CAS Faculty Meeting
 
4 September 2014
Alumni House
3:30-5:30 p.m.
 
 
-MINUTES-

The Chair welcomed colleagues and invited Prof. Yarrington to offer an update on development on our common “water” theme.  Yarrington distributed a list of “water” films and panel sessions.  She also invited “water” course proposals and ideas for spring 2014.  There will be a brainstorming session for the spring 2014 programming on September 12, from 1-2pm at CNS8 (open invitation for all).

Note:  minutes available on the CAS Faculty Website (via the link above)
   
The Chair called for corrections for the minutes.  With no corrections forthcoming, Prof. Steffen MOVED to accept the minutes from the previous CAS meeting.  Assoc. Dean Perkus SECONDED the motion.  With a clear majority in favor, the minutes were APPROVED.

Senior Vice President Babington welcomed CAS colleagues into the new semester.  She offered a few updates and enthusiastic remarks about the College. 

• The reputation of Fairfield University as a liberal arts institution is housed in the CAS and the depth & breadth of the curriculum.
• The SVPAA recently met with potential funders about the new building the university is planning.  The prospective funders, most in the medical field, spoke often of the unique and advantageous qualities of Fairfield university (nursing) graduates.  They praised Fairfield nursing graduates as broad thinkers who are team ready.
• Assoc. VP Williams recently joined the Academic VP’s Office and is charged with being an innovation leader on campus.  

The Dean welcomed and introduced 14 new faculty members who recently joined the faculty (9 tenure track, 5 visiting).
 
Biology Department

 
Communication Department

 
Economics Department

 
History Department

 
Mathematics

Modern Languages & Literatures

 
 
Philosophy Department

 
 
Religious Studies

 
 
Visual & Performing Arts

Prof. Davidson updated colleagues on developments and opportunities related to the Humanities Institute.   He presented the Humanities Institute’s organizational flow chart.

Prof. Davidson reported that Professors Pearson and Brill are Associate Directors (2-year terms) of the Humanities Institute.  Pearson will focus on program evaluation and Humanities Institute grants.  He will administer the NEH Challenge Grant/Endowment.  The Humanities Institute will once again support individual scholarship (travel to archives, research assistant, etc.).  Prof. Brill will focus on the Humanities Seminar, support faculty scholarship, and provide unique mentorship opportunities or four student fellows (who earn academic credit and a modest stipend). 

The Humanities Institute will also have a Student Advisory Council that will concentrate its efforts on social media.  The primary charge of the Student Advisory Council will be to portray the humanities as the “coolest place in town”  (for example, establish a YouTube channel with videos like “Why Socrates Rocks”).

Prof. Davidson invited colleagues to attend the Humanities Institute’s wine & cheese reception on September 5 in Donnarumma 251.  He also announced that the Humanities Institute is seeking 6 representatives from humanities dept’s, as well as 1 representative each from social and behavioral sciences, and natural sciences and mathematics.
 
Prof. Davidson responded to questions from the floor.     

Colleagues asked several questions and offered general feedback on Davidson’s announcement.

• He replied yes when asked if the reception was open to all faculty and students.
• He also replied yes when he was asked if students from outside the humanities could serve (or be nominated to serve) on the student advisory committee.
• Colleagues are happy to see research support was back in the fold
• Colleagues applauded Prof. Davidson and his leadership
• Humanities departments will select committee members as representatives.  The Dean and Prof. Davidson will appoint the other Humanities Institute members.
• When asked if there is information available on the roles and responsibilities of the committee members, Davidson said no.  He characterized the process as “the Columbus mode” (building institute from ground up).
• The endowment generates approximately $80,000/year.  $20,000 is earmarked for use by the Dean.  The institute controls the other $60,000 of the budget.
  

The Dean shared the following remarks:

All I can say is:  “What a long  … strange … trip … it’s … been …  “  (Grateful Dead).

If someone had told me 18 years ago, when I arrived at Fairfield, that I would someday be your dean of arts and sciences, I would have told them to seek some psychiatric help

And yet I stand before you today, with a mixture of exhilaration and gratitude, as your dean for at least the next year

One
I was fortunate to have worked closely with Robbin Crabtree for the last 15 years, including my last two years as associate dean. She was a terrific friend, confidante and mentor, and I learned a lot from her.  As this is my first year as dean, I can’t come close to matching the inside knowledge of the college and university she gained in six years.  But I can build on the strong foundation she left, and add my strengths and experience in strategic planning, in statistical analysis, in marketing, in mentoring, and in programs like Classroom To Career  … to push The College to a more prominent role at Fairfield

Two
My friend Richard Regan, who recently retired, said he dealt with more than a half a dozen deans of arts and sciences in his 40 years here. He loved to say it would always take a few months to find out if a new dean was stark raving mad or even a threat to the college and the faculty.  I hope I can meet and exceed the very low bar Richard set.

Three
And at a time of change at Fairfield, with 11 task forces looking at all we do, I hope you view me as a known quantity, a source of stability.  Someone who has come up through the ranks as an assistant and associate and full professor … chair of the English department of five years ..  and two years as associate dean. Somebody who will look out for the best interests of the faculty, at any rank, all of the time 

As an aside, let me note that being dean may be a more important job, but being a department chair is a harder job  – because you have so few resources, little budget, few troops, and you rely almost wholly on volunteers.  So a thank you to all the chairs in the audience.

Four
My friends in English will tell you that I reach out to many others in making  decisions.   Consistent with that approach, I met with 40 senior faculty members from the college in my office this past summer.  I wanted to learn from them what they see as the college’s priorities, our untapped strengths, and give them a heads up about what’s facing the college and university

This year I see us as both playing  offense and defense, gaining more credit for what we already do, moving the college forward, yet staying open minded to any good ideas that may result from the task forces or elsewhere.

I’m not afraid to put on my Marketing hat and be a cheerleader about the college and the role of the liberal arts.

• I looked around at graduation in May and saw more than 50% of the graduating seniors were from the college. It’s a critical mass
• I looked at the six month report on how Fairfield students fare after graduation. The methodology may be questionable, but we report 96.6%of our seniors report being placed in a job, grad school, volunteer position, or otherwise not looking for a job in the first six months after graduation.
• I held my breath and dug out the numbers on what the percentage was for students from the College of Arts and Sciences. It was 95.1%.  Virtually the same. Decimal dust. We need to push back against the feeling that arts and science students can’t find jobs.
• When parents ask you about jobs for their children, refer them to the CAS web page, where one of the major tabs is “:why employers love liberal arts students.”
• If any of you see news articles that help emphasize these points, please send them to me. Because I love being a cheerleader for The College and the liberal arts 
• I also And I want us to STOP APOLOGIZING for what we do so well. It’s important, it’s vital, it’s deep student engagement at its best – and it is the core of what Fairfield University is and always has been 
  

Five
Several of the faculty members this summer asked me about my vision for the college, and I have spent some time thinking about this.  Let me ask you to dream with me for a minute

I dream of a College where the No. 1 priority of the dean’s office  is to do everything possible to aid in the development of faculty members, not only at  the assistant rank, but also associate or full professor rank.  That means making sure:
everyone is mentored properly, has access to adequate travel and research funds, isn’t forgotten about at the associate rank, and has the ability to become a star (whether in research, teaching, service – or all three. 

I dream of protecting Fairfield’s tradition of relying primarily on tenure track faculty, and moving to a hiring system that is more transparent, consistent and predictable. In contrast, now we didn’t learn until June that the college will be searching for just four TT positions this year instead of the 10 or 12 that have been the norm. Thank you, Paul Fitzgerald …

I dream of a system for balancing  these tenure track hires with better working conditions for a set number or percentage of adjunct professors who would work full-time and receive benefits and more of a living wage.  I see faculty members who want to help adjuncts, I hear administrators who want to provide adjunct positions with benefits,  and I can see there is room for discussion.

I dream of a time when The College grows in the number of majors, rather than staying at the same number while the professional schools increase in size. Toward that end, I have been highly supportive of groups of faculty who want to put forth proposals to add interdisciplinary majors like Journalism and Public Relations. The hope is that the college can attract hundreds of additional applicants --  and maybe steal a few dozen Dolan school of business marketing majors in the process.  Like all new proposed majors, the proposals would be considered by at least four faculty committees.
       
If any of you doubt the need for growing our number of students in the college, let me share some statistics I just received today. When the class of 2014 entered Fairfield, there were 572 students enrolled in the college. That number dropped to 524, 545, 506 and then 497 this fall.

And this was at a time when the university was adding more students. So the percentage of Fairfield freshmen enrolled in the college dropped even more: from 62% of the entering class of 2014 to 58%, 55%, 52% and only 47% of this year’s freshmen are in the college.  This is alarming.

We need to attract more majors. Therefore I am asking Associate Dean Perkus to meet with all of the Humanities chairs and look for ways for Admissions to promote an entire CAS Division of the Humanities, in addition to individual departments.

I asked Associate Dean Brian Walker to meet with the chairs of the Natural Sciences and Math and see if we can promote a Division of Science and Math.

I expect to put out a call for a third associate dean tomorrow, preferably someone from the social sciences. And that person will bring together the social science deans and look for ways to promote them collectively, as a division, and also the individual programs.

And I will ask this third associate dean to also bring together Communication, Film/TV program in VPA, and the English/Journalism program as another division in an effort to attract more students to the college.

In other action, I have encouraged several departments to look at their graduate programs and see if they can turn them into five year programs, in an effort to grow the college.

And I ask all of you to offer any other ideas you might have.

I dream of the pre-law program coming back to The College with the hiring of a new adviser next fall.  We need a program that goes beyond just prepping for law school and lawyer jobs that may not exist, and more into the broader area of legal services.
It could draw on all the resources of the college and suggest students use law to consider alternative career choices like being the director of a non-profit, working in government, or community organizing

I dream of a process for tenure track searches in which the end result is a more diverse faculty on three different levels.  Our numbers may be OK on the percentage of faculty who are of color, but this masks the growth in Asian American and Hispanic faculty members and the drop in black faculty members.  I have asked the four departments that are searching this fall to appoint one search committee member who will work to ensure racial diversity, and another to keep an eye on gender diversity.  No quotas, no extra reporting requirements – just the goal of making sure we are mindful of the goal of seeking  diverse hires throughout the process. 

I have talked to Prof Nancy Dallavalle and will talk to the four departments with searches about how to better identify new hires who recognize Fairfield’s mission – promoting social justice, educating the whole person. I will discourage departments from choosing candidates solely  on the narrow issue of how well they meet disciplinary needs.

And in all searches across the university this year, I asked  Lynn Babington to insert language in the ads that specifics successful candidates will demonstrate their expertise in using technology in the classroom.  It will be younger faculty members who will lead the way and show veterans like me how to use technology to do an even better job in the classroom.

Beyond new hires, I dream of all of a time when all of our FT faculty buy into our promise to students of cura personalis and trying to help students become men and women and others.

I have heard a handful you say: I wasn’t trained to mentor students, I don’t know how to do it, I don’t want to do it.

In response, I ask: why did you come to Fairfield.  We want and expect faculty members   to go beyond just teaching students for two 75-minute periods a week and then go back to your research.

I will fund any of you, all of you,  to go to a national conference on student advising and mentoring, learn the best practices, as long as you come back and disseminate what you learned to your department or beyond. I hope some of you take me up on this offer.

And I dream of a time, consistent with strategic planning, when we try to get away from some of the inevitable bad news and work on a project that can excite members of the college, unify us – much as the Mission Statement project did last year.

With your help, we will be able to bring a lot of these dreams to reality this year

In closing,   I’m reminded of a conversation I had when I started my term as English department chair; it was a conversation with my friend, Prof. Peter Bayers.  Peter said:

 “You know Simon, it’s not all that complicated. Most of us don’t want your job, but we want to know there will be someone there to look out for us, to back us up, to keep the faculty’s best interests in mind when negotiating with upper management”

            In short, we want someone who has our backs.

And I so I say to all of you …  in the college of arts and sciences …  at least for the 2014-15 academic year:  I have your backs.

Prof. Dennen MOVED to adjourn.  Prof. Rosivach SECONDED the motion.  With a clear majority in favor, motion was APPROVED.

A reception, with refreshments courtesy of the Dean, followed the meeting.