February 28, 2003

Present: Alex Dzierba (acting chair), Katy Fraser, 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 14, 2003.

2. Minutes for February 21 were briefly discussed, and approval was deferred until next week.

3. Deidre Lynch continued her report on Bloomington Faculty Council discussion of possible changes in Policies and Procedures on Reappointment of Tenure-Probationary Faculty. The policy that the BFC Faculty Affairs Committee has proposed for inclusion in the Bloomington Academic Guide, and which is currently circulating among Deans and their Policy Committees, would require unit tenure committees to review cases of nonreappointment of fourth and fifth year faculty, rather than allowing summary dismissal, as is current policy. One drawback of such a requirement might be that increased pressure will be brought to bear on the third-year review, which may be seen as the last chance that a dean or department has to make a non-reappointment decision before the candidate undergoes tenure review. In consequence, the number of third year nonreappointments may increase. After discussion, this drawback was considered to be countered by the benefit in providing better faculty oversight of fourth and fifth year nonreappointments. The sentiment of the College Policy Committee was in favor of the new BFC policy.

4. Swamy briefed the committee on progress on Commitment to Excellence proposals. Swamy believes the eight college proposals are well-conceived and that they will be competitive in the university-wide competition. He emphasized that proposals will be crafted so that they will focus on the academic programs and their justification, whereas budgetary issues, including the assignment of faculty lines, will be blocked out later, should proposals be approved.

5. Swamy informed the committee that the search for a chair in Computer Science has raised larger issues that must be dealt with soon. A clear sentiment was expressed among the chair candidates that independent of the distinction of the programs, there is a duplication of effort and lack of coordinated planning inherent in having computer science departments in both the College and in Informatics. The College and the University as a whole must consider whether it would be a greater good to merge the two computer science units into one department within Informatics. If such a move is undertaken, it is imperative that it be executed in such a way that the College is held harmless. Swamy pointed out that the College has invested heavily in Computer Science, and that moving the department to Informatics without compensation would deal a grave injury to the College.

6. Swamy left the meeting at 3:45.

7. The committee heard reports on deans' planning meetings in Religious Studies, Theatre and Drama, and NELC.