ITHACA COLLEGE
FACULTY COUNCIL MINUTES
September 4, 2001
Present: Jim Aguiar, Lee Bailey, Diane Birr, Joseph Cheng, Charis Dimaras, Harold
Emery, Marie Garland, Cathe Gordon, Ron Jude, Ari Kissiloff, Don Lifton, Marian
MacCurdy, Winnie Mauser, Tim Nord, Steve Peterson, Rick Rainville, Mary Ann
Rishel, John Rosenthal, Stan Seltzer, Bruce Smith, Jennifer Strickland, Robert
Sullivan, John Wolohan
Absent: Carole Dennis, Sabatino Maglione
Guests: Garry Brodhead, Deb Mohlenhoff, Bill Scoones, Tanya Saunders
1. Welcome and Announcements
Stan Seltzer, Chair, opened the meeting at 7:30 p.m. He announced that Faculty
Council will be naming one member to the Budget Committee. He intends to have the
item on the October agenda.
Another item to be dealt with early in the coming year is governance representation
for unaffiliated faculty. Stan will meet with John Krout and the Gerontology faculty
on Wednesday and invited any interested representatives to join the conversation.
He noted that further consideration will be given to the recommendations of the
Grading Policies Study Committee.
The Longview Lecture Series, a project of Faculty Council, is in urgent need of
volunteer speakers. Representatives are urged to encourage colleagues who are doing
interesting things to participate in the series. Presentations are informal and may be on
any topic. Contact Chris Pogorzala, 4-1051, porgozal@ithaca.edu.
Sasaki and Associates, consultants for campus planning, will be on campus on
September 18 and 19. Attendance by all at the open session is strongly urged. The
presentation may help members of the community to see the campus in new ways, and
the recommendations that result from their study will impact the way the campus
looks in the future. J. Rosenthal noted that the timing of the visit is unfortunate, since
it conflicts with religious observation of some members of the community.
Hal Emery is unable to serve on APC so Council needs to elect a new representative
as well as a parliamentarian.
The recent death of Jean Spitzer was noted. J.Rosenthal spoke of her contributions to
the College. A memorial service, yet to be scheduled, will be held in the Ithaca area in
the near future.
2. Report from Deb Mohlenhoff (Community Service Coordinator)
Deb Mohlenhoff spoke about her mission in the newly-created position of
Coordinator of Community Service and Leadership Development. She solicited
volunteers to serve on the Ithaca College Community Service Committee, a
description of which was handed out. Primary focus will be the delineation of the
Celebration of Service. Other collaborative efforts for service will be explored. Biweekly meetings will commence at the end of September. Interested people should email her at dmohlen@ith.edu . In order to get the word out on volunteer opportunities,
she has created a weekly e-newsletter, Stick Your Neck Out. She passed out
subscription slips for those who would like to receive these e-mail notices.
3. Report on Periodic Review Program
Tanya Saunders updated the group on the interim status of the self study program to
be completed in 2002
In its reaccreditation report, Middle States suggested that the faculty handbook be
revised to be a state-of-the-art document. The report also expressed concern regarding
curricular distinctiveness and shared academic vision and suggested that a "common
intellectual experience" for all of our students would distinguish Ithaca College
graduates from graduates of other institutions. Is it possible to have a common core
curriculum for all students? If not, what academic vision do we share? Regarding
governance, a suggestion was made that we need a system that encourages dialogue
both within schools and across schools.
In response to a query by J. Rosenthal, Tanya stated that she hopes to have a draft
ready by the beginning of the spring semester, so that it can be reviewed by all before
submission to the Board of Trustees in February or in May. She noted that we do not
have to implement all Middle Statesí recommendations, but we do have to
demonstrate that we have considered those recommendations.
4. Approval of Minutes of May1, 2001
H. Emery moved to accept the minutes of the May meeting. M. Garland seconded the
motion. With no objection, the minutes of May 1, 2001 were approved as submitted.
5. Approval of Faculty Justices
A motion to approve appointment of the list candidates for Faculty Justice positions
provided by Camille Scharf (Attachment 01-09-A) was made by W. Mauser and
seconded by R. Rainville. Misspelling of a name was corrected, from Anton Poglisi to
Anthony Puglisi. D. Lifton proposed a friendly amendment to make approval
contingent on clarification of policy regarding whether Faculty Justices must be
tenured or tenure-eligible or full-time.
MOTION: Approve appointment of proposed candidates for Faculty
Justices, subject to verification of eligibility.
The motion was approved.
6. Elections
Election of Representative to APC.
Lee Bailey was nominated to represent Faculty Council on the APC by R. Rainville,
seconded by J. Rosenthal. With no further nominations, Lee was elected by voice
vote.
Election of Parliamentarian
Hal Emery was nominated by R. Rainville, seconded by J. Aguiar, to continue serving
as Faculty Council Parliamentarian. With no further nominations, a voice vote
provided approval of the appointment.
7. Provostís Report
Acting Provost Bill Scoones noted that members of the Faculty are invited to attend a
wine and cheese reception, sponsored by the Office of the Provost, at the Tower Club
on Friday, September 21, at 4:30 p.m. One purpose is to provoke dialogue, so those
attending should make an effort to meet faculty from other units and generate
discussion.
Faculty members are encouraged to make use of the Center for Faculty Research and
Development and utilize the grants for reduced time.
Scoones discussed the importance of approving the changes to the Faculty Handbook
There is a new Sports Studies Department, formerly part of ESS. It is composed of
four faculty members serving over 200 majors.
Fifteen different interdisciplinary initiatives are currently at various stages of approval
at the College, including the Gerontology Institute, the Center for Teacher Education,
programs such as Jewish Studies Program, and five new programs under the CRE
(culture, race, and ethnicity) rubric. He has asked APC to come up as quickly as
possible with a policy and a process for reviewing interdisciplinary programs.
Scoones said that he and Garry Brodhead are meeting frequently regarding the
workload project. They are trying to determine how faculty can deliver the same
number of credit hours by doing a variety of things differently within an academic
department. He is trying to get a handle on what different faculty do beyond the
classroom. The goal is to take something to the Budget Committee to enable reduced
workloads.
He noted that the model for proposed development of the campus does not show an
addition to the Library, counter to the recommendation of the Library Commission of
1999-2000, which he chaired. Currently, the Library is at 70 per cent of capacity, but
by three to five years, more space will be needed. He will be arguing for hiring of a
consultant and for the creation of another commission to support the needs of the
Library for the next 10-15 years.
He urged Council to find a way to include the unaffiliated members of the community
in the governance process.
He assured the group that efforts are being made, including hiring of a consultant on
Admissions, to avoid the kind of problems created by the high enrollment here (as at
many other top schools) this year. Higher SAT scores and class rank of the new class
place Ithaca College solidly in the second tier of colleges.
W. Mauser raised a question regarding dual faculty appointments. He said that he will
look into the matter.
There was discussion about the determination and constitution of credit hours.
Garry Brodhead announced that the Planning Guidelines document was approved
during the summer. The Deans met and put together a comprehensive seven-year
schedule that will have all the academic departments on campus being reviewed. Two
weeks ago an all-day workshop was held for Chairs and Deans to begin work on these
issues. Administrative support is strong, but the key will be for the individual
departments to work on this. The goal is that the standard teaching load would be 21
hours and -- for departments where everybody in the department can make a
commitment to serious research (i.e. annual publication, presentation at refereed
conferences, etc.) -- a teaching load of 18 hours. It will take departments willing to
look at these issues and there will have to be trade-offs. Varied opinions were
expressed about moving to 4 credit courses.
8. Discussion: Okay to Allow the Provost to be Tenured?
Many representatives raised questions around this issue. J. Rosenthal addressed the
history of the lack of tenure for the Ithaca College Provost; it was partly a
consequence of the tenure cap. With the removal of tenure cap, some of the concerns
go away. Another concern is how exercising the right might affect someone else in the
pipeline. Protections need to be built in. Tenure for a provost may raise questions
about tenure for Deans and Associate Deans, who may be more likely to revert to
teaching if they leave the administrative post. Protections need to be built in.
C. Gordon spoke to the importance of tenure as a feature to attract excellent
candidates. Her experience at other schools has not seen any harm.
resulting from tenure being granted to provosts and deans. She knows of people who
would not consider moving to an institution that did not grant tenure, because they
would be giving up tenure in their present situation.
J. Aguiar stated that tenure is supposed to be a faculty decision ó he asked where does
the faculty step into the process? What if the department disagrees with the
qualifications of the person moving from administration back to teaching?
S. Seltzer said he thought that these things ó pipeline issues, protection for
departments , qualifications/approval process ó need to be and can be part of any
policy we might approve that would allow tenure for the provost.
W. Mauser inquired about the importance of granting tenure from a marketing
standpoint. S. Seltzer said it was the first question asked by Ted Lewis, and heís still
raising it. B. Scoones noted that every consultant the President Williams interviewed
also asked about this.
B. Scoones indicated that Marty Turnbull is gathering information about this issue -whether or not administrators may have tenure -- from other institutions. S. Seltzer
said that Nancy Pringleís office is also researching specific policies at other
institutions.
S. Seltzer asked whether, with certain reservations, the group feels it is a good idea. J.
Aguiar suggested that we protect, as clearly as possible, any of the faculty in a
department. It should be possible to come up with wording that would offer our
support as long as it doesnít displace or put any other faculty members at disadvantage
in terms of their own tenure. B. Scoones suggested that the line should not come from
the department, and that the salary should come from a different pool .J. Rosenthal
suggested that another protection to build in is the protection of the department. He
suggested a six-month waiting period to achieve tenure, based on departmental
consideration.
W. Mauser felt that tenure should be granted up front or not at all.
B. Sullivan suggested we wait for the results of the research currently underway.
9. Old Business
A. Faculty Handbook
S. Seltzer stated that this item must be resolved. If necessary, he will schedule extra
meetings dedicated to the Handbook. He will do everything possible to inform the
group of issues ahead of time so that meeting time can be utilized effectively and
Council can reach decisions.
B. Grading Policies Study Committee Recommendations
L. Bailey distributed and summarized a two-page summary of the Faculty Council
Grading Policies Report. Their recommendation for action is to hold campus-wide
discussion of the problem of grade inflation. The four recommendations are:
1. Stop misusing student evaluations.
2. Drop the A+.
3. Change the Pass/Fail System.
4. Index Transcripts.
W. Mauser requested that the summary be distributed to all faculty in order to spark
discussion. The committee in still in place. Comments should be directed to Lee.
10. New Business
S. Seltzer inquired whether the group would consider changing Faculty Council
meeting times. B. Smith made the motion, which was seconded by several of the
assembed.
MOTION: Faculty Council will henceforth meet from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00
p.m.
The motion was approved.
Th meeting was adjourned at 9:30 p.m.