ACADEMIC COUNCIL
MEETING MINUTES
January 26, 1998
Announcements:
Dean Atkinson said that Howard Gillman, candidate for the Pamplin Chair in Government, was here over the week-end. He and his family are considering Lewis & Clark's offer.
The Committee on the Curriculum has invited all faculty to attend 3 meetings on General Education. The meetings fulfill part of an historic committee mandate to review the program after 3 years. The committee has begun the process and has set February 1999 as the completion date for the review. The open meetings will provide an occasion for faculty discussion at a broad and general level. The meetings are scheduled for January 28, February 11 and February 18 from 4 to 5 p.m.
Agenda Items:
1. Greg Walters joined the Council to assist the deans with improvements to administrative efficiencies within the CAS support structure. The deans indicated that they have received mixed feedback from department chairs regarding a plan to formalize a cooperative relationship between the CAS dean's office, the divisional dean's offices and the academic departments.
One issue discussed was an enhancement of the evaluation process for departmental secretaries. Under the current proposel the department chairs and the divisional deans would work together to coordinate the annual performance evaluation process for each of the division's departmental secretaries. However, the department chair would remain the primary evaluator. Some chairs had commented that the new evaluation forms are too much work. Walters reminded the Council that the form was developed during a long process by the Compensation Committee, made up of administrators and support staff, as mandated by the previous LCSSA contract agreement. Walters gave a series of workshops this fall on how to administer the new forms; all supervisors, including department chairs, were invited to attend; unfortunately, few chairs did. A department chair's meeting is being scheduled soon to discuss this issue.
2. Dean Keedy said that the Mathematical Sciences department has requested that a visiting faculty member teach Inventing America in the fall. Dean Johnson said that he would consult with John Callahan, but that having a visitor teach IA breaks the basic principal which restricts instruction in the first year course to tenured or tenure-track faculty.
3. Anne Price joined the Council once again on the topic of room assignments for fall 98. At her earlier request, the deans worked with faculty to reassign some classes to different time slots, but there are some classrooms she feels are inappropriate and further juggling is necessary. The deans will go back to the chairs to accomplish this.
There was a discussion about where more classroom might be found, and the deans asked about the dorm basements. Price said that it was her understanding that the institution has made it a priority for students to have space to conduct some activities and build community. The comment was made that perhaps the move out of the dorms was premature, as finding available teaching space is difficult at best.