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Academic Council
Meeting Minutes
October 31, 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 Johnson reported that he has been working with a
commencement speaker committee, and they have identified
six names for the president to choose from for 2001 and
another 15 names on a "B" list. The committee members
are: Robert Eisinger, Stephen Lambo, Dell Smith, Rishona
Zimring, and students Joe Bielecki and Andy Keeler. Two
new members will be added: Liz Safran and chair of the
Student Honor Board.
- President Mooney will attend the November 7 meeting
of the Academic Council.
Agenda Items
- Parental Leave Policy: Dean Dodds reported that
there are a number of new fathers in her division, and
there is a strong feeling that fathers as well as mothers
should receive recognition of their circumstances from
the College. Further it was noted that not all new
mothers currently receive a maternity leave, depending
how their delivery corresponds to the academic calendar.
Dean Schleef suggested that the College extend the tenure
clock by an appropriate time period for those mothers who
did not get time off.
Provost Atkinson has presented the Academic Council with
three different options regarding parental and family
leaves. Dean Johnson suggested that, in order to get
some idea of the cost of the three options, a model be
created to see what the costs would have been under these
three options over the last five years if a given number
of children were born.
Dean Schleef noted that version three also includes
life-changing circumstances besides parenthood. He
suggested that Greg Walters get quotes from insurance
companies that cover elder care to determine whether it
would be feasible to outsource this.
Dean Johnson will report at the faculty meeting that the
Academic Council understands the need to have a formal
policy and is working toward getting an answer.
- Confirmation of Search Committees: The
Clinical/Community Psychology search committee will
consist of Tom Schoeneman, chair, Janet Davidson, Jeff
Ely, and Stuart Kaplan. John Krussel will serve on the
Luce committee. Rich Peck or Bob Mandel will serve on
the Chinese search committee.
It was suggested that someone from the law school be
included in the Economics search committee. However, the
position is for someone with experience in macroeconomics
or urban and regional economics, and law school faculty
don't fit into that area. Dean Schleef will pursue it
further.
- Update on Albany Hall: The planning committee has
met several times over the past two months with the
architect, Thomas Hacker, who has been doing drawings and
modeling for the Albany renovation. This will be a
two-phase process: 2002, when the entire renovation is
finished; and 2006 when the bicentennial celebration is
over.
There will be space, Bicentennial Hall, in Albany for
public events. There also will be meeting rooms and
office for the Bicentennial Commission. Transitional
office space will be provided for faculty moving out of
the Faculty Office Building while Howard Hall is being
built. A new wing of Albany will house the Dean of the
College, overseas study, Inventing America director,
registrar, financial aid, and academic support services.
There is also some discussion of moving the writing
center and math skills center into that cluster of
offices. The rationale for leaving the writing center
where it is currently is that the resources that students
need are largely in the library. That is the main issue
as well as the hours of usage and security concerns.
Dean Dodds said that Micha Grudin recently returned from
a visit to Mount Holyoke College, and she came back with
interesting information about designs for this space.
The Writing and Speaking Task Force is going to request a
meeting with the design planning team to discuss it.
They would like to do something with writing and speaking
on campus that would be innovative, with different
branches of it housed in one area - a restructured
writing center, possibly including the Northwest Writing
Institute and Student Support Services. This could
possibly be a leadership center, combining course work in
writing, speaking, and arguing with community activity.
This would get students to think about writing and
speaking activities as a bridge to what they will be
doing after they graduate. The Writing and Speaking Task
Force will explore this multi-track program which could
provide a presence for writing and speaking.
Dean Johnson reported that as there is space set aside
for the writing center and for the math skills center,
the leadership center could be a reconfigured version of
what Susan Hubbuch currently oversees. Albany will be
the academic center for the campus. There will also be
dedicated meeting space for faculty committees.
The Council needs a clear idea of what they are thinking
and should meet with the planning group right away. The
only question mark beyond fine-tuning spaces is the
timing. In view of the budget issue, start of the
project may be delayed for six months.
Dean Reiness is concerned that the distance between
Albany and the residence halls will discourage student
use of these offices in Albany. Dean Johnson explained
that the idea is to get administrative functions out of
Templeton and to convert it into a student activities
center. This will make a clear division between academic
life and residence life.
In the second phase of the project, all temporary faculty
offices will be removed and the space converted into
meetings spaces and classrooms. Bicentennial Hall will
continue to be an open area.
- Gender Studies Staffing: Dean Johnson feels that what
makes the most sense to meet the short-term needs of the
Gender Studies program is to approve a term contract of
three years for Joanne Mulcahy to teach four classes a
year. At that point, others may be available to teach in
the program, and we may be able to phase out that .8 term
appointment at that point.
While there are only about five gender studies minors per
year, the program encompasses more than the minor.
Courses are well enrolled, and there is demand for gender
studies courses that complement various majors. The
program has become fairly solidified over the years, but
the College probably will not create a major.
While gender studies is integrated into our curriculum,
it is dependent on those people in other departments who
teach gender studies courses. Hiring Ms. Mulcahy
alleviates the uncertainty.
Dean Reiness said he is concerned about staffing the core
courses in this program with adjunct faculty members. It
adds to the expense of the program and puts Gender
Studies on an insecure footing. If we are really going
to have a viable program, it would be desirable to have
firm voluntary commitments from the departments that
benefit from the presence of the Gender Studies program
to staff Gender Studies courses. If, however, we have to
force departments to contribute to the program, that is
problematic for its continued viability, and may require
the College to reconsider how and whether to sustain its
commitment to Gender Studies.
The Academic Council is comfortable with the proposal
from Dr. Hunter and approved a three-year term
appointment at .8 FTE for Joanne Mulcahy.
- Dean Johnson received a message from June Jones
regarding the Laughing Horse Bookstore. Essentially, if
the student buys the book at the Laughing Horse
Bookstore, the bookstore can then deliver the book.
Laughing Horse Bookstore employees cannot, however, come
on campus to sell books. All faculty must supply our
bookstore with their booklists.
- Long-term topics for next week: Take up computer
replacement plan; revisit the chairs' responsibilities;
examine what to do about adjuncts to improve the number
of tenured faculty teaching our students, getting a clear
idea of who the adjuncts are and who is teaching the
students.
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