Faculty Affairs Policy Committee (FAPC) - April 6, 2012

Faculty Affairs Policy Committee (FAPC) Minutes - 06 Apr 2012

Attendance

Present:  Dean Baker, David Connolly, Carrie Cook, David de Posada, Karynne Kleine, Leslie Moore, Holley Roberts, Mike Rose, Craig Turner, Mike Whitfield.

Absent:   None.

Regrets:  Victoria Deneroff, Provost Sandra Jordan, Mary Magoulick.

Guests:   Tom Ormond.

Activity and Agreements

1. Call to Order: Craig Turner, committee chair, called the meeting to order at 3:33 p.m.


2. Agenda: A motion to approve the 06 April 2012 agenda, as circulated, was made, seconded, and approved.


3. Minutes: A motion to approve the 02 March 2012 FAPC meeting minutes, as circulated, was made, seconded, and approved.


4. Recognition of faculty “volunteers” serving on FAPC for the 2011-2012 academic year: Craig Turner, FAPC Chair, distributed the certificates of recognition signed by the University President that he had received from the Executive Committee for each of  David Connolly, Victoria Deneroff, and Karynne Kleine to recognize their service as volunteers (non-senators) on FAPC during 2011-2012. Craig noted that a faculty member who is serving on FAPC as an elected faculty senator or as a committee officer receives a similar certificate of recognition at the conclusion of her/his term of service as a committee officer or as an elected faculty senator. Such recognitions are typically made at the governance retreat or at a meeting of the University Senate.


5. Informational Items:

1.  
   
   
   
   1. Report on the 09 March 2012 joint meeting of Standing Committee Chairs (SCC) and Executive Committee (ECUS): Craig Turner, FAPC Chair, attended this meeting and provided an update to the committee. Craig’s joint meeting notes had been circulated with the tentative agenda to the committee members prior to the meeting and Craig offered to supply clarifications of his notes. Craig provided more information about the 4-year and 6-year graduation rate rankings upon request from a FAPC committee member.
   
   
   2. Committee Annual Report: Craig Turner, FAPC Chair, circulated the draft of the committee annual report and provided an overview of its contents. He provided an update on the “SACS Review Representative” topic indicating that while he had been elected by the committee at its 03 September 2011 meeting to represent FAPC on the SACS steering committee, he had not yet been called on to represent FAPC as its “SACS Review Representative.” He requested specific committee feedback regarding the following items.

                                                              i.      2010-2011 Actions that require follow-up by the 2011-2012 FAPC: A motion was made, seconded, and approved to consider the item “Faculty Availability in the Summer” as closed given the Provost’s 03 April 2012 email update. A motion was made, seconded, and approved to consider the item “Desk Copies” as closed as the library has been specified as the clearinghouse for unwanted text books in the Provost’s 03 April 2012 email update. A motion was made, seconded, and approved to consider the item “Faculty Evaluation, Triggering Review of Department Chairs” as closed given the Provost’s 03 April 2012 email update documenting discussion with the deans to solicit feedback on chair evaluations. An editorial change to replace “the following” with “this” was needed in the “open question” section of the “Faculty Evaluation, Triggering Reviews of Department Chairs” item. In each of the three aforementioned topics, the committee agreed that the language from the 03 April 2012 email update from the Provost (linked as a supporting document to the agenda) should be included in the Details section of the respective topic. In discussing the item “Student Opinion Survey,” Craig Turner provided information that the Georgia College Policies, Procedures and Practices Manual has two versions of SOS language in sections entitled “Student Opinion Surveys” and “Student Opinion Forms” and that these sections are not completely consistent. A member of the committee suggested including in the annual report a recommendation to the 2012-2013 FAPC to consider this item including the information that there are two versions of the language in the Georgia College Policies, Procedures and Practices Manual. A motion was made, seconded, and approved to leave the SOS item (and the contingent motion regarding the use of SOS in faculty evaluation) open for the 2012-2013 FAPC. Tom Ormond volunteered to follow-up on this item. A motion was made, seconded, and approved to defer consideration of all subsections of the item “Summer Pay: Academic Year Faculty/ Extra Compensation” to the 2012-2013 FAPC given that there is no new information on its status.

                                                            ii.      Craig Turner, FAPC Chair, also requested committee feedback on the “Committee Reflections” and “Committee Recommendations” sections

a.       Committee Reflections: A member suggested that there was a committee challenge to elicit candor in committee deliberation. There was further discussion about possible suggestions to the 2012-2013 FAPC to elicit candor, including laying ground rules for discussion and clarification of roles of committee members. Clarifying this role is perhaps most challenging in the context of the Chief Academic Officer designee. Opinions expressed included acknowledgment of (1) the difficulty broaching the conversation about clarification of this role, (2) the variety of roles this individual could play such as consultant, fixer, listener, authority, etc. (3) the difficulty of balancing the power differential external to the committee within the administrative structure and the status as a voting member within the committee. Members further discussed both the function of voting as an opportunity to voice opinion, and the importance of candid discussion for understanding of the background of the issues as well as committee member perspectives. An additional reflection recommendation was that FAPC continue to focus on and be deliberate in selecting “important” faculty issues and recognize the sensitivity of these faculty issues and not get caught up in administrative or minutia items.

b.      Committee Recommendations: The committee agreed that the advice to the membership of the 2012-2013 FAPC should include the recommendations received from the 2010-2011 FAPC with the following two additions: to make an effort to ensure that work group membership is divided more equitably among members, and to encourage that members seek constituency input to inform committee deliberation on issues considered by FAPC. The committee agreed that the 2011-2012 FAPC issues for which deliberation should be continued by the 2012-2013 FAPC are the following: faculty evaluation, pre-tenure review, and post-tenure review. A motion was made, seconded, and approved to consider 12-month pay for academic year faculty closed.

                                                          iii.      Recommended items for consideration at the governance retreat: A recommendation was made that the standing committees establish as a priority at the first meetings of the academic year the development of operating procedures to provide mechanisms to establish ground rules and rules of engagement to facilitate meaningful discussion of standing committee issues throughout the academic year. In particular, standing committees are discouraged from simply adopting the operating procedures of the previous year’s committee and to be thoughtful and intentional in developing and maintaining operating procedures. At this point in the meeting, the time for adjournment, 4:45 p.m., was reached and the Chair reminded the committee that committee operating procedures called for adjournment unless the committee votes to extend the meeting. In response, a motion was made, seconded, and approved to extend the meeting to 5:00 p.m.

1.  
   

   C. Updates on items in the “Committee Recommendations” section of the 2010-2011 FAPC annual report: The Provost recently circulated the aforementioned 03 April 2012 email update. This email update is one of the supporting documents linked to the 06 April 2012 FAPC meeting agenda at the FAPC web presence.

   
   

   D. Update on Provost Response to University Chair Council Student Opinion Survey Work Group: Associate Provost Tom Ormond indicated that there was no update on this item.

   
   

   E. Update on CETL Mission/ Vision: Associate Provost Tom Ormond briefly discussed the new director position [describing it as a combined director of CETL and IDEAS] search as announced within the Provost’s Report at the March 2012 University Senate meeting. Associate Provost Tom Ormond indicated that he could provide no update on the analysis of survey data to direct the rethinking of the CETL mission or on the use of the feedback of the consultation with Dr. Linda Noble. Dr. Noble is the Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Affairs in the University System of Georgia.

       F.RPIPC: Common Meeting Time Task Force Update: Craig Turner, member of the task force, provided a brief update, indicating that the task force was considering survey implementation to explore this issue for fall 2012. His update was provided in writing and is linked to the 06 April 2012 FAPC meeting agenda at the FAPC web presence.

6. Action Items:

A.    Tentative agenda items for FAPC for the 2011-2012 academic year that remained after the 07 October 2011 meeting:

                                                     i.      Faculty pay (12 month pay for academic year faculty/ alternatives to 10 monthly checks): See the last sentence of item 5.B.ii.b above.

7.      Updates from FAPC Work Groups:

1.  
   
   
   
   1. Pre-tenure Review Work Group: There was no update given by this work group.
   
   
   2. Post-Tenure Review Work Group: There was no update given by this work group.
   
   
   3. FAPC Student Opinion Survey Work Group Recommendation: Karynne Kleine, Chair of the FAPC Student Opinion Survey Work Group, provided a draft resolution on faculty evaluation that she alone had drafted. She indicated that she made the recommendation a resolution, as previously suggested, and that it provides rationalization about why faculty should be involved in evaluation. There was agreement that this draft resolution be included in the information forwarded to the 2012-2013 FAPC in the committee annual report. Subsequent to the meeting, Karynne provided an updated version of this draft resolution as a replacement. This updated version of the draft resolution is linked to the 06 April 2012 FAPC agenda at the FAPC web presence.

8. Tentative Agenda for the next FAPC meeting: This was the last scheduled meeting of the 2011-2012 Faculty Affairs Policy Committee. The next scheduled meeting of FAPC is the organizational meeting of the 2012-2013 FAPC scheduled for 3:30-4:45 on 27 April 2012. The tentative agenda for this meeting will be set by the facilitator designated by ECUS.

9. Adjourn: After the committee voted to extend the meeting time and deliberation on the remaining agenda items was completed, a motion to adjourn the meeting was made, seconded and approved. The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m.

Actions Some activities lead to actions to implement the committee agreements.

5.B.        Incorporate the feedback of the committee during the 6 April 2012 meeting and finalize the draft of the committee annual report for committee review ensuring that it is finalized and turned in to the Executive Committee in compliance with the 27 April 2012 due date. (Craig Turner)