Announcements:

Dot invited members of the faculty to consider sponsoring a SADD chapter.

Joan invited members of the faculty to give input on the upcoming academic year calendar. Volunteers for an ad-hoc committee should let Dot know of their interest.

Sohair Ahmadi (Senior SGA Representative and Academic Committee Head) introduced herself to the faculty and invited faculty to communicate with her regarding academic issues.

Marlene Blakney is the SLI liaison to the faculty council along with Amy Wheeler.

Dot asked for volunteers for the position of liaison to the Personnel Committee of the Board of Trustees.

Third Decade Discussion

John Kolena reported on last year’s work involving the Third Decade discussions. Dot suggested that we come to consensus on what the future priorities for the school are from the faculty perspective. This would also aid the development office in setting their priorities. We discussed how to talk about this as a group, and Dot requested ideas on how to design a plan to prioritize the items that the faculty would like to see implemented. Phil Nelson encouraged the faculty to see this as an important task and emphasized that this will be important information for the new director to have to help us implement our future goals and plans. This would be a way for the faculty to have a big impact on the future of the school.

John Kolena suggested that different groups doing the same work would be less productive. He called on the school to figure out how to set these priorities as a group and that the faculty should have the job of leading this work.

Jonathan Bennett moved that we begin the discussion electronically. Dot then suggested that faculty e-mail her with responses on how to proceed with the prioritization process.

Dot will e-mail faculty about how to access the discussion board to start the dialogue.

Mini-term

Tom Clayton passed out packets for faculty regarding mini-term. Mini-term course information surveys are due to the Academic Programs office from the faculty by October 1. The date for planning mini-term 2000 is October 20. Tom emphasized the importance of submitting the forms and noticing the dates on the time line distributed. Students may request $10 dollars for materials. Each department has a limited amount of money to spend for mini-term, but money is available for course materials that could be used in another course later at NCSSM. Faculty should not pre-select people for their courses unless they are planning on traveling and need to make decisions based on travel requirements. Steve asked faculty to e-mail him if they are interested in a mini-sabbatical. The faculty should report on the form what the lowest and highest number possible would be for each course.

Approval of Minutes

The faculty approved the minutes from the last meeting.

Student Smoking Policy

Dr. Barber referred faculty to pp. 33-34 in the handbook regarding smoking on and off campus. A Level 3 is the consequence for smoking in room and a Level 2 for smoking on campus.

Dr. Barber emphasized that the new rules prohibit possession of tobacco products while students are under the jurisdiction of the school and then addressed the question regarding the penalties for being caught with tobacco products off campus.

Dr. Barber wants to keep students at NCSSM by implementing cessation programs for the students. There will be prevention programs held for our students by an organization from Duke and from an organization downtown. These will be available for all students on campus.

If students did not give up smoking over the summer then the school should try to intervene and aid them in this process. Up to this point, 4 students have been caught smoking off campus. Penalty options range from picking up cigarette butts, to community service in the emphysema lab, to smoking cessation classes. Parent conferences are desirable in each situation. In addition, the school is attending to options for stress relievers and ways to improve time management. The goal from the perspective of the school is not to dismiss students but to help them be academically successful and to help them to divert their energies into healthy ways to deal with stress. Dr. Barber stated that it is a priority as well to keep them from smoking in the neighborhood.

When asked what a faculty member should do when encountering a smoking student on or off campus, Dr. Barber responded that faculty should get their name and call her. She will take over from there.

If Dr. Barber is not there, faculty should call the SLI on duty and they will call security to go down the street and get their name(s). Security will give the names to Dr. Barber.