College of Arts & Sciences

Dean's Council of Chairs and Program Directors

October 7, 2009, 3:30-5:00 pm

Alumni House

 

Present: J Borycka, C. Bucki, M. Carolan, M. Coleman, N. Dallavalle, D. Downie, G. Giu-Egui, D. Greenberg, E. Hohl, M. Im, D. Keenan, P. Lane, J. Leatherman, D. Li, D. McFadden, J. McCarthy, L. O'Connor, L. Porter, R. Rodrigues, V. Rosivach, G. Sauer, J. Simon, M. Sourieau, K. Steffen, E. Umansky, B. Walker, J. Weiss, M. Wills, D. Winn

 

Regrets: K. Cassidy, G. Giu-Egui, J. Leatherman, D. Schmidt, R. White

 

The meeting convened at 3:30 p.m.

 

Approval of Minutes—Dr. Glenn Sauer moved to approve the September 9, 2009 minutes and Dr. Dennis Keenan seconded the motion. Dr. Cecelia Bucki mentioned that the question she listed on page 4 was incorrect. Changes will read as follows: How do you envision the interdisciplinary programs within the College of Arts and Sciences, thus within the Institution? The answer to her question was combined within the bullet points and likely adjusted somewhat when Fr. Fitzgerald massaged the minutes. All were in favor of the minutes upon these amendments with one abstention.

 

Ideas for Dean's Council Meetings—The Dean shared a draft of the additional chairs meetings for academic year 2009-2010. These Dean's Council topics were shared at the Chairs' Retreat. At this time, she invited the chairs to forward any ideas they might have relative to future meeting topics. The following schedule was discussed, as tentative:

á    November 4 (chairs)—Dr. Lucy Katz is engaged in a program that is partially funded by the Humanities Institute, the Dolan School of Business, and Student Affairs. It is a mediation program working primarily with students in Student Affairs to train them to become mediators and to engage in conflict resolution among students or student groups. Dr. Katz would like to share this program with the chairs. The Dean suggested that Dr. Katz engage in an activity with the Council relative to conflict resolution, because it is one of the most difficult tasks for the majority of people to handle. Most people are conflict avoidant, which is generally a non-productive conflict style. The November 4 meeting is for chairs, but the Dean did open the invitation to any of the program directors interested in engaging in this conversation.

á    December 2 (chairs and directors)—It was decided that the original topic of Core Integration and Living and Learning Initiatives with Drs. Elizabeth Boquet, Deb Cady Melzer, and Kathy Nantz would be postponed until the spring semester. The Dean suggested that the December meeting focus on an agenda addressing initiatives that could support interdisciplinary programs, including finding ways to enhance the relationships between departments and programs. This conversation will include both chairs and directors, so they could discuss trends of interdisciplinary studies, mechanisms used to support interdisciplinary inquires, and what it means to engage in interdisciplinary hiring.

á    February 3 (chairs)—Discussion relative to assessment and program reviews.

á    March 3 (chairs)—Core Integration and Living and Learning Initiatives with Drs. Elizabeth Boquet, Deb Cady Melzer, and Kathy Nantz.

á    April 15 (chairs and directors)—Advising

á    May 6 (chairs)—Department progress reports and plans. Program Directors will join for dinner.

 

Program Directors Schedule (additional to any combined meetings with chairs)

á    November 11 and January 27—Interdisciplinary assessment working towards planning for Program Review.

á    March 17—Interdisciplinary Program advancing Living and Learning

 

Enrollment Update—The Dean shared a handout that was given to her at the Deans and Directors meeting. These statistics mapped out the Class of 2013's undergraduate enrollment. The Dean pointed out that Financial Aid received 300 appeals for new financial aid packages from returning students. Out of 300 appeals 296 students were retained. The following points were discussed.

á    Dr. Mary Ann Carolan asked for an explanation on the statistics listed for SAT scores. The average listed was 1110/1710. Dr. Matt Coleman mentioned that the 1110 was based out of a total score of 1600, while 1710 was out of 2400.

á    Fairfield admissions reviews are holistic, focusing on much more than SAT data and academic performance measures. This year SAT recordings will be optional.

á    Dr. Vin Rosivach was interested in learning how many of the incoming freshmen class are recruited athletes and how many are financial scholarships. The Dean will inquire about this statistic.

á    Currently there are 3,000 applications for the Class of 2014. With an on-line application process, students are applying for an abundance of schools and are also being accepted to more schools then the norm. Institutional yields are going down and the acceptance rates are going up. As students are applying to multiple schools, they are waiting until the last minute to commit. Xavier reported that their yield was extremely high, yet they noticed that the number and the proportion of minority students in their freshmen class dropped noticeably. In the larger economic context, the actual finance reality and the psychology for deciding to go to a private institution is shifting.

á    The Council of Graduate Programs, within the College, is scheduled to meet at least once a semester to discuss topics such as marketing, programming and services for graduate students, and collaboration across programs within the College. The Deans from each of the schools are also discussing graduate program collaboration across the schools.

á    Anyone interested in developing graduate degree programs within the College could speak to the A&S Planning Committee to explore ideas and come up with strategies.

á    The School of Graduate Education is changing their configuration, where undergraduates can engage in a five year program and obtain their masters and their certification. Because students will need to take content area classes at the graduate level, implications to American Studies, Mathematics, History, Literature and American Studies classes will occur. Once there is a greater sense as to what the needs are for these changes, the Graduate School of Education will have a discussion with the Dean and the respective departments.

á    Statistically the Graduate student population is overwhelmingly female with a diverse population. These students are from surrounding areas residing in approximately a 40 mile radius with the majority being part-time students. The MFA Program does not fall within this norm as their program is drawing substantially from a national audience.

á    The Dean mentioned that the web rebrand seems to be working for external audiences. As for our internal concerns, Drs. Bob Epstein, Joan Weiss, and a number of other colleagues are systematically viewing the website to assure appropriate representation inclusive of linkage between various areas. The Dean encouraged the chairs and directors to communicate any changes, updates, and/or frustrations they experience, so that these issues could be shared with the appropriate people.

á    The Dean reminded the chairs and directors that their facilitation with enrollment management is crucial. Ms. Susan Peterson, Assistant Dean in the College, will be closely monitoring course enrollments. It is essential that enrollment numbers are tight. The best practice for chairs and directors would be to plan a schedule that has no extra seats than needed. When students have to be moved from a course due to under enrollment, it requires a tremendous amount of staff hours.

á    Dr. Lynne Porter mentioned that the Visual and Performing Arts Department expressed concern about the new registration procedure in that when students log in to register for a class, if they cannot get into a VPA class that day, they decide to postpone their VPA requirement for a later date. The Dean recommended communicating to majors and minors within individual disciplines about how the registration system works. She shared that the number of complaints from students relative to registration dropped by ninety percent and the process used to wait list students is working from their perspective.

á    Dr. Manyul Im expressed his concern with the current freshmen registration system. Courses are being over enrolled without approval from the professor. The Dean informed the Council that the freshmen registration process will change next year. Currently they use a manual system. Students will most likely be enrolled in special experiences first that are integrative and related to retention and engagement efforts. Dr. Elizabeth Boquet will be revising this process significantly. The Dean encouraged chairs and directors to share their concerns with Dr. Boquet for consideration. We'll likely schedule Dr. Boquet to meet with the chairs & directors at the April 15th meeting.

 

Budget Update—Information for budget submission will be distributed as soon as possible. The Dean's Office receives instructions from the Sr. Academic Vice President's Office prior to distribution. Last years' instructions were delivered late, and they may be late again this year, because the budget situation continues to be uncertain. Due to changes in leadership and the recently-announced retirement of Bill Lucas, there may be some changes to this process. Relative to the retirement of Bill Lucas, the Dean announced that anyone interested in serving on the search committee for Mr. Lucas' position should e-mail Dr. Billy Weitzer, Sr. Executive Vice President, in anticipation of the need faculty participation. She encouraged anyone with previous experience on the budget committee to consider this possibility.

 

Dr. Phil Lane expressed his condolences on the retirement of Bill Lucas; he commended his many years of service. His leadership resulted in the University having a balanced budget for a long time. The Dean shared that Paul may be encourages some changes in the way annual budgeting is done. She explained that under the current system some of the College's annual commitments, such as maintenance contracts for equipment and startup commitments, which are yearly anticipated expenses, are not funded in the Dean's or departments' budgets but instead requests are generally ad hoc through contingency. This year, the Dean was asked to spend out her operating budget on these items, before requesting additional funding to accommodate operating costs to run the Dean's Office. This creates a very tenuous situation.

 

The Dean reiterated that funding from the Humanities Institute and Science Institute is available to faculty. These funding options help departments and programs rebound some of the lost 10% budget cut, and offer an opportunity for them to bring faculty together to engage in intellectual work and programming at the institution. People have been very created about working across divisions to combine funding. The Dean commended Mark Demers, Laura McSweeney, and Shawn Rafalski's project, "The Shape of Space: A General Audience Lecture by Mathematician Jeffrey Weeks, which was funded by a Science Institute Grant. This initiative was a great success as it captured an audience filling the Quick Center. Humanities Institute proposals are due by October 15th and the call for Science Institute proposals will be sent out to meet a February 1 deadline.

 

The Dean asked the chairs and directors to share ideas on best practices to reduce expenses.

á    Dr. Glenn Sauer mentioned that the Biology Department was efficiently utilizing their current stock of chemicals cleaning out their current stock, in hopes to avoid the need of purchasing additional items. This will carry them through this year, but next year these supplies will need replenishing. Is the 10 percent budget cut going to be our working model moving forward? The Dean confirmed the 10 percent budget cut should be considered permanent.

á    Dr. Marie-Agnes Sourieau shared that the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures cut cost on use of photocopying at the department level. She asked the DML faculty to utilize the services of Printing and Graphics for their copying needs in hopes that their cost would be reduced.

á    The Dean mentioned that charges for photocopying seemed to be more efficiently monitored. Dr. John McCarthy shared that the printing expenses for the Psychology Department last year was exactly the same as the year before. McCarthy contacted Printing and Graphics for an explanation on how these costs could be the same for two consecutive years. Printing and Graphics came back with another figure, but could not explain how this cost was calculated. McCarthy's concern was that the Psychology Department shared a copier with faculty and staff from other departments; and if Printing and Graphics could not justify the charges incurred by the Psychology Department, how are they determining which department should be billed. McCarthy mentioned that photocopying was the department's largest expense outside of faculty travel.

á    Bucki was surprised that departments were not receiving monthly or end of the semester recordings of staff and faculty copy use, so chairs could keep track of usage. She thought this was the reason Printing and Graphics distributed individual copy codes.

á    Dr. Vin Rosivach suggested the use of class websites and posting syllabus electronically to reduce the use of printing and/or photocopying. Bucki felt it was important to give students a hardcopy of the syllabus opposed to just an electronic version. She considered a handout of the syllabus as an official contract between student and instructor.

á    The Dean shared that the Communication Department utilized Xythos to post applications and pertinent materials from their two hundred faculty search candidates. Bucki shared that she received a newsletter which indicated many schools were moving towards electronic application submissions. She was wondering if the University was considering this type of system. The Dean stated that the Sr. Academic Vice President had mentioned this in prior discussions; she would bring this question to his attention.

á    The Dean will forward a memo to Art Payne, Director of Printing and Graphic Services, expressing the concerns of the College. She asked chairs and directors to send her any additional scenarios needing representation.

 

Long and Short Term Planning for Faculty Hiring—The Dean mentioned that the Sr. Academic Vice President was interested in planning for faculty hiring as opposed to reacting to vacancies as they become available. All of the departments running searches this year had to submit a search plan that included some demographic analysis on how the position was fitting into their longer term hiring plan. As Departments are going through program reviews, this type of thinking should be incorporate into the process. Many departments will be hiring prior to their program review; therefore the Dean asked all departments to think about their next three hires. Consideration should be in relationship to the demographics, possible retirements, a new line, etcÉ She suggested they be more analytical and strategic with consideration of integrative hires—cross-department and cross-program collaboration on hires.

 

Dr. Jocelyn Borycka mentioned that one of their colleagues passed away and she felt that there should have been some flexibility in terms of an approval for an immediate search. The Politics Department was asked to wait one year prior to engaging in an active search for a tenure track position. Borycka shared that this situation was very challenging for the department, and she found it very discomforting that the Sr. Vice President decided to place this on hold for a year. Protocol for reacting to these types of situations should be defined more clearly. The Dean spoke on behalf of the Sr. Vice President by stating that timing was more of an issue then whether the department should hire. Dr. John Orman passed away a few days prior to the start of our new Sr. Vice President joining the University. Given the proximity to fall courses, the SVP was not comfortable with the department scrambling to accommodate coverage for fall semester courses in addition to carefully hiring a new colleague. What did occur was a rapid authorization to hire for a one-year visiting position, along with rapid approval for a search during the academic year 2011 for a hire beginning fall 2012. Not all open line searches were approved across the College, but approval for Politics was made immediately. Borycka appreciated the timeliness of these approvals; however, the department was ready to move forward to seek a permanent hire, because they recognized the gap that this tremendous loss left for them. Running a current search could have been beneficial in terms of a larger pool of strong candidates due to economic times.

 

Borycka also expressed her concern as to what type of support would be available for the chairs and directors in carrying out the hiring analysis requested by the Dean. The Dean assured her that this process would not be time consuming. It may require one or two departmental meetings assessing where likely vacancies might occur, what areas these positions address; how they fit into their curriculum; what are the curricular aspirations of their program; and what are their needs? The idea is to plan for situations that may occur, so the department and/or program is efficiently ready to react when vacancies or other opportunities occur.

 

Dr. Brian Walker if there was a policy in place in terms of hiring faculty within disciplinary programs? The Dean mentioned that she is encouraging this within department based hires. These needs are articulated in current job advertisements. The active Communication search specifically highlighted Women Studies, Black Studies and Environmental Studies. Economics highlighted Asian Studies. The Dean encouraged this type of planning in collaboration with their colleagues. This topic should be discussed during the December Dean's Council meeting and include exploration of the ways hiring is done for interdisciplinary programs nationally and the pros and cons of various approaches.

 

Porter mentioned that the VPA Department may be losing some staff personnel for some of the same reasons. Should departments and programs follow the same planning for staff? The Dean felt it was worth doing.

 

The Dean shared that the Sr. Vice President was seeking to administer letters of appointment for Professors of the Practice. Departments that consistently utilize adjunct faculty—English, Mathematics, Department of Modern Languages—may want to attempt to obtain Professors of the Practice for these positions. These types of positions should be articulated through budget requests. The Sr. Vice President expressed his concern about the lack of personnel categories for all of the different types of teaching personnel universities routinely have.

 

The Dean encouraged the Council to prepare a one-page proposal for ideas about endowed professorships. This position should be strongly connected to the mission of the institution, to the character of the program, to enhancing the profile of Fairfield University, etcÉ She would share these requests with Fr. Fitzgerald and Stephanie Frost, Vice President of Advancement. This would place the College at an advantage to be considered for these positions when opportunities became available.

 

Task Force on Review of the College Governance—The Dean asked for an election of one chair and one program director to sit on the Task Force on Review of the College Governance, which is chaired by Dr. Joan Weiss. Drs. William Abbott and Glenn Sauer, who are both Ex-officio currently serve on this committee. Dr. Matthew Coleman, Chair of the Mathematics and Computer Science Department, volunteered. The Dean mentioned that she would approach Dr. David McFadden, Director of Russian and East European Studies, asking him to sit on the committee.

 

Cancelled Classes and Final Exam Schedules—The Dean shared her concerns that at the start of the semester faculty randomly cancelled classes for the first one or two classes prior to Labor Day. She mentioned that if a faculty member is out due to an illness, the department chair should be notified. Sauer also expressed his disapproval of the changes faculty make to their final exams. While these changes may accommodate some students, they cause difficulties for most students. The Dean stated that it is department business to assure that faculty members administer exams as scheduled. There is a lot of pressure placed on students during exam time, and the changing of these exams adds to their burden. Faculty asked the Registrar's Office to help them create an exam schedule to avoid conflicts. The Registrar monitored these schedules very closely and worked very hard to obtain a reasonable schedule. When individual faculty decide to make changes, it causes havoc for students. Dr. Phil Lane mentioned that the policy for changes in final exam schedules warrants pre-approval by the Dean, and a list of these approved changes are required to be distributed to the faculty—changes are required to be transparent. By December 15, a list of faculty, who are not giving traditional final exams, during the time designated for their class, should be distributed to all faculty. The Dean asked department chairs to compile this information and forward it to Ms. Jean Daniele to create a distribution list. [NOTE: the policy actually asks the Dean to post any exceptions the Dean makes to the rule that exam times not be changed. Exceptions to traditional exam formats are merely reported to the Dean.]

 

CALC—The Dean mentioned that Dr. Curt Naser and Stephanie Borelli, co-facilitator of assessment, will begin working with departments to meet their individual needs by assisting them with ways to apply their findings. Another task force the Dean would be interested in forming is a committee to develop formal procedures for the annual review of chairs and deans. This was a topic that was discussed at the AJCU Dean's Meeting. The Dean asked if there was interest in getting feedback. She mentioned that she would speak with the CAS Planning Committee for some ideas and then she will share information at a future date for discussion.

 

Pre-Tenure Faculty Meeting—All pre-tenure faculty were notified about the Pre-tenure faculty meeting scheduled for Friday, November 6, from 3:30 – 5:00 p.m. Last year the Dean met with all pre-tenure faculty members for a question and answer session relative to the tenure process. The Dean learned last year that mentoring was very uneven. Senior faculty were not fully aware of the degree to which junior faculty experienced lack of clarity and other anxieties about the rank and tenure process. She encouraged senior faculty to be more proactive in this process.

 

Additional agenda items not discussed fully at this meeting will be folded into the November 4th meeting.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m.