College of Arts and Sciences Fairfield University
MINUTES OF FACULTY MEETING, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009
Present: approximately 52 CAS Faculty Members.
The meeting was called to order by Prof. Sauer, Chairman, at 4:05.
Election of Chair and Secretary
Prof. Sauer was elected Chair and Prof. Abbott was elected Secretary, nem.con., for one-year terms.
Welcome to the New Faculty
Sixteen new faculty members were introduced. Fifteen are presented in a hardcopy list passed out to all faculty members present; the sixteenth is Professor Tatiana Furmenkova, a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence from Kant University in Kaliningrad, Russia, one of Fairfield's partner universities. She will be studying modern American literature, and is being mentored by Prof. Johanna Garvey of the English Department.
Approval of the Minutes of April 22, 2009
MOVED by Prof. Salafia and seconded by Prof. Walker, that the minutes of 4/22/09 be accepted as submitted. MOTION PASSED: 51 in favor, 1 opposed.
Election of Members of the Arts and Sciences Planning Committee
The CAS faculty present voted by ballot and elected the following members to the Arts and Sciences Planning Committee:
Bill Abbott
Ryan Drake
Robert Epstein
Dave McFadden
Susan Rakowitz
Glenn Sauer
Plan to Review CAS Governance Document
Chairman Sauer passed out copies of a written proposal to all of the faculty members present.
MOTION: That a task force be created for reviewing the College Governance document with the purpose of ensuring [that] the document contains no ambiguities or conflict with other University governance structures and that it is up-to-date with regard to College needs for governance structures and procedures. The task force will suggest changes to the College Governance document that will be brought forward to the College faculty for discussion and approval. The task force will be chaired by Associate Dean Joan Weiss, appointed by the Dean, included the Chair and the Secretary of the CAS Faculty ex officio, the Chair of the ASCC (Arts and Sciences Curriculum Committee), one Department Chair elected by the chairs, and one interdisciplinary Program Director elected by the directors.
Motion made by Prof. DeWitt. Seconded by Prof. Bowen.
Prof. Steffen inquired concerning the process. The Dean replied that the Task Force's review will go to the full College faculty, with discussion at various points with chairs and program directors as/if needed.
The motion passed unanimously.
Remarks from the Dean
Dean Robbin Crabtree began her remarks by thanking Prof. Rakowitz for three years of excellent service as CAS Secretary. She also thanked Prof. Sauer for continuing on as CAS Chair, and Prof. Abbott for volunteering to serve as the new Secretary.
The Dean gave a brief overview of enrollments for the 2009-2010 academic year.
Enrollment Highlights were shared.
In relation to Budget Issues, the Dean indicated the following:
a. +/- 10% reductions in operating budgets, still working out the kinks
b. Budget requests for FY '11 would be due soon; chairs & directors will be prompted
c. Share best practices for reducing expenses (e.g., going paperless, faculty travel planning for cost-cutting; using Humanities & Science Institutes to fund events with collaboration across departments & divisions)
CAS Annual Report (will be posted soon)
Some highlights are:
Faculty
Achievements
Scholarship:
o 20 books published this year authored or edited by College
faculty
o 100+ articles, chapters, and other publications appeared or
were
accepted
o 200+ presentations at professional meetings, invited talks, and
exhibits
Grant Activity: (as
of July 1,
2009):
o $ 6,075,394 in
submissions
o $ 1,886,229
still
pending
o $ 2,147,175
funded,
accounting for a 51% success rate
This includes the 2 NIH's, plus $200,000 from the Davis Educational
Foundation
for core integration and assessment work; must of this for CAS
departments and
faculty members.
Numerous other specific faculty achievements are listed in the annual report.
It's most helpful to the Dean and Jean Daniele when faculty keep their Eidos information updated (2 times year or so); your or Curt's work studies can help with this; department program assistants should be trained to do this.
Student
Achievements
Of the approximately 1750 undergraduates enrolled in College of Arts
&
Sciences programs during 2008-09, there were 474 undergraduate students
who
began the year as members of the class of '09. There were 401 College
B.A. or
B.S. graduates in May and virtually all the others completed their
degrees in
Jan 2009, Aug 2009 or will complete in Jan 2010. In addition, 47
graduate
students completed their M.A. or M.S. in American Studies (18),
Communication
cohort (16), and Mathematics (13).
75 CAS students were honored at our annual CAS student awards event in
April.
300 students were inducted into the various disciplinary honor
societies.
103 CAS graduates were accepted into graduate programs
78 CAS students presented research at scholarly meetings or were
authors on
published manuscripts. These were among the 192 students who conducted
independent or supervised research or creative projects.
220 CAS students completed internships this year (most were graduating
seniors,
though many juniors also do internships).
151 CAS students studied abroad in 35 locations.
Update on Board of Advisors member engagement activities:
Career panels (last year)
Called to Holiness (early October)
Science alumni gathering (late October)
Healthcare reform (March in DC)
Intellectual property seminar (spring 2010)
Emphasis is on raising $3.5M for the Science Institute and $3.5M for a new endowment for curricular innovation and student/faculty research; $60,000 new funds donated to the two endowments during the summer
Questions following the Dean's Remarks
Prof. Bowen asked whether the figure of 1225 was for the University as a whole? The Dean replied yes.
Prof. McFadden asked concerning the University Budget Committee. He is replacing Prof. Deak in the spring, when Prof. Deak is on leave (Prof. Caster and Prof. Scheraga are the other two members). The Dean stated that the administration will be discussing, this fall, how to make the spring budget process more transparent. The Dean remarked further that she has been before the Budget Committee herself, and she urged CAS faculty by all means to make requests of the Committee.
The Dean stated that there is good news to be had; there will be four CAS searches this year, and CAS faculty publications include twenty books, over 100 articles, and over 200 presentations. The Dean indicated that she knew that folks have some questions concerning the School of Engineering. She assured everyone that Dean Vagos Hadjimichael had been planning his retirement for five years.
Prof. Dennin asked whether Dean Hadjimichael was going to go back to the Physics Department. Prof. Poincelot replied that Dean Hadjimichael has not yet made up his mind on that.
The Dean (Crabtree) stated that a second area for which she had expected questions was Merit. Some faculty members replied "Don't go there!" The Dean stated that, if the University merit plan does not pass, she hopes for some leadership from CAS faculty members. We need to look at departmental rubrics and find ways to achieve commensurability across departments.
Prof. DeWitt asked, with regard to changes in the School of Engineering, whether faculty members will be involved in discussion before these changes are implemented. The Dean replied that she has been advocating to get faculty involved as soon as possible. She said that the AVP and the deans are considering possible models and recommendations. If the AVP or the President makes a decision from those recommendations concerning the SOE, we can debate it at that time.
Prof. Mulvey asked, concerning merit, if we know what criteria we will be judged on for 2009, as there are only a couple of months left in the year. The Dean replied that we will use our current plans for this year, but try to get to a broader/better framework for next year.
Prof. Steffen commented, concerning Engineering, that it would be helpful to know what other peer schools do. How do we get this information out to the faculty? The Dean replied that the task force (Dean Hadjimichael, Judy Dobai, Ray Poincelot, and herself) are considering all the models out there, including those at other Jesuit institutions. Then the administration has to decide on the process for moving toward one of those models, one of which is the status quo. She encouraged the faculty to begin thinking about what makes sense to THEM, while the task force is working: a proactive place to be, when the report comes out.
Question: Will there be a new dean? The Dean replied that we do not know yet. No matter what happens, we should be thinking integratively and proactively.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:54.
Respectfully submitted,
Bill Abbott