Faculty Policies Committee Minutes,
Present:
Michelle Benedict, Tom Crute, Cliff Gardiner, Marc
Miller, Jeff Heck (secretary), Bill Reese (chair), Katherine Sweeney, Wendy
Turner, Donna Wear, Janice Whiting, Sabina Widner
Minutes from April (previously
approved) were reviewed
Fall Meeting Schedule – schedule conflicts
preclude some FPC members from meeting at
OLD BUSINESS
1. A Thank You - At the end of Spring semester, Andy Hauger, chair of the 2002-3 FPC, was awarded a name plate and business card holder for his excellent service as chair.
2. Committee on Committees - The committee received 109 electronic responses of the committee preferences form, out of about 200 potential respondents. Recommendations were generated to fill each of the committees, and the resulting list was forwarded to the VPAA, Dr. Sullivan. Thanks were expressed to the committee members, Katherine Sweeney, Michelle Benedict, Wendy Turner, Cliff Gardiner, and to Andy Hauger and Bill Reese who assisted in the process.
3. Part-timer Benefits - The FPC was alerted that only the Languages and Literature department listed their part-time faculty in the campus directory. The Faculty Manual requires listing of these faculty in the directory. Bill Reese forwarded a reminder via email to department heads that part-timers were required to be listed.
4. Employee Benefits - The FPC reviewed last year’s activity concerning employee benefits, particularly the method by which new faculty are introduced to their benefit options. The committee revisited last year’s survey of new faculty regarding their levels of satisfaction with the benefits they received. Don O’Neal has requested changes to this survey for use with this year’s new faculty.
5. Pool Hours – Closed issue unless further interest arises.
6. Geopolitics of Free Speech – The campus policy concerning areas of campus where students and community members may protest, hold rallies, speak publicly, etc., is under review by Dr. Barnabei’s office as of mid-summer.
7. Other Agenda Items – Cullum Committee and Book Vendor issues were reviewed in preparation for further action this year.
NEW BUSINESS
1. New Faculty
A. Breakfast – Marc Miller reported that the breakfast for new faculty was a positive experience and worthwhile.
B. Tips for New Faculty – Sabina Widner requested that the tips for mentoring new faculty be reviewed by each FPC member, with suggestions for changes emailed to her.
C. Photos – Kathy Schofe from Public Relations is arranging for photos of new faculty to be displayed on the ASU web site.
D. Organizational Chart – Janice Whiting thought this might be available through the President’s office.
E. Bill Reese requested that FPC members think of other means of making new faculty welcome and well situated.
2. FPC and Governance – Bill Reese reminded the committee that we need to stress accessibility. He asked for volunteers to attend each department’s meeting to announce how best to bring issues before the FPC and to remind faculty of the support available there. Any faculty member may bring an issue in written form to any FPC member, who will then present it to the overall committee. All issues brought to the committee will be worked on, though issues may not be handled immediately. Some issues may be bumped to later meetings when there are time constraints.
Reese also suggested that all major committees on campus could improve accessibility of their minutes by placing their minutes on the Web. Reese contacted Cathy Barner in Information Technology Services, who says ITS can publish to the Web digital minutes supplied to ITS if such a policy is enacted by FPC.
Tom Crute noted that the FPC agenda, distributed before each meeting to all faculty, would be more helpful if it provided more detail.
3. Campus Email Policy – one unit recently was told that faculty were required to use email to communicate with their students. This is not supported by a review of the email policy passed by the FPC this past year, which specifies that students must use Pipeline and that the school will use it as a means of passing official information to students, but which does not require faculty to use it to communicate with students. This remains at the discretion of the faculty member. This may need further clarification.
4. FPC Methodology – Issues will generally be given to subcommittees to handle, in order to keep the full committee meeting length to a minimum.
5. All other business was deferred to the next meeting.
Next Meeting:
Allgood Hall, Dean’s Office Conference room, N213 (within the N210 suite)