Faculty Policies Committee Minutes
Members present: Marc Miller, Donna Wear, Wendy Turner, Pay Hayward, Tom Crute, Wayne Mixon, Peggy Ruth Geren and Katherine Sweeney.
Guest: Dr. Sullivan
Marc Miller called the meeting to order at
Department Chair Evaluations-Marc introduced Dr. Sullivan. Dr. Sullivan indicated that he, Dr. Bloodworth and Marc had spent a great deal of time in their recent meetings discussing the document that FPC drafted, as well as the overall subject of evaluation. In his view there are two components to effective chair evaluation—determining if there is a plan for a department and the process for implementing it, and determining if there are issues that are preventing the advancement of the plan. The method for collecting this information may vary by department and college within the university. There are some faculty who feel as if the deans may not be receiving all of the information needed to make informed decisions concerning the effectiveness of chairs. All faculty should be permitted and encouraged to offer suggestions in the development of their department’s unit plan. There was a general discussion concerning the departmental unit plans and chair evaluations and how they work together. There are some faculty who feel as if there is not adequate feedback from the deans to them concerning the actual evaluation of the chairs by the deans. There was discussion concerning how specific this feedback should be. In Dr. Sullivan’s opinion the deans should evaluate department chairs based on both their own assessment of performance, as well as adequate input from that chair’s faculty. How they gather that input should be left to the individual deans. He also feels that all information gathered by the dean should be shared with the chair. Dr. Sullivan thanked FPC for all of their work in this area and thanked them for allowing him to discuss his thoughts with them.
Promotion and Tenure and Professional Leave-Marc indicated that Dr. Bloodworth had some concerns with the current proposals from FPC. Marc had to leave at this time for another appointment. FPC will discuss these in detail at a future meeting.
Wendy Turner agreed to assume the role of chair in Marc’s
absence. The minutes of the
Wendy distributed a draft of a professional leave document that she crafted last year for FPC. There was discussion about this document relative to the one that University Council had reviewed at its last meeting.
Pam Hayward distributed a draft definition of “lecturer” for inclusion in the Faculty Manual. There was discussion concerning the origins of this category of faculty. Katherine Sweeney volunteered to gather information concerning this added category for discussion at the next meeting.
Wendy reminded the group that there would be no meeting on
The meeting was adjourned at
Respectfully submitted,
Katherine Sweeney