Faculty Policies Committee Minutes, February 17, 2003, 3 p.m.

 

Present: Michelle Benedict, Barbara Coleman, Bill Dodd, Gordon Eisenman, Cliff Gardiner, Jim Garvey, Andy Hauger (chair), Jeff Heck (secretary), Donna Hobbs, Bill Reese, Jana Sandarg, Sabina Widner

 

Minutes of February 10, 2003 were approved as amended.

 

Agenda items: Old Business

 

1. Faculty Recognition

            Additional nominations were received for outstanding faculty member.

 

2. Parking

            Andy Hauger will request that Public Safety implement a graduated system of parking fines to make more parking available for faculty. Students are parking in faculty slots, and some are willing to pay the small fine each time they are caught in order to continue parking conveniently. A graduated system would increase the fine after multiple offences.

 

3. Sabbaticals

            Andy Hauger spoke with President Bloodworth about sabbaticals for faculty. The president felt changes were unlikely with the priorities of the current leadership in Georgia.

 

4. Sexual Harassment Committee Policy

            The FPC continued a paragraph-level review of the proposed changes to the Sexual Harassment Committee policy. The committee discussed the record-keeping process for informal and formal complaints; discussed who sets the threshold for action on any complaint, the complainant or committee members; and, discussed obstacles to resolution of complaints. It was noted that students sometimes would not carry through with complaints though there was a problem that needed addressing, but that committee members should not be able to carry the issue further on their own as it would violate student privacy. Anyone on campus may initially receive a complaint but that person should redirect the complainant to the Sexual Harassment Committee. The SHC will work to reword some sections based on the FPC recommendations and submit a new version of the policy by March 3. The FPC will email a copy of the proposed policy to faculty, then host a forum for faculty discussion on March 10. Any further changes needed will be included prior to the final University Council meeting on March 27.  

 

5. Promotion and Tenure Recommendations

            Bill Dodd distributed the results of an informal survey of select Arts and Sciences chairs about requiring inclusion of grade distribution data and/or comment about the data for each faculty member as part of the promotion and tenure process. Reaction was strongly negative.

            Bill Reese will email suggestions for rewording three text sections of promotion and tenure proposed policy changes.

 

6. Cullum Series Changes

            Jana Sandarg presented a draft application for creation of the Cullum 2000 level class. The committee reviewed both this document and a list of suggested changes to the Cullum Committee charge in the faculty manual. Both were approved, but the latter needs to be packaged differently for direct insertion into the Faculty Manual. Andy Hauger will help with the reshaping if needed. Bill Dodd will verify the approval path required for inclusion of the class in area E of the core. The application for the new class will be forwarded to the curriculum committees for consideration. Jana will bring a bibliography and syllabus for review at the next meeting.

 

Other Agenda Items

            Discussion of the email policy was carried over to the next meeting.

 

Adjourned 4:25 p.m.
Next meeting: February 24, 2003, 3 p.m., Science Building