FACULTY MEETING
April 9, 1999
Gannett Auditorium
MINUTES
President Roth called the meeting to order at 3:35 p.m.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
President Roth amended the March 5, 1999 faculty meeting minutes. The 5th paragraph on the second page should read: "The Board approved a resolution on the
key operating budget parameters for the fiscal year beginning June 1, 1999."
The minutes of the March 5 meeting were accepted as amended.
President Roth said that there were questions about the parliamentary order of the
last faculty meeting and she wanted to clarify what had happened. At that meeting
President Roth spoke about an issue to which she felt she needed to respond. At that
time, she asked Acting Dean of the Faculty, Susan Bender, to take over as chair because
the chair cannot speak about issues while presiding over the meeting. After President
Roth spoke, she moved back into chairing the meeting without specifically noting so.
She should have made clear that she was asking to be relieved of the chair in order
to speak to a particular issue and then resumed the Chair. Additionally, as chair
of CFG, Professor Kuroda requested that President Roth affirm that the Chair of the Faculty
Meeting is the person who should be calling on individuals who wish to speak. She
so affirmed.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
President Roth reported that she has held two non-faculty meetings for the Skidmore
community -- on April 5 and April 6. At these meetings she spoke about the Campaign, what it achieved,
and the College’s financial picture in the context of the successful campaign.
The Leadership Council meeting will be held April 9, 10, and 11 at the Surrey, and President Roth will speak about Skidmore’s financial picture with this group of alumni volunteers as well.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery will be held on April 15 at 5 p.m. at the site of the Tang. President Roth encouraged everyone to attend.
On Tuesday, April 13 at 2 p.m. there will be a memorial for Jean Aikins in Aikins Dining Hall. Jean was a dedicated and committed employee for 46 years, and President Roth asked the faculty to stand for a moment of silence in her memory.
President Roth thanked CEPP (Committee on Educational Policies & Planning) for its response to the request to have more meetings with regard to the all-college requirements and the core abilities. Four meetings were scheduled, and the discussions were useful and productive. She also thanked all those who attended.
IPC (Institutional Planning Committee) has been working on revising the vision statement. That statement is going through one more iteration, and within the next two weeks it will appear on the President’s Office web page.IPC has been focusing on expressing more clearly in the vision statement the College’s on-going commitment to diversity and a sense of student co-curricular life at Skidmore College. The current revision is going back to the committees who have representatives on IPC for discussion, and then it will be put on the web page.
At the March 5 faculty meeting, there was a question about growth in the numbers of faculty over the past number of years. A subcommittee of FPPC (Financial Policy & Planning Committee) is looking at staff growth, and President Roth hopes to have a document to share with the faculty that will give a better sense of hiring practices and the ways in which growth occurs in the faculty.
DEAN OF THE FACULTY’S REPORT
Acting Dean, Susan Bender, announced that she had neglected to announce the promotions of those faculty members to Senior Teaching Associates that were approved by the Board of Trustees at their February meeting. Those promoted to Senior Teaching Associate were: Cathy Domozych, Department of Biology; Susan van Hook, Department of Biology; and Ann Wagner, Department of Chemistry and Physics.
Skidmore will be sending a team of four faculty members and one academic officer to attend the 1999 Asheville Institute on General Education co-sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and the University of North Carolina at Asheville. This team will work on the all-college curricular revision that is currently under discussion. The plan is to return with a framework proposal for curricular reform that will go to CEPP and then come before the faculty.
Dean Bender also spoke about the progress of reconfiguration. Department chairs have been doing a great deal of work, and she thinks Skidmore is committed to moving ahead following a model of faculty teaching five courses per year, with a total of 36 credit hours over a two-year period and students enrolling for four courses per semester (eight courses per year). At the next academic staff retreat, she will be discussing with chairs the various constraints and/or guidelines to which department proposals for reconfiguration must respond. She hopes to receive individual department proposals by the end of this year.
OLD BUSINESS
Professor Pat Oles reported for the Orientation Committee. The goal of the committee is to shorten the orientation period for new students to its most essential features and to get students to class as quickly as possible. The committee has been trying to feature LS1 and those activities that are absolutely essential to the beginning of class with the orientation period and to defer other activities to another time in the year. Pre-orientation programs for students will be expanded to fulfill student social needs, and these will be spread out during the summer months. The Committee would like to have students arrive on a Sunday afternoon with classes starting Wednesday morning.
Professor Weller thanked those people who attended the CEPP fora pertaining to curriculum revision. CEPP will be working through the remainder of this semester to determine what other steps need to be taken to move the process along.
NEW BUSINESS
Professor John Brueggemann spoke on behalf of Committee on Academic Standing (CAS) and presented the following motion to be voted on at the April 30 faculty meeting (see Attachment A):
2. Part One, VI Rights, Obligations, and Responsibilities of all Faculty, Topic A Rights of Members of the Faculty , 2.
2. All faculty members have the right to receive from their department Chairs written evaluations of their performance; annually if non-tenured, every three years if tenured, or if Library faculty in more than their sixth consecutive year of continuing service, or more frequent informal reviews at the individual’s request. (see Part One Faculty Rights and Responsibilities, Article XIV Appointment and Review of Department Chairs, Topic D Obligations Pertaining to Department Chairs,3). These written evaluations are intended to be for guidance and used for self-improvement only, and not for use as part of a candidate’s file for reappointment, promotion or tenure.
3. Part One, VII Reappointment, Topic A Reappointment of Full-Time Tenure-Track and Library Faculty to Professorial Ranks, 2.
2. Third Year
a. An appointee considered by the department to be a candidate for reappointment at the end of the second year will be evaluated in the third year according to department procedures. The department must submit its recommendation, positive or negative, with supporting evidence to the Dean of the Faculty on or before January 15 of the appointee’s third year. This evidence must include a cover letter from the chair and letters from full-time faculty and those holding shared appointments in the department concerned (in the ranks defined in Part One, IV Categories of Appointments to the Faculty, Topics A Tenure-track Appointments and IV C.b. Artist or Writer-in-Residence) who are in at least their third year of full-time service at Skidmore, and (where appropriate) program directors.
E. Reappointment of Teaching Associates
5. Part One, VII Reappointment, Topic F Notice of Termination of Other Non-Tenure-Track Appointments.
F. Notice of Termination of Other Non-Tenure-Track Appointments:
6. Part One, VII Tenure, Topic E Procedures for Granting Tenure, 3.
a. Full-time [colleagues] faculty and those holding shared appointments in thedepartment concerned (in the ranks defined in Part One, IV Categories of Appointments to the Faculty, Topics A, Tenure-track Appointments and C.b. Artist or Writer-in-Residence) [in the department concerned] who are in at least their third year of full-time service at Skidmore [and others closely associate];
b. Department Chair;
c. Program Directors (where appropriate);
[d. Administrative Officers;]
d. [e.] Sources suggested by the candidate under consideration including Administrative Officers, the Coordinator or Director [or Chair] of a program or Chair of a department in case the candidate has taught in an interdisciplinary program or department other than the one in which he or she holds an appointment;
(subsequent sections e.-h. will have to be renumbered as d.-g. Changes in this section will necessitate changes in CAPT’s operating code. An updated operating code will be distributed at a later date.)
7. Part One XIV Appointment and Review of department Chairs, Topic D Obligations Pertaining to Department Chairs, 3.
CFG MOTION 3. The CFG moves that the current description for CAFR contained in the Faculty Handbook 1998-99 be revised as follows:
OTHER
Professor Amelia Rauser updated the faculty about the upcoming Academic Festival on
April 28 and 29. There was a terrific response, and she thanked the faculty for their
assistance in getting the students’ proposals submitted. Nearly 80 students will offer
35 presentations and performances.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Larry Lichtenstein invited the faculty to the faculty/staff reception immediately
following the faculty meeting; sponsored by the Office of Development and Alumni Affairs,
held at the Surrey so faculty can join alumni who are on campus for Leadership Council.
The meeting adjourned at 5:35 p.m. The next faculty meeting will be held on Friday,
April 30, 1999 at 3:30 p.m. in Gannett Auditorium.
Respectfully submitted,
Claire C. Demarest
Executive Secretary
Dean of the Faculty’s Office