Download Minutes 4-12-11.pdf

College of Arts and Sciences
Faculty Meeting
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
3:30 p.m.
Memorial Lounge, Waterman
MINUTES
1)
2)
Approval of the Minutes of the March 15 Faculty Meeting. Wolfgang Mieder
(German and Russian) made a motion to approve the minutes. This was
seconded by Tony Magistrale (English). The minutes were then approved by the
faculty.
Announcements – Dan Krymkowski
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Major Jackson Full Professor lecture postponed until fall
Kroepsch-Maurice Awards nominations: April 27 deadline
Staff Awards for Superior Performance: May 31 deadline for nominations
Suiter and APLE Award results
University Scholar Seminar: “The Benefits of Blundering in Research (and
Life),” George Osol (COM), April 14, 4:00pm, Memorial Lounge
f. Admitted Student Visit Days (April 15, 18, 22)
3)
Dean's Comments
Interim Dean Goldberg first gave a brief update on current tenure-track hires. He
commented that we now have successful hires in Chemistry, Russian, Philosophy, Art
History, Anthropology and Physics; have offers pending in Studio Art and soon in
Geography and Music; and are doing final interviews in Biology.
Following this, the Dean briefly addressed FY12 tenure-track recruitments, noting
there were fourteen submissions for seven tenure-track slots. He said he had sent
recommendations to Provost Knodell for positions in the following departments:
Biology, Chemistry, English, Geography, Political Science, Psychology, and Religion.
(He noted these were listed in alphabetical order, and that seven of these were among
the top eight recommended by the Academic Planning and Budget Committee.)
Dean Goldberg then spoke about the impact of the Presidential Search on the search
for a permanent dean of the College. He outlined three possible scenarios: (1)Continue
the Dean’s search as planned, commencing this spring; (2) delay the search for a year
and wait until we have a new President in the summer of 2013; (3) stagger the two, so
that the dean’s search would begin early in the fall and the candidates would come to
campus soon after the new President is announced. Dean Goldberg said that the
President and Provost (who would make the decision on timing) would discuss this at
the next chairs’ and directors’ meeting; the Dean encouraged others to provide
feedback as well.
At this point the Dean turned his attention to the latest changes to the General
Education proposal. He commented that the latest Gen Ed documents were
considerably different from those presented in February, and said that they would be
considered by the Curricular Affairs Committee later in the week; if approved, the
proposal would be voted on by the Faculty Senate in May.
The Dean indicated that the Gen Ed committee was hoping for an endorsement of the
basic conditions for Gen Ed requirements. He said that the committee has taken an
outcomes-based approach that would be implemented within the individual units.
The first goal is to seek approval of the outcomes. The next step would be the
establishment of a special ad hoc committee of the Faculty Senate, who would further
refine what this initiative looks like, explore implementation costs (all contingent upon
enough resources), etc. The Dean observed that feedback would be valuable to the
committee, and encouraged faculty to share their comments. He also encouraged
faculty to recognize that this is General Education – not liberal arts – as a threshold
that all students must meet to get a UVM degree.
A spirited discussion followed. Faculty expressed a number of concerns, including
how this would fit into our curriculum, the lack of agreement among committee
members about the inclusion of science, resource implications and resources being
diverted to things that are not fundamental, whether this will address the issue (and is
this really a problem?) of students having difficulty transferring from one unit to
another, and the need for data on what we are now doing well and where the gaps are.
Char Mehrtens (Geology professor and a Faculty Senator) strongly encouraged faculty
to run for these committees so that CAS is represented; Dean Goldberg agreed,
emphasizing that this should be a faculty initiative and should be designed by faculty.
Deb Ellis (Film and Television Studies), a Gen Ed committee member for two years,
said she was encouraged that the discussion had become much more faculty-driven.
She noted that initially they thought this process would take a year, and now (in the
second year) recognize it may take much longer.
4)
College Standing Committees
Curriculum Committee. After thanking the individual committees who had drafted the
guidelines for courses fulfilling CAS requirements in Humanities, Social Sciences,
Literature, and Fine Arts, Committee Chair Gregory Druschel opened the floor for
discussion on the proposal. Another lively discussion ensued, primarily focused on
the Social Sciences guidelines. Tom Streeter (Sociology) said he had shared this
proposal with a number of his colleagues, and they had commented that it didn’t cover
half of the courses in the department. Druschel pointed out that it was not supposed
to cover all the courses. Dean Goldberg further clarified that this is not a definition of
a Social Sciences course, but rather is meant to describe the requirements, the intent,
and what we want the student to take away from a course in Social Sciences. Streeter
argued that these guidelines do not describe what modern Social Scientists do; they
would filter out courses that Sociologists think are great introductions to the field, yet
would accept others. Meghan Cope (Geography) agreed, noting that the sticking point
is the scientific method, because many social sciences do not employ it.
Streeter asked why these guidelines were needed. Druschel responded that the
Curriculum Committee has to determine if a new class is appropriate to be counted
toward a particular distribution requirement; this was designed to help the committee
make that determination. Dean Goldberg added that the guidelines will help provide
more consistency and ease for the committee. Streeter sympathized with this goal,
but questioned whether this would be really helpful. After considerable discussion
and suggestions, Dean Goldberg proposed that the Social Sciences description be
tabled and brought back to the Curriculum Committee to get broader acceptance by
Social Scientists. Barbara Rodgers (Classics) made a motion to approve the
Humanities, Literature, and Fine Arts requirements; this was seconded by Rory
Waterman and approved by the faculty.
Nominations and Elections Committee : Matthias Brewer encouraged faculty to vote in
the College Committee election, and noted the slate of candidates: Academic Studies
Committee (Hammack and Bose); Admissions (Mathieu-Bohl and Toufexis); Honors
Committee (Chan and Otovo). He then reviewed the remaining calls for nominations
for College committees. Madalina Furis was the sole nominee for the full-term Natural
Sciences slot on the Nominations and Elections Committee; Jose Madalengoitia was
the sole nominee for the Natural Sciences slot on the Honors Committee. Both were
declared elected.
Brewer then reviewed the list of CAS nominees for Faculty Senate committees that had
been received since the last faculty meeting, and asked for additional nominations:
Faculty Senate Curricular Affairs Committee, one-year replacement position - one
nominee: Charlotte Mehrtens, Professor, Geology. Faculty Senate Educational and
Research Technologies Committee, one full-term position - two nominees: Barbara
Saylor Rodgers, Professor, Classics; and David Feurzeig, Asst. Professor, Music.
Faculty Senate Educational and Research Technologies Committee, one one-year
replacement position - four nominees: Cristina Mazzoni, Professor, Romance
Languages; Beverley Wemple, Assoc. Professor, Geography; Thomas Brennan, Assoc.
Professor, Art; and Jan Feldman, Assoc. Professor, Political Science. Faculty Senate
Financial and Physical Planning Committee, one two-year replacement position - one
nominee: Rona Delay, Assoc. Professor, Biology. There were no additional nominees.
Faculty Senate Standing Committees: The following faculty members were present to
provide a brief summary of their committee reports and/or to answer questions. Due
to the lateness of the hour, there was little discussion.
Curricular Affairs Committee – Deborah Ellis
Educational and Research Technologies Committee – Deborah Guber
Financial and Physical Planning Committee – Julie Roberts
Professional Standards Committee – Lokangaka Losambe
Research, Scholarship, and Graduate Education Committee – Rory Waterman
Student Affairs Committee – Sin yee Chan
5)
Old Business – None.
6)
New Business – None.
7)
Adjourn. A motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Rory Waterman
(Chemistry) and seconded by Ted Lyman (Art) and approved by all.
Respectfully submitted,
Sally Knight