October 30, 2003

Present: Erik Bucy, Katy Fraser, Susan Gubar, Kevin Hunt (chair), Chuck Livingston (recorder), Al Ruesink

1. The meeting began at 4:00 PM with the approval of the minutes of October 23, as amended.

2. The Policy Committee completed its deliberations on issues related to the dismissal of Professor Stanfield as chair of African American and African Diaspora Studies. The following is a summary of the outcome of those deliberations.

The charge of the College Policy Committee includes considering and, at its prerogative, investigating questions from faculty regarding matters of concern to the College. The Committee is further charged with advising the Dean on such matters. On September 3, 2003, the CPC received a request from Professor Stanfield that it examine a number of issues related to his dismissal as chair of African American and African Diaspora Studies. Dean Subbaswamy had dismissed Professor Stanfield as chair on August 25, 2003.

The principal focus of the CPC discussion, which continued over several weeks, was on whether Dean Subbaswamy's actions were consistent with the College "Policy on Suspension and Restoration of Faculty Governance in Departments (21 November 1996)." That policy states in part that the "Dean of the College will consult with the Policy Committee before suspending any aspect of faculty governance in a department."

The Policy on Suspension does not define "faculty governance" and thus the CPC turned to the Academic Handbook, the Constitutions of the University and Bloomington Faculty Councils, and the College Policy Committee Constitution. These documents do not challenge the authority of the Dean over administrative appointments such as a chair, but they are explicit in the expectation that the faculty have a consultative role in these appointments and that this role is a part of faculty governance. In particular the BFC Constitution states (in Section 2.2 B) "The faculty of any unit to which faculty authority is delegated shall establish democratic means of self-governance, consistent with university, campus, and school/college faculty standards. Appointments of faculty to the unit, or to the chair of the unit, should be made only after consultation with the members of the unit."

The CPC found the policy regarding the dismissal of a chair less clear. While a dismissal can impinge on faculty governance, the Committee recognized the possibility of cases of exigency in which it might not be feasible or expected for the Dean to carry out the level of consultation described by the Policy, prior to acting. The failure of the policy to delineate this possibility gave the Dean and the CPC little guidance in its expectations in such a case. Thus, the CPC could not conclude that there was a violation of the policy.

The CPC has urged the Dean to maintain and promote discussions with the faculty of AAADS during the process of selecting a new chair and that the faculty maintain their other rights of self-governance over the department during the interim. The CPC will also endeavor to amend the Policy on Suspension to clarify the meaning of faculty governance, in particular with respect to cases of the dismissal of a chair.

This discussion has highlighted the centrality of the selection of a chair to departmental life and its role in self-governance. The CPC suggests that each department and program circulate and review its policy on how it exercises its consultative role in the selection and review of chairs and directors.

Professor Stanfield's request included questions concerning a number of other issues related to AAADS. With regards to the place of the Black Film Center/Archive within the department and as an independent program, the CPC will await the results of a soon to be conducted external review. The Committee expects that the faculty of AAADS will be fully consulted during the process of selecting a new chair. On other matters it defers to other committees within the University.

The CPC did not come to a conclusion on how present policy should be amended to clarify the role of the selection of chair in faculty governance or the procedures that should be followed in cases of the dismissal of the chair. The conclusions regarding the details of the present case of Professor Stanfield's dismissal did represent the consensus of the Committee.

3. The CPC has received a proposal for the establishment of a program in Eighteenth-Century Studies. The Committee views such a program favorably but is asking that the proposal be revised to clarify the potential scope of the program and budgetary issues.

4. A Committee member noted that the Office of the Vice President for Research has sponsored an Arts and Humanities Initiative and that funding from this initiative is restricted to tenured and tenure track faculty.

The question was asked as to whether such a blanket restriction on this and similar funding opportunities is appropriate, given the growing number and varied contributions of non-tenure track faculty. Discussion on this matter will continue.

5. Dean Subbaswamy joined the meeting at 4:45 PM.

a. In light of President Herbert's announcement that Chancellor Brehm will be stepping down as Chancellor, the Dean reviewed for the Committee some of the administrative structure of the University, in particular that the Bloomington Chancellor also holds the University-wide post of Vice-President for Academic Affairs. The Dean also noted the important distinction between the College, for which the Dean reports to the Bloomington Chancellor, and other schools, such as Business, Education, Informatics, and SPEA, which are multi-campus units.

b. The discussion returned to the role of teaching in the College.

Committee members again raised the issue of the limitations of our present system of teaching evaluation. The Dean noted the difficulties inherent in formal teaching evaluations and reemphasized his desire to instill a culture of greater commitment to teaching as a shared responsibility among all faculty.

a. Continued discussion 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.

e. Discussion of the allocation of discretionary funds by the Dean for last year and guidelines for this year.

f. Review of College policy on the suspension of faculty governance in departments.