Clerk’s Committee Meeting Minutes, December 9, 2015

by Dave Dobsonin Clerk's Committeeon Posted on

Clerk’s Committee Meeting  Minutes

December 9, 2015

 Attending: Dave Dobson (Clerk), Steve Shapiro (Natural Sciences and Math), Kathryn Shields (Arts),  Alex Ricks (SGA Representative), Beth Rushing (VP and Academic Dean), Sarah Estow (Social Sciences), Gwen Erickson (Recording Clerk), Lisa McLeod (Humanities, recorded minutes for this meeting)

Regrets: Bill Grubbs (Business, Policy, and Sport Studies), Sadie Hunter (Student Senate Representative)

  1. The Committee gathered in silence at 10:15 a.m., and approved the minutes of November 29, 2015
  1. Follow up discussion: Review of SACS handbook changes

Beth directed us to the changes she made for consistency, and to reflect current practice.  Notable issues include:

  • Faculty review criteria: Beth cannot find the Board approval of new criteria for teaching, advising, and service. We remember as faculty approving these; we need to find the date that the Board approved these changes.
  • Copyright – Beth would like to make more general revisions to update our copyright policy; in the meantime, to make the policy consistent across faculty and staff handbooks, Beth will Rick to harmonize the Staff Handbook with the faculty statement.
  • Beth points out that the Faculty Handbook needs general restructuring to make it easier to keep updated.
  • Convocations and Celebrations will remain as it is through the SACSCOC review.
  • Department chair excusal from committee service has been found in the Workload Section (Appendix H).

Beth will communicate all the edits she has made by the end of December 10;  Dave will make a precis of the changes, distinguishing the more substantive changes from the editorial ones, and send it out to Clerk’s.  Upon approval of Clerk’s Committee, Dave will communicate it to faculty via email, with the same notes regarding more substantive changes.

  1. For approval: Revised Appendix G (from Curriculum Committee)

The Committee agreed that Appendix G as edited reflects the current practice, and we approved it for inclusion in the Handbook.  Dave will send it to faculty via email, asking that serious concerns be directed to Clerk’s and Edwins Gwako, Chair of Curriculum.

Dave will check the online folder of Trustees’ minutes to search for the approval of the changes to faculty review Criteria that were added to the Handbook between 2011 and the present.

  1. Review of faculty meeting Wednesday Dec. 2

Review of Beth’s quick presentation of student demands; review of Dave and Rob’s idea of re-doing the entire Committee Structure.

The Committee discussed representation on faculty committees… and the burden on our colleagues of color.  Whether we can prioritize one over the other.  The Committee agreed that the process has been non-ideal, but that at this point some action is better than no action at all; among other considerations, the affected committees cannot continue this work until their membership is stabilized.

Dave will talk to colleagues to see whether they are willing to serve.

  1. Request has been made that we change handbook to relax divisional representation and encourage diversity on committees.

This item was briefly discussed and we agreed that this is an important conversation that must take place over time.

The meeting closed in silence at 12:17

Submitted by: Lisa J. McLeod