Dean's Council Meeting

College of Arts and Sciences

November 5, 2008

 

 

Present:  E. Boquet, M. Coleman, N. Dallavalle, W. Johnson, D. Keenan, M. Kubasik, P. Lane,

J. McCarthy, D. McFadden, J. Orman, L. Porter, R. Rodrigues, G. Sauer, J. Simon, J. Shanahan, M. Sourieau, D. Winn, R. White

 

The meeting convened at 3:30 p.m.

 

Minutes

Approval of Minutes—Dr. John Orman moved to approve the October 1, 2008 minutes and

Dr. Dennis Keenan seconded the motion. All were in favor of approval of minutes.

 

Overview and Set-up

In setting up the discussion for the November Dean's Council meeting, the Dean discussed diversifying the faculty and the student body and what this term fully means. She mentioned that the composition of the University should reflect society at large, promote diversity, multiculturalism, internationalism, and promote justice. The institution has a responsibility to offer our students an educational environment that prepares them to live and work in a diverse society and an interdependent world, and to promote and create justice in the world.

 

In terms of learning in a diverse environment, the research, at large, suggested that when students learn from diverse faculty and in context with diverse peers, their cognitive complexity increases. As our students and faculty ranks are more diverse, we have the responsibility to explore the ways our values, practices, policies, and pedagogies support and impede our efforts to diversify -- not just to attract diversity, but to retain and assure the success of all of our students and faculty. A survey on these matters indicated that Fairfield faculty agreed, overwhelmingly, with this institutional goal; we are well above the benchmark. A national survey indicated that approximately 86 percent of Fairfield faculty agreed that creating a diverse environment was an important goal of the institution. While we share these values and assumptions, there are behavioral and political dimensions of our organizational life that still need to change in order to reach these goals.

 

Goals

 

 

 

Discussion

The Dean extended a special thanks to the planning committee for the November meeting—

Drs. Beth Boquet, Matthew Kubasik, Renee White and Mr. William Johnson, Assistant Dean of Students and Director of the Office of Student Diversity Programs. The group distributed several short readings and reflection questions prior to the meeting with the purpose of raising issues and evoking conversation and ideas relative to the topic of diversity.

 

There was an open discussion informed by the institutional context, guided by and connected to the readings, and related to departmental issues and examples. The Dean opened the floor to discuss strategies and/or challenges relative to faculty searches and other diverse issues. The goal was to share best practices and exploration of next steps.

 

Discussions relative to searches:

 

á      Dr. Orman was currently undergoing a search in Politics, and he found it difficult to determine who was a minority in his pool of candidates. He mentioned that Fairfield University was strongly committed to affirmative action aggressively recruiting qualified minorities, and it was his understanding that all tied votes would go to minorities and women. He commented that if we look at the University's full-time faculty, we have made little progress over the course of thirty years in terms of diversity hires. He was interested in learning how we could move to the next level.

á      Dr. Kubasik agreed with Orman. The guess work that is going on when looking at our applicant pools to decide from a short list of eight to inviting three candidates to campus is a problem.

á      A discussion relative to this point took place at the planning meeting. The Dean forwarded a number of specific recommendations to the Executive Vice President, Academic Vice President, and Human Resources suggesting the following strategies:

o      Use of postcards and methods of self-identification

o      Publishing of all searches in one advertisement in Diverse Issues of Higher Education and other publications that are targeted towards diversity.

á      The History Department experienced some resistance with running their ads in other publications. Having this as a policy would be helpful.

á      Mentioning interdisciplinary programs within an ad is important, but in addition, creating links to centers, programs, policies and other supportive initiatives to diversity would enable us to imbed important links within the ad.

á      Forming diverse search committees, creating opportunities for candidates to meet with diverse colleagues but focusing on meetings relative to the candidate's intellectual interest, academic areas, and out of classroom interests are all appealing factors within the search process. This will give the prospective candidate a sense that there are intellectual colleagues they could build networks with and gain transitional support from.

á      Going to a convention (especially poster sessions), engaging a larger pool of preliminary interviews, and offering informational interviews at conferences all created opportunities to personally meet applicants (and to drum up applicants in highly-specialized fields).

á      Being more aggressive and selective on what types of information we request and networking more with the NYU Network of Universities and Colleges to obtain a greater level of information helps identify potential candidates in advance. Informing the network about Fairfield, so they could put Fairfield on their list of interested institutions they would like to seek employment at is a good practice.

á      The Economics Department did not interview less than twenty-five applicants, while participating in the recruitment process through conferences. The department spent time in researching where potential candidates attended their undergraduate education, which helped in obtaining strong possibilities.

á      Website research gave access to, not only a picture of the candidate, but additional data for review.

á      Research revealed that eighty-five percent of minority candidates do not have multiple offers.

á      Prospect management is an important piece of the interviewing process. Money and economics can be a problem. When meeting candidates at conferences, the economics commitment is not on the University, so learning what conferences candidates are most likely to attend would help in opening the door for personal interface with them.

á      By looking at candidates curriculum vitae, you can determine the types of conferences they are more likely to attend—regional opposed to national conferences in a particular discipline.

á      The English Department utilized an approach known as informational interviews. They attended a conference prior to their active search in WPA to promote Fairfield University and to talk to as many people as possible to build awareness of their upcoming position. This was a success in that they had the opportunity to meet many candidates that were qualified for the position. Dr. Simon attended a Journalist conference this past July to target as many candidates as possible for their currently active digital journalist search. They obtained a strong pool of candidates through this process which included candidates from under-represented groups.

á      In an attempt to recruit women in the sciences, Dr. Ed O'Connell attended an American Chemical Society Conference, which featured an academic employment initiative. This is a science fair, where people seeking academic employment demonstrates posters relative to their work experiences. A sense of urgency is beneficial in obtaining qualified individuals. The American Chemical Society generally has an August conference. Obtaining strong candidates from this conference should be followed by the completion of a search within the fall semester.

á      What are we doing in our own institution to develop students within our own programs to begin thinking about education and teaching? Mr. Johnson works with the general recruitment of minority students into the University. The University obtained a greater level of minority students, because of the increase in financial aid packages making our offer competitive. Admissions targets population in a similar way as faculty reaching out to targeting populations by attending national college fairs. Getting students on-campus to view themselves in our environment is important. Statistically most of our students are between Maryland and Maine. We do not draw a steady population from outside of this region.

á      Utilize the role of interdisciplinary programs to build up faculty advisory committees and faculty course offerings by working in conjunction with major departments. Black Studies utilized organizations that they were affiliated with, such as the National Council of Black Studies to advertise with professional associations and to target people of color and/or women. Having conversations with programs that have common specific needs offers opportunities to pool interests and resources.

á      Challenges in terms of how we identify diversity—We primarily think of diversity in terms of race but do not identify social class as a diversity component.

á      Class is an area where there is impact and effect from historically under-represented groups of our current institutional structures and practices. In what ways are impacts and effects magnified if we are of a certain class background, a woman, a particular race, and/or specific sexuality? We do not articulate these as being a component of diverse hiring.

á      How do individuals feel in terms of their social class background? How are they going to survive and negotiate within an institution? Making an intersectional matrix dimension and being aware of the elements of the Fairfield University academic culture is part of the battle—U.S. faculty, international faculty, and/or first generation college students with a Ph.D.

á      We should ask the following questions:

o      How can we be aware of, attend to and support the adjustment for all faculty?

o      How could existing faculty adapt to institutional and cultural changes in terms of how we run a department and the communication styles that are normative.

á      Diversity of the intellectual content within a department is important. Hiring faculty with obvious differences is a way to diversify the faculty. Many times we operate from our comfort zone seeking faculty who have similar life experiences.

á      Marketing Fairfield as a diverse institution—There are challenges with retention of faculty and obtaining a climate of having an institutional and long range plan in terms of becoming a diverse institution. It is important for Fairfield to be included in the conversation about diversity in higher education publications, such as the Chronicle.

á      Faculty actively participate in the AJCU publication, but we are not reflected in other higher educational publications. Being part of these publications does require faculty, administrators, and student affairs professionals to write pieces about their work.

á      International Faculty—There are a number of international faculty who are writing in other languages and publishing in journals in other countries. There should be a formal discussion relative to their expectations during the interview process. Will they continuously publish in international societies and participate in meetings held internationally. If so, what travel commitments are they expecting? What are their concerns in terms of colleagues having the ability to review their scholarship and counting their work as a peer reviewed publications?

 

A proposal was made to conduct a survey of faculty to bring together data relative to the issues discussed. This survey will require an effort to conduct institutional research, require Human Resources, and the Academic unit to be responsive to each others needs and require academic leadership. Dean Crabtree will work with Ms. Ann Steheny, Director of the Office of Institutional Research, to identify how to collect data about faculty in order to understand how those with a variety of diverse backgrounds—including first generation College student, race, ethnicity, religious background, country of origin, sexuality, and Jesuits—experience Fairfield University's climate, their transition to professional academic life, success at the institution, etc.

 

This data would be useful to share with both students and faculty. Students feel that the University is homogenous. Bringing these levels of diversity to the surface will expose us to see one another in a more complex way.

 

Mr. Johnson shared information relative to the Safe Space Program. This program offers workshops across campus with an intention to provide education and experiential learning opportunities for the campus community about LGBT issues. Mr. Johnson commented on the importance of having faculty join in these workshops to offer their insight on what students are experiencing in the classroom.

 

Goals and intended outcomes of this program are as follows:

 

The program will be adding a student component, so they could receive direct experiences from students about what they encounter at Fairfield. This would help in assessing how the program could support and improve the quality of life for all student populations on campus.

 

The Dean mentioned that Drs. Jocelyn Boryczka and Kris Sealy are bringing Dr. Tim Wise on campus during the spring 2009 semester. Wise writes and presents widely on white privilege and anti oppression work. His presentation is scheduled in March following spring break. There will be a small faculty/staff workshop offered through this program. The Dean is working to offer greater opportunities for participation, which will include an invitation extended to the Senior Management Team. This project is substantially funded by the College of Arts and Sciences Humanities Institute Grant.

 

Budget

The Dean announced that it would be realistic for department chairs not to ask for new funding (though she encouraged folks to consider realignment of existing funding).

 

The Dean attended the Budget Committee meeting on December 2, 2008 and discussed the following concerns:

 

Announcements

Graduate Student Services—Dr. Tom Pellegrino, the Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, is hiring a full-time graduate student service person, whose sole responsibility will be to graduate students. Dr. Pellegrino is meeting with the Dean's to discuss the job description and to develop the existing services for graduate students on campus.

 

Core Integration—The next Dean's Council meeting will revisit core integration. This meeting will be facilitated by Drs. Beth Boquet and Kathy Nantz. Department chairs are expected to report on conversations and work they engaged in within their departments in relation to core integration. The Dean encouraged department chairs to have formal conversations within their department on horizontal and vertical integration activities, core to major activities, and pedagogical issues.