Faculty Assembly
THE FACULTY ASSEMBLY
THE COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY IN VIRGINIA:
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF TUESDAY FEBRUARY 23, 1999
The meeting was called to order at 3:30 p.m. with 25 members present.
The minutes of the meeting of January 26th were approved as distributed.
I. Administrative Reports.
Provost Gillian Cell reported on recent activity in the state legislature, and provided a comparison of House and Senate budget proposals affecting the College. She drew attention to the additional money on both sides for Eminent Scholars, for base operating support, and for economic development; and she noted that, although the substantial funding for the renovation and expansion of Millington Hall called for in the House budget might not be forthcoming because it required a bond bill (which would have to be approved first by the governor and then by the electorate), the College would be very happy with the planning money proposed in the Senate budget, given that full funding usually follows planning funds. She expressed her satisfaction that the legislature was affirming the importance of private support to public institutions. In local news, she announced that Professor Tolly Taylor of the English Department had received a 1999 SCHEV Outstanding Faculty Award; and she informed the Assembled that she and Arts & Sciences Dean Geoff Feiss had sent notice to all A&S chairs about the importance of getting post-tenure review policies approved quickly (four departments had been approved by the Procedural Review Committee and forwarded to the Personnel Policy Committee; all others were in the hands of the Dean or in departments for revision per PRC recommendations). Finally, she provided an update on the Strategic Planning Review, noting that the SWOT document was almost complete and that it would go to the Board of Visitors for approval at a special meeting on March 17th, and, once approved, go to Richmond in April. She reminded us that Richmond will send it back to the College for revision, and that our final draft will be due at the end of Summer 1999.
There were no questions for the Provost.
II. Reports of Standing Committees
A. Academic Advisory Committee. Committee Chair Barbara Watkinson moved approval of the non-academic leave policy (III. F. 7. b. of the Handbook) after providing a brief history of its development, noting that this policy would be a significant improvement over the one now in effect. An Assembly member then asked that faculty members from the GLB Caucus be recognized. These faculty members, while expressing their gratitude to the AAC for including them in their discussions of the policy, noted that the policy was unjust in that it did not offer the same benefits to all faculty as one put it, two workers doing the same job receive different benefits under the policy based not on job performance, but on domestic arrangements. They expressed disappointment that the faculty & administrators who originally framed the policy did not, from the outset, take the interests of all faculty into consideration, and urged us to do so in the future. However, they recognized that the policy was a marked improvement over the existing one, and so they urged acceptance of the policy while also urging the Assembly to work over time to make changes necessary to include all members of the community.
General discussion commenced at this point, with two Assembly members objecting strongly to the approval of the policy on the grounds that it was unjust. In response to questions, Watkinson and Provost Cell noted that, despite the fact that at least one other public university in Virginia had a more inclusive policy, it was not likely that such a policy would be acceptable to the Attorney General; and that, should this policy fail, we would revert to the present, less accommodating policy. One of the faculty members attending the meeting noted that she and her colleagues did not intend their statements to defeat the policy; in fact, she stressed her support for it, with the qualification that the Assembly commit itself to finding a way to make university policy more inclusive. Assembly Vice President David Lutzer noted that, as a change to the Handbook, the policy would require a 2/3 affirmative vote from the entire Assembly, or 24 votes and that given the low attendance, a vote of 2 against would in fact defeat the motion. After some further discussion, the question was called, and the motion was defeated by a vote of 23 in favor, 2 opposed.
After some brief discussion about whether or not the policy could be reconsidered at a future meeting (it could) or at this one (it could, but only if one of the members opposed to the policy asked to reconsider), AAC Chair Watkinson moved approval of the following resolution:
The Faculty Assembly finds that the provisions for unmarried faculty in this non-academic leave policy are inadequate and asks its representatives to the Faculty Senate of Virginia to take this issue to that body for discussion and action.
There was some discussion about whether we wanted to retain the language "unmarried faculty," and upon deciding we did, and with the friendly amendment of the first "this" to "the," the motion passed unanimously.
B. Committee on Committees. Dorothy Coleman, reporting in the absence of Chair Wagih Dafashy, noted that the CoC was preparing to send out the survey to University Committee Chairs on the effectiveness of their committees.
C. Executive Committee. Assembly President George Bass noted that the FA Web page now contains links to SCHEV, Faculty Senate of Virginia, and other useful W&M pages. He thanked members who attended the legislative breakfast in Richmond on January 27th, and urged us to write to legislators on the money committees in support of funding to higher ed. Finally, he reported that the Executive Committee had considered Terry Meyers' resolution regarding publishing student fees, and that we would invite Vice President for Budget and Management Sam Jones to the March meeting to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of doing so.
D Liaison Committee/Faculty Senate of Virginia. Vice President David Lutzer reported that Professor Stan Allen of VIMS addressed the Board of Visitors at their February meeting, and that, for the April meeting, we were preparing a report on freshman seminars. Putting on his Faculty Senate hat, he reported that representatives from the Governor's Blue Ribbon Commission, from SCHEV, and from VCU had reported at the latest Faculty Senate meeting. He has sent out a full report on the Assembly listserver. He did note, in particular, that HB 1017 had passed both the House and Senate, a bill that would change the way that VSRS computes benefits due to the spouse of a faculty member who dies in service (i.e., before retiring). He thanked Delegate Grayson for his efforts in getting that bill passed.
In response to Lutzer's report, Assembly member Elmer Schaefer made a motion to thank Lutzer, Professor of Physics Roy Champion, and Professor of Physics Bob Welsh for their efforts in effecting this change in the VSRS system. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
III. Old Business.
There was some further discussion of the fate of the recently defeated non-academic leave policy, to the effect that it was to stay defeated for the duration of this meeting, but would be brought to the March meeting for another vote.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:55.
Respectfully submitted,
Colleen Kennedy
Secretary
