The Citadel Faculty Council
Minutes of the Regular Meeting of Sept. 25, 2003
Board of Visitors Room, Jenkins Hall1. Prof. Lisa Zuraw, chairperson of Faculty Council, called the meeting to order at 11:05 a.m., and introduced special guest observer Jeffery Weart, Director of the new Krause Initiative in Leadership, who is making himself acquainted with all aspects of The Citadel.
2. Members attending: Profs. Allen, Andrade, Bloss, Bishop, B. Carter, Darden, Hewett, Lally, Matthews, McKinney, Murray, Snively, Woolsey, Zuraw, Trautman for Chen, Wilson for Davakos, Murden for Davis, Speelman for Knapp, Hines for Niksch and Silver for Moody.
3. Members absent: Profs. Briggs, Lipscomb and Miller.
4. Prof. Wilson moved and Prof. Allen seconded that the minutes for the meeting of August 21 be considered for acceptance. There was no discussion, and Prof. Lally moved and Prof. Allen seconded that they be approved. This was passed unanimously.
5. Prof. Silver moved and Prof. Wilson seconded that the proposed minutes for Sept. 18, which closely described the special election for the Provost search committee including numbers of votes for the winners, be replaced as the official minutes by the simple statement that the election had taken place, a suggestion Prof. Bishop had made, as she thought, jokingly. This passed by seven votes with thirteen unofficial abstentions.
6. The list of candidates for the vacant position on the Committee on Committees was read; the candidates were Profs. Britz, Hurd and Mays. Prof. Woolsey moved and Prof. Darden seconded that the nominations be closed; Prof. Mays was elected to the committee position by a plurality of 8 votes.
7. Prof. Zuraw updated the Council on the results of her meetings with the top administrators. Gen. Grinalds had approved the new quorum rule and it is now official, to be seen on the website; Provost Carter had confirmed that the Faculty Code of Ethics was unofficial and non-binding, and the Council can now keep an eye on changes made to it by the Academic Board and continue to fine-tune it ourselves. The Board of Visitors has changed the rules for cadet dinner: starting in January, the upper three classes will have a buffet-style dinner available from 5 to 7 P.M., while the freshmen continue to have family-style sit-down dinners with a mess carver. Provost Carter approved and will sponsor a lunch during which Prof. Finch will present his findings about student evaluation of professors; this will form part of the Quality Enhancement Plan discussion, the Communication Across the Curriculum program can be involved, and now it is up to Faculty Council to organize the meeting.
8. Prof. Zuraw noted that the existing Faculty Council subcommittees needed to continue their work; a signup sheet was passed around to solicit volunteers for this year’s membership on them. Another sheet was passed around to find out from standing committee members who this year’s chairpersons of the committees are. Prof. Thompson, chairperson of the Committee on Committees, has recommended that the Council deactivate some of them. Prof. Silver pointed out that currently inactive committees could become relevant and active in future; Prof. Bishop noted that the relatively inactive Campus Affairs Committee could become very active if it took up the issues of campus parking as its charge. Prof. Lally suggested that the refusal of Academic Board to create a standing committee on student evaluation of faculty be met by adding that as a charge of the Curriculum and Instruction Committee. There was some further discussion, but no concrete action taken; Prof. Zuraw noted that all the revised committee charters should be finished by January.
9. Prof. Murray moved and Prof. Woolsey seconded that the Council discuss and vote separately on each single item suggested by the subcommittee on the Quality Enhancement Plan under several subject headings. This was passed, and the Council then spent the rest of the meeting discussing the subcommittee’s several suggestions about how to stop students from sleeping in class. Prof. Hewett moved and Prof. Silver seconded that the wording of the topic be changed to "ways to help students stay awake in class", as the original wording blamed the victim; this was passed.
The first suggestion was to enforce the existing policy of lights out at 11. Prof. Woolsey moved and Prof. Silver seconded that the assertion that students played rather than studying after 11 be taken out, as some students’ learning styles meant that late night was their best time to study. Prof. Hewett thought the lights-out policy should not be enforced at all to give students the opportunity to study; Prof. Silver pointed out that students here are not free to sleep in and need to be encouraged to go to sleep earlier. Prof. Murden noted that a policy now exists whereby students who need to do academic work late at night can get permission to stay up late. Prof. Darden moved and Prof. Wilson seconded that the amended form of suggestion (a) be passed; it was by a vote of 13 to 4.
Suggestion (b) was to move all PT runs to the afternoons. Prof. Bloss moved and Prof. Woolsey seconded that two sentences giving a rationale for this be removed; this was passed by a vote of 17 to 2. A long discussion followed, during which the distinction emerged between PT runs required only for specific categories of students, like the Naval ROTC students with Navy scholarships mentioned by Prof. Snively, and general PT runs required for all students. After some talk about the importance of labs in the afternoons, and Prof. Hewitt’s citing recent research showing that adolescents’ biological clocks made them inherently sleepy in the morning and alert in the afternoon, so that it was not PT that made them sleepy in class but the early rising hour itself, Prof. Woolsey moved and Prof. Lally seconded that Suggestion 1b be changed to "Move non-ROTC contract-related PT to afternoons". This was passed by a vote of 13 to 3. The suggestion itself was then passed by a vote of 11 to 6.
Suggestion (c) was to push the entire daily schedule back by half an hour. Some said this would complicate things too much; Prof. Allen noted that these are only suggestions and this one should at least be studied. Prof. Silver pointed out that a formal motion was not required on each sggestion, so without one (c) was approved by a vote of 12 to 4.
Suggestion (d) was that professors should consistently wake up sleeping students. Prof. Lally objected to this on the grounds that it was demeaning and only appropriate for much younger students, and professors should not have to do it. Prof. Woolsey and others indicated that waking up students should be a policy, and there was an outburst of talk from professors who did not object to waking sleepers in their classes as to how they and others did it. There was a vote of 12 to 4 to close the question and a vote of 11 to 5 to adopt the policy.
Suggestion (e) was for the professors to explore ways to keep the students engaged in class. This led to a debate on active-learning techniques vs. old-fashioned lecturing, which Prof. Lally pointed out was done well by some professors and had its place. The issues were raised of whether professors who refused to adopt new styles would be penalized and whether others felt pressured to use gimmicks. Profs. Silver and Lally asserted that suggestions (d) and (e) amounted to accusing ourselves of guilt for student sleeping and could be used to scapegoat us. The wording of the suggestion was changed: professors would "implement" rather than "introduce" and show a "continued commitment" to active learning styles; this was passed by a vote of 16 to 0. The suggestion itself was then passed by a vote of 14 to 2.
10. It was now 12:30; Prof. Murden moved and Prof. Wilson seconded that the meeting be adjourned. Without a vote on this, members melted away and the quorum was lost. During this process, there was a conversation on whether Prof. Zuraw could send forward the other subcommittee suggestions, on enhancing ESP and other topics, when they had not been approved by the Council. Prof. Bishop noted that eliminated the 7:50 formation in particular was extremely important and that all the suggestions should be submitted to the QEP, which should not get the impression that sleeping in class was all the Faculty Council cared about. Prof. Zuraw indicated that she would send forward all the suggestions while making it clear that all except 1a through 1e were as yet unapproved by the whole Council. On this understanding the meeting ended at 12:35 P.M.