Faculty Council Minutes

Faculty Council Minutes

RICE NEWS

December 2, 1999

Minutes of Faculty Council Meeting

Sept. 3–noon

Faculty Club

Present: Akin, Caldwell, Cox, Dailey, Dharan, Droxler, Ghorbel, Mutchler, Wiener, Wilson and Wittenberg. Absent: Ambler, Bayazitoglu, Patten and Rea.

The agenda consisted of: (1) Election of Speaker, (2) Proposed Minor Change to Bylaws, (3) Update on Revisions to the Sexual Harassment Policy, (4) More Discussion of Appeals and Grievances Procedures, (5) Introduction of Proposed Bylaws for Faculty Meetings and (6) Proposed Program in Literature, Language and Culture.

(1) Election of Speaker: Wilson asked for nominations for the 1999-2000 Faculty Council speaker. After Wilson was nominated and unanimously elected, he agreed to serve in this position for another year. He then announced that Faculty Council committee appointments would be made over the next week. Members were asked to look at their schedules to determine the best day and times for future meetings and the next meeting was scheduled for noon on Sept. 27 in A227 Abercrombie Laboratory.

(2) Proposed Minor Change to Bylaws: This year an assistant professor serving on Faculty Council was promoted to associate professor. As the Faculty Council bylaws do not address this situation, council agreed that the following should be added to the end of Section A-1 and brought before the faculty for approval: An assistant professor who is promoted to associate professor before the end of his or her term shall remain on council, but will not serve on the Promotions and Tenure Committee. This change is consistent with past practice as determined from a search of old copies of the proceedings.

(3) Update on Revisions to the Sexual Harassment Policy: A brief update was presented and the subject was tabled until final documentation is available.

(4) More Discussion of Appeals and Grievances Procedures: The issue of notification and reporting of findings was discussed at length, and a consensus was reached. Final action will take place at the next meeting when formal wording will be presented.

(5) Introduction of Proposed Bylaws for Faculty Meetings: A memo from Alan J. Chapman presenting a need for bylaws of meetings of the faculty and a draft of such bylaws were distributed with the request that council study and be prepared to discuss at the next meeting.

(6) Proposed Program in Literature, Language and Culture: Wilson distributed a proposal for a graduate program in literature, language and culture that was reviewed and approved this past spring by the Graduate Council. Faculty Council’s approval has been requested. He asked council to study the proposal, which will be discussed at a later meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:15 p.m.

Joan Reid, secretary