Faculty Council Minutes

Faculty Council
Business Meeting
Monday, Dec. 16
Anne and Charles Duncan Hall

Present: John
Zammito (speaker), Ed Akin, Bill Barnett, Steven Crowell,
Dean Currie, Chandler Davidson, André Droxler, Malcolm
Gillis, Deborah Harter, Tom Haskell, Lynne Huffer, Hannah
Landecker, Eugene Levy, Scott McGill, Julia Morgan, Bob
Patten, Jennifer West and Mark Wiesner. Absent: Stephen
Baker and Herb Ward.

(1) Presidential
Search (Zammito): The speaker acknowledged President
Malcolm Gillis’ announcement to complete his term as
the sixth president of Rice University, and he thanked him
for his support of Council’s efforts and for the many
ways in which he has served the university. Zammito asked
the board chair how the Council could help with the arrangements
to put in place faculty representatives on the presidential
search committee. Barnett responded that he will research
that issue and then advise Council.

(2) Plans
for Rice’s Future, Part II (Barnett, Currie, Gillis
and Levy): Council and guests continued their discussions
of the following agenda items from their Oct. 8 meeting:

A. Athletics
Finance
B. Long-Run Master Plan for Facilities
C. Honor Council
D. Promotion Procedures

Zammito stated
that these discussions have been very productive, and all
present agreed to have another such meeting in the spring
of 2003.

(3) Family/Maternity
Leaves (proposed policy revisions) (Huffer): Huffer
provided an overview of the current family/maternity leaves
policy, and then described situations in some of the departments,
of variances in “teaching relief” provided and
“gender equality” discrepancies. Several of the
members stressed the significance that family benefits have
on recruiting and retention of faculty. Huffer stated that
the provost has agreed to the policy committee’s draft
proposal for enhanced family benefits. She said that the
proposal is pending for action by the legal counselors,
who stated that the document will be ready by the spring
semester of 2003. Council then will present the draft proposal
for vote in the general faculty meeting on Jan. 29.

Huffer described
another ongoing concern of the faculty, which is the need
for a childcare facility. Those present expressed the importance
of having a back-up system — a short-term-illness childcare
facility for those whose children cannot be taken to their
usual day care provider.

(4) Unity
of University (tensions pulling toward fragmentation
into autonomous schools) (Zammito): Zammito gave a brief
overview of Council’s concern that the university is
straying from “one” institution unity. He then
described some of the following present conflicts:

(1) variances
in degree requirements,
(2) promotions and tenure policy issues and
(3) lack of adherence to faculty governance. He stated that
it will be increasingly difficult to achieve a venue of
excellence if the university does not give priority to unity.

The president
stressed the significance of having an appropriate diversity
of balance, to be able to comply with the needs of each
school.

The following
approaches for establishing solutions for those concerns
were discussed:
(1) providing a forum for faculty to develop a common curriculum/degree
plan and
(2) “University Professors” teaching outside of
their main disciplines, to share their knowledge with the
other schools. An ad hoc committee will be formed by Council
to develop those proposals.

(5) Security/Privacy
Issues (international students/faculty) (Zammito): Zammito
described some of the increasing security difficulties confronted
by “international” colleagues and students in
respect to the events of Sept. 11, 2001. The provost provided
an overview of the main concerns of such emergency situations
(i.e., visa delays for citizens of other countries, coming
in/out of the United States and the FBI’s requests
for confidential documents). Gillis stated that he has been
in frequent communication with the Association of American
Universities regarding those security issues and will continue
to do so.

(6) Adjournment:
The meeting was adjourned at 1:30 p.m., and the next Faculty
Council business meeting was scheduled for Tuesday, Jan.
14, noon, Esther M. Cohen Dining Room, Cohen House.

Ellen Butler
Secretary