The Citadel Faculty Council
Minutes of the Regular Meeting of Dec. 12, 2002

Capers Hall, Room 302

1. Prof. George Williams, chairperson of Faculty Council, called the meeting to order at 11:04 a.m.
   
   
2. Members attending: Profs. Allen, Bishop, Bloss, Briggs, B. Carter, Davakos, Foster, Lally, Niksch, Pilcher, Snively, G. Williams, Woolsey, Woo and Zuraw.
   
   
3. Members absent: Profs. Andrade, Chen, Dunlop, Foley, Kelley, Lipscomb, Matthews and Murray.
   
   
4. Prof. Williams described the meeting of the ad hoc Parking Committee-- Carla McIntyre, John Carter, Peter Greim and himself-- with administrators on Nov. 22 to set up the town hall meeting on Dec. 11 about parking issues. Cols. Tomasik, Holland and Bingham had addressed a group of about 30, mostly staff, who had a profitable discussion and raised the issues of prorating parking fees for low-paid part-timers and whether there should be reserved spaces at all. Council members commented on this: there were few faculty members there because the faculty thought the new policies were a done deal, the additional revenue from higher fees finances the salary of one professor or two staff members (Prof. Allen said we should find out which professor), the concept of reserved spaces may be morally wrong and it certainly leads to a lot of empty spaces each day in Capers Lot. Prof. Williams found a problem with limiting the number of reserved spaces possible in each lot, as some suggested: what would happen to people above those numbers who had already taken a space? He concluded that the Administration was being satisfactorily open about these issues.
   
   
5. Prof. Williams gave an update on the Faculty Council group photo: it will be posted outside the mail room in Mark Clark Hall, and give the Council more visiblity and credibility as successive years are posted.
   
   
6. Prof. Williams called for volunteers to staff the new subcommittees. The Ethics one had already met, with himself and Profs. Bishop, Davakos, Murray, Niksch and the two non-Council members Anne Jennings and Pat Leverett on it. Prof. Snively volunteered for this subcommittee.
   
   Profs. Zuraw and B. Carter volunteered for the Standing Committees subcommittee.
   
   Profs. Foster and Lally volunteered to remain on the Faculty Evaluation subcommittee, which was already in existence in the two previous years to look at issues of student evaluations of faculty. It was noted that Prof. Chen had also volunteered for this one.
   
   Profs. Bloss, Davakos and Woolsey volunteered for the Faculty Manual and College Regulations subcommittee.
   
   Profs. Allen, Briggs and Woo volunteered for the Long-Term Planning subcommittee.
   
   Profs. Carter, Pilcher and Zuraw volunteered for the Faculty Council Charter subcommittee.
   
   
7. The Council took up Provost Carter's question of whether the five members of the tenure and promotion appeals committee should be selected at large from senior tenured faculty rather than, as now, by cluster. Prof. Davakos saw no reason for changing to this; Prof. Allen noted that this appeals committee is an extraordinary, last-ditch body that almost never has to meet, and suggested that senior faculty would be best for it as they would have no conflict of interest. Discussion of this point centered around the fact that the committee judges only questions of procedural irregularity, not the merits of the professor; Prof. Pilcher said this meant senior faculty might indeed be more qualified, and Profs. Woolsey and Davakos suggested that really senior faculty might have achieved tenure under different standards than now and thus be unqualified to judge newer ones.
   
   Prof. Allen moved, and Prof. Woolsey seconded, that the Faculty Tenure and Promotion Appeals Committee be set up by schools and chosen from full professors as far as possible. This motion was passed 14 to 1.
   
   
8. Prof. Williams reiterated the announcement that General Orders would no longer be distributed by hard copy but only by e-mail, and asked if there were any concerns about this. Prof. Briggs moved and Prof. Niksch seconded that this issue be sent to the Faculty Manual Subcommittee for consideration; this was passed unanimously.
   
   
9. The Council resumed discussion of Provost Carter's suggestion that the faculty adopt an academic integrity policy requiring all students to submit all papers involving research in electronic form. Prof. Allen said this was a very good idea and would keep some students from committing plagiarism on the analogy of a policeman at a traffic light. Prof. Bishop expressed opposition to the policy being compulsory for professors; Prof. Zuraw noted that her grading methods required a hard copy, and Prof. Briggs noted that in his discipline it would be a very onerous task to teach the students to produce things like lab reports with graphs electronically. It was pointed out that the policy did not forbid dual submission; several wanted to know whether the policy was supposed to be compulsory for professors, and Prof. Williams opined that it was not. It was decided to create an ad hoc subcommittee to study the issue; Profs. Allen, Bishop, Briggs and Davakos volunteered for it.
   
   
10. Prof. Briggs moved and Prof. Davakos seconded that the Council table the issue of its secretary also taking minutes at the general faculty meetings, since the next such meeting was not till May and the time was late. This was passed by acclamation.
    
    
11. It was also decided to table the election of two new members of the Committee on Committees till the next meeting. Prof. Zuraw pointed out that under both the old and the new rules for that committee, the new members could be any faculty, not just Faculty Council members. They are, however, required to be evenly distributed by fields, so before the Council could elect new members it needed to be absolutely sure who the existing members were.
    
    
12. The meeting was adjourned at 12:15 p.m.