Faculty Council
Minutes of the meeting of October 12, 1992
0. Meeting was called to order by Chairperson Stephen Warner at 4:03 p.m.
1. Motion (M.Nelson/F.Krohn): to approve the agenda as published. Motion passed.
2. Motion (M.Nelson/F.Krohn): to approve the minutes of the September 14, 1992 meeting as published. Motion passed.
3. President Donald A. MacPhee was absent and sent no report.
4. Chairperson Stephen Warner, reporting for the Executive Committee, moved adoption of a Search Committee for Dean of Arts and Sciences, as follows: Jefferson Westwood, chair Nancy Boynton,William Foeller,Karen Mills-Courts, Patrick Mason, Janice Peterson, Alberto Rey, a student (to be named by Student Association)
R. Weist spoke in opposition to the adoption of the recommended appointments. He distributed a document "Search Committee for Dean of Arts and Sciences" in which he proposed an alternative list of search committee members. He said the committee's chair should be a teacher, that Administration should not be represented on the search committee, and that the committee should consist of mostly senior experienced faculty. M.L.Lunde asked whether Weist had received consent-to-serve from his proposed candidates. Weist answered that it was not his job to do so. T.Loughlin asked how Weist's list would serve interests of junior faculty. Weist said their interests would be served indirectly by the senior faculty. Loughlin opined that junior faculty should be on the committee for their input, and asked how else might they become experienced without serving on such committees. T. Schwalbe said he was concerned that there were no departmental chairs on the proposed committee. M. Grady expressed concern that the experimental sciences would not be represented on the proposed committee. MindaRae Amiran spoke in favor of the proposed list, saying that professional staff are members of the Faculty in the sense of FC Bylaws and do report to the dean being searched for, and therefore should be included. She said further that traditional practice has been to have a Management representative on search committees. J.Hansen supported the nomination of Janice Peterson, saying that though untenured, she would not be inhibited and would be an asset to the committee because of her background. He seconded Schwalbe's concern about chairs not being represented. He said that no matter how much time and effort is spent screening candidates for dean, there is still risk of coming up with someone with whom we are unhappy; but the first criterion for search committee membership should be willingness to work very, very hard on the search. J. Gillette asked how many of the Exec Committee's nominees were untenured. Warner replied that (except for Westwood, whose position is specially exempt from the tenure process under Board of Trustees Policies) only Peterson was untenured. He stated that the nominations reflect the Exec Committee's thinking as to who would be representative and hard working. He said that decisions of this magnitude should be made by those faculty who will be here for awhile, since they will be most effected. He said a representative of the Administration needs to be on the committee to answer certain questions. He said Exec Committee agreed that the committee should remain small, but that if the chairs wish to appoint one of their own, especially from the natural sciences, the Exec Committee would agree.
Motion (T.Schwalbe/P.Sinden): to amend the list proposed by Exec Committee by adding a departmental chairperson from the natural sciences, to be selected by the Chairs. Motion passed.
Motion to adopt the search committee, as amended, passed.
5. Vice Chairperson Theodore Steinberg had no report.
6. Faculty Senator H. Joseph Straight had no report.
7. Chair of the Governance Committee Franklin Krohn reported that liaisons from the Governance Committee were appointed as follows: Steve Reese to the Student Affairs Committee, Jonathan Brown to Academic Affairs Committee, Jefferson Westwood to Professional Service Committee; a liaison appointment will be made soon to replace Jane Romal to Planning & Budget Committee.
Motion (Krohn, for Governance Committee): to adopt the Governance Committee's Recommendation on Resolution on [Administration-appointed] Ad Hoc Committees. [Copies of the report containing the recommendation had been distributed to FC members before the meeting.]
Krohn said that often when administrative ad hoc committees are chosen they have no representative constituency. He said the purpose of the resolution was not to limit administrators, but to insure that Faculty Council and its elected representatives and committees are called upon when this kind of consultation is desired. K.Mantai asked whether this would be part of the Bylaws. Krohn answered that it would not, that it would be advisory to administration. D.Burdette asked whether this would apply to him. Krohn said it would. H.Jacobson spoke in favor of the resolution, saying that it would insure more uniform representation when such committees are formed. J.Hansen asked what would happen if Burdette were not to adhere to the resolution. Chairperson Warner answered that everything from FC is advisory on administration. He said that if an administrator made no excuse for ignoring these guidelines, he would be seen as not responsive to the will of FC; this could be reflected in his evaluations. Mantai asked whether consultation could mean just a phone call. Krohn answered that in many cases it might. Warner clarified that the resolution calls for recognition of the role of FC and its committees. Hansen asked for clarification of what constitutes an ad hoc committee under the resolution, and whether it would apply to all kinds of informal consultation. Krohn answered that it would apply only to the more formal kind of committee that meets more than once. Burdette said that he found the guidelines restrictive, tending to limit the formation of essential committees such as a building safety committee. Warner said that if an ad hoc committee deals in an area regularly dealt with by FC, there should be this kind of consultation. K.Mantai added that such a safety committee is of vital interest to faculty in the science labs. M.Dimitri commented that ad hoc committees are designed to come together quickly and felt that the language of the resolution could restrict the consultation process. C.Willeford asked whether it is present practice that the president consults with FC when he proposes ad hoc committees. Warner said that he often did so consult, but that the resolution would provide a firm guideline that such consultation would be expected. T.Kflu said he thought that things having little to do with academic affairs should not require this process. J.Gillette asked whether there had been problems over this in the past. J.Straight answered that ad hoc committees have sometimes been created when their work should have fallen under one of the existing committees. He said the intention is to make it easy for administration, represented by the president, to communicate with faculty, represented by the Executive Committee through its chair. Krohn clarified that the intent was to include all administrative ad hoc committees. Dimitri asked whether something like the dorm rates committee, mandated by the Chancellor would be included under the resolution. Straight answered that this would be a good example of something that probably would come under an existing committee, Student Affairs. Straight advocated using "should" instead of "must" in the language of the resolution.
The motion to adopt the resolution was withdrawn by Krohn.
Resolution was referred to Governance Committee by consensus. 8. MindaRae Amiran, chair of the Academic Affairs Committee Distributed a one-page report on transfer credit.
Motion (P.Sinden/M.Nelson): That the Faculty Council adopt the committee's recommendation to revise the text on p.179 of the catalog on Transfer Credit by deleting the statement in brackets, substituting the language in quotation marks, or similar language to the same effect, as follows:
[Students who have exceeded 75 hours of earned credit at the College at Fredonia or elsewhere may not transfer credit from a community or junior college.]
"Enrolled students must secure prior approval from the chairperson of their major program (or department of advisement), from the chair of their minor, if applicable, and from the Registrar, before credit taken at another college or university will be transferred to the student's record here. Students applying for such approval should provide the chair and Registrar a copy of the course description from the other college catalog. In the event that the course is to be used for GCP credit, approval of the Dean of Liberal Studies is required. Transfer of Credit approval forms are available in the Office of the Registrar."
Amiran clarified that the committee is seeking Faculty Council approval of the change in policy, not necessarily the exact wording recommended in the report. J.Gillette asked what was the rationale for the existing statement. Amiran replied that there had been some desire to forbid upperclassmen taking 100- and 200-level classes, and to thereby impose a higher proportion of upper division credits. She said the GCP is now steering credit loads more into the upper level. T.Loughlin asked whether the 75-hour limit would then be removed. Amiran replied that the 75-hour limit on total credits transferred in to Fredonia would remain; the 45-hour minimum for a Fredonia degree would remain; the main point of the recommendation is to eliminate the ceiling restricting when those credits may be earned and transferred. J.Straight added that since summer school offerings are scarce here, students sometimes need to take summer school courses at community college. T.Schwalbe asked how often the deans had denied waivers under the existing policy. J.Hurtgen replied that he rarely denies them, and usually only when a student has had many opportunities to do the right thing, but persists in doing the wrong thing. Amiran said she had tried to adhere to the policy, but did grant exceptions. Motion passed.
9. Vice President Hess, in absentia, provided copies of a one-page report of the Enrollment Management Committee.
10. There was no report from the Computer Committee.
11. There was no report from the Department of Computing Services.
12. There was no New Business presented to the Faculty Council.
13. The meeting was adjourned at 5:05, by consensus.
Attendance:
Professional Staff, Management:
[x] P. Andrews (92)
[x] K. Bonds (92)
[E] S. Clarke (93)
[x] V. Conover (93)
[1] K. Harrington (94)
[2] D. Johnson (92)
[x] T. Kflu (93)[1]
[1] T. Malinoski (93)
[2] S. Maloney (92)
[x] T. McNeil (94)
[x] M. Pabst (94)
[x] K. Porpiglia (92)
[x] B. Servatius (93)
Arts, Education, Humanities:
[E] J. Burke (94)
[E] M. Charbonnet (93)
[1] J. Chilberg (92)
[x] N. Deal (94)
[x] J. Gillette (93)[1]
[x] H. Jacobson (93)
[E] R. Klassen (92)
[x] T. Loughlin (93)
[x] K. Lucey (93)
[x] M. L. Lunde (92)
[x] L. Maheady (94)
[x] M. Nelson (93)
[x] T. Schwalbe (92)
Natural and Social Sciences:
[x] G. Baird (94)
[x] M. Grady (92)
[x] J. Hansen (94)
[x] T. Janik (93)
[x] F. Krohn (93)
[x] K. Mantai (93)
[2] G. Prechtl (92)
[2] C. Prevet (92)
[x] T. Rywick (94)
[x] J. Romal (93)[1]
[x] P. Sinden (93)
[x] B. Stephens
[x] R. Weist (92)
Student Representatives:
[x] B. Wilkins[1]
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Ex Officio:
[E] J. Berkley
[x] D. Burdette
[1] J. Crowley
[x] M. Dimitri
[1] D. Hess
[x] J. Hurtgen
[1] D. MacPhee
[x] M. Schagrin
[x] T. Steinberg
[x] J. Straight
[x] S. Warner
[x] A. Wheeler
Guests:
Minda Rae Amiran
Heidi Mahoney
Constance Willeford
Thomas McNeil, College Senate Secretary