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Academic Council
Meeting Notes
October 24, 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.
Long-Term Topics
- Faculty Meeting feedback: Dean Johnson reported that
he has spoken with 20 to 25 faculty; and, overall, the
response was positive. Inventing America is a persistent
concern, particularly among junior faculty. Two issues
arose: First, do we need to speak in terms of a 10-year
run? Is it a requirement? It is already planned for
next year, but he is open to accelerating the timeframe
for a proposed new course. Jean Ward is reluctant to let
it go after less than 10 years. Second, Dean Johnson is
hearing two different options: The first option is a
one-semester, first-year course (either Inventing America
or something else) or going back to freshman seminars,
with faculty teaching specialty courses in their own
discipline. Stanford offers eight such seminars. The
other model would be different courses but still a
year-long, to be designed by junior faculty.
Dean Johnson is meeting with Dr. Ward and the planning
committee to discuss an appropriate timeframe and
transition to the next first-year course. A minimum of
one year to set it out conceptually and one year to line
up the staffing would be required.
Dean Reiness wondered what the point of the course is -
what are we trying to accomplish? Is it reasonable to
expect the course to do all we want it to do - to teach
students to read carefully, to write effectively, and to
speak persuasively? Inventing American faculty meetings
are mostly about informational background and not how to
engage the students with the material.
Inventing America is also a socialization course - this
is what Lewis & Clark is all about. This is a heavy
burden to put on the course and on the faculty, to help
the students make the transition from high school to
college. We need to have more purposeful approach to
helping faculty. Dean Reiness is questioning the ability
of students to reading and understanding the material.
The focus of the course should be on how to understand
the meaning of the text. This is a complex course with
texts outside of their experience.
Dean Dodds reported that the Writing and Speaking Task
Force also has looked at Inventing America. Over the
next couple of years, something is going to happen with
writing and speaking. The first-year course is an
essential part of the discussion. She feels that Dr.
Johnson's timeframe makes sense. We need to think about
what we want to do with the first-year course. The
design could take place in the writing and speaking
discussion. Teachers need to be prepared to teach it.
All of the pieces are going to be discussed broadly in
the next two years. The discussion could be very
beneficial.
Dean Johnson said that some junior faculty feel they are
being coerced into teaching Inventing America and that
they are expected to carry most of the sections. Some of
them don't like it, and it is hurting morale in the
course. Another issue is that of teaching outside their
discipline. Furthermore, some would also like to see
fewer texts covered so more time could be devoted to each
text. Dean Johnson would like to charge a group of
junior faculty to look at the course and to create a
course that has as much commonality as possible. The
commonality that Inventing America provides is extremely
important, both to students and to faculty.
There is resistance to a two-semester course. We have
done a lot of talking elsewhere about a senior capstone
requirement. Perhaps we could "bookend" the
one-semester, first-year course and the one-semester
senior capstone experience. A one-semester course would
free up tenure-line faculty to teach in their
departments. If the second semester is converted into a
senior experience, it would alleviate staffing problems,
but there needs to be agreement on what the senior
project would be.
Dean Schleef pointed out that previously there was
Advanced Inquiry. The notion was that it was
interdisciplinary in nature, to stretch students beyond
their own discipline. There might have been attractive
feature in that type of experience that we might be able
to adapt, building on a capstone experience, but we can't
abandon current capstone experiences that are in
place.
Dean Dodds suggested taking current capstone experiences
and putting them together with a first-year course with
more speaking than we currently do. We need faculty
workshops on how to teach those courses.
Dean Schleef stated that the first step is to get
agreement that we need capstone experiences in all
disciplines. If it is not realistic, it will be
difficult to have a common experience. Dean Johnson
added that this possibly would be a trade for the second
semester of Inventing America, and in terms of
accreditation, it is clear to him that what we do at the
senior level is a vitally important piece of how we meet
accreditation standards.
Dean Reiness said that the opposition to a capstone
experience in Mathematical and Natural Sciences is a
matter of staffing. There is not enough staff to add
another course, and students would need to give up an
elective in order to do it. There is no objection in
principle. Giving up the second semester of Inventing
America would not have a big effect on staffing in the
sciences. He also pointed out that Academic Council
should not get involved in setting the plan; it should
come from the faculty.
Dean Johnson said that the Curriculum Committee has been
talking about senior capstone experiences for two years,
but they have not reached any consensus about how to
proceed. Dean Dodds suggested that the Academic Council
could structure discussion without laying down guidelines
for what the discussion should be.
Dean Schleef said there was wider ownership of Basic
Inquiry than of Inventing America. On the other hand, BI
didn't have the common theme - it was a scattergun
approach to several topics that weren't connected. We
need to look at it from the standpoint of where can we at
Lewis & Clark gain a competitive edge in relation to
our peers and establish a uniqueness?
Dean Johnson said the content of Inventing America is an
issue with several faculty. Whatever we do must be
popular with students and with faculty. Some believe
there is currently too much negativity surrounding
Inventing America.
Dean Dodds pointed out that if we engage the faculty in
the redesign of the course, that will go a long way in
correcting morale problems, particularly among junior
faculty and in the Arts and Humanities Division. She
said that the Writing and Speaking Task Force has been
talking about ways Inventing America can be teaching
writing and speaking as well as other ways of teaching it
across the campus, perhaps involving the overseas
programs and the Northwest Writing Institute. They are
looking for something distinctive, using the structure of
what already exists.
Dr. Ward really would like Inventing America to go for 10
years. She thinks it is a reasonably successful course
and is committed to it. Deans Schleef and Dodds
suggested that Dean Johnson ask the Curriculum Committee
to go ahead with the two-year planning timeframe for the
first-year course, citing discussions he has had with
faculty.
Agenda Items
- Faculty Meeting: Dean Johnson met with the Faculty
Council, who asked to see the range of faculty salaries.
Ms. Felton created a spreadsheet listing faculty salary
ranges by rank and including the number of faculty
receiving each pay raise percentage. She will prepare a
report containing the same data for a three-year period.
- Child Care: Jane Atkinson reported on the College's
investigation of on-campus child care. An on-campus
center is not practical, and we can't afford it. There
is no early childhood program here to mix with the needs
of faculty and staff. The other issue is the lack of
space on campus to place a center. There will be a
need over the next few years for additional swing space.
The idea of using off-campus housing for a center has
also been discussed, but all of the properties owned by
the College are zoned residential, and there would likely
be resistance to converting them to use for child care.
The zoning would not prohibit a faculty or staff member
in campus housing from having a in-house day care center,
but this must be an occupied home and must be licensed.
Dr. Atkinson added that an additional difficulty is that
there has been a fluctuation over the years in the need
for child care by College faculty and staff. To have a
viable child care facility, there must be a consistent
and dependable demand. Therefore, she also investigated
the possibility of contracting the service to an outside
provider. The College would still be responsible for
some of the costs. It would be impossible to guarantee
full enrollment from on campus, and the center would not
draw from the surrounding community because of its
demographic makeup. Again, the cost to the College would
be prohibitive.
The College is committed to providing appropriate
benefits to both faculty and staff, but it is a struggle
to keep costs under control. Dr. Atkinson has asked
Greg Walters to compile a list of child care options to
be made available to faculty and staff.
The Council suggested to Dr. Atkinson that she issue an
invitation to faculty and staff to meet with her to
discuss this issue. She will note that the discussion
came about in part because of concerns raised by the
Academic Council and from Dean Johnson's conversations
with faculty over the summer.
- Parental Leave: Dr. Atkinson explained that the
deans of all three schools agree that the College needs a
parental leave policy for faculty that applies to all
faculty. She distributed a memo explaining three
different options. The reason for a parental leave
policy for faculty is that it currently is unequal with
staff. Staff can combine sick days and vacation leave to
provide for paid time off. Federal law says that parents
are entitled to up to 12 weeks unpaid leave per year
without jeopardizing their job.
The problem that arises regarding parental leave for
faculty is that sick leave and vacation days are not at
the faculty member's discretion. What the College of Arts
and Sciences has been doing up to now has been to grant
women one semester of leave with full pay and benefits
for purposes of childbirth if the birth will interfere
with their ability to teach during a semester. This has
generally been a two-course release. We need to formalize
a policy; it must be in writing; and it must be fair to
all.
Dr. Atkinson suggested that the Academic Council review
the three options and make a recommendation. She will
then take the recommendation back to the other two deans.
- Dean Dodds reported that the wrong kind of wood floor
was installed in the Black Box and that it was also
painted with the wrong kind of paint, making it
unsuitable for dance classes. It would cost an estimated
$19,000 to replace the floor, which would be a capital
expense. Susan Davis has suggested that the College
reimburse the students whose classes have been affected
by this problem, but the Council did not agree with that
approach. The Theatre Department has investigated every
possible space on campus for the class but has been
unsuccessful. Dean Johnson suggested they take another
look at the mat room in Pamplin.
- Search Committee Update: Jeff Ely will serve on the
Luce search committee. Dean Schleef suggested Roger
Paget in place of Peter Christenson on the
Clinical/Community Psychology search committee. The
Computer Science committee will be Jeff Ely, Harvey
Schmidt, Kellar Autumn, and Jane Hunter.
- Development Review Committees:
For Andrew Bernstein: Jane Hunter, David Savage,
Nick Smith
For Elliott Young: Bob Goldman in place of Tom
Schoeneman
For Stephen Tufte: Tom Olsen, Herschel Snodgrass,
Richard Rohrbaugh
- Laughing Horse Bookstore: Dean Johnson received a
response from June Jones but feels he needs further
clarification about this issue. He will continue his
correspondence with her.
- Fir Acres Theatre health issue: Dean Dodds will
inform Joyce Beeny in the Theatre Department that the
Academic Council is aware of the concerns in the building
and will redouble its efforts to address the duct
cleaning issue. A posted "warning" seems inappropriate at
this time.
Next meeting: Tuesday, October 31, 8 a.m., Breakfast
Room.
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