October 2, 2015 H&S Senate minutes
Present: Wendy Dann, Hugh Egan, Claire Gleitman, Enrique Gonzalez-Conty, Matt Klemm, Brendan
Murday, Rebecca Plante, Matt Price, Sharon Stansfield, Jennifer Tennant, David Turkon, Aaron
Weinberg.
Absent: Jennifer Jolly, Peyi Soyinka-Airewele, Carla Stetson (sabbatical).
Guests: Jeane Copenhaver-Johnson (Interim Associate Dean).
Meeting started at 4:04 pm
1.
Minutes from the Sept 11 meeting: Motion to approve the minutes. Motion approved, 10-0-0.
2.
Format for H&S elections ballots: Motion to adopt a new format for elections balloting: For all
H&S elections, ballots will adopt approval voting, with an option to request that Senate solicit
more nominees. To be elected to a vacant seat, a candidate needs at a minimum more votes
than the number of ballots selecting the option to request more nominees. [Specific details
contained in the document “Elections ballot formatting”, posted on the Senate Sakai site.]
Motion approved, 12-0-0.
3.
Elections subcommittee: Matt Klemm will join Sharon Stansfield as a member of the
committee.
4.
Topic for the all-school faculty meeting: Some possible topics: (1) Provost’s new Search
Guidelines. But perhaps a discussion of the new policies should wait until after the hiring cycle,
when we could better assess concerns about the requirement to include an external member on
the committee. (2) Discussion of the “Blue Sky” meeting scheduled for October 8th. Neither
topic is an obvious choice. Senators should email Claire Gleitman in the week of Oct 5-9 with
thoughts about a topic; if no topic seems sufficiently compelling, perhaps we will forego a
meeting this semester.
5.
Report from the Senate subcommitee considering best practices surrounding part-time faculty:
The subcommittee (members: Rebecca Plante and Dave Turkon) are beginning work on a survey
to compile current practices across H&S departments; they hope to get a sense of the range of
current practices, and an understanding of the challenges different departments face. If a draft
version of the survey is complete in time, Senate will consider it at our next meeting.
6.
H&S Assessment Committee: The Provost has charged H&S with creating a school-level
assessment committee to provide formative feedback on annual major and minor program
assessment reports. After discussion of faculty concerns, a motion to recommend that the Dean
create an ad hoc H&S Assessment Committee chaired by the H&S Assessment Coordinator, and
populated by 4 members (one from each of the disciplinary groupings) to be solicited from the
departments’ assessment coordinators. The Committee’s work will be completed during the
Spring 2016 semester, and at that time the Dean (with input from Senate) should consider
whether a permanent standing committee should be formed along the same lines, or whether a
different model (perhaps assigning this committee’s responsibilities to the H&S Curriculum
Committee) should be pursued instead. Motion approved, 13-0-0.
7.
New Faculty Search Committee Procedures: The Provost considers the current version a final
document. There were adjustments made to point 2 (mandating inclusion of a member outside
the department) to include a rationale, as Senate requested. Senators continue to hope to hear
(a) that the Provost will assess the effective of the policy changes at the end of the hiring cycle,
and (b) how the changes would be assessed. Our liaison to Faculty Council (Dave) will carry
those thoughts to Council.
8.
Anonymity on student statements: Last year’s SGA approached APC-Policy requesting greater
anonymity for student statements; specifically a desire that the faculty member shouldn’t see
handwritten statements for his/her own classes (at least on classes under a certain size).
Senators worries about logistical problems: e.g., the increased workload on administrative
assistants that would result; there is also a worry that administrative assistants could be doing
other tasks that would have a greater impact on the student experience. An additional concern:
this question might be moot if the Provost plans to require the College to move to online
statements. We will convey these thoughts to the H&S representative on APC-Policy (Dara
Engler).
9.
Department practices regarding tenure and promotion deliberations: The Dean has charged us
with compiling a list of best practices to distribute to departments (though not with the
intention of reviewing department policies to recommend the Dean’s approval). Senate would
craft a list, which the Dean would approve and then distribute to departments. Motion to
create a subcommittee to articulate a set of best practices around department tenure and
promotion deliberations. Motion approved, 12-0-0. Claire, Jennifer Jolly, and Matt Klemm will
serve on this subcommittee.
10.
All-college “Blue Sky” meeting: Thursday 10/8, 3-5pm. We’ll ask Claire remind us to try to
attend. The announcement says a report on th e discussions at this meeting will be delivered to
the campus community in spring 2016.
Motion to adjourn, 5:44 pm. Motion approved, 12-0-0.
Brendan Murday, Secretary