The Citadel Faculty Council
Minutes of the Regular Meeting of Jan. 23, 2003
Capers Hall, Room 302

1. Prof. George Williams, chairperson of Faculty Council, called the meeting to order at 11:07 a.m.
   
   
2. Members attending: Profs. Allen, Bishop, Bloss, Davakos, Dunlop, Lally, Matthews, Murray, Niksch, Pilcher, G. Williams, Woolsey, Zuraw and Quigley for Snively.
   
   
3. Members absent: Profs. Andrade, Briggs, B. Carter, Chen, Foley, Foster, Kelley, Lipscomb and Woo.
   
   
4. Prof. Zuraw announced her discovery that according to the constitution of Faculty Council, a change in that constitution must be approved by two-thirds of Faculty Council and the majority of the faculty as a whole. There was a lively discussion about whether the two-thirds meant two-thirds of the Council members present at the meeting or two-thirds of all members. Since the motion to redefine the quorum as half the members plus one had passed at the Nov. 20th meeting by a vote of 12 to 4 when 16 were there, it had passed by over two-thirds of those present but less than two-thirds of the whole membership of 23; also, it had not yet passed the entire faculty. Fortunately, the two motions passed on Dec. 12th had been passed at a meeting with an old-style quorum of 16, but the quorum has yet to be legally redefined.
   
   
5. Prof. Williams announced that the Faculty Council picture had been put up outside the mail room in Mark Clark Hall.
   
   
6. Prof. Pilcher reported on the progress of the Sabbaticals Committee toward their goal of making The Citadel more like those colleges where any faculty member who wishes can have a sabbatical every seven years. Provost Carter is amenable to this, and everyone who applied for a sabbatical this year got one (including Prof. Williams, whom he congratulated); in future perhaps sabbaticals could be given for teaching development as well as for research.
   
   
7. Since there was not an old-style legal quorum, though a new-style quorum was achieved shortly after this, no minutes could be approved; Prof. Bishop requested and got clarification on two points for the November minutes.
   
   
8. Prof. Williams reported that the Ethics subcommittee was continuing to meet, and read out from the Dec. 12 meeting notes the names of the people who had volunteered to be on the others. The two people absent Dec. 12 and present now chose subcommittees to be on: Prof. Matthews on Standing Committees and Prof. Dunlop on Faculty Evaluation.
   
   
9. Given the choice of breaking up into subcommittees and starting work right then or clearing the agenda, the Council chose to do the latter. Therefore, Prof. Williams announced that he had found three different hard-copy versions of the Faculty Manual, including the Citadel Fact Book 2001, which only Prof. Niksch had seen. He expressed the Council's desire to work toward better communication and general faculty knowledge of what documents exist, and asked the Faculty Manual subcommittee to meet and define their mission before next meeting.
   
   
10. Prof. Dunlop mentioned that the catalogue now says cadets can walk the stage at graduation if they are up to 17 credit hours short of actually graduating; this is more than before and Faculty Council and Academic Board never approved it.
    
    
11. The Council returned to the issue of General Orders no longer being distributed in hard copy. After some discussion of the fact that we don't seem to be getting any notice of changes in policy right now, the sense of the meeting was that the Council should request further clarification of how we will know about policy changes. Prof. Williams undertook to ask Teresa Corbett-Miller about their location in hard copy or on the Web, and the Council can then make a motion about the issue.
    
    
12. The issue of whether the Faculty Council secretary should take the minutes of general faculty meetings was raised again and this time discussed. Prof. Zuraw, concerned about placing an additional burden on the Council secretary, said the Council should take minutes when it called a meeting and the Administration should take minutes when it did; but others opined that the Council should keep watch on the Administration by getting our notes on their meetings. Prof. Bishop noted that the President's speeches at general faculty meetings often contained fascinating information that should be preserved, and said she personally was willing to take such minutes but her present term on the Council was almost over so it would be another's burden. Forgetting that it was almost certain that a new-style quorum was not yet legal, Prof. Woolsey moved and Prof. Allen seconded that Faculty Council take responsibility for the minutes of all general faculty meetings; this was passed unanimously.
    
    
13. The Council returned to the discussion of Provost Carter's academic integrity statement about students having to submit research papers in electronic form. Prof. Lally said she had calculated that this would cost her six and a half additional days' worth of record-keeping, and Prof. Woolsey noted that if all students sent their papers by e-mail the system would crash and disks have viruses and glitches. Prof. Bishop reiterated the opinion that our position should be that this was an interesting approach but should not be compulsory for us. Prof. Williams observed that prevention of cheating was a real issue; Prof. Allen agreed that it was a vital issue and said if this policy deterred just one or two students from plagiarism it was worthwhile. Responding to a suggestion that electronic submission and anti-cheating software was a slap in the face to the Honor Code, he and Prof. Niksch noted that many students do not know how to paraphrase and cite, and this could be an educational tool too. The Council agreed that the vital issue was whether Provost Carter meant to make the policy compulsory for all professors and whether our endorsement would further that; Prof. Woolsey said there is academic freedom as to syllabi, but SACS does require that some elements be present in all syllabi, and Prof. Davakos noted that there is a trend to require electronic records.
    
    Prof. Williams suggested that the Council members solicit the opinion of their departments on the issue while he asked Provost Carter whether he meant to suggest or require the policy, then resume consideration next meeting.
    
    
14. The issue of the basis for selecting the five members of the Faculty Tenure and Promotion Appeals Committee and the election of two new Committee on Committees members were tabled until next meeting.
    
    
15. The meeting was adjourned at 12:11 p.m.