Minutes of the Steering Committee Meeting
August 10, 2006
3:30 p.m.
208 Samford

Attended by: John Heilman, Roger Garrison, Jack De Reuter, Ann Beth Presley, Kathryn Flynn

Rich Penaskovic was unable to attend so Kathryn Flynn facilitated the meeting.

Rich Penaskovic had asked that the Steering Committee be made aware of the Special Called meeting of the University Faculty.  The Steering Committee was told that the purpose of the meeting was to allow the faculty to discuss the new Post Tenure Review policy and to vote to approve or disapprove of the policy.  Dr. Heilman asked if it might be possible to either make this topic the focus of the Sept. 5 Senate meeting or move the date of the special called faculty meeting to a date after the Sept. 1 Board meeting.  This would allow him time to prepare a presentation for the meeting. 

Agenda Items for the September 5 Senate Meeting

1. Update on the presidential search.

The committee discussed whether Mr. McCrary should be invited to provide and update on the search at the Sept. 5 meeting.  It was mentioned that there might not have been much progress up to this point and that we might ask Conner Bailey or Cindy Brunner to provide an update.  It was suggested that we provide Mr. McCrary with a list of the dates on which Senate meetings will occur and allow him to select a date that would allow him to provide the most substantive report.  It was also suggested that we ask Mr. McCrary if he would be willing to provide a short written update for the September meeting. 

1. Update on ‘Grade-gate” and Directed Readings courses.

Dr. Heilman provided a briefing of recent events.  He said that Dr. Richardson held a press conference at 2:00 this afternoon to announce the adoption of a policy developed in the Provost’s office with input from the Deans and review by the President’s office.  Dr. Heilman said that the policy would become effective immediately and that Dr. Richardson had met with the Dean’s this morning to present the policy to them.  Dr. Heilman said that his office is reviewing the course offering for this fall to determine the classes this policy should apply to.  Dr. Heilman said that there is a form on the Provost’s office web site that would have to be filled out for Directed Readings courses.  He also said that two people, the Department Head of Sociology… and the Program Director for Adult Education, no longer had administrative responsibilities although they would remain on the faculty. 

In a related discussion, the Steering Committee discussed the need to revise the Faculty Handbook.  John Heilman offered to provide staff support for this process if the Senate leadership thought it would help the process.  A decision on this offer was deferred until Rich Penaskovic was available for a discussion of this offer.

Dr. Heilman noted that it was important that the appropriate Senate committees be asked to review the new directed studies policy.  The two primary committees that would need to do this are the Academic Standards Committee and the Curriculum Committee.

1. The Steering Committee members agreed that they wanted Don Large to present information on the Banner System at the Sept. 5 meeting.  This presentation was originally scheduled for the July Senate meeting.

1. The issue of departments/individuals paying for overseas travel on legitimate university business.

The committee agreed that they would like John Heilman to provide an overview of the new policy including information on what this insurance is actually for and clarification of the process for payment and reimbursement.

Other topics of discussion

A member of the committee asked John Heilman if faculty could donate sick leave to another employee facing serious illness.  John Heilman replied that this was not possible at this time.  He hoped that the appropriate Department Head and Dean would work with people who needed help in this type of situation.

A committee member raised a question about one area of the new Post Tenure Review policy.  The question revolved around the consequences of weak research productivity.  In the policy it appears that if research productivity decreases the end result is a decrease in teaching responsibility rather than a shift towards teaching.  John Heilman said that the remediation plan used to address deficiencies in performance would need to be personalized and that the policy did not mandate remediation procedures, only that a remediation plan be developed and followed.  It was agreed that the new policy would result in an increased work load for the Deans.

Dr. Heilman was asked for an update on the search for a Vice-President for the new Institute.  He said that his focus had been on the directed studies investigation and that he would defer an update on this search until a later date.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:40 p.m.