Minutes of the 3/26/08 Meeting of the College of Arts & Sciences
Proxies were held by:
Steven Bayne for Lisa Newton and Kris Sealey
Manyul Im for Ryan Drake and King Dykeman
Call to order: Prof. DeWitt called the meeting to order at 4:15.
DeWitt noted that we clearly did not have a quorum, so we would skip agenda items (the approval of the minutes of 10/17/07 and the proposed addition to the College Governance Document regarding the responsibilities of Program Directors) that required a vote. He then announced that there was no need for a vote on the new member of the Distinguished Teaching Award selection committee; Hugh Humphrey was the only nominee. DeWitt reminded the faculty that nominations for the Distinguished Teaching Award were coming due.
Annual report from the Arts & Sciences Curriculum Committee
A&SCC Chair Steve Bayne began by thanking the members of the committee: Profs. Brill, Davidson, Davis, Harding, Harriott, Li, Maldonado, McSweeney, Shanahan, Wills, Weiss, and Dean Poincelot. He also thanked the College faculty for their excellent work on new courses, programs, program revisions and reviews. The committee met 6 times and planned on at least 1 more meeting before the end of the semester. They approved 42 new courses, 2 new graduate programs (an MFA in Creative Writing and an MA in Communication), along with a BS in Biochemistry and a revision of the International Studies major. They are about to review a revision of the Environmental Studies program. They also recommended that the Individually Designed Major be permanently approved based on its 5-year review. They have worked hard to make sure that graduate courses offered in the College are appropriately approved. They also made a recommendation, later approved by the Academic Council, to correct a problem with the Journal of Record routing procedure for new and revised graduate programs. Finally they formed a "Subcommittee on Teaching Compensation for Faculty Supervision of Independent Studies and Internships," charged to "to formulate a proposal for a college wide plan on how Arts and Sciences faculty should be compensated for the supervision of independent studies and internships and present this plan to the full A&SCC" by October of 2008. After reviewing the subcommittee report, the full A&SCC will make recommendations to the Dean. Subcommittee members are Profs. Bayne, Davis, Henkel, Sapp, and Dean Boquet. At this point, the floor was opened to questions; there were none.
Update from the Dean on new hires in the College
Poincelot reported that 12 of the 14 searches in the College this year were successful. The distribution of hires was as follows: one in Biology, one in Economics, two in English, two in History, two in Math, two in Modern Languages and Literature, one in Politics, and one in VPA (New Media). He also proudly noted that the new hires included two African American scholars, three Hispanic scholars, two International scholars (one from Italy and one from Catalonia), and two senior faculty members— a Writing Program Administrator and a Director for the Program on the Environment. He mentioned that in the course of these searches he heard many complaints about housing costs, the limited availability of faculty housing, and the need for mortgage assistance. He also suggested that our starting salaries seem a bit low and that there is some trend of candidates looking for full time positions for spouses.
Prof. Mielants suggested that, at least anecdotally, the
housing situation seems to be particularly hard on faculty in the
College. He
wondered whether higher level administrators might deal with these
problems or
whether the College itself might. Poincelot responded that he had
raised these
concerns with AVP Grossman, SVP Weitzer, VP Lucas, and President von
Arx. Apparently
Lucas is on the lookout for cheap condominiums to buy to add to the new
faculty
housing pool. Poincelot also mentioned the Bank of America program for
mortgage
assistance, and he urged the incoming Dean to continue to apply
pressure on
these issues.
Prof. Epstein asked whether Poincelot could comment on hiring for next year. Poincelot explained that next year's lines will be jointly determined by himself, Grossman, and incoming Dean Crabtree, with the latter two having the most say. He suggested that there will be some retirements and some hires, but probably not as many hires as there were this year. He said that there will probably be fewer visiting positions next year as well. Mielants asked whether priority will be given to programs that underwent extensive curricular review this year. Poincelot said that the best ways to make cases for hires will be to focus on losses due to retirement or death, and on links between proposed positions and the strategic plan. Weiss asked a question of clarification about retirements– isn't it the case those faculty who take the retirement package can't be replaced for a year? Poincelot explained that the search could be conducted during that year, and that visiting positions might be available immediately for faculty who retire without taking the package.
Prof. Schwab asked for an update on Fulbright scholarships. Dean Gogol said that 13 students were recommended and so far, one was confirmed for study in Australia. DeWitt asked about an update on merit. Poincelot said that Grossman was scheduled to meet with the deans earlier in the day, but had to cancel due to illness.
With no further questions, and still no quorum, the meeting adjourned by acclamation at 4:30.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan Rakowitz