Faculty Meeting Minutes
April 26, 2019
Gannett Auditorium
MINUTES
Michael Orr, Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs, called the meeting to order at 3:35 p.m. He thanked everyone for their hard work this semester, noting that there is still a lot of activity to take place and that he looks forward to the upcoming Academic Festival. DOF/VPAA Orr then reported that Associate Professor Katie Hauser, as Chair of FEC, had asked him to remind everyone that under the faculty meeting bylaws, staff members who attend meetings but lack faculty status (and, as a result, are ineligible to vote) are not only invited to attend faculty meetings but are also welcome to participate in them and contribute to discussions.
Thereafter, DOF/VPAA Orr acknowledged the personal tragedy experienced by one of the members of our community, Professor Giuseppe Faustini, with the unexpected death of his son, Gerren Joseph Faustini, who passed away suddenly. DOF/VPAA Orr asked that a moment of silence be observed.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
DOF/VPAA Orr asked if there were any corrections to, or comments regarding, the minutes of the Faculty Meeting held April 5, 2019. Associate Professor Katie Hauser asked that the President鈥檚 statement regarding the smoking policy be clarified to report that on December 1, 2017, the President sent out an email stating 鈥淭he new policy was developed following an extensive, year-long review of the current smoking policy by the Institutional Policy and Planning Committee鈥檚 Subcommittee on Student Affairs, in collaboration with the Safety in the Workplace Committee.鈥� With this clarification, the minutes were approved as distributed.
RECOGNITION OF RETIREES
On behalf of the Appointments and Promotions Committee (ATC), Professor Dan Nathan read the following resolution into the record (see attached):
BE IT RESOLVED, that the faculty of 吃瓜爆料 College expresses its profound appreciation and admiration for the following members of the 吃瓜爆料 Faculty who have this year expressed their determination to retire:
- Carolyn Anderson, Department of Theater
- Will Bond, Department of Theater
- Sarah Goodwin, Department of English
- Holley Hodgins, Department of Psychology
- Penny Jolly, Department of Art History
- Doretta Miller, Department of Art
- Deborah Rohr, Department of Music
- Aldo Vacs, Department of Political Science
The faculty further resolves that the biographical highlights of these members contained in the Retirement Citation booklet (see attached) distributed at this meeting be included in the Faculty Meeting Minutes of April 26, 2019 in recognition and celebration of their distinguished service and achievement.
The assembly signaled their acclimation by applause.
Thereafter, Artist-in-Residence Garret Wilson delivered tributes to Professor Carolyn Anderson and Senior Artist-in-Residence Will Bond; Professor Susannah Mintz delivered a tribute to Professor Sarah Goodwin; Professor Mark Rye delivered a tribute to Professor Holley Hodgins; Associate Professor Mimi Hellman delivered a tribute to Professor Penny Jolly; Associate Professor Janet Sorensen delivered a tribute to Professor Doretta Miller; Associate Professor Jeremy Day-O鈥機onnell delivered a tribute to Associate Professor Deborah Rohr; and Associate Professor Natalie Taylor delivered a tribute to Professor Aldo Vacs. President Glotzbach presented each of the retirees with a gift, and a congratulatory round of applause and standing ovation was given to each retiree.
OLD BUSINESS
There was no old business.
NEW BUSINESS
Marta Brunner, College Librarian, introduced the following Motion (see attached):
MOTION: With the approval of the Faculty Executive Committee and the Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Marta Brunner, College Librarian, moves that Part One, Section VIII(D)(2) of the Faculty Handbook be revised as follows (changes in red):
- Reappointment of Librarians
During the third year of service, Library faculty will be evaluated according to the same principles and procedures described herein for tenure-track faculty. In the sixth year, the evaluation process will include at least one faculty member from another department who indicates a willingness to serve, chosen by the Dean of the Faculty/Vice President for Academic Affairs in consultation with ATC. For contracts beyond the sixth year, the reappointment procedure is that of the third year, with the department making a recommendation to the Dean of the Faculty/Vice President for Academic Affairs. In the case of a disagreement between the department and the Dean of the Faculty/Vice President for Academic Affairs, ATC will provide an additional recommendation for the President's consideration. If the candidate is denied reappointment, the candidate may appeal if there is the support of two- thirds of the faculty who participated in the initial review (including the candidate) or of the Dean of the Faculty/Vice President for Academic Affairs. Appeals in the sixth year will be referred to ATC for an additional recommendation to the President.
After the initial six years, Library faculty who are reappointed will receive contracts of alternating lengths of four and three years with reviews in the penultimate year of each contract. Library faculty at the rank of (full) Librarian will receive a contract of seven years with a review in the penultimate year. In all cases, if the review is negative, the faculty member will be given a probationary contract, the minimal length of which will be one year. The length of the probationary contract can be extended by a recommendation of the Chair to the Dean of the Faculty/Vice President for a period not to exceed three years. . . .
There being no further discussion; the Motion will lie over until the next meeting.
REPORTS
On behalf of the Committee on Educational Policies and Planning, Assistant Professor Steve Ives shared a PowerPoint presentation summarizing the results of CEPP鈥檚 review of the quantitative Student Evaluations of Teaching (qSET), which included a brief history of the development of the current qSET as well as information concerning CEPP鈥檚 internal and external review process; and CEPP鈥檚 analysis of the qSET, including a review of congruity between individual items and overall scores, whether qSET scores are changing over time, and student, course or instructor characteristics that influence qSET scores. The presentation also included a summary of the results of CEPP鈥檚 qSET faculty survey, including whether faculty feel the current qSET forms are working well, whether instructors take student evaluations seriously, whether there is a specific overall qSET score which demonstrates a minimum standard of effective teaching, whether the qSET provides fair and honest evaluations of teaching, whether instructor characteristics influence qSET scores, and whether the qSET scores correlate strongly with student learning outcomes. Professor Ives concluded his presentation by stating that CEPP plans to continue their work on the review of the current qSET and anticipates holding open fora in the fall to engage more faculty in reviewing the data further. He acknowledged the tremendous work completed by the Office of Institutional Research in this review and thanked the faculty for completing the survey.
Following Professor Ives鈥� report, brief discussion was then held concerning whether the data were presented relative to the humanities, the components of the 鈥渙ther鈥� divisional category, the relationship between class size and student satisfaction, whether bias concerning international faculty was reviewed, and the relationship between hours per week devoted to course work and course satisfaction.
PRESIDENT鈥橲 REPORT
President Glotzbach provided an update on the endowment, particularly relating to socially responsible investing. He reported that the total endowment fund at the moment approximates $437 million; excluding real assets and private equity, the endowment approximates $372 million. President Glotzbach stated that the 吃瓜爆料 portfolio is distributed among more than 50 investment managers in 7 different classes of investment. In his last report, President Glotzbach informed the community that the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees allocated $5 million to the Generation Sustainable Fund, a private equity fund that invests in companies meeting its Environmental/Sustainable/Governance (ESG) criteria; to date, $625,000 has been called (invested). In addition to Generation, four other funds that 吃瓜爆料 holds are managed using value-based ESG strategies; of these five total, four are also signatories to the United Nations鈥� 鈥淧rinciples for Responsible Investment.鈥� Once the Generation investment is fully funded, 9 percent of 吃瓜爆料鈥檚 portfolio will be managed following ESG strategies. Additionally, Colonial Consulting, the firm used to advise the Investment Committee, has been working on a major initiative over the past five years focusing on increasing the diversity of the investment managers they consider and recommend to clients. Firms identified through this initiative have outperformed their benchmarks in all but of 13 asset classes. One such firm is currently under consideration by the Investment Committee. President Glotzbach鈥檚 complete Endowment Update is attached (see attached).
DEAN OF THE FACULTY AND VICE PRESIDENT FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS鈥� REPORT
DOF/VPAA Orr reported that, after consultation with the Chair of FEC, he would relinquish a portion of the remaining time for his report to allow faculty members representing the group Inclusive 吃瓜爆料 to make a statement.
Faculty representing Inclusive 吃瓜爆料
The following statement was read by faculty members representing Inclusive 吃瓜爆料 (Professor Kate Berheide, Associate Professor Katie Hauser, Professor Bill Lewis, Associate Professor Casey Schofield, Professor Rik Scarce, and Associate Professor Kelly Sheppard):
In light of the celebratory nature of this important meeting, we want to start by congratulating our retiring colleagues on their exceptional careers; indeed, these achievements highlight the best of what our 吃瓜爆料 community can be.
Unfortunately, a pressing issue is currently preventing many of our colleagues from experiencing this positive version of 吃瓜爆料. The urgent nature of this issue makes it necessary for us to bring it to the community today rather than waiting until the Fall. We would like to invite a group of tenured faculty who have agreed to join with us, as they are able, during this statement to join us.
We are here to intervene on behalf of a group of vulnerable faculty colleagues in departments across campus. In recent history, our colleagues in a number of departments have had their scholarship and teaching publicly devalued, faced both explicit and veiled threats of institutional reprisals and external litigation, and have been subject to repeated antagonistic interpersonal encounters. All of these actions have happened in more than a single department.
There have been numerous conversations about why we have failed to make progress in retaining the talented and diverse faculty we succeed in recruiting. We are standing today because we see a direct link between the toxic culture that our untenured colleagues are facing, and the college鈥檚 broader struggles with retention. When our community fails to take action when its values are undermined, we can no longer claim that those values constitute our community.
Failing to act in moments like this is the problem. This is how we lose talented teachers and scholars. This is how we fail to be inclusive. This is how our community deteriorates. This is not OK.
Today, we stand publicly to demonstrate our commitment to colleagues across the college who are persevering in the face of hostility. We stand against the actions that have created these toxic work environments, and also against the complicity of silence that has allowed them to continue.
Each of us is responsible for contributing to a positive work culture and intervening on behalf of vulnerable colleagues, and these are endeavors we must work at each and every day. In this moment of celebration, we honor our colleagues who have intervened and served our college with distinction and we invite you to join us in saying that we want 吃瓜爆料 College to be a place that truly embraces its core values as an educational community.
We want 吃瓜爆料 to be the best version of itself. This falls to all of us. We must do better.
Following a round of applause, Professor Susannah Mintz, speaking not on behalf of her department but as a concerned member of the community, acknowledged the seriousness of the challenges that we face. She reiterated her emphatic support of her junior colleagues as well as senior faculty and affirmed her commitment, however halting and inadequate our efforts have sometimes been, to making English a department in which all faculty feel they can thrive. Professor Mintz expressed her hope that people will remember that the story of any department's troubles is always more complex than it may seem from the outside and stated that it has been her honor to serve as chair of such accomplished teachers, scholars, and artists. She further stated that it distresses her to know the pain so many of feel and pledges to continue the work, in whatever capacity she can best contribute, to the furthering of our collective mission.
DOF/VPAA Orr responded as well, noting that in his first year at 吃瓜爆料 he has been enormously impressed by the strength and quality of the faculty but that he has also been deeply troubled by evidence of contentious working environments in a number of departments. In some cases, untenured faculty members feel vulnerable, unsupported by senior colleagues, and attacked and marginalized. He indicated that he has heard stories of bullying and intimidation between and among tenured faculty members, learnt about long-standing departmental disputes and conflicts, spoken with senior colleagues who feel dismissed and rejected by other members of their departments, and heard descriptions of what can charitably be called benign neglect towards new departmental colleagues, a neglect that leads these new colleagues to conclude that they are not welcome at 吃瓜爆料. He noted that the feeling of not being welcomed at 吃瓜爆料 can disproportionately affect faculty of color.
DOF/VPAA Orr declared that he is deeply committed to diversity and inclusion and to working towards a more equitable and inclusive environment in which all faculty can flourish and feel that they belong. He stated that some institutions have moved to address such problems by requiring departments to develop written plans for ensuring that new hires feel fully included, others have adopted anti-bullying policies, or required all departments to develop standards of interaction for departmental meetings. He wonders whether there is interest in exploring such approaches. How does 吃瓜爆料 want to address dysfunctional department cultures and climates, while continuing to respect individual academic freedom and rights?
DOF/VPAA said that one of things that has struck him about 吃瓜爆料, in contrast to previous institutions where he has served, is how strong the culture of departmental and program autonomy is鈥攚hat has been described as 鈥渟tates rights.鈥� Such autonomy permeates many aspects of our collective life. If we are genuinely committed to addressing contentious and dysfunctional departmental climates, he wonders whether we should think more about the implications of our independent departmental cultures and our understanding of shared governance. To that end, he indicated that he would be delighted to partner with existing governance structures鈥擣EC, ATC, PC, CAFR, or other groups鈥攖o think creatively about strategies for addressing and improving department culture.
Next fall, we will receive the results of the HEDS climate survey, which DOF/VPAA Orr hopes can inform the development of new initiatives. He is already planning to partner with the CLTL and with Joshua Woodfork to develop ideas for fostering inclusion and addressing departmental climate issues. In addition, the CLTL and the Dean of the Faculty鈥檚 office will be offering a training workshop for department chairs at the end of May that will focus on issues of faculty retention and managing people and conflict. DOF/VPAA Orr hopes that we can continue to provide more training and support for department chairs and program directors to equip them with the skills to partner with colleagues in promoting a healthy departmental climate. He stressed that any plan to address departmental culture needs to involve the collective will of the community. To that end, he welcomes any input, advice, and suggestions and invited anyone to either e-mail him or make an appointment to meet with him. DPF/VPAA Orr鈥檚 remarks were followed by applause.
In concluding his report, he announced that arrangements are being made to commemorate Michael Hedges and Willem Golden, two deceased members of this year鈥檚 graduating class, at Commencement. With the support of the Committee on Academic Standing and CEPP, these students will be recognized at Commencement with the award of honorary degrees in memoriam. At next month鈥檚 Faculty Meeting, when the regular degrees are approved, Registrar Dave DeConno will present a resolution to award degrees in memoriam to these two members of the class of 2019.
DOF/VPAA Orr allowed an opportunity for any questions or comments. Associate Professor Linda Hall commented that she had been invited to stand during the statement on behalf of Inclusive 吃瓜爆料 but that many of her colleagues had not. She asked how the people who had been invited to stand had been selected, but no one responded; perhaps, she continued, there would have been more faculty standing if they had been asked to stand. She concluded by stating that Inclusive 吃瓜爆料 did not feel very inclusive to her.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:03 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,