Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards
College of Humanities and Fine Arts
Spring 2015 General Faculty Meeting
January 8, 2015
Call to Order - Dr. Ennis thanked the faculty for a wonderful fall semester. We had to manage a
significant number of students that we did not expect until very late in the summer. The Dean thanked
everyone for responding so masterfully and for putting forth the extra effort to accommodate the large
enrollment.
New Faculty and Positions – Holley Tankersley introduced Joseph Fitsanakis. Dr. Fitsanakis joins the
Department of Politics and Geography as an Assistant Professor in Political Science. James Everett
welcomed Dr. Andrea Bergstrom as a Lecturer in Communication in the Department of Communication,
Languages, and Cultures. Jim also welcomed two teaching associates that joined the department in the
fall, Anastasiya Shchebet in German and Carrie Flickinger in Communication.
Dan indicated he is focusing on the need for more graduate programs in COHFA. The Master of Arts in
Liberal Studies under the direction of Donald Sloan is a new graduate program that began with the fall
semester. The Dean felt there was a need for assistance in initiating new programs in the various
departments and providing administrative support. Brian Nance will assume the new position of Director
of Graduate Study for the college. Amanda Brian will replace Brian as the Chair of the Department of
History.
John Beard - Dr. Beard thanked the faculty for their assistance in moving up the timeline for the
assessment reports due to the forthcoming accreditation visit. All the reports were completed and posted
by the first week of October. This allowed time for the committee to review and evaluate, to package
Teal Online, and to send it off to the offsite reviewers. The deadlines were met in December. Once the
reports were posted and reviewed, the University-wide Assessment Committee for Student Learning, in
addition to giving feedback to each program, is charged with making the selections for assessment
recognition/awards. There are approximately 55/56 different departments/programs listed on the
academic side of Teal Online. In order to select four/five reports for an award, twelve were selected for a
second look. Of those, three were from COHFA. They were the Department of Visual Arts, the
Department of Philosophy, and the Department of Theatre (BA degree in theatre). The awards will be
announced at the University Faculty meeting to be held this date in the afternoon.
Approval of Minutes - A motion was made by to approve the August 14, 2014 minutes by James Everett
and seconded by Fred Wood. The motion passed unanimously.
Third Year Review Revisions – Dan informed the faculty that there are no changes to the process, but
there are clarifications to the document. The first change is an addition of a bullet point under Purposes
of the Third Year Review section that points out one of the purposes of third year review is to provide the
Chair and Dean additional information on the progress of probationary faculty. This addition has been
vetted by the department Chairs and also was informally shared with the COHFA faculty senators. It has
been the case that as third year reviews have come back to the Chairs, they have used that information to
make decisions about promotion and tenure. Therefore, the Dean would like that to be recognized as a
formal purpose of third year review. Pam Martin moved for approval of the change, seconded by Don
Sloan, and the motion passed.
The second change is the Note on “Credit Toward Tenure.” The scenario is if a faculty member who has
full-time, tenure-track service at another institution and is hired by Coastal. This gives the new hire an
opportunity to negotiate with the Dean for service towards tenure. Two years towards tenure is the
maximum limit set by the Provost. However, the awarding of two years leads to a conundrum. When we
look at the timeline for the third-year review, is it their third year on the Coastal campus? Or, is it their
third year in effect of the probationary period? For someone who has two years of credit towards tenure,
the review falls during their first year at CCU. The Dean explained that if someone advances to a third
year review, he wants them to have sufficient time to get feedback from the review before applying for
tenure. One of the difficulties is what do we do with someone who was given two years toward tenure
and then must prepare a third-year review file after basically one semester on campus? We end up reevaluating a file based on what they were hired on and very little data about what they have accomplished
at Coastal. Working with the Chairs, the Dean proposed that when a faculty member is given two years of
credit for work at another institution, the third year review is delayed until one full year is completed at
Coastal. The basic principle he wants to establish is that a faculty member must have one full year of
service at Coastal to trigger a third year review. Preston McKever-Floyd moved to approve the change,
seconded by John Smith. It was suggested that the faculty member clearly indicate in their file that the
work they have done at a previous institution is being counted toward the review period. Dan indicated
that, if approved, this will be effective with new hires beginning fall 2015. The motion passed
unanimously.
Edwards College Bylaws Committee – Dan explained that the document distributed to faculty earlier in
the week was a proposal from a group of faculty to create a Bylaws Committee. He endorses the
establishment of this committee. The motion as stated reads:
COHFA faculty members would like to make a motion to create a college committee
of elected faculty to create, compile, and revise bylaws, including policies and
procedures, for the Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts. We recommend
that this committee be made up of one tenured or tenure-track faculty member elected
by each COHFA Department, one member elected from COHFA contingent faculty,
and one member of the Dean’s Office to serve ex officio. The elected faculty member
from each COHFA Department and the COHFA associated faculty member will
serve a two-year term on the COHFA Bylaws Committee. Once the COHFA bylaws
are created, the COHFA Bylaws Committee will continue to meet on a regular basis
to consider and make recommendations for any changes to the bylaws. Any revisions
will be voted on by the COHFA faculty at large.
The Dean asked for each department to determine representation (tenure/tenure-track) on the committee
in their meetings. The Dean’s Office will run the associated faculty election. The other colleges have
either handbooks or bylaws. Our policies have accumulated on our webpage, but they have not been
collated, indexed, or more formalized in a single document.
It was recommended that the committee members have staggered terms so that not everyone rotates off at
the same time. It was suggested that the Dean’s Office assign to each department a one/two/three year
term. A motion was made by Richard Johnson to approve the creation of a COHFA Bylaws Committee
and seconded by Deb Breede. Renee Smith added that she is chairing an ad hoc faculty manual review
committee and the members are charged with putting forward a recommendation to create a standing
faculty manual committee for the University. It is being discussed that there be representation from each
of the college bylaws or handbook committees. Since they need to be consistent with and reflect the
Faculty Manual, it would be good to have that kind of centralized connection to the standing committee.
It was clarified that the Bylaws Committee would be charged to compile the COHFA policies into a
single handbook. In doing so, the committee would move into identifying areas where policy needs to be
formulated with faculty approval. The faculty unanimously approved the motion.
College Planning Committee – The Deans and Chairs have been meeting to discuss large scale issues, to
talk about the future of the college in a more general way, and sometimes to talk about existential crises.
The code name for the strategic planning sessions is “Leather and Tweed.” After approximately 18
months of conversation, the sessions generated some ideas and principles that they thought were universal
to the college. The Dean would like to take these ideas and conversations from Leather and Tweed and
form a Planning Committee to help the college move forward and translate them into action (policy,
space, programs, resource decision making and allocations, etc.). The Dean invited each department to
elect a representative to the Planning Committee and take some of the work that has been done at the
Chair level and format it in terms of a document that can be shared, adopted by the College, and be used
as a road map for the next four years. It should cover the things that the faculty think the College should
do procedurally, operationally, academically, intellectually, and artistically. Dan indicated he would like
a fairly simple expression from each department that talks about major points of excellence that need to
be promoted, internally and externally, a list of the programs that are realistic for the next four years,
significant challenges facing each department, information to promote a public profile, hiring plans with
justification beyond just the next hire, and some quantitative targets, this would include retention and
recruitment. The Dean’s approach is a combined group with one representative from each department at
the faculty level, a COHFA contingent faculty representative, and some of the Chairs will be brought into
the group for input. Holley Tankersley has agreed to Chair the committee. He asked that the group begin
with the skeleton and return to the Chairs, to the Senators, and eventually to the faculty with a plan that is
worthy of endorsement. A motion to create a Planning Committee to continue the work started by the
Chairs and Deans in informal conversation was made by Pam Martin, seconded by Renee Smith, and
passed unanimously.
Endowment Campaign - Forms and envelopes were distributed to the faculty members present. Dan
explained that one of the factors that matters in capital and endowment campaigns is percentage of faculty
giving. Currently 6.8% of COHFA faculty and staff donate to the University. It is low within Coastal
and also relative to other universities. Dan explained that he needs to increase the 6.8% of COHFA
faculty donating to the campaign. At this time, Dan asked that each member write their name on the form
and include a $1.00 (he so generously provided) in the envelope. He also asked that faculty consider
contributing a donation from their paycheck each week. The Dean reminded the faculty that when they
are attending a conference that requires an organizational membership, they can make a donation through
Rose Pleasant for the exact amount of the membership fee. Rose can then turnaround and pay for the
membership through a 14 account. Faculty can also pay their AAUP dues in this way. While this does
not increase the bottom line, it does increase the percentage of giving.
Other Announcements
Study Abroad – Eliza Glaze announced that the deadline for completed proposals (with all participating
faculty having signed off) is Monday, February 16. The form can be found on the International Programs
website. It includes additional signatory lines for department Chairs of all the participating faculty and
the Deans, if multiple colleges are involved. Geoff Parsons has some proposal writing workshops on
CeTeal Online starting January 22. The deadline for everything to be in OIP is March 6. Dan
acknowledged Eliza and her work with Study Abroad. Since she has agreed to coordinate Study Abroad,
this year’s short-term Study Abroad enrollment is double of last year. We can now start being more
ambitious about Study Abroad and the credit goes to Eliza and her organizational commitment and
energy.
Syllabus Reminder – Dan reminded the faculty that a syllabus should have a course description that is
identical to the course description in the University catalog. Below the course description, faculty are
encouraged to elaborate, clarify, refine, etc. The Dean also reiterated the need to have the final exam
noted on the syllabus. He urged the faculty to inform their students on the first day of class to point out
that there is a final exam, and to tell them the date and time of the exam.
Artwork – A faculty member commented on the framed posters being hung in Edwards in the stairwell
leading to the second floor. They are copies of the book covers of COHFA authors we recognize each
year. Jim Arendt has done a great job working with our students on this project. It was also noted that
the artwork on the outside storage building near the parking lot is terrific. Dan commended Arne Flaten
and his crew, in particular Cat Taylor and his students.
Master of Arts in Liberal Studies – We have 12 students starting this fall in the program. Don Sloan
asked faculty to keep in mind if they are advising students that are thinking of graduate school, and are
unclear as to what direction to take, to please refer them to him.
Submitted by: Judy Davis