FACULTY MEETING 

March 3, 2006
Gannett Auditorium

MINUTES

President Philip Glotzbach called the meeting to order at 3:35pm. President Glotzbach asked if there were any
objections to the approval of the February 3, 2006 Faculty Meeting minutes and hearing no objections, the
minutes were approved.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

President Glotzbach stated that we have experienced a profound loss with the passing of Professor Juan Carlos
Lertora. Professor Lertora and Professor Paty Rubio were married in Barcelona, Spain in 1974 and he was a
valued member of the Skidmore faculty since 1980. His life was devoted to reading and teaching with a passion
for fiction and poetry and is described by colleagues as having an encyclopedic knowledge of Spanish literature.
He had a deep personal interest in history and politics, particularly Latin American politics. He will be
remembered for his quiet and kind nature. We have suffered a great loss and we will mourn his passing. There
will be a memorial service scheduled for next Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. President Glotzbach commented how
everyone has reached out to Professor Rubio and how important that is to her.

President Glotzbach briefly discussed the windstorm that recently occurred on campus and the power loss as a
result. It was a serious event and we lost approximately 100 trees which forced closing our roads on campus.
Scribner Village was damaged and many students were displaced in the residence halls. He expressed thanks to
everyone, particularly the efforts by Facilities Services, Residence Life, Dining Services and those overseen by
VP Michael West and Dean Pat Oles as we were able to maintain heat and light for our students. By rotating
generators, we were able to keep most buildings open and took care of the laboratory animals and other
temperature sensitive things.

President Glotzbach announced that Martin Zankel, brother of Arthur Zankel, and his son Jimmy Zankel ‘92,
were on campus today to discuss their gift to the music building, which will be named after Arthur Zankel.
More information is forthcoming on this.

VICE PRESIDENT FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS REPORT

Vice President Charles M. Joseph reported that the Board of Trustees were here last week and the
recommendations from CAPT and the President concerning tenure were discussed. The four candidates
confirmed for tenure and/or promotion this year are: Susan Belden, Associate Professor of Management and
Business; Ngina Chiteji, Assistant Professor of Economics, promoted to Associate Professor; Jordana Dym,
Assistant Professor of History, promoted to Associate Professor; and Deborah Hall, Assistant Professor of Art,
promoted to Associate Professor. Vice President Joseph thanked the hard working folks on CAPT and Professor
Lary Opitz for his leadership on this group.

Chuck announced that he will be resigning at the end of the semester from the Vice Presidency position and will
be going on sabbatical then returning to the faculty. He has been in discussions for awhile with the President
regarding this decision. He thanked the President and everyone for their support and working with him over
these past few years in this position. He continued to state that there is a lot of stability at this College and that
the Trustees are very pleased that the College is doing a good job. The campaign is well under way and parts of
the Strategic Plan have already been implemented. The relationship between Academic Affairs and Financial
Affairs is a very important one and he thanked VP Michael West for all his support. VP Joseph briefly spoke
about the compensation issue at the College as he understands this concern by faculty. In his past 6 years in the
dean and vice president’s office, he has come to understand how concerned the administration is about this. The
President, VP West and VP Joseph have had many discussions regarding how serious this is and they are
working on this issue so hopefully there will be some resolution on this. VP Joseph is looking forward to
joining the faculty again and he encourages faculty to continue to speak forthrightly about difficult issues and
promote dialogues. He believes in the Skidmore Honor Code which includes the phrase that “we need to be
considerate of the rights others” and he hopes that everyone will keep this in mind in their conversations with 
others in emails, committee reports and in all interactions. We have to remain passionate and to be engaged in
the kind of dialogue which leads change. He hopes that civility is something to be prized. He thanked everyone
for the privilege of being able to represent them for the past few years and he looks forward to rejoining them as
a faculty member soon.

President Glotzbach said that there will be a celebration in May to honor VP Joseph properly and praised his
work saying that he has served this College very well. VP Joseph is a teacher/scholar and has earned the respect
of others here over his 20 + years of service. VP Joseph has seen this College through difficult times and has
served as a leader of the senior staff during the difficult presidential transition. He assured President Glotzbach
when he started that things would be in place and his transition ran smoothly as a result of his leadership. He
has accomplished a number of important things – leading the process that gave us the academic vision
statement; he collaborated actively with a partner in developing the Academic Strategic Plan and working with
CEPP back then; worked on a new structure in Academic Affairs; led the searches; co-chaired these with faculty
members that brought us two new deans and working actively with them. On a personal level, he has been a
valuable source of inside information as a new President to me and the Skidmore culture and I will miss him for
that, said the President. He has given great service to this College and he will be missed in this capacity.
President Glotzbach has met with CAPT and FEC regarding the process and procedure needed to launch a
search. Ms. Tobie van Der Voorm will run this search for a new VP and a search committee will hopefully be in
place by the end of this spring so we can do the preliminary work and be ready to begin this process for
August/September. President Glotzbach will co-chair this search committee. There will be ample opportunity
for everyone to meet to discuss what we should be looking for in this position. It is vital for someone in this
position to command the respect of the faculty, to understand our mission and to advance that mission the way
VP Joseph has these past few years, someone who can work with our new deans and help them be as effective as
they can be. An internal candidate will be considered but it is likely that it will be someone from outside the
College community at a level commensurate of achievement of a full professor. In the meantime, someone is
needed to work as the interim VPAA and President Glotzbach was pleased to announce after consulting with
CAPT about various possibilities, that Professor Susan Kress has agreed to serve as the interim VPAA. She has
worked with the President as co-chair of IPPC when completing work on the Strategic Plan and they
communicated well. Professor Kress has the respect of faculty and he believes she will do a wonderful job and
VP Joseph will be available for consultation and support.

DEAN OF THE FACULTY REPORT

Muriel Poston, Dean of the Faculty acknowledged that Professor Paul Sattler in the Art Department has received
a Guggenheim Fellowship Award. As reported at the Board of Trustees meeting, 32 faculty members will be
going on sabbatical next year of which 16 will be on full-year sabbatical. She complimented faculty on the
sense of community they have exhibited particularly in gathering for support to Professor Paty Rubio and the
response to the windstorm. Dean Poston has met with most of the academic departments. She has used these
meetings as an opportunity to get to know faculty and ask what the issues and challenges are facing their
departments. One of the key factors is how we support our academic programs – what are the resources needed
to support and address how we do what we do. Also how we give ourselves credit for the work that we do and
have that acknowledged in our regular workload. As the DOF taskforce moves forward on the issue of course
releases, this is one way to address this and to think about how we can account for that.

Associate Dean of Faculty, Sarah Goodwin reminded everyone about the Middle States Review Team visit on
March 19-22 and encouraged participation.

OLD BUSINESS

There was no old business. 

NEW BUSINESS

MOTIONS:

FEC – Faculty Handbook Revisions – Professor Timothy Burns (Attachment A)

RESOLUTION:

FEC – Vice President for Academic Affairs Resignation – Professor Timothy Burns (Attachment B)

MOTION:

CEPP – Advanced Placement Credits and Advanced Placement Practices – Professor Matthew Hockenos
(Attachment C (Practices) and Attachment D (Motion)

REPORTS

ADMISSIONS

Mary Lou Bates, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid reported, as she did at the Board of Trustees meeting
and February Faculty meeting, that we do have a record number of applications this year – up about 600
applications, which is a 10% increase. We are just short of 6650 applications. Last year was just over 6000
applications. We are looking for a class target of 610, similar to last year. The target is 36 students for the
London program - this will be the first year of enrolling the London cohort without North Hall housing in
January. The SAT median is 1260 combined verbal and math which is similar to last year. This is our first year
of a 2400 scale which is an additional 800 points for the writing section, but we are still operating on the 1600
scale. The end of this year we will convert to the 2400 and start a new database. We had a record number of
early decision applications – 450 this year, which is a 14% increase. We’ve accepted just under 260. This will
constitute 40% of the class. We received over 1200 applications from students of color, which is about 150
more than last year – this is consistent at 18%. We are targeting a cohort of 40 HEOP/AOP students; 30 HEOP
and 10 AOP students of the class. We continue to have an increase of students applying electronically – this
year approximately 70% of students did this - last year it was about 50% and 33% the previous year. The trend
is setting and it probably won’t be too long before students will ever need paper applications. The percent of the
class applying for financial aid is down slightly to about 55-56% versus about 57% last year. Our plan is to
enroll 40% of the class on grant assistance. The decision letters will be mailed on Friday, March 24. We are
still fine tuning our yield projections. This year will be one of the lowest acceptance rates in the College’s
history as we could go below 40% in terms of the students we accept. The Accepted Candidates days are
somewhat different this year. We went to four days to accommodate the crowds because of the limited capacity.
There will be three in April and one for early decision accepted applicants. This will allow us to target our
messages more specifically. She expressed thanks to everyone for their support and she has every expectation
that we will enroll another great class.

STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION

Daniel Moran, SGA VP for Academic Affairs reported that the proposal for Faculty Advisors for SGA will be
discussed at a future meeting. He expressed his excitement about the Academic Fair being held on Tuesday,
March 21 in the Tang Museum and encouraged everyone to attend. This will allow students to mingle and talk
about their educational experiences. Invitations will be forthcoming. Student representatives will be there –
refreshments will be served as well as entertainment. With everyone’s help it can be extremely successful and
meaningful to the students. He is still working on accumulating representatives for academic counsel as they 
only have about 50-75% obtained. He asked that faculty send names of students they think would be qualified
for this and he will follow up with students.

ATHLETIC COUNCIL

Catherine Berheide, Faculty Athletic Representative talked about the class attendance issue with regard to the
student athletes, as sometimes there are conflicts with athletic events and class schedules. There is a policy that
students are suppose to attend class and there is a procedure in place as to how conflicts should be
communicated to faculty members – sometimes this procedure works fine and other times it does not. We are
going ahead with a pilot process that will involve a letter from the athletic director to the faculty and will be
conveyed by the student athlete. We ask your indulgence in commenting on the letter regarding how this
process is working and if anything should be changed in the letter as this is in process. We will work with
CEPP closely on this as well. Please contact Professor Berheide regarding any concerns or suggestions.

OTHER:

OPTIMIZATION SUBCOMMITTEE REPORT

Vice President Joseph indicated that the subcommittee thought a final report might be available at this time but
it is not for several reasons. There were two open meetings held that were attended by a small group. We are
asking for more time to compile information as we did not receive a large amount of feedback. The preliminary
report was submitted to the Board of Trustees and this was discussed at the Long Range Planning committee and
the Budget and Finance committee. The Trustees had some thoughtful questions that they asked the committee
to consider particularly regarding the educational underpinnings of what we were about to do. They looked at
the broad outward vision of this and there was constructive dialogue took place regarding this issue. They did
ask us to make the case as to why this would make us a better institution so the subcommittee would like to take
more time to address this issue and then report back to IPPC. The second issue is that we did receive a report
from CEPP recently and that was a thoughtful report with a lot of questions to think through. Professor
Hockenos will distribute this report by email to faculty for their review. We are taking into consideration the
three sources of information: the community’s feedback, CEPP’s report, and the Trustees. We did report to
IPPC today as we had promised and there was a good discussion about how available funds might be allocated.
We will think it through the next few weeks and will report back at the March 31 Faculty meeting.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Professor Kate Leavitt on behalf of FDC, announced the Moseley Lecturer for 2006-07 will be Professor Roy
Ginsberg of the Government Department. The faculty warmly congratulated Professor Ginsberg.

Dean Pat Oles invited everyone to the reception at The Surrey Inn today sponsored by the Dean of Student
Affairs Office.

Meeting adjourned at 4:45pm.

Respectfully submitted by,

Mary Ellen Kokoletsos
Executive Administrative Assistant
Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs