August 24, 2012

Faculty Affairs Policy Committee (FAPC) Minutes: August 24, 2012

Next Meeting: Friday, Sept 21, 2-3:15 Atkinson 202

Attendance:

Present: Beauty Bragg, Scott Butler, Carol, Christy, David Connolly, Carrie Cook, Sandra Godwin, Leslie Moore, Holley Roberts, Mike Rose

Regrets:  Karynne Kleine, Tom Ormond

Absent:  Jeff Turner

No guests

Activity and Agreements

1.      Call to Order: Committee chair Leslie Moore called the meeting to order at 2:30.  Committee members agreed to conduct this meeting and all subsequent meeting on an informal basis with the stipulation that the chair or any committee member could call to invoke Roberts Rules of Order, should it seem necessary.

2.      Appointment of Committee Secretary:  In the absence of any other volunteers or nominations it was agreed that Beauty Bragg will serve as Secretary through the fall semester.  Carol Christy agreed to take on the role in the spring, when Bragg will be on leave.

Operating Procedures:  The committee reviewed three minor revisions to the committees operating procedures which had been made as a result of discussion at the August 7, 2012 senate retreat meeting. These revisions included a change to the language of the goals and responsibilities of the committee as a whole to “seek out and identify concerns of broad institutional impact…”, to clarify that one of the Chair’s responsibilities is to “record notifications of regrets…” rather than “to be contacted by…”, and that the committee will “communicate openly and candidly with each other without judgment or repercussion".  The vote to approve the revisions was unanimous.

3.      Discussion of future agenda items:  Committee members reviewed the request from Interim Provost, Matthew Liao-Troth, that the committee be ready to make recommendations regarding the university’s collection of Student Opinion Survey (SOS) data.  As a number of questions arose it was agreed that 1) the Chair will forward the request to committee members (as the photocopies were not fully legible) and have a discussion with the Interim Provost to clarify the scope of the task, 2) Carrie Cook will forward the documents which last year’s committee had produced so that new members could become familiar with the issues involved, and 3) we would agree at the next meeting what the composition and focus of work groups on this issue should be. 

A second discussion concerned the possibility of the committee undertaking a review  of the post-tenure review policies.  It was decided that new committee members would benefit from an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the previous committee’s thoughts on this issue.  Mike Rose has agreed to forward pertinent documents and the committee will make a decision at the next meeting regarding whether to revisit this issue.  Additionally, it was decided that if the committee undertook a review of post-tenure policy, then they should also examine pre-tenure guideline. 

A third topic brought up for discussion as a possible agenda item was revising the guidelines for eligibility for Faculty Excellence in Scholarship Award.  Carol Christy agreed to forward documents explaining the rationale for revising the period of faculty activity encompassed by the award.  The committee agreed to vote on making a recommendation regarding this policy by Thanksgiving.

4.      Adjourn:  The meeting was adjourned at 3:16.