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Academic Council
Meeting Notes
April 11,2000
Announcements:
Gillian Gardner, Lab Director and Instructor in the
Chemistry Department, will resign at the end of this
academic year. Ms. Gardner has been at LC for 10 years and
is leaving to pursue a career in finances.
Dean Atkinson reported that Trinh Tran met with
representatives from the Luce Foundation this week. The
current proposal will include a faculty position, possibly
in the area of contemporary China.
Dean Keedy reported that Liz Safran has returned a signed
contract for the position in Geology.
Dean Dodds reported that Forest Pierce, newly hired
assistant professor of music, has purchased a house in the
area.
Dean Dodds said Jack Hart may be the English Department
chair next year.
Agenda Items:
Searches:
Dean Johnson met Saturday with candidates for two of the
positions currently open in psychology department. They
meeting sought to define the possibilities for space
allocation.
The college should have a decision from the Dubach Chair
candidate today regarding his acceptance of the
position.
The SOAN search committee will make decision tomorrow on
their finalists for the gender position. There are three
strong candidates.
The Theatre position search closed last week as no viable
candidates remained in the pool. Dean Dodds said the
committee asked if a candidate without a Ph.D. would be
considered, because they did not find strong candidates who
combined strong performance/directing skills with a strong
record of scholarship. Dean Atkinson said she knew it was
harder to find qualified people in the performing arts but
they are available. Stephanie Arnold will be in New York in
the fall and able to interview others.
Dean Atkinson said that the CPT will report to the
faculty at their next meeting, outlining the issues on
teaching evaluation statistics currently under discussion.
The validity of the aggregate data for comparison of faculty
at the department, divisional and college level has been
brought into question. Committee chair Richard Rohrbaugh
will open the issue for faculty discussion. There will be no
resolution for change at this time.
Assessment:
Social Sciences chairs will have their assessment reports
done by April 22nd.
Arts & Humanities chairs still have some questions
about why they have to do the report, when Dean Atkinson
said that they would all be incorporated into one document
and no one will see them. Dean Johnson reminded the Council
that the divisional deans would be reading the assessment
reports over the summer and synthesize them into one
document. If departmental assessments are done carefully,
the deans’ work will be much easier. It was agreed to
pass this information on to the chairs.
Mathmatical & Natural Sciences. Dean Keedy reported
that he has spoken with about half of the chairs of
departments and programs in his division about refining
their assessment reports with the idea that they would have
them completed by the end of the semester. He will be
contacting the remaining chairs by the end of the week.
Dell Smith has invited faculty to a meeting of the
Classroom Advisory Committee this week to get opinions on
classroom design and amenities for the social sciences
building plans. This information will be provided to the
architects and the SS building committee. The Council noted
that the Miller building furnishings are not holding up well
and a repeat of that experience should be avoided.
Dean Dodds has conferred with members of the music
department about staffing needs related to building
maintenance and management currently being done by the
department chair. Clearly, the responsibilities are too
great for the chair to complete with just one course
release. Deans Atkinson, Jones and Dodds will meet with the
chairs of the music and theatre to discuss a possible new
facilities manager position.
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