Faculty Council Meeting Minutes

The Citadel Faculty Council Meeting Minutes

Meeting Date and Time:	Thursday, January 24, 2008, 11:00 am
Meeting Location:	Daniel Library Instruction Lab
Meeting Type:	Regular

I. Call To Order

Chair Trautman called the regular meeting of the Faculty Council to order. A working agenda had been distributed previously by email. The Chair welcomed those attending.

II. Attendees (substitutes shown in parentheses)

Faculty Council Members (attending members shown by “X” in right column)
Barsanti, Bob	Electrical Engineering	X
Betterton, Carl (Secretary 2007-08)	Business Administration	X
Bishop, Jane	History
Briggs, Pat	Physics	X
Brown, Kathy	Education
Calloway, Licia	English	X
Connor, Elizabeth	Library	X
Cooper, David	Naval Science	X
Dorko, Mike	Chemistry
Francel, Margaret	Mathematics	X
Grenier, Kathy	History
Gustafson, Danny	Biology	X
Keogh, Tim	Business Administration	X
Mays, Terry (DuBose Kapeluck)	Political Science & Criminal Just.	X
McPherson, Ray	Aerospace Studies
Politano, Mike	Psychology	X
Eloy Urroz	Modern Language	X
Spafford, Beau	Military Science
Templeton, Josey (Dena Garner)	Health, Exercise & Sport Science	X
Thompson, Tom (Tom Horan)	English	X
Trautman, David (Chair 2007-08)	Mathematics and Computer Science	X
Woelfel, Kay	Education	X
Woo, Michael	Civil and Environmental Engineering	X

III. Approval of Minutes from Last Meeting

The minutes of the previous meeting (08 Nov 07) had been sent to all members via email. Comments or corrections were requested. The minutes were approved without change.

IV. Old Business

V. New Business

A. Updates from Graduate Council, Presidential Staff Meetings, Academic Board, Provost, and other.

General

1. Sleep - The Citadel is getting concerned about the sleep issue once again. A driving force is the QEP, which calls for a report to SACS in 2009. In the QEP The Citadel said the amount of sleep cadets report getting would go up by an hour from 2004 to 2009. So far it hasn’t changed much (slightly up one year, down the next). John Carter of the Physical Effectiveness Council (part of the Values/Respect Task Force) is in charge of a committee which will study how to change the 24-hour schedule so as to increase sleep.

2. Box Lunches - The Citadel is a bit concerned about the number of lunchtime activities which involve box lunches. The same committee will study ways to reduce box lunches and/or make lunch preparation more efficient. (A problem is that we are spending too much money preparing multiple lunches, for example, preparing a Mess Hall family style lunch for 1900 cadets, and then having 300 or 400 out for box lunches.) We may go to cafeteria style lunches on MWF, retaining family style on TR (drill and practice parade days). Also, Thursday night 6:45 to 7:45 will become available for academic clubs.

The idea is these changes (sleep/box lunches) will be in place for the 2008-2009 academic year.

Graduate Council

The Citadel will institute rules so only graduate students who have really met all admission standards will be labeled as “degree seeking”. Until now students could be so labeled while still in the process of providing documentation of meeting all admission requirements. Those students who are not fully admitted will be listed as non-degree seeking. (For those students this move has implications for financial aid, employers paying for courses, etc.) We had to do this to be more accurate in the information we provide SACS, CHE, and other bodies.

Presidential Staff Meetings

1. The Citadel will have a Leadership Symposium during Corps Week. On the afternoon of Thursday, 13 March there will be some panel discussions. The administration would like faculty to take students to these discussions in lieu of classes (for appropriate subjects).

Academic Board

1. The Citadel is in the process of hiring an Associate Provost for Planning, Assessment, and Evaluation.

2. The administration is looking at ways to change the summer school schedule so as to attract more students. In particular, we may have more third period classes (1:00 to 3:15) than in the past.

3. The Academic Board passed by a 13-5 vote a resolution made by Al Finch which addressed the sleep issue. The primary aspect is that cadets be in their rooms 2330 to 0630 with lights out.

Provost

1. The Citadel has returned to using paper forms for Student Evaluation of Instruction, and we will receive the original (not transcribed) comments. When we have our new information technology system in place The Citadel may try a 2-semester experiment in doing online evaluations, but with a more-detailed approach.

2. It is impractical for The Citadel to abandon keeping attendance records on computer. One solution to allowing faculty to maintain official records is that at midterm faculty members warn students who are in danger of failing due to excessive absences. By fall semester of 2009 The Citadel may be part of a trial with a biometric card which would allow for automatic taking and tracking of attendance.

B. Tom Horan reports for the Financial Affairs Committee

Tom Horan presented some summary facts and figures from the Financial Affairs Committee. He reported that state funding continues to decline and that no end to the trend is in sight. We can expect even more financial pressure given the declining overall economic situation. Current thoughts on some possible contingency actions to deal with the expected decline in state funding are included in Tom’s report (Appendix A).

C. Resolution on sleep and cadet 24 hour schedule

The following resolution had been drafted by Al Finch and was offered by the Chair for consideration:

The Faculty Council respectfully requests the following action be taken by the Administration effective as soon as possible.

Consistent with the Mood (1980) Lane (1991), and Mace (1997) Reports, the national data on sleep needs and patterns for young adults, and the Quality Enhancement Plan (2004) adopted by The Citadel, the following change will be made to the 24 hour schedule.

From Sunday evenings through Friday mornings cadets will be required to be in their rooms with the lights out from 2330 until 0630. The only exception will be made in an emergency situation as declared by the President of the college. This schedule will provide a 7 hour uninterrupted period for cadets to sleep. As stated in the QEP, the physical effectiveness of our cadets will be enhanced. Therefore, they will perform at a higher level academically and in cadet life.

While we support a full study of the 24 hour schedule, we do not believe that the schedule change requested above should be delayed until such a study is conducted as this recommendation is consistent across all previous studies. These previous studies, national research, and our commitment to the QEP provide compelling rationale for this change to take place for the Spring semester beginning in January 2008.

During discussion it was asked if we are looking at ourselves as in loco parentis regarding this action. It seems we are. It was asked if this would apply to all cadets or just first year students addressed by the QEP; the response was that it would apply to all (freshmen through seniors) with no exceptions other than an emergency declared by the President. Instances were cited where this will curtail activities of some students, e.g., seniors who go to work out at 0530 because there are no crowds on the equipment, ROTC students who train prior to 0630, and athletes who start practice before 0630. It was asked if there is any evidence that cadets will actually sleep if confined during these hours. There is none, but there will be the opportunity for sleep that is now absent. It was pointed out that our QEP is driving this issue (see update item above on Sleep).

A motion to adopt the resolution passed by a vote of 12 for and 5 against, with 1 abstaining.

D. Position on compensation for housekeeping and food service employees

The following resolution was offered by Elizabeth Connor based on concerns expressed by some faculty members:

Poor compensation and lack of benefits for employees contracted to work in various essential capacities on The Citadel campus are issues of concern to Citadel faculty members. Perhaps these issues can be addressed in future contract negotiations, in light of the institution’s Core Values which refer to “the moral obligation of responsibility for the welfare of others.”

During discussion of this proposed resolution the web page titled, “Vision, Core Values and Strategic Initiatives 2002-2012” was visited (http://www.citadel.edu/r3/about/values/vision.shtml). The following excerpt is relevant:

Duty: We emphasize the importance of individual accountability and the moral obligation of responsibility for the welfare of others. (emphasis added)

An amendment to the proposed resolution was offered and accepted. The proposed resolution, as amended, reads as follows:

Poor compensation and lack of benefits for employees contracted to work in various essential capacities on The Citadel campus are issues of concern to Citadel faculty members. These issues should be addressed in future contract negotiations, in light of the institution’s Core Values which refer to “the moral obligation of responsibility for the welfare of others.”

A motion to adopt this resolution passed by a vote of 13 for and 5 against.

E. Discussion of online courses

The following resolution was offered by DuBose Kapeluck (attending for Terry Mays) relative to the issue of online courses:

Offering courses online involves issues of course ownership and quality of education. The development and implementation of online courses should involve input by the faculty.

A motion to adopt this resolution passed unanimously.

F. Book Ordering

Carl Betterton described the issue, which is that faculty members do not receive any feedback as to the outcome of the book order process. In the business school, prior to each semester we are asked to state what books we will use in the coming classes, author, ISBN, etc., along with an estimate of the number of students who will be using these books. We furnish the information and the administrative person in Business who collects and aggregates this information sends it on to the book store. But we do not get any feedback as to whether the books have been ordered, received, how many are in stock, etc. Faculty would like to know that the Book Store has in fact ordered the correct book in the correct number, so that the number of books estimated will be available for their classes. They want to know this so as to prevent beginning the semester with no textbooks for students or not enough textbooks for students. We want to learn whether such feedback is also desired by other faculty, outside of Business. If so, then any process revision could recognize and address the wider need.

Discussion indicated there was not a perceived need in this area. A few cases were mentioned in which, for example, the incorrect text was in the book store, but members were not aware of a general problem in this regard. In some cases the departmental administrative people involved are relied upon to obtain such information as needed. In other cases faculty members visit the book store prior to the term’s start date to check if their books are there.

VI. Adjournment

There being no other business to come before the Council, Chair Trautman thanked members for their attendance and efforts, and adjourned the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

Carl Betterton, Secretary