meeting would be on Thursday, January 27, 2000.
There being no other business, upon a motion to adjourn the meeting was terminated at 4:43 PM. According to my recollections during the last 33 years, this may have been the shortest Faculty Meeting on record: 13 minutes!
Respectfully submitted,
Joe W. Hightower
Mark your calendars for the next meeting at 4:00 PM 01-27-00.
ATTACHMENT A
These bylaws are provided for the equitable and orderly conduct of business in meetings of the faculty of Rice University and in no way attempt to define or describe the governance structure of the University.
ARTICLE 1. MEMBERSHIP AND PARTICIPATION
1.1. Voting Members. Voting members in meetings shall consist of the following members of the faculty:
a. Tenured faculty whether full-time or part-time.
b. Untenured full-time professors, associate professors, and assistant professors.
c. Full-time lecturers and instructors with two or more years at Rice in these positions.
d. Part-time untenured professors; associate professors and assistant professors, designated as half-time or more, with two or more years of such service to Rice.
e. Research faculty, except such faculty shall not be eligible to vote on matters pertaining to tenure and exclusively to undergraduate curriculum affairs.
1.2. Attendance. In addition to the voting members, attendance at meetings is open to students, staff, and other interested persons unless the meeting is closed as provided in 1.4. Members of the media must identify themselves.
1.3. Participation. Privileges of the floor and participation in the business proceedings of a meeting are limited to voting members and those staff members whose special knowledge is required. Other attendees may speak upon the invitation of the chair or by a majority of the voting members.
1.4. Closed Meetings. A meeting may be closed by the declaration of the chair, or by a majority of the voting members upon the adoption of an undebatable motion to do so. In such a closed meeting only the voting members and such senior staff members as specified may remain in attendance.
ARTICLE 2. OFFICERS
The officers of a meeting of the faculty consist of:
2.1. Chair. The presiding officer, or chair, of all meetings shall be the President of Rice University and will conduct the meetings in accordance with the parliamentary authority specified in Article 4. When necessary the President may appoint the Provost or the Speaker of the Faculty Council to chair a meeting.
2.2. Secretary. At a regularly scheduled meeting, the faculty shall elect a Secretary to serve for a term of three years. The Secretary shall issue the notices of meetings of the faculty and shall keep minutes of all meetings. Generally, there will be no verbatim reporting of remarks and discussion, except when the Secretary deems this advisable, nor will professorial rank be recorded. The Secretary will deposit a complete set of the "Minutes of the Faculty" in the University Archives at the end of each academic year.
2.3. Parliamentarian. At a regularly scheduled meeting, the faculty shall elect a Parliamentarian to serve for a term of three years. The Parliamentarian shall advise the chair in its rulings in accordance with the adopted parliamentary authority.
ARTICLE 3. MEETINGS
3.1 Calendar. There shall be at least three general meetings of the faculty each academic year in addition to an end-of-the-year meeting for the conferral of degrees. Midyear degree conferral may occur at one of these three meetings, but if necessary an additional meeting may be held for this purpose. The dates of the meetings shall be determined by the President, in consultation with the University Council and Faculty Council as necessary. A notice of a meeting of the faculty, with agenda and any specific proposals, shall be issued by the Secretary at least three days prior to a scheduled meeting.
3.2. Special Meetings. A special meeting of the faculty, for a stated purpose, may be called by the presentation to the Secretary of a petition signed by at least 50 members of the voting faculty.
3.3. Quorum. At any general or special meeting a quorum shall consist of those voting members in attendance.
3.4. Order of Business. The order of business at a general meeting will usually be as follows:
a. Approval of minutes of the previous meeting.
b. Unfinished business.
c. Reports of special committees.
d. Reports of standing committees.
e. New business.
f. Announcements.
g. Adjournment.
3.5. Agenda. The agenda for a meeting of the faculty is established by the President and the Speaker of the Faculty Council. Individual voting members may propose business items to be introduced under the heading of New Business; however, if such proposals concern matters under the jurisdiction of a standing or special committee, such items will not be admitted as agenda but will be, instead, referred to the appropriate committee.
ARTICLE 4. PARLIAMENTARY AUTHORITY
The rules contained in the current edition of Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised shall be the parliamentary authority for the conduct of business at all meetings of the faculty. These rules shall be applied in all parliamentary questions to which they apply and which are not superseded by these bylaws and any special rules of order that the faculty may adopt.
ARTICLE 5. SPECIAL RULES OF ORDER
At a regularly called meeting, the faculty may adopt special rules of order to supersede those of the parliamentary authority by a two-thirds majority of the voting members provided that the proposed rule has been circulated with the agenda for the meeting. At any meeting, a special rule of order may be suspended for a single, stated, purpose by a two-thirds majority of the voting members.
ARTICLE 6. AMENDMENT OF BYLAWS AND SPECIAL RULES OF ORDER
These bylaws and any special rules of order may be amended at any regularly called meeting by a two-thirds majority of the voting members provided that the proposed amendment has been circulated with the agenda for the meeting. A proposed amendment may itself be amended at the meeting provided that the amendment-to-the amendment does not increase the modification contemplated by the original amendment.
SPECIAL RULES OF ORDER FOR MEETINGS OF THE FACULTY OF RICE UNIVERSITY
Superseding the rules of the parliamentary authority, the following special rules of order shall apply to meetings of the faculty:
1. Important Items. A matter before the faculty judged to be an "important item" shall be adopted after two hearings and two affirmative votes, at separate meetings. Significant matters of curriculum requirements and establishment of major courses of study are to be considered to be "important items". Other business may be made an "important item" by declaration of the chair or by a majority of the voting members acting on a motion to so designate. An "important item" that has been substantively amended between the two required votes shall require a third affirmative vote to become adopted. Whether an "important item" has been substantively amended shall be ruled by the chair.
2. Debate. Each voting member may speak twice for a maximum of five minutes, each time, on any main motion or applicable debatable secondary motion.
3. Voting. The methods of voting at a meeting shall be by voice, show of hands, secret ballot, and/or roll call according to the following procedures:
a. The chair shall determine whether to use voice voting. In the taking of a voice vote, if the chair is in doubt, or upon the request of any eligible voter, the chair shall retake the vote by a show of hands.
b. The chair shall determine whether to use voting by show of hands. In the taking of vote by show of hands, if the chair is in doubt, or upon the request of two or more eligible voters, the chair shall retake the vote and order it to be counted.
c. Voting by secret ballot shall be conducted only when so ordered by a majority of the eligible voting members voting on an undebatable motion to vote in that manner.
d. Voting by roll call shall be conducted only when so ordered by a majority of the eligible voting members voting on an undebatable motion to vote in that manner. If both a secret ballot and a roll call vote have been moved, the assembly will vote first on whether to take the vote by roll call.
ATTACHMENT B
LETTER TO FACULTY OF EXPLANATION FROM JORDAN KONISKY:
NON-THESIS MASTERS DEGREE
November 11, 1999
I write to clarify the confusion caused by the recent sequence of events that culminated in faculty consideration of a proposal to establish non-thesis master's degree programs. This proposal was presented to the whole faculty for approval at the Faculty Meeting on October 21, 1999.
After almost two years of discussion, the Graduate Council in late spring 1999 approved changes to the wording in the General Announcements on requirements for a Master's degree. These changes allowed for a non-thesis, non-professional Master's degree in all Departments. These changes were submitted to and approved by the Faculty Council late last academic year.
With approval in hand from both the Graduate Council and the Faculty Council, I proceeded to make changes in the General Announcements that reflected the new degree program. These appeared in the 1999-2000 General Announcements. I approved these changes in good faith and without realizing that additional approval was required by the University Council and the faculty as a whole.
Early this semester, University Council approved the changes and added a further small change in the requirements. It was that revised proposal that was submitted to the faculty on October 21, 1999.
Soon thereafter, it was pointed out to the Graduate Council and others that the non-thesis masters program approved last spring by the Graduate Council level had already been incorporated into the 1999-2000 General Announcements in apparent violation of university procedures. It is on the basis of that violation that I provide the faculty with an explanation of what took place.
I now urge the faculty to pass favorably upon the proposal to allow departments to develop non-thesis masters programs, a proposal that has been approved by the Graduate Council, the Faculty Council, the University Council, and by a first vote of the faculty as a whole on October 21, 1999.