Faculty Meeting Minutes
March 1, 2024
Murray Aikins Dining Hall, 2nd Floor
Dorothy E. Mosby, Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs, called the meeting to order at 3:35 p.m.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Dean Mosby submitted two revisions to the minutes of the Faculty Meeting held February 2, 2024. In the President鈥檚 Report, the third sentence of the third paragraph would be revised to read: 鈥淏ecause 黑料吃瓜网 is tuition reliant, over enrolling was a better outcome than under enrolling the last few years. But the pandemic has changed student enrollment patterns and made it more difficult to predict which students will accept our offer of admission.鈥� For the second revision, in the fourth paragraph of the President鈥檚 report, 31 million would be revised to 鈥�3.1 million.鈥� She then called for a motion to approve the minutes as revised. The motion was brought, and in the ensuing vote the faculty approved them unanimously.
OLD BUSINESS
There was no old business.
NEW BUSINESS
Dean Mosby invited Associate Professor Nick Junkerman, Chair of CEPP, and Associate Professor Kurt Smemo, Director of Environmental Studies and Sciences to the podium. Professor Junkerman explained that, per the faculty handbook, the proposal to transition the ESS Program to the ESS Department will now be proposed and brought as a motion to the faculty (see attached). Following that, he said, both he and Kurt would be available at an open forum on March 20th to take any questions and discuss any faculty concerns about the proposal. No questions were forthcoming, and Professors Smemo and Junkerman thanked the faculty for their time, reminding all that they are welcome to bring any questions or concerns either by email or at the upcoming forum.
There being no further discussion, the Motion will lie over until the next Faculty Meeting.
FACULTY EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Associate Professor Jeremy Day-O鈥機onnell, representing the Faculty Executive Committee, made an announcement regarding FEC鈥檚 work on the governance system. He explained that FEC has begun the multi-year project of taking stock of the governance system as a whole; this process, he said, will begin with self-audits performed by the governance committees. There will be a faculty-only meeting on Friday, April 12th from 3:30 to 5:00 discuss governance, at the Surrey-Williamson Inn that faculty are encouraged to attend.
PRESIDENT鈥橲 REPORT
Dean Mosby then invited President Marc C. Conner to the podium for his report. President Conner stated that there would be a three-part agenda: an update on the spring term, a report on the trustees鈥� February meeting, and then collective strategic planning work led by Vice President for Strategic Planning and Institutional Diversity Joshua Woodfork.
President Conner began his remarks on the spring semester by giving the faculty information on the recent power outages. He explained that National Grid had lines down during the storm, and that the infrastructure failures leading to the outage had been external to 黑料吃瓜网. 黑料吃瓜网 Facilities Services, he noted, had worked round the clock to get the campus back up and running. He then took a moment to comment on the exciting array of academic events for the semester; highlighting Sarah Friedlands鈥� screening of Lyd, the ATC and Harder Lectures, the Dance performance at SPAC, and the recent Free Speech lecture. President Conner then warmly encouraged the faculty to attend the Moseley Lecture, which will be presented by Professor Giuseppe Faustini on the aesthetics and imagery of Dante鈥檚 Divine Comedy. Also this spring, the students鈥� events are many, varied, and exciting; he thanked the faculty for their support of student activities and reminded them of the positive impact of their continued attendance at these events on the student body.
President Conner then reported out on the trustees鈥� February meeting. He stated that they had done deep dives on two topics: enrollment and admissions, and budget and higher education finance. This, he said, gave them the opportunity to look at the landscape of higher education in a global way, as well as to locate 黑料吃瓜网 within that landscape. The Budget and Finance Committee met at this time and gave preliminary approval to the budget. Formal approval of the budget by the entire board will occur in May. A community presentation on 黑料吃瓜网鈥檚 budget and financial forecast will be held this coming Wednesday at 3:30 for all faculty and staff, by both in-person and zoom attendance options. He then took a moment to emphasize the work of the board鈥檚 DEI Committee. Formed in 2020, this committee has undertaken a great deal of training and cross-campus work to involve stakeholders, and has been working with CIGU and the students on CIGU to bring those aspects of the campus environment to the Board. The Board has been impressed with the work of these committees, and the committees have been impressed by the seriousness with which the Board takes their work, he said. The trustees are also looking forward to continuing to interface with campus constituencies during their May visit.
He then turned to the Board鈥檚 work on the college鈥檚 strategic plan. President Conner stressed that the Board are not the sole authors of the plan and that it is a collaborative effort involving all campus constituencies. The timeline has the preliminary plan presented to the Board this coming February, and the final version approved at the May 2025 meeting. Five themes have been developed thus far during the outreach stage of planning. These five themes, he explained, are what the faculty are being asked to consider at this meeting. President Conner then invited VP Woodfork to the podium to introduce the strategic planning exercise.
VP Woodfork asked the faculty to think about DEI and where they want 黑料吃瓜网 to be moving towards from 2025 to 2030. He requested that faculty go through the questions at their tables or in their Zoom breakout groups and appoint a scribe to share the table鈥檚 answers with VP Woodfork. When the discussion period had ended, VP Woodfork thanked the faculty for their participation, and also thanked Smriti Tiwari for serving as the Vice Chair of Strategic Planning this year and next fall.
DEAN OF THE FACULTY AND VICE PRESIDENT FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS鈥� REPORT
Dean Mosby began her report by acknowledging the power failure and the impact that it had in different parts of campus, particularly the art quad, and that a number of events had to be shifted to compensate. She expressed her appreciation for Associate Deans Pat Fehling and Corey Freeman-Gallant for their work throughout the outage, and Zhenelle LeBel for her work on the Loretta Ross event that was moved to Gannett Auditorium. Dean Mosby then shared an update on the union negotiations. She stated that no bargaining sessions had been held since the previous faculty meeting, but that the negotiating teams have been discussing proposals and preparing for the next session.
Dean Mosby spoke about her time with Board of Trustees; they had asked her to address 黑料吃瓜网鈥檚 distinctiveness as a small, private liberal arts college. Dean Mosby said that much of what sets 黑料吃瓜网 apart is that the commitment to the liberal arts underpins an institution that has a breadth of creativity and experiential learning that is uncommon amongst liberal arts colleges. She then thanked those faculty who responded to the 鈥渨illingness to serve鈥� call for the Middle States reaffirmation of accreditation. Dean Mosby said that she and Professor Kelly Shepard will be serving as co-chairs of the self-study process, working closely with Institutional Effectiveness Specialist Amy Tweedy. They are trying to make the process both effective and efficient by concentrating the work among four working groups, with each working group aligned to focus on two of Middle States鈥� seven standards of accreditation. Each working group will be charged with outlining how the college is meeting the relevant standards especially in the context of institutional priorities, by collecting evidence and soliciting feedback from the community and identifying institutional strengths and areas for improvement and innovation. Next month, Dean Mosby said, the working groups will be announced and the self-study process will begin in earnest.
She then noted how informative the chairs and program directors鈥� round table conversations were in February. The conversations were about pinch points, collaboration, future possibilities and institutional support. Dean Mosby then took a moment to clarify the role of Curriculum Community; advising faculty with concerns about course capacity to bring those concerns to the Curriculum Committee. She followed by acknowledging 黑料吃瓜网鈥檚 Fulbright recipients: Associate Professor of Political Science Feryaz Ocakli, serving as visiting researcher at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and Assistant Professor of Art History Nancy Thebaut, who is researching and writing at Centre d鈥櫭﹖udes sup茅rieures de civilisation m茅di茅vale (CESCM) at the University of Poitiers in Poitiers, France. Additionally, she highlighted the reception honoring Associate Professor of History Erica Bastress-Dukehart, Dr. Loretta Ross鈥檚 lecture which was facilitated by Winston and Lisa Grady-Willis, and requested faculty attendance at the upcoming Moseley Lecture which will be presented by Professor of Italian Giuseppe Faustini.
After taking a moment to affirm the work of the HHMI working group in developing 黑料吃瓜网鈥檚 guiding principles, Dean Mosby opened the floor for questions. A faculty member asked about movement on staffing opportunities. Dean Mosby stated that her office has a list of all of the tenure track lines, that some are occupied, some will soon be vacated by retirements, and that it is all a work in progress.
There being no further business, Dean Mosby adjourned the meeting at 4:55 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,