Minutes of the 10/17/07 Meeting of the College of Arts & Sciences

 

Proxies were held by:

 

Dennis Keenan for Steven Bayne

Irene Mulvey for Kraig Steffen

Ronald Davidson for Kathy Schwab

 

Call to order: Prof. DeWitt called the meeting to order at 4:13 pm.

 

Election of College officers

 

DeWitt was nominated for another term as chair and Prof. Rakowitz was nominated for another term as secretary. There were no further nominations for either position and so both were elected by acclamation.

 

Approval of the minutes of 4/25/07: Prof. Bowen, seconded by Prof. McSweeney, moved to approve the minutes of 4/25/07 as circulated. The motion passed without objection.

 

Introduction of new faculty

 

Dean Poincelot introduced the following new members of the College faculty. Those who were not teaching rose to be recognized by their new colleagues.

Biology: Soyong Ashley Byun-McKay

Chemistry: John Miecznikowski

Communication: James Shanahan

Economics: William F. Vasquez-Mazariegos

English: Nels Pearson; Ruth Anne Baumgartner; Elizabeth Haas (split with VPA); Jennifer Lee Magas; Emily Orlando; Michael Sweeney

Math and Computer Science: Shirley Wakin

Modern Languages and Literature: Jiwei Xiao; Sheila Candelario

Philosophy: Manyul Im; Kris Johnson; Ryan Drake

Physics: Les Schaffer

 

Living and learning initiatives

 

DeWitt introduced Assistant Dean of Students Kim Nickolenko and Associate V.P. and Dean of Students Tom Pellegrino to talk about strategic plan initiatives regarding living and learning. Pellegrino began by explaining that the focus would be on student conduct, and that the take-home message was that the faculty should view the Dean of Students' office as a resource for dealing with students. They are there to support the mission of the university, i.e., education.

He presented data indicating that nationally, alcohol is a problem for college students, and it's no different at Fairfield. Here, the first year students experiment heavily with alcohol, especially in the first 7 to 8 weeks of the semester. The beach is less of an issue than it used to be; currently about 550 students live at the beach, but the goal is to have a maximum of 400 at the beach. Trips to bars off campus are more of a problem, and Tuesdays are the new Thursdays. At this point Prof. Mielants, noting that the current drinking age is silly in light of army eligibility, asked about the possibility of explicitly allowing underage drinking on campus. Pellegrino said that relatively new legislation in Connecticut places the burden of responsibility of enforcing drinking laws on the owners of private property. Because of these new laws, Trinity College in Hartford has had to change their policy of allowing underage drinking on campus.

Nickolenko added further data on violations of the conduct code and dismissals- both are dominated by first year students. The conduct system is meant to be educational in nature, not purely punitive. Furthermore, there is now a case management group consisting of people from the Deans' offices, the counseling center, and student services. There is also an advisory committee looking at activities available on campus on the weekends. Prof. Abbott asked the point of presenting this material to the faculty. Pellegrino explained that students are affected by their peers and their faculty, so broader discussions of these issues might have an impact. He also suggested we consider ways in which we might be unintentionally enabling these behaviors. For example, in one recent semester, the School of Business offered only a single course that met on Wednesdays. He again urged faculty to use the Dean of Students' office as a resource.

Dean Boquet noted that some research suggests that talking about alcohol on campus may have the opposite of the intended effect; it may normalize alcohol abuse. She asked whether we're seeking funding to work with other institutions on research-based intervention programs. Pellegrino said that Susan Birge of Counseling is looking into what works at other places. He also spoke of the importance of involvement in activities outside of class. Prof. Pearson asked whether there might be a correlation between binge drinking and grade inflation, and suggested that perhaps we should be demanding more of our students. Continuing on the theme of filling students' time with things other than alcohol, Prof. Kubasik asked about the wisdom of starting classes before Labor Day, as is planned for the future, resulting in a three-day weekend after only a day or two of classes. Pellegrino suggested that when we start isn't as important as what we do at the beginning of the semester. Perhaps we should take a few days before classes to send out a clear message of why we're here, what the academy is all about, and what campus culture should be.

 

Proposed addition to the College Governance Document regarding the responsibilities of Program Directors

 

DeWitt provided background to this issue. He explained that the Handbook governs the faculty as a whole, while the College Governance Document addresses issues specific to the College. It is a fairly dated document (1985) and the College has since added many new programs. So it contains a section on the responsibilities of Chairs, but no parallel section on the responsibilities of Program Directors. The proposal distributed with the materials for the meeting would add such language.

Prof. Mulvey asked about the source of this proposal. Prof. Umansky explained that two years ago, the Program Directors started meeting separately from the department Chairs. At one of those early meetings, they realized that there was no job description for Program Directors for these interdisciplinary programs. Profs. Carolan, King, Rodrigues and Umansky volunteered to form a subcommittee to develop a document. They did so and reached consensus. Then Dean Snyder appointed a committee to evaluate all of the interdisciplinary programs in the College, and the document on responsibilities became part of that committee's work. We would now like to incorporate this document into the College Governance Document. DeWitt added that the document was being forwarded with a unanimous endorsement from the Chairs at the Dean's Council.

Mulvey asked how Program Directors are appointed and was told that the Dean makes the appointments. Prof. Gil-Egui raised a question about the rights of Program Directors and their compensation. Umansky said that the Program Directors continue to meet regularly and have useful discussions on a variety of relevant issues. Mulvey said that she liked the proposal but wondered whether further proposals for change might be forthcoming. If so, perhaps we should wait, in light of the fact that changes to the Governance Document require Board approval as well as faculty approval. DeWitt noted that the committee does not consider this document to be a first draft. Prof. Winn then asked whether there was a quorum present. Though we did not have a full list of sabbaticals and leaves, DeWitt thought it likely that we had fallen below a quorum over the course of the meeting. He suggested that we continue to discuss the proposal and postpone a vote on it. Boquet raised the possibility of asking the subcommittee to discuss issues like compensation and appointment for possible inclusion in a revised document. Rakowitz pointed out that the proposed document was designed to parallel the current statement in the Governance Document regarding the responsibilities of Chairs; neither text specifies compensation. There was no further discussion.

The meeting adjourned at 5:32 to a reception welcoming our new colleagues.

 

                                                                        Respectfully submitted,

                                                                        Susan Rakowitz