Eastern Michigan University College of Arts and Sciences College Advisory Council Minutes Thursday, February 16, 2012 Scheduled Meeting Time: 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM Room 219 Pray-­Harrold Present: Sacksteder (ART), Angell (BIOL), Emal (CHEM), Kindred (CMTA), Woodland (ECON), Däumer (ENGL), Clark (GEO/GEO), Dieterle (HIST/PHIL), Rescorla (MATH), Behringer (PHY/ASTR), Singh (PLSC), Jefferson (PSYCH), Curran (WGST), Vosteen (WL), Venner (CAS Dean), Mehuron(CAS), Tornquist (CAS), Nord (Sciences DH), Ramsey (Arts DH) I. Call to order at 3:34 PM by CAC Chair Jill Dieterle II. Minutes of January 26, 2012 Approved, with two abstentions. III. Reports A. Arts committee report Vosteen reads the Arts committee report. Motion to accept the report passes unanimously. B. Sciences committee report Behringer reads the Sciences committee report. Motion to approve passes unanimously. IV. Old Business A. Dean Evaluation Instrument (DEI) (Note: the Dean and members of his Office stepped out of the room during the following discussion.) Dieterle shared the feedback on the DEI that she received from departments and individuals. Further feedback from departments was given by their CAC representatives, including: looking at the recently redone DH evaluation instrument to get further information; obtaining information about fundraising; considering the emphasis on integrity; obtaining information regarding effectiveness in communicating budget issues, including faculty hiring; The discussion continued as specific suggestions for revising the current draft of the DEI were considered. Some items were added, some revised, and one deleted. There was discussion regarding the possible inclusion of requests for demographic College Advisory Committee College of Arts and Sciences Page 1 of 7 Eastern Michigan University information (that is not too specific; e.g., program area, rank). A motion was made to approve a final version of the DEI (appended). 13 yeas, 0 nays, 1 Abstention V. New Business A. Proposal for Bargaining Council This proposal contains two items for the Bargaining Council to consider: (1) a revision of the contract language that gives the Faculty Senate the right to appoint representatives to provide input; and (2) a revision of the contract language that gives the Faculty Senate the right to appoint representatives to the University-­‐level screening committees for Sabbatical Leaves, Research/Creative Activity Fellowships, and other Awards. It is thought that having the College Advisory Councils of the different Colleges appoint these representatives is a better way to represent the wishes of the College. Motion to approve (Angell, Kindred). Passes unanimously. This proposal will go straight to the Bargaining Council, but the suggestion to contact the other College Advisory Councils is accepted. B. Letter from Library Faculty Motion to write a letter in support of University Library Faculty to increase funding for the library. Passes unanimously. VI. Dean’s remarks Dean Venner reports recent news from the State of Michigan regarding small, partial restoration of university funding. No formula has yet been established by the State government regarding the restoration of funding. Tornquist reports progress on developing new audiovisual systems (‘AV carts’) for CAS classrooms. Specifically, the Office of the Dean is working with two vendors on appropriate designs. The cabinets will be locked down so that cables connections cannot be disturbed. Current Internet wall-­‐mounted cable connections are being labeled to avoid having internet access for the system disabled by those experimenting with the cable connections. Directions for using the system and rebooting in the event of a power outage or fire alarm will be provided. The Office of the Dean is researching the cost of refreshing the audiovisual systems. College Advisory Committee College of Arts and Sciences Page 2 of 7 Eastern Michigan University VII. Chair’s remarks Back in October, we passed a resolution about the BS/BA issue; the Faculty Senate has not yet considered it. It is hoped that the Faculty Senate will now consider it because the new Provost has arrived. The issue regarding the double major was not wrapped into this resolution. Kate Mehuron will follow up with Rhonda Longworth in the Office of the Provost. VIII. Faculty remarks Last Friday (Feb. 10), the computer system was shutdown from 6 PM to midnight for maintenance. This was problematic for faculty who teach online with deadlines on Friday. A request is made to avoid such shutdowns in the future. IX. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 4:50 PM. Respectfully submitted, Ernie Behringer 2011-­‐2012 CAC Secretary College Advisory Committee College of Arts and Sciences Page 3 of 7 Eastern Michigan University College of Arts and Sciences Advisory Council
M E M O R A N D U M To: CAC From: CAS Procedures Committee Date: 1/23/12 (Revised in CAC Meeting of 2/16/12) Subject: Dean Evaluation The CAS Procedures Committee proposed the following questions for the Dean Evaluation instrument. We will use an online survey tool to conduct the evaluation. All responses will be anonymous. 1) The dean supports program development 2) The dean follows contractual input procedures 3) The dean ensures that faculty evaluations are conducted in accordance with the EMU AAUP contract 4) The dean is an effective liaison with the rest of the university 5) The dean is an advocate for the CAS and its programs within the university. 6) The dean is an advocate for the CAS and its programs within the greater community. 7) The dean is accessible 8) The dean plans effectively for the college 9) The dean implements policies and follows procedures in a fair and consistent manner 10)The dean articulates a vision or direction for the college 11)The dean effectively communicates with CAS faculty 12) The dean supports program accreditation. 13)The dean supports faculty development, including scholarly and creative activity. 14)The dean provides instructional support. 15)The dean manages the budget effectively. Rank: Gender: Disciplinary Area: 16) We will include comment boxes after each question. College Advisory Committee College of Arts and Sciences Page 4 of 7 Eastern Michigan University In addition to “Strongly agree,” “agree,” etc., options, we’ll include a “not applicable” or “no basis for judgment” option. Also, two general questions will be included at the end: What does the dean do well? What can the dean do to improve? College Advisory Committee College of Arts and Sciences Page 5 of 7 Eastern Michigan University Current contract language:
ARTICLE XIII: FACULTY PARTICIPATION IN GOVERNANCE
Section C. Faculty Senate
Paragraph 390:
It is understood by the parties that when Faculty input is sought, Faculty Senate
shall have the right to select or appoint Faculty representatives on all universitywide
committees, commissions, councils, or task forces. Should Faculty Senate
choose not to appoint a representative, they will notify the Provost and Executive
Vice President in writing in a timely manner. If minutes are taken, chairs of
these university-wide bodies shall distribute minutes of their meetings to the
Faculty Senate President in a timely manner. This does not limit the University’s
right to invite Faculty to serve on any committee, commission, council or task
force; however, these Faculty Members are not to be construed as providing
Faculty input under Article XIII of the Agreement.
The highlighted portion of this paragraph gives Faculty Senate the right to appoint/elect
faculty to ALL university-wide committees. As a result, Faculty Senate elects
COLLEGE representatives to university-wide committees. But this is undemocratic.
Colleges ought to have the right to elect their own representatives. (Why should faculty
from other colleges have the right to vote on (e.g.) the CAS rep to URLSC? The COB
rep to the Library Advisory Council? Etc.)
Proposal:
Change the highlighted language to: “Faculty Senate and the five College Councils shall
have the right to select or appoint Faculty representatives on all universitywide
committees, commissions, councils, or task forces. When representation from a
particular College is required, the appropriate College Council shall select or appoint the
representative. Faculty Senate shall select or appoint Faculty representatives when
representation from specific Colleges is not required.”
Add to Article XIII, Section B. Department and College Committees:
2. College Councils shall have the right to select or appoint College Representatives to
universitywide committees, commissions, councils, or task forces when representation
from specific college(s) is required.
College Advisory Committee College of Arts and Sciences Page 6 of 7 Eastern Michigan University ARTICLE XII. SABBATICAL LEAVES, RESEARCH/CREATIVE ACTIVITY
FELLOWSHIPS, AND OTHER AWARDS
D. Screening Committee
Paragraph 362:
A broadly representative screening committee, consisting of six (6) Faculty
Members appointed by the Faculty Senate, one (1) academic Dean, and two (2)
academic Department Heads appointed by the President upon the
recommendation of the Provost and Executive Vice President…
Change the highlighted language to:
“(6) Faculty Members, one appointed by each of the five College Councils (CAS, COB,
COT, CHHS, COE), and one appointed by the Faculty Senate…”
Rationale:
1/3 of our workload is associated with research and creative output, and the FRF and
sabbatical leave system is a major source of funding for that output. It is thus essential
that the process for awarding research leaves be fair. Granting college councils the right
to appoint their own representatives is an important step toward fairness.
CAS: Historically, there have been great disparities between the CAS CCRSL rankings
and the URLSC rankings. Allowing the CAS CAC to appoint the CAS representative to
URLSC would potentially result in more continuity. Ideally, the CAS rep to URSLC
would be a member of the CAS CCRSL, so that the individual would be a party to the
discussions at CCRSL.
College Advisory Committee College of Arts and Sciences Page 7 of 7 Eastern Michigan University