Faculty Council Meeting Minutes - February 1, 2008

Present: Julio de Paula, Dean of the College; Jane Hunter, Associate Dean; Cliff Bekar, Associate Professor of Economics; Ken Clifton, Associate Professor of Biology; Dinah Dodds, Professor of German; Deborah Heath, Associate Professor of Anthropology; and Terri Banasek, Executive Assistant and recorder.

Excused: Mervyn Brockett, Assistant to the President

Agenda Items

1. There is no further update on the policy on course release. The Faculty Council plans to come to final agreement at the next meeting.


2. Faculty Council discussed a proposal from Eban Goodstein to establish a Focus the Nation Institute at the College.


3. A proposal was funded by the Mellon Foundation to bring in freshly minted Ph.D.s with an interest in continuing their research and obtaining teaching experience at the College. These fellows also will receive some mentoring in teaching and have a reduced teaching load. What is needed immediately is a way to advertise the program to the faculty and a way of vetting proposals from the faculty to bring in fellows. The College will need to post ads in the proper vehicles to get the best candidates. Faculty Council will review the proposals. A diversity plan should be included in the proposals, and the proposal should define how it will enhance diversity. Dean de Paula noted that the College can fund two fellows to be hired for next fall. Ads need to be placed by March or April at the latest. It may be possible to just hire one this year because we are getting a late start. In the fourth year of the program, the program will be assessed to see if the College wants to continue. Associate Dean Hunter noted that this is an opportunity – if someone in a department is going to be away and the department needs to be backfilled, this is a good opportunity to find someone good to replace that person who will be gone. This is value added for the department.

   Dean de Paula and Associate Dean Hunter will work on a one-page RFP that will be reviewed for approval electronically.



4. Dean de Paula brought forward a resolution from the Curriculum Committee from last year regarding collaborative teaching models. Faculty Council needs to think about resource implications and how to put together a program that is well articulated with boundaries well defined so that the Curriculum Committee is given clear guidelines under which to approve or not to approve proposals.

   It was noted that a proposal that was received from Elliott Young and Freddy Vilches is not resource neutral. Dr. Vilches would not be teaching a language course in favor of teaching this Latin American studies course, so there will be institutional costs. In foreign languages, it would mean hiring an adjunct to replace Dr. Vilches. Other models might come in that require more institutional resources.



5. The meeting was adjourned at 4:05 p.m.

Next meeting: Thursday, February 7, 2008, 9:40 a.m.