Faculty Council Meeting of Tuesday, 28 January 2003

President: Joe Liles; Vice-president: John Woodmansee; Secretary: Floyd Bullard

Minutes

Announcements

The meeting began at 3:50PM.  Kevin Cromwell announced that there would be a Sadie Hawkins/Valentine's Day dance this weekend and faculty are welcome.  Joe announced a home wrestling match this afternoon.  Mike Newbauer announced a committee to consider what students would be in the Royal Center, and whether Hunt might become a coed dorm.

Agenda Item 1:  Tenure question 

We never closed the tenure question.  Are we still interested in tenure?  After the faculty voted on performance-based contracts, our administration was advised by Betsy Bunting and legal counsel that it was not a good idea, and did not pursue it with the Board of Trustees.  So if it were a choice between what we have now (term contracts) and tenure, are we interested in pursuing tenure?  Answer: yes.

Agenda Item 2:  Seminars

Joe would like an ad hoc committee formed of faculty volunteers to make a recommendation regarding seminars that are not "dynamically led" by NCSSM faculty.  Volunteers?  Don Houpe, Peggy Craft, Juan Scivally, Maria Hernandez, and Jon Miller volunteered.

Agenda Item 3: Scheduling on Alt Days

Jon Miller proposed the following motion, which was sent to faculty via email prior to this meeting:

As part of our ongoing effort to reduce student and staff stress, I move that students and teachers not be administratively scheduled (Student Life Courses, assemblies, meetings) for more than 2 hours on any alt day and that these times be concurrent for students and staff so that students have as much time as possible and in large blocks not only to work on homework, projects, and make-up work but also to confer with their teachers about these activities.

The motion was seconded.

Joan Barber spoke to say that many efforts have already been made, per recommendation by Faculty Council last year, to give students and staff unscheduled time on Alt Days.

Jon Miller was happy to amend it to say, "I move that every effort be made that...".

Someone else proposed that a block of time--say, two hours--be scheduled on every Alt Day for students to meet with faculty.  Miller said, No.  Students need a very big block of unscheduled time to plan themselves and do their work, or whatever they need to do.  Student stress is not released by us planning their time for them.

A suggestion was made to take out the word "administratively" from the motion, and also to add "...or with other staff..." after "teachers".

A motion was made, seconded, and voted upon (majority in favor) to table the motion.

Agenda Item 4:  Teacher recommendations for student leadership positions

The following motion was proposed:

In the last several years the call for in-house student evaluations for various in-house leadership positions has increased. In an effort to provide the best information possible and to reduce staff work load, I move that a master list of students applying for each particular position be circulated to staff and faculty who would be invited to respond positively or negatively to individuals on that list. This list could, in fact, come with an approve/disapprove scale beside each name on the list and an invitation to comment more fully on individuals in attachments. This process offers the possibility of garnering a richer sense of the community's opinion, while perhaps freeing up that individual who is called upon to write 5-15 full responses.

The motion was seconded. 

Mike Newbauer said that he found staff (including faculty) input very helpful, and that there were two cuts for RLA's, the second of which involved sending a list of all students still being considered to the staff to ask for any positive or negative comments about students on the list.

Discussion ensued.  A suggestion was made to make a first cut, then ask for letters of recommendation, then send around a list of remaining candidates.  We need to respect one another's time.

A vote was taken.  For: 12   Against: 8  Abstain: 5

Agenda Item 5: Essay writing prompts for admissions

Letita Mason said that that just as the interview is still in the process of changing, so Admissions would like applicants to respond to essay prompts that really provide them with more useful information about the students.  These would be essays that applicants write on Discovery Day and that would be scored afterwards.  These would replace the essays or stories that students currently write in response to black and white pictures.  Letita asked that we help come up with prompts and send them to her.

Is the goal to measure verbal skills or to find out what the students are like?  Answer: more the latter.  Some faculty expressed concern about that, especially if the students receive different prompts, or if they think they're being scored on writing skill when really it's about content, or if we don't have some other measure of students' writing skills.  Letita responded to a question by saying that the selection committee would have access both to the students' essays and to the scores provided by Measurement Incorporated, based on a scoring rubric to the development of which the faculty will have contributed.

Agenda Item 6: What are we doing well at NCSSM? What do we need to do to improve?

Joe Liles & Dot Doyle 45 minutes (will be continued next Faculty Council meeting)

This agenda item was never addressed.  It will be picked up at the next FC meeting.