Faculty Policies Committee Minutes
Members present: Marc Miller, Bruce Saul, Peggy Ruth Geren, Barry Thompson, Tom Crute, Pam Hayward, Jana Sandarg, Wendy Turner, Wayne Mixon, Janice Williams Whiting and Katherine Sweeney
Marc Miller called the meeting to order at 3:30 pm. The minutes from October 18 were accepted as posted to the FPC intranet and approved unanimously.
University Council business-Marc shared with the group what had transpired at the last University Council meeting. The FPC proposal for the creation of a fall break for students and faculty, as well as the expanded exam period and additional day for faculty grading have been sent by University Council to the Student Government Association and to the Academic Policies Committee for their review. The FPC proposal for a modification to the membership of FPC will be on the agenda of the November 10 faculty meeting. This proposal would limit membership on FPC to members of the faculty not already serving on other statutory bodies by virtue of their positions.
Add/drop schedule-Marc shared with the group the memo from a faculty member who suggested dropping students who miss the first day of class in order to allow other students to enroll. He also shared with the group the Resolution from the Student Government Association seeking to increase the number of add drop days from two to five. This resolution was presented at the last University Council meeting. University Council has passed this resolution to Academic Policies for consideration and Marc will forward the memo he received to Academic Policies as well.
Outstanding Faculty Member award-Peggy Ruth Geren is currently serving on the Faculty Recognition Committee. If FPC wants to suggest changes to the process by which the achievements of nominees are identified, they should do so soon because there are fairly tight deadlines. She and Janice Williams Whiting agreed to provide FPC with a document for consideration at the next meeting. Jana Sandarg also suggested the inclusion of past recipients of all faculty awards when the call for nominations is sent out. Peggy Ruth and Janice will also draft a description of the Outstanding New Faculty Award discussed by FPC at a previous meeting.
Faculty attendance at commencement-Bruce Saul shared with the group that the Ceremonies Committee had asked if FPC would be willing to officially support the importance of faculty attendance at commencement. There was general discussion and the group will discuss further at a future meeting.
Posting Policy-Jana asked if there had been further communication concerning the current posting policy. Eddie Howard will be asked to attend the November 15 FPC meeting.
Course evaluations-Donna Wear will update FPC on the work of the Course Evaluation subcommittee at next week’s meeting.
Cree-Walker Professor of Education review- Members of the
evaluation committee will consist of Charles Jackson and Sam Hardy from the
Department Chair Evaluation-Marc asked the group to bring written comments to the next meeting concerning the statement of purpose for the evaluation of department chairs. The group will then work to incorporate these thoughts into a format that fits with the current planning process. The goal will be to vote on a proposal at the November 15 meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at