Minutes for H&S Faculty Senate Meeting, Friday April 25th, 2014
Present: Paula Murray Cole, Brendan Murday, Jennifer Jolly, Hugh Egan, Dara Engler, Claire
Gleitman, Peter Melcher, Sharon Stansfield, Carla Stetson, Kelley Sullivan, Jennifer Tennant,
David Turkon, Michael Trotti and Aaron Weinberg.
Absent: Peyi Soyinka-Airewele
Guest: Dean Leslie Lewis
Meeting started at 4:05 pm
1) March 21st 2014 minutes approved (11 approve, 1 abstention).
2) Announcements and updates:
A) FHAC work on post-tenure review: update from Executive Committee was given.
The executive committee members, Claire Gleitman, Hugh Egan, Michael Trotti,
Brendan Murday, and Peter Melcher were all present at the meeting with Rebecca
Plante to discuss work being done on the faculty handbook that is specifically
related to post-tenure review. The FHAC is making progress in providing more
clarity to the post-tenure review process.
B) Elections: update from Brendan Murday: Vacant positions: a 1-year position for a
humanities faculty member to serve on the H&S General Education Committee;
a 3-year Natural Sciences representative and a 1-year Social Sciences on H&S
Faculty Senate; four 2-year positions on Faculty Council.
C) Invitation from the Dean to attend a recognition part for Senators and Department
Chairs. Friday May 16th. starting at 430 pm.
3) Senate Elections: Needed: Senate President; members of the Executive Committee (vice
president, secretary, 2 at-large members); representative to council; and a
parliamentarian. New President is Brendan Murday, Vice President Jenifer Jolly,
Secretary Jen Tennant, Two At Large Executive Committee members will be Kelley
Sullivan and Carla Stetson, the Senate representative to serve as to Faculty Council is
Paula Murray Cole and Carla Stetson will continue to serve as the Senate
parliamentarian - Congratulations to all.
4) Report from Scholarship Statement Subcommittee: Recommends that we forward to the
Dean with the Senate’s endorsement: Education, ENVS, and Writing Department
Scholarship policy statements.
A) Education Department scholarship statement; motion to approve to recommend to
the dean (approved unanimous)
B) Environmental Studies Department scholarship statement; motion to approve to
recommend to the dean (approved unanimous)
C) Writing Department scholarship statement; motion to approve to recommend to
the dean if the bullet point “Works-in-progress evaluated or funded by internal or
external professional bodies” is removed, if not removed, then this line needs
clarification and that clarification would need to be brought to the executive
committee for review, and then brought to the Senate for approval (the amended
suggestions were approved - unanimous).
D) The scholarship subcommittee will be composed of new members starting in the
Fall of 2014. Hugh will serve as Chair in the fall and Claire will serve as Chair in
the spring, with an additional full professor in NS or FA to be determined, and an
additional associate prof on Senate in either NS or FA to be determined after
that).
5) Old Business:
A) Student Statement guidelines: Discuss revisions; Motion to accept the front part
of the form was approved (unanimous) - note with adding a period and the word
percentage in number 5 A.
B) Vote on page 2 – on proctoring. The vote is to decide on to include # 1 or # 2, see
below:
1)
Students should be left in the company of a designated proctor wherever
possible. The presence of a proctor will keep students on track and prevent
their talking to one another as they fill out their statements, which can
influence their responses. Proctors can be other faculty members, admins,
TAs or student office assistants. They should not be students in the class.
2)
Students should be left in the company of a designated proctor. The
presence of a proctor will keep students on track and prevent their talking to
one another as they fill out their statements, which can influence their
responses. Proctors can be other faculty members, admins, TAs, student
office assistants, or a reliable student in the class.
Motion to approve number 2, if we add in the language “The role of the
proctor is to keep students on track” (12 approve, 1 not approve).
Note – It was suggested that this topic should be included in the new faculty
forum so that new faculty get briefed on the importance of the student
statement process.
C) Full Professor Scholarship statements: Form next year’s subcommittee. The
committee should consist of 3 tenured members, with at least two Full Professors,
and the committee should have at least one member from Senate (the other
committee members could be faculty that are not Senators). The committee
should also have at least one member from Fine Arts and one from the Natural
Sciences. The committee is charged to review the Full Professor Scholarship
Statements for each department in order to have them approved by Senate to
recommend them to the Dean. See “Memos and Reports Policy Review” part of
the Senate Documents under responsibility, review of Scholarship Statements.
6) New Business:
A) Peer Review subcommittee: Update from Peter and Dara. the subcommittee
recommends that we forward to the Dean with the Senate’s endorsement the Art
Departments Policy of Peer Review of Teaching: The changes include amending
the last sentence to the first paragraph on page 3. Delete prior to inclusion part.
Also changes to the NTEN Faculty bullet – it is recommended that they delete the
first sentence to mirror something more similar to what is stated for other
probationer faculty, based on NTEN term appointment. Also, to re-number the
peer-evaluation form. Motion to approve to recommend to the Dean with these
minor editorial changes made to the document (unanimous).
Jennifer Jolly and another new Senate member will replace Peter and Dara and
serve as the new members of the Peer Evaluation Sub Committee. The
subcommittee has completed assessment of 18 departments and has had Senate
approve 9 departments. Peter and Dara will review the History Department
before the end of the Semester and Peter will meet with Jennifer after the first
Senate meeting next semester to ensure a smooth transition.
B) Creativity Center: Responses, thoughts from Senate: Senate members are
encouraged to attend the meeting to discuss the new building to voice H&S space
issues.
7) Meeting adjourned at 5:50 pm.