Minutes of February 14, 2003

Present: Alex Dzierba (acting chair), Roy Gardner, Susan Gubar, Chuck Livingston, Deidre Lynch, Kevin Hunt (recorder)

1. The meeting began at 2:30 with the approval of the amended minutes of February 7.

2. There was brief discussion of progress on nominations for the 2003-2004 Policy Committee elections.

3. Deidre Lynch reported on recent discussion in the Bloomington Faculty Council of a possible change in Policies and Procedures on Reappointment of Tenure-Probationary Faculty. The issue of concern is whether there is adequate oversight of cases where faculty are dismissed after successful third year reviews but before their tenure review. The committee discussed whether the current policy, which allows summary dismissal with appeal as the only recourse, is adequate or whether such cases should be routinely reviewed by faculty representatives. The policy committee endorsed the efforts of the BFC to address this problem.

4. The committee discussed Kevin Hunt’s draft policy concerning non-teaching obligations of faculty during periods when they are not teaching. There is some concern that faculty who bank courses and who are subsequently absent from campus on unofficial leave place extra burdens on unit colleagues, who must then bear extra administrative, service and advising duties. Changes to the draft policy were suggested. The completed text will be considered in the next possible committee meeting.

5. The committee briefly discussed the issue of representation of research scientists in the college. Currently they cannot vote for or serve on the policy committee. Further investigation into the issue is planned.

6. The committee heard reports on deans’ planning meetings. The issue of the growing role of lecturers and other NTT in departments was briefly discussed.

7. Committee members discussed the strategic planning process, in particular the composition of the eight rubrics or focus areas already selected by the college and as outlined in a recent e-mailing from the dean to the faculty.