The Citadel Faculty Council
Minutes of the Regular Meeting of April 25, 2002
Bond Hall, Room 165

1. Prof. Steve Silver, Faculty Council chairperson, called the meeting to order at 11:08 a.m.
   
   
2. Members attending, eventually: Profs. Bishop, Briggs, B. Carter, Chen, Foster, Jones, Kelley, Lally, Matthews, Pilcher, Silver, Skow-Obenaus, J. Templeton, Thompson, G. Williams and Zuraw.
   
   
3. Members absent: Profs. Dunlop, Foley, Hoyle, Kuzenski, Ouzts, Webb and Woo.
   
   
4. Members started a general conversation at 11:08, while a quorum was being got together by calling around (some had been unclear as to the meeting's location and time): Prof. Thompson sought the sense of the meeting on revision of the Committee on Committees. Did Faculty Council want to leave the distribution of membership by discipline as it is or change it to reflect the new division into schools? There was a consensus for the former on the grounds that academic disciplines remain the same even when rearranged and called schools.
   
   
5. A quorum was achieved at 11:25. There was a general voice to approve at last the Dec. 13, 2001 minutes (there had not been a quorum between that meeting and this) and this was passed unanimously.
   
   
6. The Council continued to discuss the charter of the Committee on Committees. Prof. Thompson pointed out the new rule that the chair should no longer be the outgoing Faculty Council chair but a member of at least one year's standing elected from within the Committee so s/he has experience. Prof. Lally brought up the question of term length: given that this committee is so influential in the lives of colleagues, is three years too long for a person to serve and should it be just two? Others pointed out that members can serve only three years at a time, that each year two of the six members rotate off, and that only 20% of faculty ever express a preference for committee assignment; Prof. Lally dropped her objection. Prof. Briggs moved and Prof. Templeton seconded that the words "or school" be dropped from the proposed Sect. 1A where it said no two members should be "from the same department or school"; this was passed unanimously. Prof. Skow-Obenaus moved and Prof. Templeton seconded that the Council accept the new charter as amended, and this passed unanimously.
   
   
7. Prof. Pilcher brought up the letter he wrote Council members about the Sabbaticals Comnmittee. He requested Faculty Council sanction to talk to Vice-President (now Provost) Carter about increasing the number of sabbaticals that could be given out by concentrating on one-semester ones and pursuing other funding to make them a year, thus relieving the demoralizing backlog of applications. Others pointed out that some other schools routinely give sabbaticals mainly for respite and are surprised that we must compete for them with hot-shot project proposals; Prof. Briggs spoke of "the scholarship arms race" where everyone has to propose to write the seminal work in his or her discipline. Prof. Thompson moved and Prof. Foster seconded that Faculty Council endorse the Sabbaticals Committee's efforts to increase the number of sabbaticals, and this was passed unanimously.
   
   
8. Prof. Chen proposed that Faculty Council should send an e-mail to all faculty asking who would be interested in being on the new Committee on Committees, and that we should then elect the new members at the May or first fall meeting. The Council agreed with this approach without a formal vote.
   
   
9. Prof. Briggs moved and Prof. Zuraw seconded that Prof. Bishop be re-elected to a fourth and final term as Faculty Council secretary. This was passed unanimously.
   
   
10. It was noted that Prof. George Williams, as current vice-chair, would take over at the next meeting as the new chair. Prof. Lally nominated Prof. Zuraw as the new vice-chair and future chair. Prof. Zuraw pointed out that the 2002-2003 school year was her fourth on the Council and technically, because of the four-year consecutive term limit, she would not be eligible to serve on Faculty Council the fifth year when she'd be chair. Prof. Williams then observed that 2001-2002 had been his fourth year on the Council and technically he could not be the new chair now. There was a discussion of who had made up the Faculty Council constitution and whether its current members had the power to change this rule; it was decided that we could. Prof. Briggs moved and Prof. Thompson seconded that Prof. Williams be allowed to serve a fifth consecutive year on Faculty Council in order to be its chair; this was passed unanimously.
    
    It was pointed out that a department had the power not to re-elect a member to Faculty Council even if that person was a designated officer, but this is as yet only speculative.
    Prof. Lally moved and Prof. Templeton seconded that Prof. Lisa Zuraw be the next vice-chair and chair-elect of Faculty Council. This was passed unanimously.
    
    
11. The meeting was adjourned around 12:05 p.m.