Faculty Policies Meeting – August 21, 2006

Attending: Carol Rychly, Charles Jackson, Pam Jackson, Rick Pukis, Robert Reeves, Mike Searles, Jim Benedict, Tom Colbert, Sam Myers, Donna Hobbs, Cathy Tugmon (chair), and Debbie van Tuyll (secretary)

Tugmon called the meeting to order at 2:30 p.m.

1. The minutes of the April 24, 2006 meeting were approved.

2. Tugmon reported that she, Myers, and C. Jackson would be meeting with Nancy Childers on August. 22 to begin planning the Faculty Mentor/Mentee luncheon. They will set the date at that meeting.

3. Pukis reported on the experience of using the new computer program for volunteering for committee service. He said the new process went well but added that the Committee on Committees would be asking for a few changes. The committee discussed the process used to determine who would serve on committees and suggested several areas that also might be considered, including:

1. How to ensure that new faculty who need committee service for promotion and tenure have an opportunity to serve.

2. How many faculty members submitted requests for assignment that did not make it through to the Committee on Committes. This was true for at least one faculty member, and there may be others.

3. Whether it is possible to revise the program so that a faculty member can check whether his or her request went through.

4. Cleaning up the login process, which, because it involved multiple screens, some faculty had trouble navigating.

5. What might be done to let the administration know about faculty members who are interested in serving on ad hoc committees (the Committee on Committee has no responsibility or authority to assign members to these committees)

6. Whether it is possible to add a spot on the form so that faculty members can indicate the committees they are already serving on and when their terms are up.

4. P. Jackson and Hobbs reported on the status of their special projects, which are faculty grievance procedure and policy (Jackson) and determining how to determine who is a fulltime faculty member.

5. Tugmon shared an e-mail from a faculty member questioning the new faculty parking policy which allows faculty members to have only one parking permit. The committee asked her to pursue this issue with Public Safety and ask if the policy can be revised.

6.Tugmon reported that the administration had approached FPC about whether it wants to deal with the issue of funding for the Cullum Lecture series or whether it should appoint an ad hoc committee to deal with the matter. The committee decided to ask Dr. Sullivan to appoint a committee to look at the issue this semester and have a report to him in December that would then be forwarded to FPC in January. Benedict volunteered to serve on the committee.

7. Tugmon reported that Faculty Secretary Jeff Heck has asked to meet with the committee to introduce himself. She will try to schedule the meeting for next Monday.

8. Mike Searles volunteered to bring the goodies for the next meeting.

9. The committee voted to adjourn the meeting at 3:25 p.m.