College of Arts and Sciences Fairfield University

MINUTES OF MEETING, OCTOBER 14, 2011

There were approximately 52 faculty members present.

Chair Sally O’Driscoll called the meeting to order at 3:39.

1. Election of Secretary 2011-2013

Dr. Scott Lacy (Anthropology) had already been nominated. Chair O’Driscoll called for further nominations from the floor.

MOVED by Vin Rosivach and seconded by Larry Miners, that nominations be closed. Motion PASSED 50-2-0.

Dr. Lacy was elected CAS Secretary by acclamation.

Dean Crabtree thanked 2009-2011 Secretary Bill Abbott for his service.

2. Minutes

MOVED by Betsy Bowen, and seconded by Manyul Im, that the minutes of the April 26^th meeting be approved as submitted. One amendment proposed: John Miecznikowski’s name was misspelled and needed to be corrected. Amendment accepted. Motion PASSED, 45 in favor, 0 opposed, and 7 abstaining.

2. Election of Planning Committee Members

Chair O’Driscoll announced that two new members needed to be elected to the CAS Planning Committee, to replace Ryan Drake and David McFadden. Two candidates had already been nominated: Dr. Martha LoMonaco for the two-year slot, and Dr. Eric Mielants for the one-year slot. Chair O’Driscoll called for further nominations. MOVED by Vin Rosivach and seconded by Jim Simon, that nominations be closed. Motion PASSED 52-0-0.

Dr. LoMonaco and Dr. Mielants were elected to the CAS Planning Committee (LoMonaco for the two-year and Mielants for the one-year), by acclamation.

3. Proposed changes in election dates for future CAS Planning committee elections

Chair O’Driscoll presented a proposal to change the election of CAS Planning Committee members from the fall to the spring; new members would be elected in the spring and commence their duties in September, rather than being elected at the first fall meeting of the CAS faculty. The rationale is that the new members would be able to step in immediately with the commencement of the fall semester, rather than waiting to commence their duties only after five or six weeks of the fall semester had gone by.

MOVED and SECONDED that this proposal be accepted

Vin Rosivach asked what the original reason had been for holding the elections in the fall. Dean Crabtree replied that the CAS Governance Document provides for the election of the Secretary and CAS members at the first meeting of the year, so we have continued that custom with all our elections. This is too late for election of A&SPC members, who need to meet to set the agendas for the CAS faculty meetings. Dennis Keenan asked, if there is no stipulation, why not just go ahead and hold the elections in the spring? Dean Crabtree replied that the CAS Planning Committee wanted to consult the entire CAS faculty over this question. Manyul Im asked whether we should stipulate a date for the spring? Reply: March was the month proposed by the Committee.

Motion PASSED 52-0-0.

4. Election of new member for CAS Teaching Award Selection Committee

Chair O’Driscoll announced that Dr. Shannon Harding of the Psychology Department had been nominated for this committee. Chair O’Driscoll asked for further nominations. MOVED by Vin Rosivach and seconded by David Crawford, that nominations be closed. Motion PASSED 51-1-0.

Dr. Harding was elected by acclamation.

5. Announcement of elections for Divisional Merit Committees

Chair O’Driscoll announced that the elections for the Divisional Merit Committees would take place at the November meeting of the CAS faculty. She projected a slide of the current membership of these committees. There are six at-large spots open for each of the three divisions. Chair O’Driscoll encouraged CAS faculty to volunteer, asserting that the duties are shockingly easy; the new system works like a dream.

Dean Crabtree stated that CAS Secretary Lacy will be sending out a call for nominations soon.

6. Presentation by Nels Pearson on Cities project

Dr. Nels Pearson passed out a hardcopy flyer: “Cities” Events Focus: Rationale and Call for Participation” (see Appendix A attached), and said that he and other planners are really excited about it. This will be the theme for the 2012-2013 year, following this year’s Global Citizenship theme. Nels urged everyone to read the flyer and get back to him with anything they might have that is related to the Cities theme.

Betsy Bowen asked whether Nels and the other planners would be working with the Convocation people, and if so, whether there would be a text to read? Nels replied that, in future, Convocation will be merging more with the annual university focus. Nels said further that if anyone has any ideas for future university focus, please contact him.

Eric Mielants asked whether, given the current budget situation, the Cities project planners can bring in good speakers. Nels replied that he and the other planners have a small budget, and that there is also money within the Humanities Institute grants, which can help with items related to the Cities events. Nels has been working with people in Development and in other possible sources to add stipends to existing funds. Nels continued: if you send me ideas, if you send me ideas and information regarding courses, programs and events [planned or possible] that would touch upon the Cities theme, I can synchronize and communicate this information.

7. Dean’s Remarks

Dean Crabtree began her remarks by stating how energized she was by the buzz in the room prior to this first meeting of the academic year: all the talk amongst CAS colleagues of personal and professional news is gratifying to hear.

A. Welcome to our 6 new tenure-track colleagues who have joined us this fall:

1. Biology – Shannon Gerry

2. Economics – Tom Murray

3. English (2) – Emily Orlando and Sonya Huber

4. History – Anna Lawrence

5. Politics – Gwendoline Alphonso

Also, welcome also to our one-year Visiting Assistant Professors Lou Anne Freeman in Philosophy and Margo Ramlal-Nankoe in Sociology, Visiting Instructor Guadalupe Morals Gotsch in MLL-Spanish, and to Eileen Reilly-Weidow who started as a Professor of the Practice in Chemistry.

Ø These faculty all have been introduced at a General Faculty Meeting; see handout for bios (attached at end of these minutes as Appendix B).

Ø We are searching in EC, EN, HI, MA, MLL-Sp, PH, PO, PY, RS. As well, I am beginning to review, and refer to departments, a few potential Jesuit scholars.

Ø Thanks, as always, to the search committees who do such a terrific job of crafting job ads, recruiting candidates, hosting finalists, and to all for welcoming our new colleagues to Fairfield.

B. Welcome to new Associate Dean, Dr. Manyul Im

1. Overview of Assoc Dean portfolios: these include advising issues, pre-tenure leaves and review, new rank-and-tenure positions, strategic projects, and interfacing with different committees.

2. Reminder about rotating faculty Associate Dean position opening

3. Call for nominations to fill Joan’s position as she transitions back to the faculty – This is the first announcement of that; will send out an email blast soon. Please feel free to talk to Manyul and Joan informally about what the position entails, and to speak formally to Dean Crabtree about it.

C. Welcome to new CAS Board of Advisors faculty members

1. Matt Kubasik -- Matt is the first scientist on the Board, and this will certainly assist our advancement in science facilities. He has been at Fairfield since 2000, has served on the Rank and Tenure Committee, has been Chair of Biochemistry, and has won the George Lang AAUP award, as well as having brought in grants from the American Chemical Society. He earned the B.S. from Swarthmore and his Ph.D. from Cornell. Matt is Associate Professor of Chemistry.

2. Jill Deupi -- Jill is Director of the Bellarmine Museum of Art, holds a B.A. in Art History and Political Science from Mt. Holyoke, and a law degree from American University; she earned her M.A. at the University of London (Birkbeck College), and holds a PhD in Art History from the University of Virginia. She is Director of the Bellarmine Museum and teaches classes in Art History.

3. The Dean described an expanded vision for the board including the arts as a broad category, not just the programs in VPA within the College, but the Bellarmine Museum, a project that begun in the CAS Board of Advisors, along with the Quick, with which there is more collaboration than ever with academics, etc. This will also include inviting some members onto the CAS Board who are local patrons of our arts & lectures programming rather than being alumni or parents.

4. The Dean gave a brief overview of CAS Board agendas for this year. Our first meeting, last week, focuses on the arts at Fairfield. In February John Mancini is hosting a New York City meeting concurrently with the School of Nursing Board. This will help kick off our most important building project: the expansion of the Health Sciences complex. The Board’s spring meeting will focus on graduate education.

5. Matt and Jill should share their perspectives at one CAS faculty meeting each year and may solicit your thoughts throughout the year. CAS faculty members are welcome to consult with them at any time about board activities or with ideas for future board meeting presentations.

6. We’re adding new board members, including our first MA grad and our first community members with no other ties to Fairfield

7. We will post all of the CAS board member bios on the CAS webpage.

D. Budget Update

1. FY ’12: SVPAA does not expect major cuts or layoffs in the academic division, though there has been no specific post-Board-of-Trustees meeting update

2. We’re in the process of determining how FY ’13 budget requests will take place

3. FY ’13 requests will include rationales for tenure-track searches, continuing and new Professors of the Practice, visiting instructors, etc., but don’t count on full-time coverage for temporary instructional needs due to leaves. We will hope to continue to conduct tenure-track searches in open lines and, depending on retirements and graduate program revenues, perhaps add a line or two in the coming couple of years.

4. Operating budget in the College likely will be the same, some intra-College realignment may be necessary – don’t expect any new funds, and do seek to streamline operations in departments & programs

E. Assessment and Program Review Update

1. Women’s Studies and Latin American and Caribbean Studies are completing their self-studies and will host external reviewers this year.

2. Communication, Religious Studies, American Studies, and Russian/Eastern European Studies are beginning their self-studies this year.

3. Catholic Studies is doing a 5-year new program review, as is the Comm Corporate Cohort MA program.

4. Elizabeth Petrino has recently been appointed Co-Director of American Studies.

5. Slightly revised queue for program review will be discussed with chairs and program directors based on what we’ve learned in the past two+ years about the process.

6. Thanks to Joan Weiss, Manyul Im, Aaron Perkus, Christine Siegel, and the staff of the CAE and the Office of Institutional Research for all their help with assessment and program review.

F. Graduate Program Update

1. Slightly below projections for this year so far, with a bit of variation across programs

2. Looking into setting projections more accurately

3. Developing normalization of compensation for various graduate program related responsibilities

4. Two new programs likely to go to committee this year: Master’s in Public Administration (contact person Dr. Mark LeClair), and an M.A. in Liberal Studies (contact person Dr. Steve Bayne)

G. University College Update

1. CUC, UCC, and EPC have all voted to close UC

2. AC voted to recommend closure pending resolution of a number of policy issues, which are now in subcommittee

3. The subcommittee representatives from CAS are Irene Mulvey and Giovanni Ruffini; they will be consulting extensively with ASCC

4. General Faculty should see a motion to close UC in the spring.

5. Thanks to all the committees who have engaged throughout this process.

H. Faculty Professional Travel

1. Last spring I reported the 4-year growth in Dean-funded additional faculty professional travel (beyond that allocated to department and program budgets) was up 354% from more or less $13,000 in FY ‘08 to over $47,000 in FY ’11.

2. FY ’12 commitments from the Dean, distributed to chairs yesterday, also nearly $50,000

3. This will really tax the Dean’s budget, thus it’s very important that departments and programs remain within their allocated budgets; the Dean is committing substantial CAS operating to faculty professional travel and will not have end-of-year funds for department “bail-outs”.

I. Recognition of faculty accomplishments:

1. Student outcomes from last year show an excellent record of student accomplishment: internships, independent research projects, and other achievements (CAS annual report will be posted on CAS webpage)

2. Six Fulbright student applicants (list); also list of those faculty who mentored proposals and wrote letters of recommendation

3. Gratitude to faculty for this and similar close work mentoring students (she read a long list of names). This enriches the four-year educational experience, enhances our students’ post-graduation options, and increases the profile and prestige of the University.

4. Ron Davidson and Joy Gordon, who have won Fulbright grants, have made themselves available to departments and individual faculty members to discuss these kind of major fellowship applications. They would like to support faculty.

5. The Dean has requested that the Faculty Research Committee devote one meeting per year to introduce faculty to publishing strategies for books and articles and similar topics, with experienced and successful faculty providing mentoring and advice to others.

6. The first CAS Newsletter of the academic year is out and all CAS faculty should have received it in their mailboxes. The next issue will include a section on adjunct faculty accomplishments; the Newsletter also covers interdisciplinary programs and strategic planning. Faculty should send all relevant news to the Dean and to Carolyn Arnold.

J. Departmental award for integration and assessment of student learning

Ø 2011-12 Award goes to the English Department

o Highlights of progress: working across the academic major and with broad set of faculty, uses a learning community model including full- and part-time colleagues, its learning outcomes are measurable and demonstrable, progress on assessment arises from external program review and intentional use of Davis-funded workshops and a series of other departmental workshops, identifies ongoing challenges and suggests solutions and strategies for overcoming them based on the desire to improve and assess the program.

o Weakness – still needs to do actual review of actual student artifacts, and analyze, interpret, and apply findings.

o Much appreciation to Jim Simon for his leadership, and to the English Department for modeling this progress, and for engaging so deeply and broadly with assessment of their academic programs and the core.

o All faculty in all departments should be engaged in assessment work of some kind – of the core pathways, the majors, etc.

K. A Final Note on Optimism in Challenging Times:

1. Fairfield is a great place to work, with world class faculty, great students, unprecedented interdisciplinary esprit de corps, and extraordinary shared governance

2. Despite budget issues, we continue to hire tenure-track faculty when other institutions have hiring freezes, furloughs, salary cuts, etc.

3. Thanks TO ALL OF YOU for all you do to help lead the academic operation, to shepherd resources carefully, to engage deeply with our students, and to pursue extraordinary scholarly achievements.

4. I hope that, despite budget woes and ongoing/new challenges in higher education today, that we can focus on the positive, support each other with civility and kindness, and continue to create this unique community where we share our professional lives as well as lasting friendships.

The meeting was adjourned by Chair O’Driscoll at 4:34.

Bill Abbot

APPENDIX A

“CITIES” EVENTS FOCUS

RATIONALE AND CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

We are happy to announce “Cities” as the campus-wide events focus for 2012/2013.  The topic of urban and metropolitan life—its evolution, meaning, environments, dimensions, effects—offers many ways for us to promote integrative learning, interdisciplinary conversation, and community engagement at Fairfield.  Given the historical, political, philosophical, sociological and scientific significance of the city—including its deep ties to citizenship as an idea and as a lived experience—the theme can be approached in a number of ways. It allows us to highlight existing pedagogical and scholarly projects while also creating new linkages between them and planning new projects. We foresee events, speakers, panels, courses and collaborations that will consider cities ancient and modern, near and far, real and imagined, and the various challenges and opportunities that these represent for putting our collective knowledge to work.  We look forward to hearing ideas from individuals, programs, and departments regarding how they might contribute to this focus, or help shape it.

“Cities” also follows naturally upon our previous focus, “Global Citizenship,” for many of the reasons highlighted above, and it well suits the general rationale of the events focus:

The focus should be broad enough to engage all disciplines in some fashion, yet specific enough to promote substantive dialogue, reflection, and action.  Because it is designed to highlight the general process of interdisciplinary learning via a specific, campus-wide conversation, the focus is also a way for us to emphasize integrative learning practices that are already taking place at Fairfield University.  Indeed, the annual theme is a way to promote and foster our existing commitment to disciplinary relationships through synergistic courses and events and cross-campus collaborations.  Ideally, it would help increase the internal and external visibility of our integrative efforts, enhance our leverage for further financial support of such activities, and engage the entire University community of faculty, students, administrators, staff, alumni, parents, and friends.

Please let us know of your ideas, existing or future research, planned or potential courses that might fit into the “Cities” theme. Send this information, or any questions you have about the events focus, to us at the email addresses below.

Sincerely,

Nels Pearson

Associate Professor of English

Faculty Facilitator for “Cities” Events

npearson@fairfield.edu

&

Gary Wood

Director, Quick Center for the Performing Arts

Administrative Facilitator for “Cities” Events

gwood@fairfield.edu

APPENDIX B

College of Arts & Sciences

New Faculty – Fall 2011

Biology

Shannon Gerry, Assistant Professor

Shannon Gerry is a native of Fairfield. She received her BS from Bucknell University, and her Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Rhode Island. Her research compared the feeding mechanics of two “not-so-scary” species of sharks including their diet, jaw anatomy, feeding behaviors and muscle activation patterns. She will expand some of this research using stingrays and skates at Fairfield. After graduation, she spent a year teaching Comparative Anatomy and Physiology at Arcadia University outside of Philadelphia and, most recently, was an NSF-funded postdoctoral researcher at Wellesley College.

Chemistry

Eileen Reilly-Wiedow, Professor of the Practice

Eileen Reilly Wiedow’s focus will be on the lecture and laboratory courses for Health Science, CH 84. Eileen brings over ten years of experience teaching such courses for us and other schools in the area. She also has had a successful career as a certified environmental professional working at area corporations such as Bedoukian Research, Danbury Hospital, the US Army, and the US Environmental Protection Agency. Eileen has served for many years as a board member for the Science Horizons program that promotes interest in science for 7-12 graders. She received her Masters degree from Long Island University, and a BS in Biology and Chemistry from West Virginia University.

Economics

Thomas Murray, Assistant Professor of Economics

The Economics Department welcomes Tom Murray to Fairfield University. Tom received his PhD in Public Economics from The University of Notre Dame. His dissertation examined the impact of immigration on local and regional public finance. Tom will be reviving the long-neglected area of public economics in the department, and will also be asked to offer a course for the Masters of Public Administration program that is now under development. Please welcome Tom Murray.

English

Sonya Huber, Assistant Professor of English

Prof. Sonya Huber joined the writing program in English as an expert in creative non-fiction writing and memoir. She received an MFA degree from The Ohio State University, and taught for several years at Georgia Southern University and in low-residency MFA programs. Sonya has turned some of her own life choices into two books from University of Nebraska Press. The first, “Opa Nobody,” published in 2008, deals with her German grandfather's socialist activism and sonya’s own work in the labor movement. The second, “Cover Me: A Health Insurance Memoir,” tells the story of what she calls her own health insurance neurosis. Sonya also has a textbook on the craft of writing, due out later this year.

Emily Orlando, Assistant Professor of English

Prof. Emily Orlando has joined the English department as a tenure track assistant professor after four years as a visiting assistant Professor. Emily earned her Ph.D. in English at the University of Maryland. From 2002 to 2007 she taught as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of English at Tennessee State University. She began teaching at Fairfield in Fall 2007 and last year, as the result of a national search, she was hired as an Assistant Professor. Prof. Orlando is the author of Edith Wharton and the Visual Arts, which earned a “Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award” in 2008. She is co-directing “Edith Wharton in Florence,” the international conference of the Edith Wharton Society, which will take place in Italy June 2012. She has published several essay collections on American literature, including one forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.

History

Anna Lawrence, Assistant Professor

Professor Anna Lawrence received her MA & PhD from the University of Michigan, with fields in Early America, Women and Gender, Religious history, and British history. For the last six years, she was Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. Her book, hot off the presses this summer, is One Family Under God: Love, Belonging, and Authority in Early Transatlantic Methodism (University of Pennsylvania Press). She has been named an Outstanding Young Scholar in American Religious studies by the Lilly Foundation. Anna is looking forward to teaching courses here on Early America and on the history of women, gender and sexuality.

Modern Languages & Literatures

Guadalupe Morals Gotsch, Visiting Instructor

Guadalupe Morals Gotsch completed her Master’s degree in Hispanic Literatures and Cultures at Stony Brook University. Currently she is writing her dissertation at the University of Albany in the department of Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Her research focuses on the socio-economic and cultural effects of economic remittances on middle class Peruvian families. Prior to joining us at Fairfield Guadalupe taught at Bard College of Simon’s Rock in Massachusetts where she was Visiting Professor of the Language Division for three years. A native of Peru, she has also worked in international commercial aviation. At Fairfield Guadalupe teaches core language courses, Spanish composition and a seminar on Spanish American civilization.

Philosophy

Lou Anne Freeman, Visiting Assistant Professor

After raising three daughters (the eldest of whom graduated from Fairfield University), and a career in publishing (including the position of Vice President of Circulation at the Nation Magazine), Prof. Freeman enrolled at the New School to pursue a master’s degree in Liberal Studies. While there, she read Nietzsche for the first time, and thus began her philosophical career. She went on to earn her Ph.D. in philosophy at the New School, writing a dissertation titled A Strong and Noble Character: On the Problem of Suffering in Nietzsche’s Critique of Morality. Since receiving her degree in 2008, Lou Anne has taught part time at Fairfield University, and since January we have been lucky enough to have her as a full-time visiting assistant professor.

Politics

Gwendolyn Alphonso, Assistant Professor

Gwen recently completed her PhD in the Department of Government at Cornell University and wrote her dissertation about how the discussion of “family values” has been shaped by party politics. In addition, Gwen earned a Doctor of Juridical Science degree from Cornell University Law School, holds a Bachelor of Civil Laws in European and Comparative Law from Oxford University, and received a BA LLB with honors from the National Law School of India. She will be teaching courses on American political institutions such as Congress, and the Presidency, and as well as introducing new courses like the Politics of the Family. Not only is Gwen contributing to the curriculum of the Politics Department but she is also involved in the development of a proposed interdisciplinary minor in Legal Studies.

Sociology

Margo Ramlal-Nankoe, Visiting Assistant Professor

Margo Ramlal-Nankoe is a Visiting Assistant Professor this year in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology.  She got her first degree in pedagogy and education in her native Suriname.  Thereafter she did graduate work in The Netherlands, and came to the United States to work with Immanuel Wallerstein at SUNY Binghamton, where she received her PhD in Sociology. She has taught at Western Connecticut State University, Hunter College, and Ithaca College.  For us she will be teaching “Race, Gender and Ethnic Relations,” “Introduction to Sociology,” and “Social Change in Developing Nations.”