Faculty Council Minutes

Faculty Council Minutes

Sept. 29, noon—Cohen House

Present: Akin,
Ambler, Baker, Bayazitoglu, Cox, Dharan, Droxler, Levander,
Mutchler, Ostdiek, Matsuda, Patten, West and Zammito. Absent:
Braam and Wittenberg.

The agenda consisted
of: (1) Approval of Minutes, (2) Acceptance of Report
on Appointments, (3) Speaker’s Recommendation Regarding
Membership Criteria for Faculty and University Council,
(4) Report Regarding Terminations Because of Discontinued
Programs or Departments, (5) Distance Education and
(6) Need for Uniformity in Interpretation of Maternity Leave
Policies.

(1) Approval
of Minutes: Minutes of the previous meeting were approved
as written.

(2) Acceptance
of Report on Appointments: Patten reported that the
five Faculty Council positions that were vacant due to several
reasons—the retirement of one member, the resignation
of another and the lack of candidates in previous elections—have
been filled.

Faculty Council
Appointments include Janet Braam, any rank—at large;
Barbara Ostdiek, assistant professor, Division A; and Seiichi
Matsuda, assistant professor, Division B. Faculty Council
and University Council appointments include Jennifer West,
assistant professor, Division B; and Caroline Levander,
assistant professor, Division A.
The following Faculty Council positions were announced:
Ed Cox, deputy speaker, and Jack Zammito, convenor of committee
on appeals and grievances.

Members: All
members of Faculty Council and the untenured members of
University Council.

The following
Faculty Council committees were announced: Policy Committee:
Ed Akin (chair), John Ambler, Janet Braam, Ed Cox, Caroline
Levander and Gordon Mutchler; Elections Committee: Stephen
Baker (chair), Andre Droxler, Seiichi Matsuda and Gordon
Wittenberg; Committee on Committees: John Ambler (chair),
Andre Droxler, Barbara Ostdiek and Jack Zammito; and Committee
on Compensation: Yildiz Bayazitoglu (chair), Bala Dharan
and Jennifer West.

(3) Speaker’s
Recommendation Regarding Membership Criteria for Faculty
and University Council: As chair of Faculty Council’s
Election Committee, Baker and his committee were given the
mission of studying the lack of interest on the part of
the faculty for service on Faculty Council and University
Council. This is most apparent with regard to assistant
professors. One suggestion was that perhaps a four-year
commitment is too long for this particular group and there
might be more interest if it were reduced to a two-year
term. Other related issues were discussed. Baker welcomes
input from the entire faculty.

(4) Report
Regarding Termination Because of Discontinued Programs or
Departments: After much discussion, Cox was asked to
revise this report within the Rice context in consultation
with Akin, chair of the Policy Committee, and to bring it
before council at its next meeting.

(5) Distance
Education: Faculty Council was asked by the administration
to study distance education, an issue that is being considered
by other universities, including Harvard. Dharan and Matsuda
agreed to investigate what is being done at other universities
and bring talking points before the group. Faculty members
having an interest in this subject are urged to contact
Dharan or Matsuda.

(6) Need
for Uniformity in Interpretation of Maternity Leave Policies: It has come to the attention of council that maternity leave
policy is possibly being interpreted differently by different
schools. In order to determine if changes need to be recommended
to establish fairness, council plans to research present
practices. The Faculty Council secretary will get a copy
of Rice’s policy from human resources and distribute
it to council. Ostdiek will research the issue and bring
her findings to the next meeting, which was scheduled for
noon Oct. 13 in Abercrombie Lab, A227.

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

Joan Reid, secretary