Faculty Conference Report
Due to the presence of an
insufficient number of faculty, business cannot be conducted in the absence of
a quorum (57). Approval of February’s
meeting minutes was postponed.
The Board of Trustees met in
February and attended a weekend retreat.
The Board approved a bond issue to fund the remainder of the Sims
renovation. The renovation will begin in
May and should be completed before the beginning of the Fall 2001
semester. At the retreat, the Board
discussed capital projects that may be required to meet projected future
enrollment. A partial list of capital projects
includes library construction or renovation, Breazeale Hall renovation, Burns
Auditorium renovation, and the construction of an auditorium for Thurmond. A timetable was not established for any
project. The Board also discussed
teacher education and the general education project. The general education project discussion included the information
from the General Education Task Force report given at the February 11, 2000
Faculty Conference.
President DiGiorgio is
presently in Tucson, Arizona.
IV. Report from the Vice-President for Academic Affairs - Dr. Melford Wilson
Dr. Wilson made several
announcements. Dr. Jim Johnston will
lead a retreat for Graduate Studies this coming Thursday at The Shack. The meeting will focus on graduate enrollment. Faculty wishing to attend are asked to let
Dr. Wilson know so that additional materials may be prepared. Faculty are encouraged to give their
comments on the dean candidates to the appropriate search committee. Dr. Wilson thanked the two search committees
for their dedicated service. Dr. Wilson also thanked the departments, colleges,
and campus committees for their work on dean tenurability. The university committee is meeting soon to
vote on the tenure eligibility of deans.
The vote will impact information on tenure eligibility provided in
offers to the successful dean candidates.
Using their expertise to help others, the Accounting Club is preparing
tax returns for the international students on Saturday. The club is also assisting the rest of the
student body. Changes to performance
funding are being proposed. The
proposals may make it more difficult for any university to obtain an “exceeds”
rating but easier to demonstrate improvement.
V. Committee Reports
A. Academic Council - Dr.
Janice Chism
The Academic Council report
required Conference action and was tabled until business can be conducted in
the absence of a quorum.
B. General
Education Task Force Update – Professor Marilyn Sarow
The competency groups
continue to meet and hope to have competencies for the general education program by the end of the
summer. The committee chairs are as
follows: technology - Dr. Will Thacker; quantitative reasoning – Dr. Bill Rogers;
writing – Dr. Marge Tebo-Messina, critical thinking – Dr. Wanda Deleo. By Monday, faculty should receive the
proposal for developing the first new general education course, Human
Experience I. If time permits, an
outline will also be developed for the critical thinking course. The task force would like participants from
across disciplines who are willing to teach the new course during the second
semester. Because the course is
expected to require writing, writing faculty are encouraged to apply. The project requires about three weeks of
summer work. Participant compensation
is equivalent to the pay for one summer course. According to Dr. Wilson, the total compensation available for the
participants is fixed. The first course outline is expected to be presented to
the faculty in the fall. Applications
may be submitted to Dr. Ray Dockery for review by the General Education
Committee.
C. Faculty
Personnel Committee – Dr. Laura DuFresne
A motion was made and
seconded to suspend the rules to conduct the election because the election is
already scheduled to remain open until noon on Monday. The motion was approved without
discussion. A motion was then made and
seconded to extend the time to vote at the library until 5 PM on Monday. The motion was passed without
discussion. Dr. DuFresne will send a
campus wide email message notifying the Conference members of the time
extension for voting. The ballots are
available at the library’s reference desk.
D. Campus
Computing Committee – Professor Larry Mitlin
The draft of the proposed
web policy is available on the web. The
policy was revised to reflect concerns raised by the faculty. Faculty are asked to email Professor Mitlin
for the draft’s URL. University
Relations is presently responsible for maintaining the quality and standards of
the University’s web pages. Faculty continue
to raise concerns over University Relations authority over the appearance of
faculty web pages.
E.
Faculty Personnel Committee Elections – Dr. Laura DuFresne
As the election ballots were
distributed, faculty were referred to the sample ballot
distributed with today’s Conference agenda. Dr. DuFresne introduced each committee’s
candidates and asked for
additional nominations. There were not
any nominations from the floor.
The Kerley method was explained, votes cast, and
ballots collected.
I. Quorum
There was an insufficient
number of faculty present to conduct business without a quorum. Approval of the Conference’s February
minutes and Academic Council’s business were deferred until the next
Conference.
IV. Old Business
There was not any old business.
There was not any new business.
The next Faculty Conference
is on April 21, 2000. All standing
committee chairs are asked to submit their committee reports to Dr. Moore by
April 7, 2000.
Respectfully
submitted,
Michele C. Henderson
Secretary