ITHACA COLLEGE FACULTY COUNCIL MINUTES February 5, 2002 Present: Jim Aguiar, Lee Bailey, Diane Birr, Joseph Cheng, Carole Dennis, Charis Dimaras, Harold Emery, Cathe Gordon, Ron Jude, Ari Kissiloff, Don Lifton, Marian MacCurdy, Winnie Mauser, Tim Nord, Mary Ann Rishel, John Rosenthal, Stan Seltzer, Bruce Smith, Jennifer Strickland, Robert Sullivan Excused: Marie Garland, Steve Peterson Absent: Sabatino Maglione, John Wolohan Guests: Jessica Bailis '05, Jennifer Blanco '03, Garry Brodhead, Brenna Corbett '03,Wendi Dowst '04, Corrine Jacoby '04, Diane Long, Brendan Lorbach '04, Steve Mauk, Erica Miller '05, Jenna Perkins '03, Nancy Pringle, Bill Scoones, Ellen Stapleton '03, Megan Tetrick '03 1. Welcome and Announcements S. Seltzer, Chair, opened the meeting at 7:00 p.m and announced that Dr. Peter W. Bardaglio, currently Interim Vice President and Academic Dean at Goucher College, has been selected as the new Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs of Ithaca College. He is expected to assume the position in mid to late summer. 2. Faculty Handbook Amendment Committeeís Proposal on Plagiarism (4.7.3) N. Pringle was in attendance to respond to questions regarding the FHACís proposed policy on plagiarism. J. Rosenthal suggested rewording of the second sentence from "Any discovery of plagiarism..." to read "Any evidence of suspected plagiarism..." A further revision to the suggested language as provided on the May 5 Faculty Council Agenda, has been adopted by the FHAC so that the sentence concludes "... the Dean or to the Provost/VPAA who will contact the affected parties and, after consideration, take appropriate action." MOTION: To approve the following language for the first paragraph of Section 4.7.3 Plagiarism in the proposed new Faculty Handbook: Every faculty member must scrupulously recognize all intellectual debts owed, be they in the form of ideas, methods or expressions, by means of an appropriate form of communication and acknowledgment. Any evidence of suspected plagiarism must be reported to the applicable Dean or to the Provost/VPAA who will contact the affected parties and, after consideration, take appropriate action. The motion was approved unanimously. After discussion of the wording of the second paragraph, a motion to approve amended language was offered. MOTION: To approve the following language for the second paragraph of Secion4.7.3 Plagiarism in the proposed new Faculty Handbook: Scholars must make clear the contributions of colleagues on a collaborative project. Professors who have the guidance of students as their responsibility must not incorporate a studentís ideas, research, or presentation to the professorís benefit without acknowledgment; to do so is to abuse power and trust. The motion was approved, with one abstention. 3. Open Session Diane Long announced that the Campus Life Committee is exploring the development of a Flag Flying Policy to guide decision-making on future requests. Student members of the committee have brought the discussion to the SGA. Faculty input on considerations to be included in such a policy is welcome and encouraged. 4. Grade Policies Study Committee Recommendations Council debated a recommendation by L. Bailey, on behalf of GPSC, to eliminate the A+ as a final grade for undergraduates. The A+ grade has been discontinued at some colleges, and elimination is under consideration at others, including Princeton. A+ could still be used on assignments. B. Scoones acknowledged the concern about grade inflation, but urged caution regarding this proposal, bearing in mind the possible impact on students going on to graduate school. He offered to provide representatives with detailed data on Aís if they so request. Concern was voiced as to whether such a change might affect financial aid. Brenna Corbett í03 stated that SGA is pulling together a community forum to explore the issue of grade inflation with as much dialogue as possible. She asked for Faculty Council support for this effort. After extensive discussion, W. Mauser moved to table further discussion until the next meeting. MOTION: To support SGAís proposal to conduct a community forum on the issue of grade inflation and table further Council discussion to the March meeting. The motion was approved. L. Bailey noted the importance of having a large faculty presence at the forum; he urged Council representatives to encourage attendance and participation by their colleagues. He and S. Seltzer offered to work with Brenna as faculty liaison in developing the forum. 5. Provostís Report A. B. Scoones urged caution when considering grading changes. He recalled that the College used to have a grade called the "nifty "- NFT, Not For Transcript, Princeton still has that type of a grade ó no Fís go on transcript. Higher education is all over the map on this issue. It is pretty complex. B. He recently represented the College at the Association of New American Colleges and found that Ithaca College is considered one of the top schools. We are viewed as a model for some ANAC schools, just as we aspire to model ourselves on another set of institutions. C. The workload project is moving forward and it is in the budget that will be presented to the Board of Trustees. He and G. Brodhead have met with two different Deans so far, putting the departments through the requisite planning exercises. Nine other meetings have been set up. About 1/4 of the departments (9 out of 37) should have 21-hour workloads next year if all goes according to plan. He has discussed this with Provost-Designate Bardaglio, who liked the plan very much. D. A committee has been created to look at professional needs for long term nontenure-eligible faculty members or clinical faculty members. The first meeting will be held at 9:00 a.m. on February 22. He asked that faculty get their thoughts to the group before that meeting. E. A committee on academic advising has been set up to get input from all constituents. Their report will be helpful to the new Provost. F. J. Rosenthal asked if the Interim Provost had any observations about the tenure and promotion process guidelines used this past year. Scoones noted that there were major modifications to the old guidelines. They have been fairly well accepted. He stated that the mentoring system used by the School of Music is amazing, because it always works. They have not had a failure in promoting a candidate to full professor in 20 years. He asked that faculty members consider what leads to that kind of success. Itís axiomatic that you donít go up, because if you donít get through the second, third and fourth year reviews, you donít see a fifth or sixth year. That requires faculty to be minding the store, mentoring the training, and making judgments about their peers for all the right reasons. The down side is that everyone must be involved in the evaluation all of the time, but you build a good faculty that way. He commented that this year the T&P committee is sending a message that senior faculty members must play a service role at Ithaca College. Finally, Scoones noted that ideally there should be no negative decisions made in the sixth year. 6. Approval of Minutes of January 22, 2002 S. Seltzer noted that Tim Nord should have been listed as present. H. Emery moved to accept the minutes as corrected. D. Birr seconded the motion. The minutes of January 22, 2002, were approved as corrected. 7. Preliminary Budget Report D. Lifton reported that at present he could not disclose what the budget going to the Board of Trustees looks like; however, he did share what has been requested. The "pig in the snake" over-enrollment is both an opportunity, because these extra students provides additional tuition payments, but is also a challenge because we need to educate them. Dean Erlich has made a request for additional temporary faculty ó but temporary over the course of a few years ó to serve these extra students. This is an understandably powerful request. Another powerful input is the discussion of where the campus is going physically over the course of the next decade, leading to a call to put aside money to service the debt that will result from building. The TIAA-CREF request has been input into the process. A salary increment has been requested as well as salary adjustments for people, particularly Assistant Professors, whose salaries have fallen behind where they ought to be. Most notably, the workload issue is addressed in the proposed budget. On this issue he made the point that if there is any successful output, the fundamental reason for that success will be the advocacy of Acting Provost Bill Scoones. He commended the tenacity of Provost Scoones in supporting this issue for the faculty. S. Seltzer, who also serves on the Budget Committee, stated that D. Lifton has also been very forceful and eloquent in championing these faculty concerns. 8. Comment on Provost-Designate Peter Bardaglio As a member of the Provost Search Committee, D. Lifton expressed his enthusiasm for the selection of Peter Bardaglio, who was a finalist in four other searches. Assigned to check this candidateís references, he found Bardaglioís references glowing. They spoke of his esteem for faculty colleagues and his team-building abilities. He is said to have a wonderful sense of how to interact with trustees, which is very important to faculty. Although fundraising is not a principal area of responsibility, people believe he may be very effective in that area. His personal statement to the committee about his view of the position was impressive ó he discussed the challenges of liberal arts and professions in one place, and how that conversation talks to issues of diversity, of democracy, and of citizenry. Bardaglio conveyed a comprehensive notion of what we, as faculty, are about. D. Lifton expressed the opinion that Bardaglio is a true scholar and a fine historian, whose scholarship informs his commitment to diversity and to gender issues. The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.