Minutes of the April 2007
Faculty Meeting

Opening:

President Anderson called the meeting to order at 11:35 am.

Bruce Benson opened the meeting by reading from Edna Hong’s nostalgic almanac on the books that she read as a little girl, and connected her reflections to Maundy Thursday’s command to love one another. He then offered a prayer to open the meeting.

The minutes from the March faculty meeting were approved.

President’s Remarks:

President Anderson began his remarks with a report on admissions. As of March 28, he reported, 280 deposits from accepted students had been received toward the final goal of 720, and of those 280, 52% were from Minnesota, 42% were males, 8.9% were multi-cultural, 38% were legacy students, 46% were Lutheran, and their average ACT and SAT scores were a bit better than previous years. He added that deposits made by current 1 st year students to hold a place for themselves at St. Olaf for the next year suggested that the retention rate could be as high as 98%. The good news implicit in the high retention rate, he commented, was that it was incredibly rare and spoke exceptionally well of the college. The bad news implicit in the retention rate was that it didn’t match up well with projections, and together with uncertainty about the numbers of incoming first years, it was increasingly likely that the college would be oversubscribed in the next year, which would threaten the goal of decreasing the number of students.

The President then reported on advancement for the Science Center. The current amount either received or pledged, he said, was $23,087,373. He said that he hadn’t given up on the goal of building it in a single phase, but that the goal was still $10 m away. He added that there was currently $6 m in outstanding requests to various possible donors, and that he would continue to look for more sources. Finally, the President reported that the faculty campaign had added $507,323 to the effort, and on April 12, there would be a celebration of this accomplishment.

The President concluded his remarks noting that the space committee had been busy listening to the faculty’s comments and attempting to come up with a plan for redistributing space. He said that the committee could not promise universal happiness, but that they hoped most people would be able to be accommodated. Within the next couple weeks, he said, the committee would be able to give the faculty a broad brush-strokes account of a provisional plan.

Matt Rohn asked if students living off-campus would be a topic that would be discussed, given the possibility of oversubscription, and the President said that that would be discussed.

Consent Agenda:

David Nitz asked that CEPC 06/07-07, which dealt with the grade and marking system, be removed from the consent agenda and moved to new business. The consent agenda was then approved.

New Business

Matt Richey, chair of RPC, moved the approval 06/07-02, the restructuring of curriculum and student life committees. Jeanne Delaney offered several amendments to the language of the proposal. All of Delaney’s proposed amendments were accepted as friendly. The motion was approved.

Maggie Odell, chair of the nominating committee, brought two items to the faculty. The first item was a ballot concerning positions that were not affected by the committee restructuring. The faculty was invited to register their votes by filling out the ballot. The second was 06/07-03, which was approved.

Jill Dietz, chair of CEPC, moved the approval of 06/07-06, the selective admission proposal.

Eric Lund asked what kind of courses were at issue. Dietz said current examples were theatre courses where students put on a production, mathematics courses where students report to local businesses, music courses where students are required to participate in an ensemble. DeAne Lagerquist asked whether the conversation programs and off-campus programs would be governed by the rules introduced in the proposal. Dietz said that the proposal would not apply to either.

Matt Rohn asked if off-campus two hundred level and Great Conversation two hundred level courses were explicitly mentioned, and Dietz confirmed that they were. Rohn then asked why the conversation programs were exempted, and whether this was fair. Dietz acknowledged that certain programs were exempted, and replied that this was an explicit judgment that the committee had made, after deliberation.

Brian Borovsky asked why courses that required peer review would be in need of this policy. Dietz gave the example of a creative writing course where students were editing each other’s papers, and said that the policy could be relevant to such a course.

The motion was approved.

Dietz then introduced a motion to approve 06/07-07, the grade and marking system.. Discussion and disagreement followed, and Dietz eventually withdrew the motion.

Committee Reports:

Richey, chair of RPC, said that the committee had been working on modifications to language in the faculty manual regarding methods for salary review. He said that he hoped to bring a proposal to the faculty in May.

Doug Schuurman asked whether the committee’s consensus view was that the current practice was good, and that the policy should be changed to match the practice. Richey said that RPC didn’t have a view either way.

Rohn said he was comfortable with changing policy to match practice, though he was concerned about the diminishment of faculty involvement in committees, and their presence on campus. He said that he hoped that if the manual eliminates merit increases as an incentive, it finds other ways to encourage faculty involvement in campus life. Richey said that he hoped that committee could use the proposal as a departure point for such discussions.

Dietz, chair of CEPC, reported that the committee planned to bring a motion at the May meeting to revise the MCS requirement, and reported that there was an upcoming meeting to discuss the current proposal. She also reported that the committee had been working on an emergency academic plan that would address how the college would proceed to operate in the instance of a pandemic or something similar. She said that she hoped to update the faculty on their progress at the May meeting.

Announcements:

Steve Reece said that 13 students had come to his family’s Thanksgiving celebration, when usually only 2 or 3 accepted his invitation, and said that there would probably be a lot at Easter, as well, in light of the fact that the arrangement of the calendar did not enable them to return home, and that many campus services, including the cafeteria, were all closed. He asked whether such problems caused by the calendar would appear in future years and said that he hoped they would not.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:30.

Respectfully submitted,

Jamie Schillinger