FACULTY MEETING
OCTOBER 6, 2000
GANNETT AUDITORIUM
MINUTES
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The minutes of the September 8, 2000 faculty meeting were approved as written.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
President Studley welcomed the faculty to the October meeting and commented that the very recent Steloff and Fiscus lectures created wonderful evenings and reflected well on Skidmore.
President Studley announced that the College is embarking on a comprehensive strategic planning effort this fall. Strategic planning offers Skidmore the opportunity and responsibility to shape the College’s future and is the most important initiative the College will undertake this year. There will be three stages to this planning: listening; summarizing and focusing. Very soon President Studley will send information to constituents by e-mail about the listening phase that will take place during the months of October and November of this year. The objective for the fall is to creative a community conversation to share perspectives on Skidmore’s goals, values and directions. The Institutional Planning Committee (IPC) is shaping the process and has designated a subcommittee to take the lead on this first stage of organizing and turning the community out to participate. The members of the subcommittee are Pat Fehling, Kate Leavitt, Margaretta Walton ’01 and Michael Casey.
Professor Kate Leavitt, speaking for the IPC subcommittee, said that in the next two weeks a series of community events to share perspectives on Skidmore’s goals, values and directions will take place. The events will include "planning walls" located in four central locations on campus, roundtables, and surveys. There will also be an interactive web site. The target audiences for the activities include the broader Skidmore community as well as the extended community including friends, foundations, and high school guidance counselors. The next subcommittee charge will be to distill this information and report its findings in January 2001. The staff that will help execute these events include Jim Gette, Ann Henderson, Joe Stankovich, Bob Kimmerle, Andy Camp, and Barbara Beck
President Studley said that the next step of strategic planning will take place in the spring. IPC will take all the ideas, major themes and suggestions gathered during the fall, bring focus to them, and create a list of prioritized goals.
DEAN OF THE FACULTY’S REPORT
Dean Berman informed the faculty that the Middle States periodic review report will be due soon. Sue Bender is coordinating the effort to prepare the report and has convened a group to help her. The final report is due June 1, 2001, but the plan is to have a draft available for the community to review in February.
The Information Resources Council (IRC) is working on dovetailing an information resource plan into the overall planning process. The Library and CITS are major players but so are professors, students, staff and the greater Skidmore community. People will be contacted about their views on current and future uses of technology. IRC is also discussing doing a computer inventory this fall.
Dean Berman announced that the reception immediately following the meeting would be held in the faculty staff club and invited the faculty and staff to attend.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Charlie Stainback said that he had hoped today’s reception would be held at the Tang, but since construction is behind schedule it wasn’t possible. The "Tang Shebang," which will be held on October 13 at 2:30 p.m., will announce the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery’s arrival to Skidmore community. The formal dedication will be held the weekend of October 27 and 28.
Professors Ruth Andrea Levinson and Paul Michalec announced the birth of a partnership between Skidmore College and Schuylerville Central School District, called Expanding Horizons: The Skidmore/Schuylerville Connection. The partnership was conceived about a year ago and is intended to develop a K-16 learning and teaching collaboration between the Schuylerville School District and Skidmore College. It will foster creative professional and community partnerships and expand the learning horizon for all participants. The Tang kick-off mixer will take place on November 2 from 4:30-6:30 p.m. and will introduce the EH partnership to the Skidmore and Schuylerville communities as well as an invitation to join in collaborative enterprises. Faculty, staff and administrators are invited to attend. A vision and goals document will be sent to the faculty members shortly detailing the project.
Professor Levith asked why the partnership is with Schuylerville rather than Saratoga schools. Professor Michalec stated that Schuylerville is unique because the K-12 grades are located next to each other. Professor Levinson said that Skidmore has a long-standing relationship with the Schuylerville school district with respect to placing student teachers, and the Schuylerville school board was eager and excited to start the project right away. Schuylerville is a rural community with need, and the school will use its buses to bring Skidmore students to Schuylerville that don't have transportation.
Professor Giguere asked about resource commitment to this project. Professor Levinson stated that various funding resources will be sought when projects are developed. Resources will come from the state and national level as well as from private resources, and contributions are already coming in from different departments that are involved in this partnership.
President Studley said that there was no budget allocation to support this partnership and nothing was added to the Skidmore budget to start the partnership.
REPORTS
Speaking for CEPP, Professor John Brueggemann, said that CEPP believes that there are four clusters of issues with which faculty members are particularly concerned regarding the proposal for a revised core curriculum. They are: the origins and goals behind the proposal; whether science is adequately integrated into the proposal; when and at what level LS2 would be taught; and whether the proposed intercultural educational requirements are reasonable and what part foreign language will play in our curriculum. CEPP encourages faculty members to speak with CEPP members but also hopes that conversations take place among faculty members. He encouraged the faculty to share their views in public places such as the web site and, most importantly, at faculty meetings. There will be a discussion at today’s faculty meeting as well as the meetings in November and December. The survey that was recently sent to the faculty is also a good way to share views.
In the coming weeks, CEPP intends to post information at its web site about the development of the proposal and invited the faculty to share with CEPP information that is useful. Professor Brueggemann proposed that the faculty address the topic of streamlining about which many faculty members have concerns. He posed the question to the faculty, "Is streamlining a particularly important goal in thinking about the curriculum?"
There was a discussion among the faculty members about streamlining.
OLD BUSINESS
Professor Mehmet Odekon, Chair of CFG said that that in the September 8 faculty meeting CFG presented three motions, which were seconded at that time. (See Attachment B from 9/8/2001.) The motions were brought to a vote.
Motion 1 carried with a unanimous vote.
Motion 2 carried with a unanimous vote.
Motion 3 carried with a unanimous vote.
NEW BUSINESS
Professor Odekon brought new motions to the faculty:
That the faculty of Skidmore College invite the Director of Summer Sessions and Summer Special Programs to attend the general faculty meetings on a regular basis, with eligibility to vote.
Should the faculty approve Motion A, the CFG moves:
That the language of the Faculty Handbook in Part One, Section XIX, be changed to add the Director of Summer Sessions and Summer Special Programs to the list of voting members.
Should the Faculty approve Motion A, the CFG moves:
That the Dean of Special Programs carries out the invitation immediately on behalf of the faculty.
Since these motions do not pertain to policy matter, they can be voted on today. After a brief discussion, Motion A was seconded, voted on, and it carried; Motion B was seconded, voted on, and it carried; Motion C was seconded, voted on, and it carried. (See Attachment A.)
Professor Joanna Zangrando spoke on behalf of the University Without Walls and offered the following resolution:
RESOLVED, that the Faculty of Skidmore College recommend to the Trustees the granting of the Bachelor of Arts degree to three students and the Bachelor of Science degree to one student.
Bachelor of Arts/ Bachelor of Science
Judith Ellis
Michele Miller
Joseph Edwin Simpson
Laura Faye Taxel
The motion was seconded, and it carried with a unanimous vote.
Professor Michael Mudrovic spoke on behalf of the External Master of Arts Committee and offered the following resolution:
RESOLVED, that the Faculty of Skidmore College recommend to the Trustees the granting of the Master of Arts degree to three students.
Joseph Haley
Jennifer S. Larsen
Mark Stephen Stanzione
The motion was seconded, and it carried with a unanimous vote.
The meeting adjourned at 5:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Claire Demarest
Executive Secretary
Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs
and Dean of the Faculty
CFG
October 2000
Motion:
A. That the faculty of Skidmore College invite the Director of Summer Sessions and Summer Special Programs to attend the general faculty meetings on a regular basis, with eligibility to vote.
Should the Faculty approve motion (A), the CFG moves:
B. That the language of the Faculty Handbook in Part One, Section XIX, be changed to add the Director of Summer Sessions and Summer Special Programs to the list of voting members.
Should the Faculty approve motion (A), the CFG moves:
C. That the Dean of Special Programs carry out the invitation immediately on behalf of the Faculty.
RATIONALE:
Motion (A) would add Director of Summer Sessions and Summer Special Programs as a voting member of the faculty meeting. Because the faculty meeting is the main governing body in charge of the academic mission of the College, it is desirable that the director of the college's summer sessions and other credit bearing programs be present to participate in broad-ranging academic discussions and to vote on these issues. The motion also fosters greater symmetry and equity within the Office of the Dean of Special Programs, as the Directors of UWW and MALS were invited by the faculty to attend faculty meetings as voting members in 1992.
Note that motion (A) does not redefine this position as a faculty position, and therefore it is not make the person filling this position eligible to serve as a representative of the faculty on elected or appointed committees of the faculty (see Part Two, Section II, Item A of the faculty handbook.) The person filling this position may continue to be appointed to ad-hoc committees or task forces, and/or be invited by any faculty committee to participate in their meetings as a non-voting member.
Motions (B) and (C) are necessary and/or appropriate consequences of motion (A).