December 4, 2015 H&S Senate minutes
Present: Claire Gleitman, Sharon Stansfeld, Hugh Egan, Jennifer Jolly, Wendy Dann, Aaron Weinberg, Jen
Tennant, Matt Price, Rebecca Plante, Enrique Gonzalez-Conty, Peyi Soyinka-Airewele, Dave Turkon, Matt
Klemm
Absent: Brendan Murday, Carla Stetson (sabbatical)
Guest: Dean Mike Richardson
Meeting started at 4:05pm
1) Minutes approved – 8 yes, 2 abstentions
2) Announcements and updates
a. Dean’s search – discussion of first two candidates and general procedures
b. Faculty Council
i. APC-Policy has been endorsed by FC to not hold major-requirements between
4-6pm because of practices.
ii. Board of Trustees charged Provost to constitute shared governance structures
by May. Two representatives from each constituency – faculty, staff, and
students. Call for self-nomination. Board of trustees should be included in
faculty governance.
iii. Provost wants to move student evaluations online. Not to control the content,
but the way in which it is administered.
iv. ITS is putting together a steering and advising committee and needs two
representatives. And Council suggested that there should be one member from
each school, as they have different needs.
c. Flexible Faculty Workload chairs’ survey results – for the great majority of departments,
it is going quite well. Concerns about NTENs and untenured TE faculty being unable to
take advantage of the policy, and where do independent studies fit?
d. Provost Rifkin will attend the first hour of the first Senate meeting in the spring.
3) Old business: tenure and promotion guidelines and best practices revisions. Discussions about
the personnel committee’s summaries of quantitative and qualitative student statements.
Departments and committees need to be able to provide context within the guidelines of the
Faculty Handbook. Summaries set the narrative. This set of best practices is about process
instead of what is actually in the file. The committee will edit and then Senate will review and
vote in the February meeting
4) New business – next steps after the NC vote
a. Ask Peter Rothbart to share FC’s document about Shared Governance – different
models. Three sketches. What was the resolution? Passed September 1, 2014 and
submitted to the President.
b. Senate should take the lead on compiling a list of concrete changes we would like to see
put into place, and/or process by which faculty and students might have a stronger
voice in decision-making and governance for the College. Very early in the spring
semester, we may host an H&S forum. Encourage other schools to do the same thing.
c. Have questions about the charge and the constituency of the committee. Ability to
conduct thoughtful work in the timeframe? Not confident that shared governance can
be properly overhauled and improved with 2-2-2 makeup in the short timeframe
proposed.
Adjourned: 6:00pm