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Academic Council
Meeting Notes
October 3, 2000
Present: Curtis Johnson,
Dean of the College; Dinah Dodds; Dean of Arts and
Humanities; Gary Reiness, Dean of Mathematical and Natural
Sciences; Harold Schleef, Dean of Social Sciences; Terri
Banasek, Administrative Assistant and recorder; and Rosie
Felton, Administrative Assistant for Budgets and
Contracts.
Announcements:
- Dean Dodds reported on her meeting with department
chairs in the Arts & Humanities Division. The chairs
see the U.S. News rankings as a springboard for
discussion at next year's faculty retreat. They feel
that reassigning adjuncts to teach upper-level courses
would be difficult to do, because it is easier to replace
lower-level courses. Salaries would probably need to be
higher for those adjuncts teaching upper-level courses.
Dean Dodds will report back to the chairs that the
Academic Council has done a count of adjuncts by
division, and the chairs need to look at how they can
readjust assignments.
- The Social Sciences Division discussed the cap on
upper-division classes. The response was to look,
department by department, at building a stable staffing
plan. The chairs saw the stability issue as a related
problem. Causes for this problem are junior sabbaticals,
the overseas program, and the demands of Inventing
America. Overseas programs may need to be addressed in
terms of utilization of faculty. Some suggestions of
ways to begin addressing these issues include: 1) for
replacements, look at longer-term contracts (addresses
stability); and 2) the policy of overload teaching that
was established a number of years ago. There may be
faculty who would be willing to teach overload, which
would get more tenure-track faculty teaching courses.
The Academic Council needs to look at the policy, perhaps
considering additional compensation in terms of summer
resources or bonuses.
- Dean Dodds reported that the Writing and Speaking
Task Force is coming up with interesting ideas regarding
the focus of the College. They would like to gather
information from the departments regarding how they are
using writing in their teaching. It would be helpful if
a member of the Task Force were to attend department
meetings.
- Dean Johnson shared a memo from the Provost's office
regarding the 26 new copiers recently installed on
campus. The per-copy cost has increased by $.01 to
$.065. The College continues to encourage departments to
utilize the Kinko's service.
- Dean Reiness reported that the College made it
through the first round last spring for a $500,000
Fairchild Foundation grant for equipment.
Representatives from the foundation will visiting Lewis
& Clark in November to inspect and assess the program
and the College. Dean Johnson and President Mooney
should plan to meet with them.
Long-Term Topics
- Dean Johnson and Rosie Felton met with Robert Nayer,
Mervyn Brockett, and Jane Atkinson to determine where the
College is financially this fiscal year. The College is
facing two significant challenges this year. The first
is a 90-student shortfall, which translates to $525,000
less in operating revenues than was budgeted. The other
issue is the creation of a new Provost's office. Dean
Johnson, Dr. Atkinson, Ms. Jones, and Ms. Felton will go
through the budget line by line to determine which
expenses will be covered by the respective offices.
The increases that were taken out of departmental
budgets, about $200,000, cannot be distributed until
these budgetary matters are resolved. Additions to
department budgets have been sequestered temporarily in a
separate budget line and will be distributed when the
other budget matters have been resolved. The budget is
starting to come into focus. Dean Johnson will meet with
the President to discuss his commitment to increasing the
amount of money available for faculty position and
faculty resources.
Dean Schleef noted that we do not have a controller or
vice president of finance. The departure of Wayne
Pederson caused a discontinuity in the business office.
These gaps make budgetary planning difficult and
confusing. The chief difficulty is to sort out the
budgetary division of the Provost's and Dean's offices.
CAS is responsible for the faculty and curriculum, the
overseas program, the athletics programs, and College
Outdoors. The Provost's office is responsible for
admissions, the library, student services, residence
life, and common services. The Divisional Deans will
work with Dean Johnson on budgetary matters and share
that information with department chairs to enable them to
participate in the decisions.
- Dean Reiness suggested that Dean Johnson discuss with
the President an article he read regarding rates of take
out for endowments. The article suggested that take-out
rates were too conservative for the 1990s. He feels that
the College can bump take-out rates without endangering
the endowment principle. This is a matter for the
Trustees to address.
- The chairs in Social Sciences would like to see an
organizational chart that displays reporting structure so
that they have a better understanding of who reports to
whom.
- Dean Johnson reported that he has constituted the new
faculty mentoring program as well as the new task forces
on diversity and community building. Diversity Task
Force: Bruce Podobnik, Annie Dawid, and Andrew
Bernstein. Community Building Task Force: Gil Seeley,
Deborah Heath, Don Balmer, and Jack Hart. Dean Johnson
will announce the formation at the faculty meeting and
invite faculty to participate.
- Jane Atkinson plans to convene a council on sexual
harassment with members from all three colleges, and Dean
Johnson will announce it at the faculty meeting. A copy
of the current policy will be mailed to the faculty with
the agenda.
Agenda Items:
- Dean Johnson received two memos from Dr. Atkinson:
one on the budget process and the other on computers and
capital equipment requests. The Academic Council
suggested that Dean Johnson forward the memos to all CAS
faculty.
- Deans Dodds, Reiness, and Schleef reported on
proposed search committee assignments.
Arts & Humanities
- Foreign Languages:
French: Nicole Aas-Rouxparis (chair), Erika
Berroth, Matt Levinger, and Deborah Heath or Roger
Nelsen.
Chinese: Nicole Aas-Rouxparis (chair), Erika
Berroth, Susan Glosser, and Bob Mandel.
Japanese: Nicole Aas-Rouxparis (chair),
Tatiana Osipovich, Andy Bernstein, and Robert
Eisinger.
Spanish: José Villalobos, Mónica
Flori/Wendy Woodrich, Rishona Zimring, Diane
Nelson.
Theatre: Stephen Weeks (chair), Stephanie
Arnold, Lyell Asher, Bob Owens.
East Asian Art History: Stewart Buettner
(chair), Phyllis Yes, Alan Cole, and Steve Seavey.
Philosophy: Nick Smith (chair), John Fritzman,
Micha Grudin, and Cecilia Chessa.
Mathematical & Natural Sciences
Developmental Biology: Deborah Lycan
(chair), Kellar Autumn, Louis Kuo, Richard
Rohrbaugh.
Invertebrate Systematics: Paulette
Bierzychudek (chair), Ken Clifton, Stephen Tufte, Eban
Goodstin.
Computer Science: Jeff Ely (chair), Harvey
Schmidt, Jim Duncan, and Mike Taylor.
Social Sciences
Economics (Pamplin Chair): Eban
Goodstein (chair), Jim Grant, Janis Lochner, Richard
Peck, and student Kent Hymel.
Political Science: Robert Eisinger (chair),
Don Balmer, Nicole Aas-Rouxparis, and a representative
from the law school.
Psychology: These are not finalized. There
are three searches, and each member of the department
will chair one of the committees.
Luce Position: Marty Hart-Landsberg (chair),
Steve Lambo, Susan Glosser.
- Dean Schleef presented the finalized developmental
review committee for the Social Sciences Division. Deans
Dodds and Reiness will present their committees at the
next meeting.
- The Assessment and Accreditation Task Force would
like to get information from the departments on 1) how
they are going to link to the College goals and 2) how
they are going to use assessment results. If they cannot
link to the College's goal, they should critique the
goals. Deadline is November 1. The Task Force also
encourages those departments that are farther along in
the process to begin identifying standards and outcomes
and to document those standards.
- Academic Council approved $250 to support Micha
Grudin's visit to the Mt. Holyoke Speaking, Arguing and
Writing Program.
Next meeting: October 10, 2000, 8 a.m., in Breakfast
Room.
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