College of Arts & Sciences: Academic Council Meeting Notes

Lewis & Clark College

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Academic Council

Meeting Notes

December 5, 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. Guest: Jean Ward, professor of communication and director of Inventing America.

Agenda Items

ISCC program approvals: Dean Reiness noted that overseas programs for the next two years have been approved by the ISCC while sabbaticals for 2002-03 have not. Both overseas programs and sabbaticals are comparable in terms of impact on departmental staffing and replacement costs. The Academic Council agreed that future overseas program proposals need to be brought before them so that resource impact can be examined in the same way as for sabbaticals.
Inventing America: The divisional deans reported on current staffing projections for 2001-02. There are currently 23 faculty committed in the fall and 29 in the spring. The fall staffing is promising, but Dr. Ward is concerned about the reliance on new hires for spring and the consequences if the searches fail. She also wonders if it is appropriate to have new faculty teach Inventing America during their first year at the College.

Because anyone in the Foreign Languages who teaches Inventing America would have to be replaced, Dr. Ward wonders what the long-term gain would be if the College then would have to pay a replacement for their regular courses.

President Mooney has agreed to teach a section in either the fall or the spring. If he teaches in the spring, he would like to do a history of some Supreme Court cases, which would be a new topic. The fall semester would include material he has taught before.

Dr. Ward will explore the law and graduate schools for additional faculty. The bigger question remains of whether we can do a two-semester first-year program with a 19-student cap.
Capital Equipment Funds: The latest projection is that $500,000 will be available for next year and $400,000 per year for the following two years. There is currently no budget line for equipment under $5,000. The capital equipment policy does not account for items that need to be replaced quickly. Ms. Felton will find out if it is possible to move some of the capital equipment money into a budget line for equipment under $5,000. The divisional deans will be able to cover immediate needs with the additional funds that are available this year, but they will need to be budgeted for in future years. This money should be in the divisional budgets as discretionary funds.
Academic Forum: The Council agreed to hold Academic Forums for students to meet with the deans once or twice per year. Dean Johnson will try to arrange a time in mid-February.
Faculty Meeting: Dean Johnson listed the items he would like to discuss at the Dec. 6 faculty meeting.
- Work of the CAP - Urging faculty to seek out members to talk about concerns.
- Advising - Becoming increasingly evident that advising plays an important role in the life of the institution. AAAS is studying advising and is preparing a survey for students and faculty. Should advising be built into the review process?
- Retention: At the enrollment management meeting, Michael Ford distributed a report detailing the financial implications of students leaving after their first year. For each student we retain, we realize an additional $40,000 of operational revenue over four years.

Next meeting: Thursday, Dec. 14, 12-2 p.m.