Faculty Meeting Minutes

September 6, 2019
Gannett Auditorium

MINUTES

Michael Orr, Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs, called the meeting to order at 3:35 p.m.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

DOF/VPAA Orr asked if there were any corrections to, or comments regarding, the minutes of the Faculty Meeting held May 15, 2019.  Hearing none, he announced the minutes were approved.

OLD BUSINESS

On behalf of the Faculty Executive Committee (FEC), Associate Professor Kendrah Murphy read the following Motion that was introduced at the May 15, 2019 Faculty Meeting (see attached):

MOTION: The Faculty Executive Committee moves to amend the Faculty Handbook (Part Two, II, F, 2) by including the SDM Committee as one of the College’s governance committees.

Professor Kate Berheide provided the context and rationale for the motion.  One faculty member, while indicating support for the motion, suggested that FEC review current governance committee structures in order to explore the possibility of reducing the number of faculty required to serve.  There being no other discussion, the Motion was voted on and passed by majority vote.

NEW BUSINESS

On behalf of the Faculty Executive Committee, Professor Kendrah Murphy introduced the following Motion (see attached):

MOTION:  The Faculty Executive Committee moves that the 2019-2020 Faculty Handbook be adopted.  The following link takes you to the 2019-2020 Faculty Handbook (showing tracked changes) as well as handbooks from previous years: https://www.skidmore.edu/dof-vpaa/faculty-handbooks.php

There being no further discussion; the Motion will lie over until the next meeting.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

President Glotzbach welcomed everyone to the new semester and the new academic year, and offered his congratulations to everyone teaching for having survived the first week of classes.  He stated that this will be an eventful year and hopes it proves to be satisfying for everyone.

President Glotzbach stated that, as is typical, the semester started well with the various programs offered for our newest students and their parents.  As always, the first goals is to get the entering students settled, especially in their First-Year Seminars.  He thanked all the FYE faculty members and those who participated in the Opening Convocation.  The second goal is to give the parents reason for believing that we know what we are doing as an institution.  We routinely hear all kinds of positive comments about their experiences going through the admissions process, summer advising and registration, pre-orientation, and orientation.  We have heard a great number of such comments this year, and he thanked everyone who participated in that effort, noting that it would be difficult to overestimate the importance of what everyone does.

President Glotzbach also thanked Professor Kristie Ford and everyone who participated in welcoming our newest members of the faculty. 

Thereupon, Mary Lou Bates, Vice President for Admissions and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, provided an update on the Class of 2023.  The class totals 742 students, with 710 on campus and 32 students in London.  The members of the class come from 31 different states selected from a record 11,100 applications. Statistics of the class include:

• 57 percent attended public or charter schools, while 43 percent attended private or parochial schools;
• 56 percent identified as female students, and 44 percent identified as male (although Skidmore understands and recognizes that some students do not identify as either male or female, government regulations mandate us to report gender as female/male);
• 47 percent applied and were accepted and enrolled early decision;
• 28 percent self-identified as domestic students of color;
• 11 percent are international, coming from 34 countries of origin;
• 6 percent hold dual passports;
• 17 percent are first-generation students;
• 17 percent are Pell-eligible;
• 9 percent come with former family ties to Skidmore College;

VP Bates shared some highlights of the class, noting that an incredible number have made a considerable commitment to volunteerism and community service, have worked all over the world in all kinds of different jobs, and have owned their own businesses.  Many are committed to and actively involved in supporting causes and have done research and internships far and wide.  They come from culturally and diverse backgrounds, with over 20 percent speaking a language other than English at home, representing 50 different languages.  Their involvement and achievements in the arts are broad and deep, they have been politically active at the local, state, and national levels, and they have an impressive range of achievements as athletes.  They are an amazing class, and she thanked everyone who participated in helping to bring in another great class.

Following VP Bates’ report, Joshua Woodfork, Executive Director and Vice President for Strategic Planning and Institutional Diversity, along with Janet Casey, Associate Dean of the Faculty, read the Diversity and Inclusion Statement (https://www.skidmore.edu/diversity/about.php) and asked for the faculty’s affirmation of this statement.  The faculty signaled their acclimation by applause. 

Thereupon, President Glotzbach shared some of the matters that are on the horizon this year:

• Moving forward with the construction of the CIS (completing Phase I by next fall), constructing the Annex (and moving people in over the summer), and staying on-track to complete the entire project in 2024;
• continuing work to implement the new GE program;
• completing work on the (Social Justice) Center;
• continuing our Skidmore Speaks programing – with an emphasis this year on Title IX-related issues;
• launching In-It 4;
• considering much needed upgrades to our athletics, health, and wellness facilities; and
• and completing the Creating Our Future Campaign, which presently stands at more than $187 million.

President Glotzbach went on to state that, once again, we are beginning the year in very good shape financially, but our overall situation is a tale of two Colleges.  Last year, we met the three financial goals outlined in the Preface to the “Strategic Action Agenda”: (1) funding financial aid for the class of 2022; (2) accounting for increases in health insurance costs, capping this year’s increase at 10 percent; and (3) completing the debt service funding for CIS borrowing.  These achievements, our success in recruiting the terrific class of 2023, other positive developments, and good work by so many people have enabled us to construct a balanced budget for this fiscal year and to retain a justifiable sense of optimism about our future. 

President Glotzbach explained that, unfortunately, in projecting our current budget parameters forward over the next five years, we continue to see potential deficits at levels that are clearly unsustainable.  Accordingly, we need to retain a sense of urgency about increasing the understanding among members of the campus community of these budgetary realities, inviting people into this conversation, and together developing a plan to deal with them in advance, rather than waiting for the College to reach a state of crisis at some point in the future.  It is imperative that we take seriously the need to do long-term financial planning now that will ensure that Skidmore remains on a stable financial footing into the out-years.   While it is understandable that our continuing short-term success in creating balanced budgets, enrolling strong classes, and generating budget surpluses can mask the longer-term reality of our projected budget short-falls, we are now looking at significantly larger potential deficits in future years– driven largely, though not exclusively, by the very real increasing pressure of future needs for more financial aid.   Whereas it is possible to make short-term adjustments in a budget cycle to eliminate, say, a $3 million deficit without serious disruptions to campus life, it is much more difficult, if not impossible, to do so in the face of larger projected deficits.

President Glotzbach pointed out that these budget issues do not occur in a vacuum.  We are operating in a national context that affects colleges and universities generally – not just Skidmore.  In fact, President Glotzbach stated that he and Martin Mbugua, Vice President for Communications and Marketing, recently attended a dinner meeting of select college presidents and members of the press at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.  The first topic in the two-hour, on-the-record conversation concerned the fact that so many schools this year – including some in the room with better endowments than ours – failed to meet their entering class targets. Other topics included the escalating sticker price of colleges and universities, the “value proposition” of liberal arts colleges and how we make that case to an increasingly skeptical public, changing demographics of the traditional college-age population, questions about international recruitment in the context of the Trump administration’s immigration and tariff  policies, the prospect of new Title IX regulations to be issued this fall from the Department of Education, the “Varsity Blues” admissions scandal and how it has tainted the image of colleges and universities as a whole, and the various proposals of Democratic presidential candidates regarding “free tuition” at public colleges and universities.

In concluding his report, President Glotzbach referenced the pending Presidential transition, noting that we should be encouraged that Skidmore’s enhanced national standing and so many other positive factors in our story will attract an outstanding pool of candidates.  He expressed his confidence that the search committee and, ultimately, our Board of Trustees will identify a leader who will help us continue our positive trajectory by bringing new ideas, new vision, and new ways of articulating – and realizing – Skidmore’s values.   As this process unfolds this year, it is our collective responsibility to do everything we can to keep the College on a sound financial footing – now and into the future – and to strengthen our sense of community to further enhance our ability to attract an outstanding individual.  He looks forward to working with the Cabinet, the IPPC, and the entire Skidmore community to meet our financial challenges, to complete the Creating Our Future Campaign, and to welcome Skidmore’s eighth President. 

DEAN OF THE FACULTY AND VICE PRESIDENT FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS’ REPORT

DOF/VPAA Orr welcomed everyone to the new academic year.  He stated that this year promises to be a busy and important one for Academic Affairs as we continue the work to implement our new general education curriculum, which will apply to next year’s entering class.  This year, we will need to complete the work of designating existing courses that will fulfill new requirements; identifying courses that will require revision or modification; and developing new courses, especially for the Bridge Experience and the Quantitative Reasoning requirements. He reported that an implementation timeline had been developed over the summer and that it had been shared at the recent meeting of department chairs and program directors. Working in close collaboration with the Curriculum Committee, we hope to develop expedited processes for review and approval of existing courses that will avoid the need to submit large numbers of existing classes through Curriculog for approval of the new requirements.

DOF/VPAA Orr reminded everyone that Professor Eric Morser, Director of the Bridge Experience, recently shared guidelines for developing bridge experience courses, and, over the summer, Associate Professor Kelly Sheppard had shared information about the approval process for the FQR and AQR courses.  He indicated that we still have our Mellon grant and will continue to support the development of new courses and offer other opportunities, especially through the pedagogy clusters and the teaching support network, to help faculty to engage in ongoing discussions about the curriculum and specific course requirements. 

During the upcoming semester, chairs and program directors will be asked to help with identifying existing courses and courses under development that will fulfill the new requirements to ensure that we have sufficient number of courses in the various categories to fulfill student needs. While there is still much to be done, DOF/VPAA Orr indicated that he is confident that we can accomplish all this by working together.

Next, DOF/VPAA Orr referenced the slideshow that was playing before the meeting started and pointed out that it summarized a very successful summer of activities in Special Programs.  He reported that large numbers of students had enrolled in both credit and non-credit programs, we had experienced very good attendance at numerous public events, and numerous admissions visitors had toured campus during the summer months.  During the fall semester, Special Programs will continue to report to DOF/VPAA Orr and Donna Ng, Vice President for Finance and Administration and Treasurer, on an interim basis while we explore opportunities for integration and collaboration with other divisions and offices in the college.

DOF/VPAA went on to report that, during the past year, the Appointments and Tenure Committee (ATC) and the Promotions Committee (PC) have been working on a proposal to couple promotion from assistant professor to associate professor with tenure and to allow newly-hired faculty to count up to two years of prior full-time teaching towards their eligibility for tenure.  The initial idea for this proposal was raised at the January 2019 chairs and program directors meeting.  Following that discussion, a draft proposal was developed and discussed at last week's chairs and program directors meeting. A revised version of the proposal will soon be circulated to the entire faculty.  ATC and PC will hold an open forum on Friday, October 18 from 3:00-4:30 p.m. for further discussion and to gather input from the faculty regarding the proposal.

DOF/VPAA Orr then announced the tenure and promotions approved by the Board of Trustees at their May, 2019 meeting:

Candidates granted tenure:

• Julie Douglas, Department of Mathematics and Statistics
• Amon Emeka, Department of Sociology
• Siobhan Hart, Department of Anthropology

Candidates granted tenure and promoted to Associate Professor:

• Jenny Day, Department of History
• Stephen Ives, Department of Health and Human Physiological Sciences
• Ting Li, Department of Management and Business
• Fabian Lopez, Department of Art
• Corinne Moss-Racusin, Department of Psychology
• Juan Navea, Department of Chemistry
• Mahesh Shankar, International Affairs Program

Candidates promoted to Professor:

• Matthew Hockenos, Department of History
• Hassan Lopez, Department of Psychology
• Larry Jorgensen, Department of Philosophy
• Rebecca Johnson, Department of Psychology
• Eric Morser, Department of History
• Paul Sattler, Department of Art

Candidates promoted to Associate Professor:

• Kelly Melekis, Department of Social Work
• Daniel Peterson, Department of Psychology
• Marketa Wolfe, Department of Economics
• Melora Wolff, Department of English
• Gwen D’Arcangelis, Gender Studies Program

Candidates promoted to Senior Teaching Professor:

• Evan Halstead, Department of Physics
• David Howson, Arts Administration Program
• Evan Mack, Department of Music

Candidate promoted to Senior Artist-in-Residence:

• Garett Wilson, Department of Theater

Candidate promoted to Senior Instructor:

• Cindy Sood, Department of Chemistry

Candidate promoted to Senior Lecturer:

• Timothy Freiermuth, Lecturer, Department of World Languages and Literatures

A congratulatory round of applause was given to these newly tenured and promoted faculty members. 

Thereupon, DOF/VPAA Orr introduced the new faculty members for this academic year (see attached for complete list). A welcoming round of applause was given for the new faculty. 

OTHER

• Ian Berry, Dayton Director of the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, introduced new staff members Oliva Cammisa-Frost, Special Events and Publications Manager; Eric Kuhl, Head of Installations; Sophie Heath, Visitor Services and Events Coordinator; Kara Jefts, Collections Assistant; Kelsey Renco, Student Loan Art Program Coordinator; and Rebecca McNamara, Mellon Collections Curator.
• On behalf of Marie Glotzbach and himself, President Glotzbach invited everyone to the President’s Reception being held at Scribner House immediately following the faculty meeting.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:38 p.m.