October 16, 2003

Present: Erik Bucy, Ellen Dwyer (acting chair), Roy Gardner, Katy Fraser, Chuck Livingston (recorder), Al Ruesink, Rob Shakespeare

1. The meeting began at 4:00 PM with the approval of the minutes of October 9, as amended.

2. The College Policy on Funds Allocated at the Discretion of the Dean (April 16, 1992) asks that in the fall the Dean give a detailed accounting of the expenditure of discretionary funds during the previous year and that faculty be informed of any guidelines for the allocation of such funds for the coming year. The Committee will work with Dean Subbaswamy in implementing this policy.

3. The CPC Constitution states that the Policy Committee may send a member to any regular budget meeting between the Dean and a departmental chair. The traditional annual budget meeting has been replaced with a general planning meeting, and the Committee began its discussion of the role of the CPC in these meetings and in the budget process.

4. The College Academic Fairness Committee mediates disputes regarding such issues as student grades. In the past its membership has been comprised of volunteers; Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education Larson, in consultation with Dean Subbaswamy, has decided that membership will now be appointed. The CPC supports the idea of such a committee and will serve as necessary in advising on policy matters.

5. The CPC received a question from a faculty member regarding the membership of this year's College Tenure Committee, pointing out that its membership this year includes no associate professors. CPC members noted that in the interest of College policy and peer review, the make-up of this committee should be diverse. The CPC will discuss the selection with Dean Subbaswamy.

6. A focus of this year's proposals from the College to the Commitment to Excellence will be on the humanities. The committee will monitor the progress of the College's CTE proposals.

7. In the matter of a faculty member's transfer of a 25% appointment from a department to a program within the College, the CPC examined further documentation related to the impact of the move on teaching within that department. This transfer can only be approved after careful consideration of the impact of this transfer on the department and its relationship to long-term goals, both for the department and program.

8. The CPC has received a proposal for an Eighteenth-Century Program within the College. To assess the merits of this proposal the Committee will request detailed information from the proposed program on its present and proposed funding needs, and from the dean on the budget implications of this request. Further questions relate to the role of the proposed program in undergraduate education and the lack of representation of the History and Philosophy of Science in the proposal.

9. Catherine Larson, Dean for Undergraduate Education, has shared with the CPC a list of 14 questions she has developed regarding the possible transfer of the Department of Computer Science to the School of Informatics. Committee members viewed this as an excellent start to her evaluation of the potential transfer.

10. The meeting concluded at 5:30 PM.

11. Future agenda items:

a. Consideration of Dean Subbaswamy's goal of College-wide discussion of tenure criteria, with particular emphasis on the role of teaching effectiveness.

b. A review of the CPC's role in, and the general structure of, the annual departmental planning meetings held with the Dean.

c. Salary policies for professional staff and the Dean's goal of encouraging a modification of these policies at the university level.

d. College policy on the procedures for the distribution of release time for pretenure faculty.