FACULTY MEETING
October 7, 2005
Gannett Auditorium
MINUTES
President Philip A. Glotzbach called the meeting to order at 3:35pm. President Glotzbach asked if there were any objections to the approval of the September 9, 2005 Faculty Meeting minutes; hearing no objections, the minutes were approved.
PRESIDENT鈥橲 REPORT
President Glotzbach indicated that a community meeting was held yesterday at which various items on the institutional docket this year were addressed. These included completing the implementation of the First-Year Experience program; Burial of Thebes; starting the process to implement the Strategic Plan; the possibility of further conversations with Qatar; the IPPC will consider the question of how many students we have, how large should we be, and the strategic parameters surrounding this issue. The Middle States reaccreditation is taking place, and a team will be on campus beginning Sunday for several days. The team will be looking at the compliance aspect of the review and returning in the spring for a visit focused on our self-study. President Glotzbach thanked Sarah Goodwin, Associate Dean of Faculty, for providing excellent leadership in this process and for the hard work of everyone on the Middle States steering committee. President Glotzbach stated that fund raising efforts are continuing and about $40M of commitments will be needed this year to add to the $61M to date. He will continue to focus on obtaining the lead gift for the Music building. Work will also be done on the continuing agenda of communication with internal conversations and external community relations.
President Glotzbach indicated that there will be community-wide discussions on revising the Campus Master Plan. The new student apartments will be completed for next fall, and we will divest ourselves of Moore Hall. The campus dining hall will be renovated, which will change the nature of the student dining experience. Plans also call for creating an attractive new and inviting space that can accommodate campus events. Conversations took place with IPPC regarding these plans. Funds borrowed from the bond issue will pay for most of the renovation costs.
President Glotzbach further stated that efforts continue on the implementation of the Comprehensive Compensation Plan. A report also is forthcoming regarding last year鈥檚 faculty salaries. We were not able to make as much progress in this area as we had hoped. IPPC will be having conversations about salaries as it begins the process of constructing next year鈥檚 budget. The President concluded by reporting that more work will be done on increasing the visibility of the College on the national level.
The President asked the Vice President of Finance and Administration, Michael West, to provide a budget update and to comment on budget challenges at the College. Mr. West highlighted various comparison charts and tables. He indicated that the College is experiencing financial pressure from a number of areas including increasing demands for student financial aid and rising costs of utilities, health care, and other forms of insurance. He stated that we have to pace the scope of the new initiatives indicated in the Strategic Plan. We enjoyed a 15.7% rate of return on our endowment as of June for the last fiscal year and gifts made a difference. Still, that growth is not expected this year as we will see reduced projected future endowment growth. See Attachment
VICE PRESIDENT FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS REPORT
Charles M. Joseph, Vice President for Academic Affairs welcomed and introduced Dr. Muriel Poston, the new Dean of the Faculty. Dr. Joseph indicated that there will be Dean of the Faculty and Dean of Special Programs reports on the agenda at future faculty meetings, although not today since both deans are new to the College.
Dean Poston indicated that she plans to meet with each faculty department as quickly as possible. She introduced her new assistant, Patricia Choukeir and thanked everyone for a nice welcome.
Dr. Joseph announced the promotions from last spring: Hedi Jaouad to full professor from Foreign Languages & Literature, Mary-Beth O鈥橞rien to full professor from Foreign Languages & Literature and Daniel Nathan to Associate Professor from American Studies. Dr. Joseph congratulated all.
Dr. Joseph indicated that the David Porter Endowed Chair is now open since Professor Tad Kuroda vacated that last year upon his retirement. Nominations are going before CAPT in the next few weeks and an announcement will be made shortly thereafter.
Dr. Joseph encouraged faculty to check the 三亿体育官网 homepage frequently where faculty accomplishments are often highlighted. He thanked Bob Kimmerle and his folks for being so responsive in getting the word out quickly. He mentioned four achievements: Professor Regina Janes from the English Department for her new book from NYU Press 鈥� published in August: Losing Our Heads: Beheadings in Literature and Culture. Professor Thomas Lewis for his book on The Hudson: A History from Yale University Press. Professor Rik Scarce from Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work on his new book from Alta Mira Press entitled Contempt of Court: A Scholar鈥檚 Battle for Free Speech from Behind Bars. His essay was in the Chronicle of Higher Education about a month ago on this matter as well. All are featured on the homepage and all three authors will be available to sign copies of their books during Celebration Weekend.
Vice President Joseph expressed congratulations to Professor Joanna Zangrando from American Studies for receiving the 2005 Mary C. Turpie Prize from the American Studies Association. This is a prestigious honor in the manner of a lifetime achievement award for excellence in teaching, advising and program directing. Professor Zangrando will be recognized on the national front in Washington, DC next month.
Dr. Joseph introduced Debra Fernandez, Associate Professor of Dance, who briefly announced the launch of the second year of SaratogaReads! She encouraged more faculty involvement and asked faculty to nominate a classic or contemporary novel that would generate conversation and exciting programming both on campus and in the 三亿体育官网 community. Nominations may be done online at , the 三亿体育官网 Shop, library or Stewart鈥檚 Shops. The ballots of ten will be announced in mid November.
In conclusion, Dr. Joseph announced that at the last faculty meeting, John Weber, Director of the Tang Museum and Professor Ray Giguere of Chemistry, made a presentation about a forthcoming Tang exhibition on 鈥淢olecules that Matter.鈥� There will be an opportunity at the Tang on October 18 to share ideas, learn more about the initiative and build some connections with colleagues who may wish to contribute to the show. He also noted that this will be the topic of our Senior Week Symposium in May.
OLD BUSINESS
There was no old business to report.
NEW BUSINESS
RESOLUTIONS
Associate Professor of Math and Computer Science, Una Bray, on behalf of the University Without Walls program, offered the following resolution (See Attachment):
RESOLVED, that the faculty at 三亿体育官网 recommend to the Trustees the granting of the Bachelor of Arts degree to three students and the Bachelor of Science degree to one student.
Associate Professor of Math and Computer Science, Una Bray, on behalf of the External Master of Arts program, offered the following resolution (See Attachment):
RESOLVED, that the faculty at 三亿体育官网 recommend to the Trustees the granting of the Master of Arts degree to four students.
ACADEMIC CHALLENGE AND EXCELLENCE
The VPAA, Charles M. Joseph provided an overview of Academic Challenge and Support. He addressed the recent history and efforts to speak to rigor and excellence that have gone forth with CEPP and others over the last few years. He signaled continued administrative support but also urged the faculty to take ownership of this topic as this is the only way that such an initiative will move forward. We have a thriving Honors Forum that Phil Boshoff will be discussing shortly. The Academic Vision began to be discussed in 2002. It is fundamental to our assessment efforts and in focusing on the First-Year Experience. This discussion is framed within one of the four goals of our Strategic Action Plan. We are interested in having increased collaborative experiences, closer mentoring, and more independent studies. This takes support 鈥� support that the President has pledged. We need to increase faculty development funding and opportunities to allow faculty and students to become involved in this process. There may be some misinterpretation of the declaration that we will challenge every student. There is nothing in the plan that implies that in challenging every student we must lower our standards. By providing useful academic support systems, we are asking students to reach whatever expectations we set. That should encourage faculty to be all the more rigorous in their demands. Dr. Joseph spoke about grade inflation indicating the median grade is a B+ and the median GPA is 3.2. He asked if we need to raise standards and if we should be reconsidering requirements to admissions to honor societies, or the awarding of academic honors at commencement. If so, what would it take to change this and what committees should be involved in this process. Faculty and students need to find specific ways to elaborate the challenges that lead to rigor and excellence. We must have serious conversations on how far we are we willing to go. We need support from the administration and cooperation with Student Affairs.
Dr. Joseph then introduced Associate Dean of Student Affairs, Susan Layden who gave an overview of the HEOP/AOP programs and presented various comparison tables regarding GPAs, student profiles, majors, achievement data and graduation rates. Handouts were provided with this information. She explained that the HEOP/AOP programs are about access and achievement. She stated that HEOP graduation rates are higher than all college graduation rates and the graduating rates for our minority students are higher than minority students that are not in our HEOP program. She continued by commenting that first year students鈥� term GPAs were higher than all other first year students at the College and that is quite different from what is happening nationally. She noted that our students, despite their entering profiles, achieve at levels that are competitive with other students with much higher entering profiles. Our students are majoring in various programs and more major in the natural sciences than do other students at the College. Students are enrolled in 255 different courses with 175 different members of our faculty. Academic support is offered to help students succeed here and 62% of our time is spent w