Faculty Meeting Minutes

Michael Orr, Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs, called the meeting to order at 10:03 a.m. and welcomed everyone to the final Faculty Meeting of the academic year.   He thanked everyone for all their hard work in bringing the semester to a successful close and hoped everyone was looking forward to celebrating our graduating seniors on Saturday.  He then reminded everyone of the procedures to be followed during the hybrid meeting and noted that there were several items of business to be voted on, pointing out that those attending in person should have picked up an iclicker and those attending remotely should have theSpring open in the background of their computers.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

DOF/VPAA Orr asked if there were any corrections to, or comments regarding, the minutes of the Faculty Meeting held April 28, 2023.  Hearing none, he announced the minutes were approved as distributed.

CONFERRAL OF DEGREES AND HONORS

A.  Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science Degrees. Dave DeConno, Registrar, read the following resolutions into the record (see attached):

RESOLVED, that the Faculty of Skidmore College recommend to the Trustees the granting of the Bachelor of Arts degree to 363 students of the Class of 2023 to be awarded on May 20, 2023. 

RESOLVED, that the Faculty of Skidmore College recommend to the Trustees the granting of the Bachelor of Science degree to 181 students of the Class of 2023 to be awarded on May 20, 2023. 

RESOLVED, that the Faculty of Skidmore College recommend to the Trustees the granting of the Bachelor of Arts degree to 45 students of the Class of 2023 upon satisfactory completion of the degree requirements by August 31, 2023. 

RESOLVED, that the Faculty of Skidmore College recommend to the Trustees the granting of the Bachelor of Science degree to 13 students of the Class of 2023 upon satisfactory completion of the degree requirements by August 31, 2023. 

The total number of graduates of the Class of 2023 is 634 as follows: 32 for January completion, 544 for May completion, and 58 for August completion. 

Registrar DeConno noted that there are a few students that requested that their names not be included in the Commencement bulletin so faculty may notice a discrepancy in the numbers.  There was no discussion, and the resolutions were voted on and passed with all in favor. 

B.  All-College and Departmental Honors. Michael Arnush, Associate Dean of the Faculty, read the following resolutions into the record (see attached):                   

Resolved, that the Faculty of Skidmore College approve College Honors for members of the Class of 2023, as presented at the May 17, 2023, Faculty Meeting: 49students for summa cum laudedistinction, 129 students for magna cum laude distinction, and 81students for cum laude distinction.  (Note: including January 2023 graduates, 259 of 634 students [40.9%] in the class of 2023 will receive College Honors.)

Resolved, that the Faculty of Skidmore College approve Department and Program Honors for 252 students from the Class of 2023, as presented at the May 17, 2023, Faculty Meeting.  (Note: including January 2023 graduates, 252 of 634 students [39.7%] in the class of 2023 will receive Department or Program Honors. 27 students will receive honors in two majors.)

There was no discussion, and the resolutions were voted on and passed with all in favor.

OLD BUSINESS

On behalf of the Working Group on Accessible and Inclusive Teaching and Learning, Professor Kim Frederick provided an update on the work that the Working Group on Accessible and Inclusive Teaching and Learning has been doing.  She shared a PowerPoint presentation (see attached) that included information about the membership of the working group, noted that the work is being supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in collaboration with 15 other institutions, and summarized the work completed to date and the group’s plan of work for the summer and the next academic year. She encouraged anyone that has not done so yet to complete the faculty survey that was previously distributed. 

NEW BUSINESS

There was no new business.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

President Conner welcomed everyone to the last Faculty Meeting of the academic year and thanked everyone for bringing the semester to a successful conclusion.  He reminded everyone that there will be a reception to honor DOF/VPAA Orr and celebrate his accomplishments immediately following the faculty meeting.  On behalf of the Faculty Executive Committee, Associate Professor Xiaoshuo Hou presented a citation in honor of DOF/VPAA Orr (see attached).  A standing ovation was given to DOF/VPAA Orr.

President Conner then reflected on the accomplishments of this past year and his hopes for the coming academic year.  He noted that great progress has been made with respect to the College’s five key strategic priorities included in this year’s Strategic Action Agenda:

• The Racial Justice Initiative: as an indicator of this year’s progress, the Wykoff Center has hosted over 120 events this year. In addition, thanks to the leadership of VP Joshua Woodfork, Skidmore has been approved to participate in AAC&U’s Institute on Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Campus Centers.
• Speech and Expression: the symposium that was held in April featured a panel of 5 faculty members, a panel of 5 students, and 3 marquee speakers, and was attended by many faculty, students and  members of the Saratoga Springs community. In addition, President Conner highlighted the Freedom To Learn National Day of Action held a few weeks ago and thanked the faculty organizers.
• Visions and Values: every constituency on campus (the Board, the Cabinet, faculty, staff and students) has been consulted and a survey about what makes Skidmore unique or special has been conducted. The survey results will be shared with the campus community in the fall.
• Major Capital Projects: President Conner reported on progress with McCaffery-Wagman Tennis and Wellness Center and the completion of the new entrance on North Broadway. He noted the reconstitution of the Space Planning Working Group and the upcoming conclusion of the construction of the Billie Tisch Center for Integrated Sciences.
• Vice Presidential Leadership transitions: with four Vice Presidential searches now completed, the fifth Vice Presidential search for the year is coming to a close with 3 finalists scheduled to visit campus at the end of May. President Conner reviewed all the steps taken since February on this search, which he hopes to conclude in early June.

In turning to plans for next year, President Conner spoke further about AAC&U’s Institute on Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Campus Centers, noting that this is a program that VP Woodfork and others on campus have been aspiring to participate in for years. He also commented on an upcoming project on the U.S.-Mexico Border led by Senior Teaching Professor Diana Barnes and Associate Professor Oscar Perez-Hernandez, to be held in the fall.   President Conner indicated that all these projects, together with the Racial Justice Initiative and the HHMI Inclusive Excellence project, feed and build upon each other.

Next, Mary Lou Bates, Vice President and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, provided an update on this year’s incoming class.  She shared a PowerPoint presentation (see attached) which provided an overview of the Class of 2027 in comparison to the Class of 2026, including class size, demographics, and acceptance rates.  VP Bates noted that the college is anxiously awaiting the Supreme Court’s ruling on the use of race in admissions.  Although we do not know what the ruling will be, we anticipate that it will impact our ability to use race as one of the many factors used in our decision-making process.  The College has consulted with legal counsel in preparation for the decision and different stakeholders across campus are currently reviewing, assessing, and inventorying current processes, procedures, and documents that are likely to be impacted by the Court’s ruling.  Given the pending leadership transition in the Admissions Office, incoming VP for Enrollment, Jess Ricker, has been part of these conversations and is well poised to assume leadership of the College’s response to the Court’s ruling.  VP Bates concluded her report by thanking everyone for all their support of the work of the Admissions Office..  A standing ovation was given to VP Bates.

Following VP Bates’s report, President Conner addressed the record number of applicants Skidmore has been receiving for the last several years and the large entering classes.  He indicated that, while overenrollment is a good problem to have, it does result in some challenges, such as pressure on the quality of residential life, class size, advising and teaching loads, etc.  Thus, one of the key priorities of next year’s Strategic Action Agenda will be a focus on the residential experience: what should residential education be and what does it means to be able to work, play, study, and live on campus.   In conjunction with a focus on the residential experience, President Conner stated that we will also begin considering how we want to undertake our next strategic planning effort. Our current strategic plan expires in 2025, which is when our next Middle States accreditation is scheduled to take place.  Our strategic planning efforts and reaffirmation of accreditation preparations will inform the next capital campaign and help determine what our institutional priorities should be. 

Next, President Conner reminded everyone that a Town Hall on the college’s finances is scheduled to be held on Tuesday, May 23 from 9:30-11:00.  The members of President’s Cabinet will present different facets of the college’s finances and will include information on the end-of-the-year state of the finances, the allocation of the surplus, next year’s approved budget, and key parameters, staffing levels, and longer term financial planning. He encouraged everyone to send him any questions they might wish to have answered.

In concluding his report, President Conner stated that he is filled with gratitude after such a long, grueling year -- gratitude for our students and gratitude for the faculty and their impact on our students. He reflected on some of the highlights of the past year:  the five presidential-faculty dinners that were held this year; the Roth, Ciancio, and Moseley dinners; Young Kim’s performance of Beethoven’s 3^rd Piano Concerto; the Moseley lecture given by Professor Paul Arciero; the In It and Rosh Hashana events that involved so many of our faculty, staff, and students; and his experience teaching a Shakespeare class in the fall and collaborating closely with Theater colleagues.  In thinking about next year, President Conner indicated that he would like to be even more involved in the intellectual life of the college and more involved with the faculty. He hoped to attend more natural science events in particular, and to find ways to connect and engage the trustees with faculty, staff, and students.  He closed by reading a few sentences from his column in the most recent edition of Scope: “What Lucy established 100 years ago is a community that is kind, that welcomes all of it members, that leads with honesty and caring and love, and that recognizes the sacred quality of each person, much as Thoreau invoked many decades before Lucy started her college when he asked, ‘Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?”

Following President Conner’s report, the floor was opened for questions.  An inquiry was made about this year’s general salary adjustment. President Conner indicated that the amount of the general salary adjustment would be announced at the upcoming Town Hall meeting, following Board approval.  Brief discussion followed regarding the practice of announcing to faculty and staff before the May Board meeting the proposed general salary adjustment that would be recommended to the Board.

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

DOF/VPAA Orr began his remarks by expressing his appreciation to FEC for the citation in his honor and indicated that he would offer some thoughts and reflections on his tenure as DOF/VPAA at the end of his report.  Next, he noted that a comprehensive budget update would be provided next week and that the presentation would include information about faculty salaries and the continued implementation of last year’s compensation study.  He indicated that he had written to department chairs and program directors earlier in the week to let them know that, once the Board of Trustees had approved next year’s budget, they could expect to hear from him next week regarding capital budget requests, operating budgets, and new initiative requests.  He then announced two positive changes in the Dean of the Faculty budgets that will go into effect next year: (1) an increase in the Travel to Read/Travel to Represent budget from $1,600 per faculty member to $1,800 and (2) an increase in the HELIOS payout rate for the supervision of theses, independent studies, and collaborative researchfrom $115 per credit to $220 per credit.

VPAA/DOF Orr then provided an update on negotiations with the non-tenure-track faculty union.    So far this semester, three collective bargaining sessions have been held.  The focus of these discussions has been on the non-economic components of a collective bargaining agreement, including sections on purpose and intent, recognition of the union by the College, management rights, union rights and business, union security and dues, bargaining unit information, labor management committee, health and safety, grievance procedure and arbitration, academic freedom and rights, no strike/no lockout.  Negotiations will continue through the summer, with a handoff to incoming DOF/VPAA Dorothy Mosby later this month. DOF/VPAA Orr indicated that he had consulted with the chairs of relevant governance committees and that a meeting for tenured and tenure-track faculty only would be held early next semester to provide a briefing and an opportunity for feedback.

Next, DOF/VPAA Orr thanked the outgoing chairs and program directors who are concluding their terms of service this year: Erica Bastress-Dukehart, Education Studies; Joerg Bibow, Economics; Ben Bogin, Asian Studies; Jason Breves, Biology; John Brueggemann, Sociology; Eliza Kent, Religious Studies; Bill Lewis, Media and Film Studies; Crystal Moore/Kelly Melekis, Social Work; Jenni Mueller, InterGroup Relations; Tillman Nechtman, History; and Eric Morser, Bridge Experience.  A round of applause was given to the outgoing chairs and directors.

DOF/VPAA Orr then provided a few reminders for this weekend’s Commencement event at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center:

• The faculty procession begins lining up at 10:15 am
• Faculty should have already received a parking pass from the Office of Alumni Relations
• Faculty were advised to allow plenty of time for parking—the preferred parking lot is the Patrons lot adjacent to the Hall of Springs; a back-up lot is parking lot on Route 50
• The procession lines up at the top of the hill in front of the performing arts center
• The procession will begin at 10:40 am promptly.
• In the unlikely event of rain, faculty will gather behind the stage of SPAC.

DOF/VPAA Orr thenexpressed his appreciation for the work that everyone has done to bring the semester to a successful conclusion.  Although COVID has not been so much in the foreground this semester as it has been in the past, the cumulative effect of the stress of dealing with COVID over the past few years has been more pronounced.   The semester has also demanded a lot of our students, and many faculty and staff have found themselves needing to provide much more emotional and mental health support to students.  He wished everyone a restful and recuperative summer break.

Noting that the occasion was his last Faculty Meeting as Dean, DOF/VPAA Orr thanked Professor Xiaoshuo Hou and FEC for the generous and thoughtful citation.  He indicated that it has been an honor and a privilege to have had the opportunity to serve as the DOF/VPAA at Skidmore and thanked everyone for their support and help over the past 5 years.  He commented that we have been through some challenging times together—none greater than the pandemic—and noted that it was almost exactly three years and four months ago that the College sent out its first message to the campus community about COVID. It was a message from Health Services with information about symptoms for a new virus that was affecting a number of countries abroad. At that time, the virus did not seem to pose a particular concern for us. A month later, as the situation rapidly worsened, we began planning for the possible cancellation of some of our Study Abroad programs and whether we needed to bring students home. DOF/VPAA offered a special word of thanks to Cori Filson and her colleagues in OCSE for all the work they did at this time, before the campus was even fully aware of the crisis that was unfolding. Another month later, DOF/VPAA Orr recalled that we were in full-blown crisis mode, sending our students home at mid-term break and pivoting to remote instruction. Throughout the ensuing pandemic, DOF/VPAA Orr commented that he had been inspired time and again by the dedication and commitment to serving the College and our students demonstrated by our faculty and staff.   As he thinks back over the past three years, he is humbled by the extraordinary efforts that everyone made to get us through that crisis. He is also deeply appreciative that his particular vantage point as DOF/VPAA enabled him to see the numerous contributions of so many faculty and staff members. 

In reflecting about what he might say at his final faculty meeting, DOF/VPAA Orr indicated that he had gone back and looked at his notes from the first faculty meeting he attended as Dean.  At that meeting on September 7, 2018 BC (before COVID), he had said that he was committed to being honest and keeping his word; and that he would try to honor prior commitments. He also said that the faculty might not always agree with his decisions but that he would always be willing to meet and explain them, and that he would always make decisions based on his understanding of what was best for the college. DOF/VPAA Orr stated that the faculty would have to be the judge whether that has been true.   

At that same Faculty Meeting, DOF/VPAA Orr had also quoted an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education that summed up his feelings about being a Dean: “If you don’t value faculty members and treasure time spent with them, don’t become a dean because that is the first prerequisite of the office.”   Valuing faculty members and treasuring time spent with them—DOF/VPAA Orr said that that sums up why he originally wanted to come to Skidmore to serve as Dean and that it has continued to be his primary motivation throughout the past five years. Despite the challenges along the way, he considers it to have been an extraordinary privilege to have served as Dean.  He indicated that he has valued his time with the faculty and thanked everyone for the opportunity and for their support.

DOF/VPAA Orr then thanked the many others whose dedication, hard work, and support has been essential over the past five years: the staff in the DOF Office; the faculty members who have served as associate deans; President Conner, President-emeritus Glotzbach, President’s Cabinet, the staff in Academic Affairs, particularly those who have served on the VPAA senior leadership team; and numerous colleagues in other divisions of the College: Student Affairs, Advancement, Admissions, Administration and Finance, Communications and Marketing, HR, Campus Safety and Facilities. He gave a special thanks to the half-dozen individuals that he has regularly spoken to via conference calls at 5 am in the morning between November and March each year to decide what to do about impending snow storms.

DOVF/VPAA Orr concluded by stating that Skidmore is a remarkable place because of the people who work here—he said that it had been an honor to work alongside everyone in the service of our educational mission and he looks forward to continuing to do so in the future as a faculty member. At the conclusion of his remarks, he was given a standing ovation.

There being no further business, DOF/VPAA Orr adjourned the meeting at 11:11 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,