The Citadel Faculty Council
Minutes of the Regular Meeting of Sept. 2, 1999
Board of Visitors Room, Jenkins Hall

1. Professor Julie Lipovsky, Faculty Council chairperson, called the meeting to order at 11:05 a.m.

2. Members attending: Professors Bishop, H. Ezell, Feurtado, Lipovsky, Maynard, McDowell, Pages, Pilcher, Silver, Thompson, Toubiana, B. White, G. Williams, Wolf, Woo and Zuraw.

Members absent: Professors Brown, Chen, Dunlop, Emanuel, Foster, Hurren and Wallace.

3. The minutes of the May 6th meeting were approved with small corrections.

4. An unsuccessful attempt was made to find a volunteer to replace Hughes Hoyle as Faculty Council Secretary.

5. Brigadier General Harry Carter, Vice President for Academic Affairs, visited the Faculty Council and said a few words: faculty governance is important to him, this school seems unique in having both an Academic Board and this Council, and we should try to ensure that these two bodies, and faculty and administration in general, work together harmoni-ously on the same issues. He hopes to help bridge any gaps between the latter two.

6. Jane Bishop volunteered to be the new Faculty Council secretary, and Prof. Hoyle left with the thanks of the Council.

7. There was a discussion of the tasks of the two committees for considering merit pay distribution and post-tenure review.

(a) Merit pay: the Administration wants recommendations on how to distribute the money available by Oct. 15th, but a final decision may not be possible given such issues as whether the whole sum in question is for merit pay, how it should redress past years' inequities, whether it will be one-time or ongoing and, if it is ongoing, how to adjust it from year to year.

(b) Post-tenure review: there is also supposed to be a recommendat-ion on that by Oct. 15, the committee has only met once and then CHE changed the premises; it was moved, seconded and passed that Joel Berlinghieri remain the chair of this committee, and Profs. Feurtado and Silver volunteered to be its replacement members for those who have left the Council.

8. Prof. Lipovsky reported on the last Academic Board meeting.

(a) Twenty years after the faculty first suggested it, Ring Night has been changed to a Friday night instead of Thursday.

(b) Recruitment and giving are up; the next goal of the Administration is to get state funds for the new stadium improvements, which would allow the remaking of Capers Hall as its inhabitants taught under the stadium.

(c) The issue was raised of whether there would be faculty colloquia in future; Faculty Council members felt that if so a committee of faculty should choose a useful subject and it should not be mandatory.

(d) The shortened Convocation was well-received; Faculty Council members felt there should have been advance notice that we would meet with new student majors under the department signs; that will happen in future.

[The issue of the basis for choosing the next and future Grand Marshals for convocation and graduation parades came up; after suggestions that it automatically be the chair of Faculty Council or the graduate of the oldest university, it was moved, seconded and passed that it be the faculty member here the longest who was not on the Academic Board. If that person (which would be Tony Redd at this point) didn't want it, we would go down the seniority list till someone did.]

(e) In a new PT policy, when 95% of a company's members are warranted fit they will be on their own as to runs and such. This may lead to less sleeping in class, though (members observed) not much.

(f) The change to the 24-hour schedule involving a cafeteria-style dinner including for knobs after Parents Day, a later muster to allow for club activities and a more strictly enforced ESP after that was noted.

(g) Feedback was solicited on the new Advising Handbook. This led to a lively discussion of whether the new freedom of upperclassmen to choose and register for their own courses makes us useless as advisors and allows them to get into trouble by unwise scheduling. Prof. Lipovsky expressed a wish to talk to Dean Ozment about such things as whether students should have access to Screen 105 and whether they should have to come and see us each term as before.

(h) The Public Relations office wants to develop a directory of faculty expertise so the media can call on campus experts when public issues in our fields come up.

(i) Academic Board is working on developing a policy about accepting course credit for distance learning, a big issue on the graduate level.

9. Prof. Lipovsky reported on her talk with Brigadier General Mace about class attendance; his statistics showing absences were down 44% were probably misleading as many professors are just not turning in absence reports, but we should make another try to get everyone to do that since there is now an improved system of recording them and coordinating punishments. There was a lively discussion on whether we should adopt VMI's method of having the senior student in the class call roll and report the absences; there was concern that it would take up too much time. A motion to adopt VMI's method was proposed, then amended to say that, though attendance will be reported for every class, the professor will decide whether it will be done by the senior student as section marcher or by him- or herself as before. The motion was then tabled so that Faculty Council

members can consult with their departments about this idea.

10. Prof. Lipovsky announced that Dennis Rhoad's report to Gen. Grinalds on the recent VPAA search is available in the library and raised former Council member Mary Greenawalt's desire to have a committee examine it to see if the Faculty Manual should be changed to prevent fait accompli one-candidate searches in future. It was found that no current members of Faculty Council wish to do this.

11. Under New Business, Bob White moved and it was voted by acclamat-ion that Faculty Council commend Tony Redd for "a beautiful articulation of the role of the faculty member" in his Convocation speech. Prof. Toubiana then asked whether there was any action on meeting parents on the Friday of Parents' Day Weekend instead of the Saturday, and Prof. Lipovsky said she would ask about the issues involved.

12. The meeting was adjourned at 12:26 p.m.