Minutes from the October 16th meeting were corrected to show that Academic Council minutes will be published on a web page maintained by Academic Affairs. Minutes were then approved.

Dr. Moore reported that at the last board meeting, approval was granted to ask the Budget and Control Board for permission to sell 17 acres owned by Winthrop University. Dr. Moore also noted that he presented to the board a "market versus values" discussion similar to that presented at the previous faculty conference meeting.

Dr. DiGiorgio first spoke about the "new set of circumstances" presented to institutions of higher education by governor-elect Jim Hodges, who has been invited to campus. Dr. DiGiorgio said that Winthrop’s legislative priorities for the new, democrat administration would include increasing the Life Scholarship Program and general funding. The president also cited other interests as higher faculty salaries, money to equip the new Life Sciences Building, and the possible opportunity to get $10,000,000 for renovations to Peabody Hall. Dr. DiGiorgio added that Winthrop’s requests of the new administration will likely shift.

Dr. DiGiorgio said that the process to obtain formal approval to sell the 17 acres on Cherry Road from the Budget and Control Board has begun.

The recent visit by SACS representative Dr. Ronald Sheehy was "exceptionally good," Dr. DiGiorgio said. Sheehy was complimentary of the self-study work Winthrop has done to this point and said that Winthrop has the opportunity to achieve a rarely-given "zero recommendation" when SACS visits in two years. Dr. DiGiorgio said that Sheehy suggested that Winthrop conduct a university-wide pre-audit on the 400 SACS criteria and make necessary adjustments before that visit.

Dr. DiGiorgio reported that during an October CHE staff visit to discuss performance funding, Winthrop registered the following concerns about the present system: it punishes institutions already performing well; it is unnecessarily costly, complex, and time-consuming; it does not provide the option to use institutions outside of South Carolina as peers. The biggest issue, however, is that the process "focuses too much on means and not enough on ends," an approach that can produce "cookie-cutter institutions," Dr. DiGiorgio said. The president pointed to the recent CHE Colloquium and the Business Advisory Council, initiated by CHE, as reasons for optimism for changes in the system.

The president also explained the method of allocating funds to South Carolina’s institutions of higher education. This year marks the first time that the distribution will be decided by the sector (research, technical, and four-year) to which a given institution belongs. The funds Winthrop receives will be further determined by calculating next year’s performance score against this year’s appropriation. "By definition, it’s going to be less. You’d have to get 100% to get what you received the previous year," Dr. DiGiorgio said.

The president added that a mechanism called the Mission Resource Requirement has already been adopted to calculate allocations of new money, should it be made available. The MRR uses quantitative dimensions such as enrollment to determine the amount distributed to a given institution, a sum then multiplied by the performance-funding scores. Remaining funds will be placed in an improvement fund for struggling institutions, Dr. DiGiorgio said.

The president said that $12,000,000 has already been reached in the Capital Campaign’s $26,000,000 goal.

Dr. Wilson asked for faculty input on the revised Chapter 3 of the faculty manual by December 9th. The revisions reflect previous faculty input, Dr. Wilson said. The vice- president asked for particular attention to pages 30 through 41, which deal with state regulations and were prepared by HRAA rather than members of the campus committee.

Chairperson Marsha Bollinger presented the Academic Council’s response to the Task Force report on how Winthrop should celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: the council did not endorse Key Principle #5, which deals with procedure rather than mission or philosophy; the council recommends rescheduling rather than canceling classes beginning January of 2000; the council recommends that the Vice-President for Academic Affairs appoint a committee in consultation with the office for Student Development to coordinate the activities for holidays following the 1999 celebration.

In discussing Winthrop’s celebration of the federal holiday, faculty members expressed varying opinions on the following issues: if having no classes would provide students with another long weekend rather than a means of recognizing Dr. King’s contributions; if losing the 3-hour Monday evening class could jeopardize the mandated 45 contact hours with students; if alternate means of celebrating the holiday, such as speakers or specially-themed classes, should be established instead.

After including an amendment that celebrations be evaluated in two years, the faculty voted to approve the Academic Council recommendations.

Faculty voted to pass Post-Tenure Review. Faculty voted "no" to amending the process to include the president, vice-president for Academic Affairs, the assistant and associate vice-president for Academic Affairs. Faculty also voted "no" to providing either $1000 for the purpose of reward for passing the review or $1000 for the purpose of development for failing the review.

Steve Million, chairperson of the Budget Priorities Committee reminded faculty of the December 9th meeting to discuss priorities for the mid-year budget allocations.

There was no old business.

There was no new business.

IX. Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 3:35 p.m..

 Respectfully submitted,
Kathryn Bufkin

Page Last Updated: February 8, 2000