January 26, 2004

Present: Judith Anderson, Erik Bucy, Ellen Dwyer, Katy Fraser, Jeff Hart, Kevin Hunt (chair), Chuck Livingston (recorder), Al Ruesink

1. The meeting began at 2:00 PM with the approval of the minutes for January 19, as amended.

2. Last semester the CPC received a proposal for the creation of an Eighteenth Century Program. At that time the Committee found that the proposal was not sufficient in its details to approve the permanent creation of a program. Since then the Committee has received answers to most of its questions and remains supportive of the establishment of the program, but continues to await the revised proposal. This discussion led to a general consideration of appropriations for other established or potential programs and specifically referenced the budget of the Renaissance Studies Program. Concerns regarding specific proposals will be addressed to the Dean as they arise.

3. The discussion turned to raising the attention paid to undergraduate teaching in the College. Among the suggestions was that the Dean use his annual departmental planning meetings to discuss teaching related issues with each chair.

4. Erik Bucy, Al Ruesink, and Katy Fraser reported on their attendance at recent departmental planning meetings. The growing use of non-tenure track faculty has come up at these meetings; a discussion by the Committee ensued regarding the effectiveness of current College policy that limits the use of such NTT faculty.

This Policy limits he total number of Lecturers to 15 percent of the total College faculty, but does not place limits on individual departments. Increases in enrollments have led some departments to rely heavily on lecturers; it was asked whether, if the enrollment patterns continue, these shifts for departments are deemed permanent. (The relevant "Policy for Non-tenure track faculty," December 14, 2001, is posted on the CPC website.) Another recurring topic of planning meetings is the limited amount of graduate student support and the variation of such support between departments.

5. Dean Subbaswamy joined the meeting at 3:00 PM.

a. The Dean reiterated his support for the Eighteenth Century Program and assured the Committee that he will facilitate an appropriately revised proposal.

b. In response to the Committee's suggestion that annual departmental planning meetings be used as forums to discuss teaching, the Dean told the CPC that he is considering meeting annually with the faculty of each department. Such meetings would enhance the Dean's interaction with the faculty at large, but might limit his ability to participate in annual budget meetings with each chair and program director. In this case, the Executive Associate Dean and the College Budget Director would usually represent the College in the annual planning meetings. The Dean asked the CPC for its views on such a change.

c. Dean Subbaswamy reported that progress is being made on the budget situation for the College. Reimbursement for the costs associated to the transfer of Computer Science to the School of Informatics is essential to the fiscal health of the College and remains a high priority. As in most years, many decisions for the upcoming year cannot be made until state appropriations and tuition decisions are complete.