Faculty Assembly
Minutes of the Faculty Assembly Meeting
October 14, 2003
Members present: Christopher Abelt, Jonathan Arries, Debbie Bebout, James Beers,
Liz Canuel, Clay Clemens, Robert Diaz, Alan Fuchs, Nancy Gray, Will Hausman,
Katherine Kulik, Robert Orwoll, Ann Reed, Ron Rosenberg, Laurie Sanderson, William
Stewart, Larry Ventis, and Wanda Wallace.
Members absent: Robert Archibald, Lan Cao, Roger Ries.
I. President Rosenberg opened the meeting at 3:35 P.M. He announced that the Faculty Assembly web site has been revised and updated, and members are invited to submit items for inclusion. Also, there will be a change in the scheduling of meetings through December 2003. The Faculty Assembly Executive Committee will meet on the second Tuesday of the month (10-28; 11-25). The Faculty Assembly will meet on the fourth Tuesday (11-11; 12-9). Katherine Kulik presented a brief overview of the upcoming faculty survey. The purpose is to inform the Faculty Assembly on the thoughts and preferences of the faculty, and various constituencies within it. It will be implemented on-line in two parts, one during the week of November 10, 2003, and the second during the week of February 20, 2004. The announced photo session was deferred until a later meeting. Minutes of the May 13, 2003 meeting were approved without revision.
II. Administrative Reports:
Provost Feiss expressed his gratitude to all who helped in the response to Hurricane
Isabel. He also briefly described the process for rescheduling the calendar,
indicating that he met with the Deans and that they preserved as many class
days as feasible while minimizing schedule complications. Regarding budget initiatives,
BPAC met through the summer and early fall in order to present proposed initiatives
before the BOV in September, and then forward the College's requests for budget
funding to the Governor's office, through the Secretary of Education by the
deadline in late October. Subsequent initial response from the Governor's office
implies that there will be little money available for initiatives this year.
Initiatives are separate from faculty compensation. Out of concern for faculty
retention and morale, the Board is establishing the Board of Visitors Faculty
Development Fund, a one-time fund to be raised by Board members, and administered
by the Provost. The Provost intends to establish guidelines and administer the
money via the Deans. This will also be discussed with the Executive Committee.
Post 9-11, there is some concern about how we handle visa processing. It is
a risk management issue, both for the institution and the individuals concerned,
and it will be centralized into the Reves Center. SACS review is moving forward
and is directed by David Aday. He will establish an oversight committee and
3 operational committees to implement it. Regarding the holiday schedule, the
College will be closed the day before Thanksgiving and the day after. It will
be closed the day before Christmas and the week between Christmas and New Years
Day. There is considerable student interest in self scheduling of exams. The
Provost thinks it is an interesting idea, but the Dean, Educational Policy Committee,
Arts and Sciences Faculty Affairs Committee, and the Faculty will have to discuss
it and carefully consider advantages and disadvantages, and possible exceptions.
III. On-line Student Course Evaluations. The Provost asked Gene Roche and Courtney
Carpenter to design a system that could meet existing needs and to provide costs,
broken out by sub-components. They presented a diagram, outlining their proposed
system at the meeting. The model permits both on-line and paper course evaluation.
Departments will be able to include their own questions, but there needs to
be agreement on format. Scott Nelson and Laurie Koloskie were present representing
the IT Advisory Committee, previously formed by the Faculty Assembly. Scott
stated that Dean Watkinson is waiting for recommendations from the Faculty Assembly
before proceeding on this. Although the system permits either on-line or paper
evaluations to be used, it is the Provost's opinion that each school will need
to use a common system (i.e., paper or on-line), due to promotion and tenure
needs for standardization. The Provost also indicated that he was willing to
have two systems, but that it may require that each department do its own copying.
Will Hausman made a motion: "that we recommend to the Provost that we adopt
the system outlined in the handout from Gene Roche and Courtney Carpenter, temporarily
permitting both formats as options." The motion was seconded. Shortly afterward,
Liz Canuel offered an amendment: "That we establish a task force to investigate
objectives and issues surrounding the course evaluation process." This
was seconded by Nancy Gray. A friendly amendment was then offered, which was
accepted: "that we refer the investigation of issues and objectives surrounding
the on-line course evaluation process to the Faculty Assembly Academic Affairs
Committee." This amendment passed unanimously. After extended discussion,
a motion was made to separate the questions (Will Hausman's motion and Liz Canuel's
amendment). Motion to separate passed unanimously. Hausman's original motion
passed unanimously. Hausman's motion means that the Provost will instruct IT
to go forward with implementing both sections of the proposed system for now,
and specific decisions about what the schools, departments, and units will implement
are left to the Deans and the respective schools. After some considerable further
discussion, and suggested alternatives as to what the Academic Affairs Committee
should be charged to accomplish, Liz Canuel made a motion to postpone to our
next meeting, consideration of what had originally been her amendment to Will
Hausman's motion. This earlier amendment, by vote, had now been made a separate
motion. The motion to postpone passed unanimously. President Rosenberg asked
for and received general verbal agreement that the Faculty Assembly Academic
Affairs Committee is to serve as the contact for IT, but there was no specific
motion to this effect.
Discussion of possible changes in the post tenure review policy will be deferred to the next meeting.
A motion to adjourn was offered at 5:30 by Robert Diaz. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
Respectfully submitted: Larry Ventis, Secretary to the Faculty Assembly
