Faculty Policies Committee Minutes, March 1, 2004

Present: Michelle Benedict, Tom Crute, Gordon Eisenman, Cliff Gardiner, Marc Miller, Jeff Heck (secretary), Katherine Sweeney, Wendy Turner, Donna Wear, Sabina Widner, Janice Whiting

Guest: VPAA Sam Sullivan

Minutes from February 23, 2004 were approved as distributed

OLD BUSINESS

1. Fall Break –

Vice President for Academic Affairs Sam Sullivan joined the committee to discuss the future of a Fall Break option. If the committee is able to resolve problems with the proposal by March 15, the process may continue. Otherwise, it needs to be handled by next year’s committee, as it is time to print the Summer and Fall schedules. The issue of whether or not students are required to successfully complete all the requirements before walking at graduation, if there are last minute problems, may be raised as a separate issue.

2. Timing of Grades –

The informal and non-binding survey of faculty about the timing of grades produced results that were about evenly divided between faculty who wanted to make grades available as soon as they were posted by individual faculty, and those who wanted students to wait until all grades were due. Tom Crute noted that faculty may still choose to release grades any time they wish, by posting them on their door or by other means outside of Elroy. Student names or social security numbers (or even parts thereof) may not be used, however. One solution is to assign a random number to each student. The policy “Grades will be available to students electronically at the time grades are due.” was adopted by unanimous vote.

3. Sabbaticals –

Marc Miller distributed a packet of information about the sabbatical policy at the Board of Regents, ASU, Columbus State University and Georgia College and State University.

The Board of Regents must approve all sabbatical requests from faculty at all university system schools. Sabbaticals are available at ASU and provide half-pay. (The other half of the salary hires a temporary replacement for that semester’s classes.)

The FPC felt the information on the Sabbatical process might be confusing and should be reviewed. Wendy Turner will form a subcommittee to review the policy and process and suggest possible alterations. At some point, family leave policy information will need insertion.

4. Agenda Reduction –

Marc Miller requested that FPC members review the agenda and think of what items are possible to resolve this semester. For example, evening parking problems are not likely to change this semester regardless of our recommendations, and it might be dropped as an issue for discussion this term.

NEW BUSINESS

1. Bi-Annual Faculty Review –

In discussing a request that the university consider evaluating tenured faculty only every two years, it was noted that this would conflict with accreditation requirements in at least two colleges. The committee voted to drop this item from the agenda as an item for university-wide action. Individual colleges might still consider this approach.

The committee also discussed and voted to remove the issue of reducing the number of student evaluations done of faculty. Current policy requires that evaluations be done each semester, and that the campus-wide evaluation form be used each Fall semester.

All other agenda items were deferred.

Next Meeting: March 8, 2004, 3 p.m.

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