President John Kolena called the meeting to order at 3:50 PM. Guests included Jo Ann Barber, Jonathan Pahl, and Steve Warshaw. John Kolena announced that the rest of the meetings for this year would be held in the Lecture Hall of the ETC.

Steve Warshaw announced that he could not stay for the meeting, as he was in the middle of the 19th dismissal hearing in the last 12 months. This is roughly twice the normal number of such hearing for a 12-month period.

Gretchen Skidmore, in her role as Faculty liaison to the Board Finance Committee announced that the Finance Committee met and discussed several items, including what to do with director's house, the approval of money for dorm wiring, the completion of the installation of smoke detectors, the progress on the Royal Outreach Center, repairs to the stucco on Hunt, installation of more energy efficient lighting on campus, and the air conditioning of Bryan Residence Hall. Gretchen said that the committee always asks for her input on Faculty concerns at their meetings. She urged anyone with financial concerns to contact her.

John Kolena announced that he was asking the Faculty Welfare Committee to study the issue of course credit for our students who might take a course (via distance learning or the web) from another high school. Such courses are currently being offered by Consortium and other schools and we need to have a policy concerning NCSSM credit for such courses.

Joan Barber announced that the Curriculum Council has formulated a set of "big questions" about the upcoming miniterm. These questions and a list of currently proposed courses are currently posted here.

The first agenda item was a report from the Action Plan Committee. Chairman Jonathan Pahl, a senior, reported on the committee's charge and progress. He stated that it was evident that there are serious problems at the school currently. He cited the number of dismissals and the recent vandalism and thefts as symptoms of a bigger problem. The committee has met and come up with four area of concern: Community, Discipline, Communications, and Equality. For more detail on these items, see the posting . It was reported that the Parent's Council is also discussing many of these same issues.

Issues that are of concern to the committee include the inconsistency in the enforcing of rules in residence halls, both between halls and particularly between male and female halls. There is also inequity in opportunities between halls. Some halls have food runs, for example, and others do not.

The Action Plan Committee is looking for both short-term and long-term solutions. The short-term solutions are meant to address the rest of this school year while the long-term solutions are aimed at next fall and beyond. One long-term solution, stated Dot Doyle, one of the faculty members on the committee, was to restructure the drop/add process so that is it faster and fairer to all students.

Students are selectively deciding which rules to follow and which to disregard. Problems during the academic day often are reflected by problems in the residence halls at night. Students' attitudes toward academics and toward rules seem to have changed and as a result, we need to look at our courses and rules. The Action Plan Committee needs to look at the total picture, at student life and academics and is looking to the faculty for suggestions.

It was suggested that we do not spend enough professional development time on our parenting and counseling roles. The practices of family style dinners and teachers as coaches, ways of having teachers far more involved in the daily lives of the students have diminished. We are very much in a day-school mentality. We need to find more ways to interact together as a community. It was also suggested that our daily schedule should be more flexible so that some of us could have time off in day in exchange for more of a presence here in the evenings.

Students appreciate faculty being on campus after hours for games and social activities. However, most of us put in much longer hours than public school teachers, staying every day until 5:00 PM, conducting tutorials and seminars. While it is recognized that faculty do need to do more for students, it is also important for the Student Life staff to be function well and doing their jobs. If the pay for these jobs is inadequate for the demands of the job, we need to address this. More care should also go into the process of selecting the student Residence Life Instructors. Faculty input into these positions has decreased in recent years and needs to be studied.

It was noted that there are many hard-working, well-behaved students here and that we need to find ways for them to be recognized and way for them to exert more influence on campus. The positive accomplishments of our students need to be recognized and celebrated.

Faculty with specific recommendation for the Action Plan Committee should contact members of the committee.

John Kolena summarized what he told the Educational Policies and Planning Committee of the Board. He mentioned three main areas of concern.

1. Technical training and for faculty, including professional development, sabbaticals, and technical support staff for the residential program.
2. Interdisciplinary courses, asking for recognition of existing courses as such and more than lip service in implementing such courses.
3. Professionalize the Residential Life Staff, giving them higher pay along with higher expectations.
4. Will there be a residential school here in five to ten years?

The issue before us is how to proceed with the faculty recommendations to the EPPC. It was suggested that we start within departments, but countered that that fragments us again. Perhaps it would be better if the faculty as a whole decided some of the larger issues, what we want to do educationally as an institution. Position papers written by interdisciplinary committees were suggested. A retreat or use of the in service days at the end of the year were mentioned. It was suggested that a cross-community committee similar to the Action Plan Committee be established. The appealing aspect of this committee seems to be the support that the Cabinet has given to the committee. If such a committee could be formed with some assurance by the Cabinet that their recommendations would be seriously considered, perhaps this would be a worthwhile exercise.

In addressing the last item, the existence of a residential school here in five to ten years, President Kolena remarked that in the first two decades the school has not been seen as a place to propagate change for the rest of the state. The residential program and the outreach program remain separate entities, with the latter not clearly defined. For the most part what happens here at NCSSM and what happens in the rest of the state are disjoint.

The meeting adjourned at 5:00 PM

Respectfully submitted,

John A. Goebel,

Secretary

March 29, 1999