The Citadel Faculty Council
Minutes of the Regular Meeting of Sept. 21, 2000
Prioleau (Rare Books) Room, Daniel Library

1. Prof. Tom Thompson, Faculty Council chairperson, called the meeting to order at 11:04 a.m.

2. Members attending: Professors Bishop, Briggs, Britz, Chen, Dunlop, Jones, Kelley, Lally, Matthews, Moody, Pages, Silver, Skow-Obenaus, Templeton, Thompson, Williams and Richardson for Zuraw.

3. Members absent: Professors Brown, Gordon, Lineberger, Maynard, McDowell and Woo.

4. Prof. Williams moved and Prof. Silver seconded that the minutes of April 20th be accepted; Prof. Silver moved and Prof. Britz seconded that the minutes of May 11th be accepted; Prof. Silver moved and Prof. Williams seconded that the minutes of August 24th be accepted. All these in turn were passed unanimously.

5. Prof. Thompson reported on the Vice-Presidents' meeting. There was a lot of talk about the current construction on campus, what to do about the refusal by the city of permission to tear down and replace Padgett-Thomas Barracks (which has, of course, since been resolved), the schedule to open the new Alumni Center, and the fact that residents of the Hampton Park neighbourhood want a say in how The Citadel expands into their living space with new construction. Also, the parking consultants will soon return with recommendations.

6. Prof. Silver reported on the recent Academic Board meeting. The campus was having problems with its Internet server because traffic with Napster was slowing it down, but that will be fixed and Napster restored soon. Vice-President Carter raised some concerns about other schools gaining advantages: what should we do if students want transfer credit for taking online courses from other schools, what new courses should we give in the new combined Graduate Center with the College (University) of Charleston and MUSC, and how can we get some of the money the Navy is giving out for leadership education and deal with the fact that USC is giving courses at the Naval Base? The merging of all fundraising enterprises on campus except the holdout Brigadier Foundation was noted; Prof. Thompson pointed out that in the last round of Strategic Planning faculty was able to identify academic needs so the merged capital campaign will include them. The question was raised whether freshmen were spending more time on guard at the expense of classes under the new schedule, and there was talk of investigating this.

7. Prof. Thompson mentioned the one topic in the Gradute Council: that the ex-presidents of The Citadel, the College and MUSC had decided not to merge our three graduate programs but to build a common Graduate Center, as mentioned in #6, to give classes in.

8. Prof. Lally reported that she was working on setting up a Board of Governors to determine policy for Faculty House, and would soon have a letter on the subject.

9. The Council elected three representatives to the Strategic Plan Curriculum and Instruction Committee. One person, William Sharbrough, had volunteered; Judy Lahr and Steve Comer were suggested, with Ed Davis as a backup if one of them refused. Prof. Pages moved and Prof. Briggs seconded that this slate be accepted, and it was passed unanimously.

10. The Council elected the cluster representatives to the Committee on Committees. In Cluster A, Gary Wilson had volunteered and Steve Silver volunteered now; in Cluster B, David Allen had volunteered and Marjie Britz volunteered now; in Cluster C, Peter Greim and Margaret Francel were proposed by Prof. Chen. Prof. Williams moved and Prof. Templeton seconded that these be accepted, and it was passed unanimously.

11. Prof. Williams brought up the fact that some other institutions had free tuition for dependents of faculty members, and even reciprocity with other schools in this regard; could we? Profs. Silver and Pages pointed out that some states had a state policy on this that would affect a state school, and Prof. Thompson said he would find out whether South Carolina had one.

12. Prof. Thompson raised the question, at the request of Julie Lipovsky, of unequal distribution of funds between departments, like the first-floor Capers copier being overused by several departments and often breaking while some departments had splendid new equipment just for them. There was discussion on the actual quality of the new equipment in some places and on just how funds are distributed; equitably or by greasing the squeaky wheel? Prof. Thompson noted that Col. Holland, Vice-President of Finance, wants to talk to Faculty Council, and it was decided to invite him next time and ask him about these issues.

13. On a related topic, Prof. Moody read an e-mail from Prof. Comer, chairperson of the Finance Committee, asking whether his committee was necessary; all it was charged with was receiving the Vice-President's financial report and relaying faculty questions about finance to the Administration, which latter never happened. Could the financial report not just go directly to Faculty Council? Prof. Briggs pointed out that some committees lay fallow for a long time but then were suddenly needed. There was discussion about the necessity of having enough committee slots for service credit, the advisability of having a committee which might be needed in a sudden emergency staffed by people who had signed on for a no-work committee, and whether we should find something else for the Finance Committee to do. No one wanted to propose a motion on this last point; it was decided that Prof. Moody should just ask Prof. Comer to put out a notice telling the faculty that they do have a vehicle for getting financial information, and to get the Vice-President's report early and put it on the Web to solicit faculty input.

14. Prof. Williams raised the question of whether faculty governance should be changed to express itself in a Faculty Senate instead of Faculty Council and Academic Board. Prof. Thompson said he would take this up with Gen. Carter.

15. The meeting was adjourned at 11:48 a.m.