SAH College Committee
Minutes
Monday October 19, 2009
Present: Scott Cooper, John Greany, Sandra Grunwald, Heather Hulett, Shauna Sallmen,
Jeff Steffen, Meredith Thomsen
Excused: Cynthia Berlin, Marcie Wycoff-Horn
1. Dr. Sallmen called the meeting to order at 4:30 and the committee voted
unanimously to approve the minutes from the previous meeting (8 yes).
2. Dr. Hulett gave a report from the Chairs’ Meeting. The Chairs discussed the
new Faculty Workload Report that the Provost wants for each faculty member
each instructional session. The Chairs were not particularly excited about this
addition to their workload. The Committee reviewed the sheet and felt no action
was required on our part; the Chairs will likely respond on their own. The movein date for “The New Cowley Hall” is now being estimated at 2015. The Chairs
also discussed the Inclusive Excellence program, and concluded it would be
helpful if everybody in the College read the Equity Scorecard report. There is
concern that some of the main issues facing the University in terms of retention of
members of underrepresented groups are issues that are out of our control: student
concerns re: money and family, cultural climate of the city, etc.
3. The Committee then discussed the reply we received from Dean Riley Re: the
equipment inventory project.
• Working definition of “big ticket” = “bigger than can be covered by the
Departmental S&E budget.”
• The inventory we are being asked to produce will help the Dean make informed
decisions about how to budget for equipment costs each year. The College no
longer has any incentive to stockpile funds, since such extra monies have so often
been re-allocated to other parts of the University with immediate budget
shortfalls. The inventory would also serve as leverage with the Provost’s office, to
document the funding the College will need from the University, since it’s no
longer practical for us to stockpile “emergency” funds to purchase necessary
equipment.
• Why are we doing this? So we can develop an explicit, straightforward template,
compile the departmental responses and work on the evaluation and
recommendations part.
4. The Committee approved the motion to accept the petition from the Dean (8
yes).
5. The Committee then discussed the columns that should be included in the
spreadsheet we send to the Chairs. Dr. Cooper will prepare a draft of the form to
share with the Committee on email. Drs. Hulett and Sallmen will draft a cover
letter to be sent with the spreadsheet. This letter will include a rationale for the
project, emphasizing how it will be useful to the departments. It will also make
clear what type of equipment should be included in the inventory. We will request
that the inventory be returned to the Committee sometime after J-term, 2010.
Once we have finalized these documents we will send them to the Dean for his
approval. Dr. Sallmen will also ask Dean Riley about how to handle the
equipment in shared classrooms. Draft documents will be shared among
Committee members via email.
6. The Committee decided to meet again on November 9, if any new business has
arisen by then.
7. Meeting adjourned at 5:20.
Respectfully submitted,
Meredith Thomsen