Clerk’s Committee Minutes
March 16, 2017
2:30 – 4 pm
Attending: Dave Dobson (Clerk), Gwen Erickson, Sherry Giles (took minutes), Eva Lawrence, Alfonso Abad Mancheño, Kathryn Shields, Don Smith, and Beth Rushing, with Kyle Dell joining during the discussion of the proposed new general education curriculum.
The meeting began in silence, followed by approval of the minutes from the March 16th meeting.
Academic Dean, Beth Rushing, proposed that the college replace the faculty workload report with a Google form asking each faculty member to report their accomplishments in teaching, advising, scholarly growth, and community service, along with her or his goals for the coming year. A member of Clerk’s noted that the faculty handbook says that there needs to be a workload report each year, and raised the question of whether the language in the handbook would need to be changed. We discussed this question, and concluded that the new form would count as a workload report, so the language in the faculty handbook can remain as it is. Clerk’s discussed and approved the proposal. Beth will draft a report form for Clerk’s committee to review before presenting it at a faculty meeting.
Advancement has requested to have specific faculty members on search committees for their department. Clerk’s decided that Advancement could directly approach faculty members they would like to invite to serve on search committees.
Kyle Dell, Chair of LAGER, joined Clerk’s meeting for a discussion about the faculty gathering on Wednesday, March 15th, focused on the proposed new general education curriculum. We reviewed the feedback that faculty shared at the meeting, and discussed ideas for moving toward approval of a curriculum over the next few weeks. We agreed that Dave will write a document with the Clerk’s Committee’s perspective and suggestions for a way to move forward. Members of Clerk’s committee will review and edit the document, which then will be discussed at the April 5th faculty meeting.
Clerk’s spent the last few minutes of the meeting discussing ways to create a more welcoming environment at the college for transgender students. Members who attended the president’s meeting to share findings from the investigation into the sexual assault of a transgender student of color, offered a summary of the meeting. Clerk’s agreed to continue the discussion about support for transgender students at our next meeting.