ITHACA COLLEGE
FACULTY COUNCIL MINUTES
Present: Jim Aguiar, Diane Birr, Randie Blooding, Carole Dennis, Harold Emery,
Michael Galván, Ari Kissiloff, Don Lifton, Marian MacCurdy, Sabatino Maglione,
Fred Pritt, Rick Rainville, John Rosenthal, Stan Seltzer, Jennifer Strickland, Robert
Sullivan
Excused: Mara Alper, Luanne Andersson, Joseph Cheng, Steve Peterson
Absent: Lee Bailey, Jules Benjamin, Byron Caplan, Cathe Gordon, Winnie Mauser
Guests: Jen Blanco '03, Garry Brodhead, Jim Malek, Michael Leary, Rory Rothman,
Rick Suddaby
1. Welcome and Announcements
S. Seltzer, Chair, opened the meeting at 7:35, when a quorum was present.
A letter of appreciation from Council was prepared and sent to John Stanton, and was
acknowledged with pleasure.
President Williams is holding meetings with the faculty on Monday, April 23, 3:305:00 p.m., and Tuesday, April 24, 12:10-1:05 p.m.
There will be a Faculty Handbook Amendment Committee Forum on Thursday, April
5, at 7:00 p.m. in Friends 204.
A call for people interested in serving as Faculty Trustee has resulted in seven
candidates: Laurie Arliss, Hal Emery, Marian MacCurdy, Katharyn Howd Machan,
Steven Mauk, Gordon Rowland, and Kalil Telage. Candidatesí statements will be
posted on the Web. The ballot will go out in a few days and will have to be returned
by April 13 so that the results can be delivered to the Board by April 15 as they have
requested.
A call for volunteers for the All-College APC seat will go out later this week. It was
delayed to avoid confusion with the call for Trustee candidates.
Activity is under way to elect new members to Faculty Council. The new members
will be invited to attend the May 1 meeting, at which they will conduct elections for
officers for next year.
2. Approval of Minutes of March 20, 2001
H. Emery moved to approve the minutes. F. Pritt seconded the motion. The following
corrections were cited: (1) Delete "Campus Center" from the heading; (2) In the fourth
item under "Announcements," first line, add a colon following "reports that" and on
the fourth line, strike the redundant "set-aside"; (3) In the sixth item, third line,
replace the word "is" with "has been"; (4) On page 2, under "Open Session," replace
"selected" with "nominated" as the first word on the third line from the bottom; (5) On
page 4, J. Rosenthal identified himself as the member seconding M. MacCurdyís
amendment before a vote was taken and the amendment failed; (6) A question mark
should replace the period following the word "graduation" at the end of the fourth line
from the bottom; (7) Ari Kissiloff should have been listed as excused, not absent; and
(8) Diane Ryanís name should be removed from the attendance roster. The minutes of
March 20, 2001 were approved as corrected.
3. Task Force Recommendations for Changes to Student Conduct Code
Regarding Alcohol
Rory Rothman and Michael Leary stated the rationale for a policy change, responding
to questions from Council regarding the data and the proposed new regulations
regarding use of alcohol on campus (which was included as an attachment to the April
agenda). Concern regarding public-area drinking has been raised by many task forces
in the past. While drinking is currently banned from the academic quad, how can the
drinking issue be addressed elsewhere? At present, the RA staff may only confront
students who are violating the conduct code as a result of using alcohol, such as
causing damage to college property or getting into a fight, but they may not confront
students under the age of 21 for drinking; only campus safety officers who may
confront students under the age of 21 for possession of alcohol. The goal of the new
regulations is to make College policy more consistent with the spirit of NYS
legislation. A new position of Coordinator for Health Promotion, to start next fall, has
been created to work in the areas of alcohol and drug education. Messrs. Rothman and
Leary welcome additional comments from any faculty members.
There was extended discussion. Several members of Council were supportive of the
new policy, citing it as a potentially helpful enforcement tool for residence hall staff.
Others expressed concern that stricter enforcement might lead students to drink off
campus, and this could lead to increased DWI incidents. Another criticism was that
the policy should focus on deterring and punishing negative behavior (through stiffer
penalties) rather than on possession.
4. Provostís Report
J. Malek distributed copies of an April 4 memorandum from Larry Metzger titled
"Update on Admissions for Faculty Council Meeting." New records have been set in
both size and academic profiles of the applicant pool. Deposits are coming in and at
present are running on target, equal to last year. Response to the minority recruitment
program Inside Look is at record levels, with 76 reservations and 78 volunteer hosts.
D. Birr asked about the revised Guidelines for File Preparation. J. Malek said that the
recent open session yielded a couple of comments that were currently under
discussion, but that the changes resulting from these would be minor. Malek
confirmed that all student statements were to be typed, and this led to a question as to
whether there would be clerical support to assist if this proved to be a burden for a
department. He responded that this is one of the issues under discussion. Another
member asked if there was to be a limit on the size of files. Malek said this was one of
the issues that had prompted the review of the guidelines; files should be no larger
than four notebooks. There was a suggestion that collecting student statements online
would be more efficient and could provide much greater consistency. Finally, there
was a suggestion to clarify whether the guidelines are guidelines (which did not
necessarily need to be heeded) or requirements.
5. Consideration of APC Policy on Plagiarism in Group Projects
The APC approved the following revised policy on plagiarism in group projects,
which they have forwarded for the approval of Faculty Council in order to move
ahead with the recommendation: "In a collaborative project, every student in the
group may be held responsible for academic misconduct if they participate in
plagiarism or are aware of plagiarism by others in their group and fail to report it." It
was suggested that the language "may be held responsible for academic misconduct"
is weak and should be replaced with "will be charged with academic misconduct." G.
Brodhead noted that the use of the word "may" was recommended by N. Pringle,
because of the possibility of different circumstances in each case. "May" allows for
evaluation of individual situations at the level of faculty/student evaluation.
Concern was expressed that it would not be fair to penalize all members of a group if
a group project was a requirement. Also, where a project consists of a collection of
material, such as a newsletter, rather than a collaboration on material, the policy might
be unreasonable. To clarify responsibility to students, it was suggested that the phrase
"knowingly or unknowingly" be included. Counter to that suggestion, concern was
expressed about some students, compelled to participate in a group, finding
themselves unwittingly involved in a situation where plagiarism has occurred. It was
pointed out that the word "may" allows interpretation by the Judicial Board to split
cases. To avoid harming an innocent student, it was suggested to insert the word
"consciously" in the phrase "if they consciously participate in plagiarism or are aware
of plagiarism by others in their group and fail to report it." It was suggested adding a
statement that "Students who unwittingly participate in a group project where
plagiarism has occurred may be exonerated." G. Brodhead offered to report back to
APC that it was the sense of the body that there is general concern that such a policy
should provide safeguards for the "unwitting, duped student" who is working on a
group project.
6. Old Business
Lacking a quorum, the Chair noted thee following three items without requesting any
action.
Before sending the Bylaws to N. Pringle, it was discovered that while Council had
eliminated some suggestions made by Tom Emmet and approved, with amendment,
some of his other suggestions, we had not voted approval of all Emmet's suggestions
(see attachment 01-03-A to March 6, 2001 agenda). At the May meeting, the Chair
would like to have final, full approval of the Bylaws.
Regarding the Faculty Council motion on the add/drop procedures (attachment 01-03C to the March 6, 2001, agenda), the Chair is still unaware whether the Online
Registration Working Group working group has considered our concerns. He will be
looking into this matter.
Regarding Faculty Handbook amendments, he reiterated that those with concern
should attend the open forum on Thursday night, April 5.
Before closing, J. Aguiar introduced Rick Suddaby, who will be observing our
meetings on behalf of the coaching staff as noted in the minutes of the last meeting, as
part of the process of determining an existing governance group with which the
coaches and other currently unrepresented employees may affiliate.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:30 p.m.