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2000-2001
FACULTY COUNCIL
MINUTES
2000-2001
Meeting # 18, Tuesday, January 30, 2001
Present:
Smelser (vice-chair), Bitterwolf, Chun, Fritz,
Glen, Goble, Goodwin, Guilfoyle, Haggart (w/o vote), Kraut, Nielsen, Olson,
Norby, Thomas (w/o vote) Absent: Brunsfeld, Finnie, Foltz, Hong,
McCaffrey, McClure, McKeever, Meier, Nelson, Pitcher, Thompson,
Trivedi Observers: 3
Call
to Order. A quorum being present, Faculty Council
Vice Chair, Professor Ronald Smelser, called the meeting to order at 3:38
p.m. in the Idaho Commons. The chair had been called away to a meeting in
Boise.
Minutes.
In the tradition and spirit of earlier council meetings, it was moved and
seconded (Bitterwolf, Glen) to accept the minutes of the January 23, 2001,
meeting as distributed and read.
Provost’s
Report. Vice Provost Dene Thomas, sitting in for
the provost, reported that the Associated Students of the University of
Idaho (ASUI) legislative open house held last week in Boise was a
success. The ASUI leadership and members of the U of Idaho administration
were able to provide members of the legislature with useful information on
needed funding for U of Idaho programs in Moscow, as well as for the Boise
Initiative programs, particularly, the shared programs with Idaho State
University. Thomas noted that she met with Trudy Anderson, who is on
loan to us from the Albertson Foundation. She is working with the College of
Education as a Scholar in Residence in Boise. Thomas reported that the U of
Idaho’s presentation before the Joint Finance and Appropriations
Committee (JFAC) went very well. In fact, all university presidents were
"on the same page" with regard to salary issues in their
presentations before JFAC. Thomas said that her office has been working with
several faculty and staff members on the process of expanding the U of
Idaho’s dual enrollment program. Dual enrollment allows high school
students to enroll in university courses for university credit. She said
that they have been talking about ways to offer some courses at the high
schools, rather than requiring the students to come to our campus. This
arrangement could involve everything from compressed video courses to
employing high school teachers to teach these courses. A pilot program to
train teachers was supposed to have been offered this fall, but no
department was willing to take on the project. The U of Idaho is behind
other Idaho schools in offering this type of educational opportunity.
FC-01-020.
Vice Chair Smelser reported that the petition signed by members of the
English Department, asking for further consideration of two items published
in General Curriculum Report #214, had been resolved by the petitioners
and the Civil Engineering Department. It was moved and seconded (Nielsen,
Bitterwolf) to send the petition and its accompanying memos of understanding
back to the University Curriculum Committee for final wording and
resolution. The motion was adopted by unanimous voice vote.
FC-01-016.
A motion was received from the Faculty Affairs Committee (FAC) to amend
Article II (Faculty Classifications), Section 1 (University Faculty) of the
Constitution of the University Faculty. The motion would change the
wording in the first paragraph to read, in part, ". . . and
lecturers who have served at least four consecutive
semesters on more than half-time appointment [see 1565 K-1]. Those who
qualify under this section have the privilege of participation with vote in
meetings of the university faculty and the appropriate constituent
faculties." The motion also proposed to change the last sentence
in Faculty-Staff Handbook Section 1565 K-1 to read, "A
lecturer qualifies for faculty status with vote during any semester in which
he or she (a) is on an appointment greater than half-time and (b) has been
on such appointment for each of the at least four preceding
semesters."
Professor
Jeff Harkins, Chair of the Faculty Affairs Committee, gave the background
for these two changes, which came with a unanimous recommendation from the
FAC. Harkins said that the committee was recommending the change to provide
voting rights to lecturers who had long, but not consecutive teaching
service at the U of Idaho. This change would allow lecturers who have
interruptions in service to retain voting rights without having to
re-qualify during each period of service. FC-01-016 was adopted by
unanimous voice vote.
As
a point of discussion concerning the issue of voting rights, Councilor
Goble raised the question of properly defining voting rights in departmental
and college decision-making. His concern was based on the wording of the
previously approved change (FC-01-016) and the present wording in the Faculty-Staff
Handbook that defines "constituent faculty." (See Section
1520, Article 1, Section 4, Clauses A & B and Section 1540 A). In
particular, he was concerned with whether or not lecturers could be
considered to have the right to vote on issues of tenure, hiring, and would
count in a needed quorum. He felt that these issues were worthy of
further study by the Faculty Affairs Committee. Another point central to
this discussion was whether a college or department could set voting
restrictions/privileges for certain department and college processes,
i.e. tenure consideration, without being in violation of the U of Idaho
Faculty Constitution and/or the Faculty-Staff Handbook regulations
cited above.
Professor
Harkins stressed that the intent of the previously approved wording was
to allow voting in general faculty meetings, but he agreed that the
wording of other sections of the handbook might lead to other voting rights
issues surfacing at the college and department level. He said that the FAC’s
view, based on its research of the FSH, is that in the term
"constituent faculty" a clear line is established between
tenure-track and non tenure-track faculty. Vice Provost Thomas pointed out
that the lecturers were probably prohibited from voting on tenure and
promotion because they were not a part of that constituency (tenured and
holding professorial rank). She and others pointed out that lecturers
could be a part of the departmental hiring process. Other councilors
noted that departments select hiring committees and can populate those
committees with all the teaching ranks, using methods appropriate to the
hiring needs.
After
some discussion of the issue, it was moved and seconded (Goble, Kraut)
that the Faculty Affairs Committee be directed to look at how the phrase
"appropriate constituent faculty" is defined with respect to
voting for tenure track appointments and similar voting rights’ concerns.
The motion was adopted by unanimous voice vote.
FC-01-017.
Tenure Eligibility for Faculty in the Student Counseling Center.
Professor Harkins provided the council with background information on
this proposal, which comes from the Faculty Affairs Committee and the Office
of the Provost. The proposal resulted from a study of untenured positions at
the U of Idaho conducted by the FAC at the request of the provost. The faculty
in the Student Counseling Center have had faculty status since 1967 and
are a part of the Faculty-at-Large constituency. These faculty members
represent the largest group of non-tenured faculty on the U of Idaho campus
in permanent salaried positions. They hold professorial rank under the title
of "Licensed Psychologist with Rank." Given the institutional
precedent (faculty members in the University Library) and their
long-standing faculty status and performance expectations, the provost and
the FAC are requesting that current faculty members in the Student
Counseling Center be considered for tenure and that faculty positions in the
Student Counseling Center be converted to tenure-track positions. The
proposal also provides the make-up of a tenure-review committee. The first
reviews for tenure would occur during the 2001-2002 academic year.
Professor
Harkins said that the FAC endorses the proposal and he commended the Office
of the Provost for the speed in which this tenure issue was acted upon. It
was moved and seconded (Goble, Bitterwolf) to adopt the following
proposal:
"Since,
at the present time there are no tenured faculty members in the Student
Counseling Center, it is proposed that a tenure review committee be
convened to evaluate these faculty members and make recommendations to
the provost. Since a tenure review committee usually consists of
members of the candidate’s own department, a reasonable facsimile for
this purpose (the first tenure review committee) will consist of faculty
from the Counseling and School Psychology Program (CASP), a graduate
student from CASP, and a faculty member of the Library. The make-up of
this committee should be mutually agreeable to the Student Counseling
Center faculty and the provost.
After
a reasonable compliance review by the provost, it is proposed that
the provost grant tenure to all Student Counseling Center faculty who
meet the criteria. It is expected that the criteria for tenure in
the Student Counseling Center would be the same criteria as specified
in the Faculty-Staff Handbook for promotion to ‘Psychologist with
rank of Associate Professor.’ It is further proposed that the
faculty positions in the Student Counseling Center be converted to
tenure track status."
In
short, the council is being asked to approve the change of all faculty
positions in the Student Counseling Center to tenure-track positions and
approve a mechanism that will allow the first tenure-reviews to proceed. The
motion was adopted by unanimous voice vote.
Meeting
Reminder. Professor Smelser reminded the council
that the Post Tenure Review proposal would be taken up for discussion
at the February 13th meeting and again, for action, at the
February 20th meeting. He urged the members of the council to
carefully read the letter from the provost concerning this proposal.
Adjournment.
Vice Chair Smelser adjourned the meeting at 4:22 pm and asked that
the absent faculty council chair take particular note of that time.
Respectfully
submitted,
Peter
A. Haggart
Secretary
of the Faculty Council
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