Faculty Policies Committee Minutes, April 19, 2004

 

Present: Michelle Benedict, Tom Crute, Gordon Eisenman, Marc Miller, Jeff Heck (secretary), Bill Reese (chair), Wendy Turner, Donna Wear, Sabina Widner

 

Minutes from April 12, 2004 were approved as corrected

 

 

OLD BUSINESS

 

1. Faculty Luncheon  –

            Gordon Eisenman mentioned a faculty house provided at Francis Marion University. Buffet lunches are provided at $5 for all you can eat. Two guest rooms are available for visiting faculty (consultants, for example). The house is funded in part by search committee funds from different departments on campus.

 

2. Promotion and Tenure Committee –

            Gordon Eisenman counted the number of full professors by department in relation to their availability to serve on promotion and tenure committees. Eisenman will write up his findings for the FPC.

 

3. Cullum 2006 –

The FPC unanimously approved the topic of “Health and Healthcare in the New Millennium” as the topic for Cullum 2006, to be chaired by Rebecca Rogers, Psychology, and McKinley Thomas, Kinesiology and Health Sciences. A number of volunteers have already contacted Rogers about the committee, which will begin work in Fall 2004 and host a series of events in Spring 2006. The committee membership must be recommended by the Committee on Committees (COC) and approved by Dr. Sam Sullivan, Vice President for Academic Affairs. Anyone who has not yet volunteered to serve on the committee and wishes to do so should contact Katherine Sweeney or Wendy Turner, COC subcommittee.

 

4. Faculty Mentoring CD –

            Cathy Barner, Assistant Director for Support Services in Information Technology Services, met with Sabina Widner to demonstrate a beginning version of a CD to be provided to new faculty. There are still a variety of decisions to be made in the organization of the CD. The FPC will invite Barner to repeat the demonstration at the final meeting this year. Marc Miller will contact her to discuss inclusion of the content he has generated. Michelle Benedict will alert Richard House to be ready to make the recording planned for the CD. Letters from VPAA Sullivan and Bill Reese have been collected. Sabina will contact Nancy Childers regarding a letter from Dr. Bloodworth. A member of next year’s FPC will need to continue to track progress on the CD to ensure it will be ready for new faculty in the fall.

 

5. Institutional Development –

            By unanimous vote, talking point number 14 from a list of possible ideas relating to institutional development at ASU will be extracted and sent to Bob Johnston, who is leading a study on retention. This talking point, which relates to retention issues, will have a cover letter from Bill Reese.

 

6. Committee on Committees –

            The deadline nears for faculty to indicate their committee interests for 2004-5. The FPC edited a cover letter, provided by Wendy Turner, which will be emailed and prepare the way for submission of preferences. One paper copy of the cover letter will be sent to department heads for duplication and distribution to faculty members who prefer non-electronic formats.

 

7. Twelve-Month Payments–

            Nine-month contract faculty may have their salary paid in twelve monthly payments if they so choose, beginning in fall of 2004. Wachovia, the bank handling the disbursements, will require that the faculty member have a account.

 

8. EForms –

            Adobe Acrobat 6 standard edition, now available to all faculty on campus as part of a campus license, will work with Netscape, but help from Information Technology Services may be required. Tom Crute will draft an announcement to the faculty at large concerning this next step toward a paperless campus. He will note that in some cases a paper copy will need to be printed and routed to allow for the collection of signatures.

 

9. Letter of Appreciation –

            Bill Reese will forward a letter of appreciation to Charles Jenks, outgoing Faculty Secretary, now that the new secretary has been named. The text of the letter is appended to these minutes.

 

10. Timing of Grades –

            The FPC will review the timing of grade releases with Katherine Sweeney in next week’s meeting.

 

11. Credit for Teaching Overseas –

            While some financial recompense is available for faculty who teach overseas, including an initial stipend and the possible pursuit of teaching development funds, the compensation falls far short of compensation gained by teaching classes at this university. It may be possible for deans to build funding for these classes into their summer budgets. Next year’s committee may wish to pursue the possibility of changes to the faculty role model or prepare a letter to the deans of the colleges.

 

12. FPC Membership –

            The FPC unanimously approved a motion concerning joint membership in the FPC and other statutory bodies on campus. The policy change will be forwarded to the Faculty Secretary for addition to the agenda of the next faculty meeting.

 

13. Appreciations –

            Motions thanking the outgoing chair and secretary were presented and unanimously approved.

 

 

 

 

NEW BUSINESS

 

1. New Program Approvals –

            A concern about the process for reviewing new academic program proposals will be turned over to the FPC for next year at the April 26 meeting.

 

Adjourned at 5:10 p.m.

 

All other agenda items were deferred.

 

 

Final Meeting: April 26, 2004, 3 p.m.

Allgood Hall, Dean’s Office Conference room, within the N210 suite

 

 

 

 

 

 

Letter of Appreciation to Dr. Charles Jenks

 

April 20, 2004

 

Dr. Charles Jenks

Department of Teacher Education

Augusta State University

 

Dear Dr. Jenks:

 

On behalf of the Faculty Policies Committee, I want to thank you for your outstanding service as the Augusta State University Faculty Secretary for the past two years.  The committee members and I recognize that the role of Faculty Secretary is vital to the functioning of this institution and that you have performed well above what is expected of someone in that position. 

 

Considering the array of responsibilities from publishing agendas and minutes to maintaining and updating the faculty manual and catalog, the fact that you have served without receiving any release time is noteworthy.   Thank you in particular for your detailed work on updating the catalog and faculty manual; I know that you spent countless hours on these essential documents.  Your careful work has been noticed and appreciated.  In fact, you have gone out of your way more than once at deadline time to accommodate the Faculty Policies Committee as you carried our items forward.

 

ASU is fortunate to have dedicated members like you who are willing to shoulder such duties.  You have made Augusta State University a better place with your service and we wish you well in your future endeavors. 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

William A. Reese, II

 

Chair, Faculty Policies Committee