Committee on Faculty Governance (CFG)
Annual Report 2002-2003
The Committee on Faculty Governance (CFG) met 29 times in regular session
during the academic year 2002-2003. In addition, CFG convened the Committee
of Committees on three occasions, had a joint meeting with CAPT to discuss
the presidential search, and participated in joint meetings with the
Governance Advisory Council (GAC) in order to meet with both presidential
finalists. In addition to conducting its routine business (Faculty Handbook
maintenance, committee elections and appointments, replacing committee
members as necessary, etc.), CFG dealt with numerous issues, among them:
THE PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH
Following President Studley's resignation announcement in late October,
it fell to CFG and CAPT to oversee faculty participation in the presidential
search process. CFG immediately convened the Committee of Committees
(on October 29) and that group formulated and sent to the faculty for
its November meeting three resolutions related to the resignation and
search: a resolution of thanks to President Studley, a resolution of
thanks and support to Dean Joseph, and a proposal concerning the method
by which faculty representatives would be selected for the search committee.
Also during this period the CFG chair, Gove Effinger, kept in close
contact with Sue Thomas (Chair of the Board) and John Howley (Chair
of the Search Committee) concerning the composition of the committee
and the selection of a professional search consultant. CFG (together
with CAPT) oversaw the process by which 4 faculty were then selected
for the search committee. Once that committee was in place (early December),
CFG's role in the process diminished somewhat, but Jeff Segrave (a faculty
representative on the search committee) acted as liaison from that committee
to CFG and reported frequently to CFG. Finally, CFG was active in planning
the on-campus visits of the two finalists in late April and early May.
CFG wishes to acknowledge the wonderful guidance provided the 1999 CFG
Report on Presidential Searches during this whole process. This current
CFG plans to provide a similar document concerning the latest search,
but we will not be able to improve very much on what was already there
in the 1999 report. The smoothness of this latest search has been due
at least in part to the thoroughness of that document.
ISSUES CONCERNING COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP AND AD HOC COMMITTEES
Several tricky issues arose during the year concerning the need (or
lack thereof) for ad hoc committees and proper constituting of committee
memberships. Most prominent were problems concerning the Benefits Committee,
whose composition continues at the time of writing this report to be
unresolved. Early in the academic year, the question of whether an ad-hoc
group was needed to address pressing issues involving benefits and compensation
arose, and CFG urged that if at all possible these issues be addressed
within the existing committee structure (i.e., with FPPC and Benefits).
To this point that has been the case - no ad-hoc group has been needed.
A related issue concerned the appointment by President Studley of the
tenured faculty member of IPC to be the committee's Vice-Chair. After
some discussion, CFG approved of this arrangement, but its future will
of course depend upon the new president (who chairs IPC).
FACULTY PARTICIPATION IN THE GOVERNANCE SYSTEM
This perennial problem continues to occupy CFG's attention. The "White
Paper" written by the 2001-2 CFG, which among other things suggested
a formal system of rewards for service to the college, was not followed
up directly by this CFG, but the concerns and ideas expressed there
were central to discussions of the possible Mellon Faculty Development
Grant still being worked on. Actual response to CFG's requests for willingness
to serve were mixed but (as usual) below what we would hope. On the
positive side, fully 19 faculty were willing to vie for the 4 slots
on the presidential search committee, but on the negative only one came
forward for the annual slot on FPPC and we were barely able to staff
next year's CAPT when 3 replacements were needed. It seems pretty clear
that faculty will be willing to serve if they see that something specific
and positive will be accomplished (e.g. presidential search) but are
hesitant if it may be time wasted (e.g. FPPC) or just plain too much
work (e.g. CAPT). For this reason CFG plans to continue addressing the
issues of adequate rewards for service and of making sure, as much as
possible, that committees do actually have hope of accomplishing useful
things. Since FPPC has been a constant source of complaint in this area
over several years, CFG is currently doing a comparative study of similar
committees at our peer institutions and hopes to have some specific
recommendations concerning that committee during the coming year. Finally,
CFG continues to look at ways in which committee membership requirements
may in certain cases be made less stringent in order to widen the field
of potential candidates for membership.
OTHER ISSUES AND THE YEAR AHEAD
CFG organized two "faculty-only" discussion sessions during
the year and intends to do so again in 2003-4. A question is whether
two such meetings per year are adequate, or whether there should be
two per semester. In a similar vein, CFG had discussed the idea of "community
wide" discussion sessions, but none were planned last year. One
difficulty CFG has with such sessions is the possible inappropriateness
of a faculty committee organizing them. If not CFG, however, who? CFG
also intended at several points this year to discuss the issue of course
releases (for various types of service) with Dean Joseph, but transition
issues kept trumping such discussions. Though new issues inevitably
arise as any new year progresses, this coming year's CFG will concentrate
its efforts (beyond its routine ones) on communication with the President
Glotzbach about the governance system, preparation for a search for
Chuck Joseph's replacement, and efforts to improve the functioning of
key committees, especially FPPC and Benefits.
CFG 2002-3 MEMBERSHIP
Mark Huibregtse, Math and CS
Lary Opitz, Theater (Fall)
Mary Stange, Philosophy and Religion (Spring)
Kate Leavitt, Art and Art History
Gove Effinger, Math and CS, Chair
Susan Kress, English
Katie Hauser, Art and Art History
CFG 2003-4 MEMBERSHIP
Kate Leavitt, Art and Art History
Gove Effinger, Math and CS
Katie Hauser, Art and Art History, Chair
Mary Stange, Philosophy and Religion
John Anzalone, Foreign Languages and Literatures
Joanna Zangrando, American Studies (Spring)
Tim Burns, Government (Fall)
Respectfully submitted, Gove Effinger, Chair
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