Minutes of the October 9, 2008 Faculty Meeting

I.  Call to Order
The President called the October Meeting to order at 11.38.

II.  Opening Prayer
Pastor Benson reminded us that it was Yom Kippur, a time to consider how life is misaligned and then to reflect on how to realign one's life.  He pointed out that while St. Olaf is founded in Christian traditions, that this is a good practice for individuals and for our community.

III.  Remarks by Student Government Association, Wade Hauser and Diana Baetscher (President and Vice President of SGA) reported on SGA, a large organization with 10 branches, involved in all aspects of student life.  They discussed their plans and goals for this year including supporting campus sustainability, examining college decisions, increasing transportation options, reducing printing, encouraging more direct contact with students, allocating money for conference attendance, and spending money in most effective way possible.  They would like to encourage all faculty to contact them to learn more about their organization.

IV.  Approval of the Minutes of the August 2008 Faculty Meeting
The minutes were approved.

V.  Report on the October Board of Regents Meeting
Karen Marsalek Faculty Observer-Elect to the Board of Regents, reported on the August Board of Regents meeting.  The primary issue discussed at this meeting was student body size.  They examined four possible scenarios and implications for increasing (to 3,200), decreasing (to 2,800 or 2,900), or maintaining the current student body size (3,000).  The majority of the Faculty-Regents Governance Committee (FRGC) recommended to the Board of Regents Sub-committee on Academic Affairs that the student body size be decreased to 2,800.  After considering each of the options, the Board favored a size of 2,900.

The Board decided to shift its meeting schedule from four meetings to three per academic year.  The December meeting will no longer take place; the late spring meeting will now take place Honors Day weekend, allowing more opportunities for the Regents to interact with students, faculty and staff.  Finally, the Board will experiment with holding one meeting off campus; this year’s February meeting is scheduled to take place in Phoenix, Arizona.

VI.  Remarks by the President
President Anderson observed that the February meeting location might be re-examined due to the general financial situation of the country.

The President noted that last weekend was very memorable for the College with the dedication of Regents Hall, family weekend, and homecoming. He noted that attendance was up 17%, and that St. Olaf needs these engaged and committed members of the broader St. Olaf family to help us thrive. He thanked everyone who made the weekend possible.

The President also announced that the College has received a Mellon Foundation grant in the amount of $800,000, part of an initiative to speed faculty renewal.  Five of the ten current tenure-track searches are made possible by this grant.  In addition to the faculty student ratio decreasing because of this grant, it also represents how the Mellon Foundation has included St. Olaf College in the league of schools with which they work.  He thanked Patricia Martin, Jim May and Arnie Ostebee for their hard work on this grant.

President Anderson addressed the College’s current financial situation.  He explained that the College’s debt currently has had extremely low interest rates but the endowment has experienced a significant decline in value.  It is important to note, however, that the value of the endowment is calculated by averaging the last sixteen quarters.  This is done in order to figure what percent the College can use in the operating budget.  Because of this, we are not currently experiencing a bad quarter, and will not for another two years. 

He stressed that the greatest financial concern is how people are going to be thinking about the cost of college in the coming recruitment cycle based on what they feel about their net worth. He pointed out the need for the College to be very thoughtful, deliberate and prudent in the coming months about major expenditures in the budget, specifically with the renovation of the Old Science Building.  At the Board of Regents meeting in February, the price for tuition and the budget for the following year will be set.  Should the College go forward with renovations for the Old Science Building, the Board would have to make the decision to borrow money.

The President also elaborated on the conference fund previously discussed by the representatives of the SGA. There will be $6,000 available to students to attend academic conferences organized through the Dean’s Office.  There will be an additional $6,000 for students to attend non-academic conferences as a part of the SGA budget.

The final point discussed by the President was the number of non-profit organizations requesting donations from St. Olaf.  He explained that the College will not donate money to other non-profit organizations.  He reminded us that we as citizens have an obligation to be philanthropic in our communities, but he does not feel it is appropriate to collect tuition money or donations from donors and redistribute it to other organizations in Northfield.

Several faculty members raised questions and expressed concerns about this decision and encouraged everyone to support these organizations.

VII. Consent Agenda
There were two items on the agenda:
1. Approval of Winter 2008 Sports Schedules (Judy Kutulas)
2. Curriculum Committee 08/09-1: New Course Proposals (David Booth)
The faculty voted to approve the agenda.

VIII.  Committee Reports
David Booth, Chair of the Curriculum Committee, reported on three issues on which the committee had been working. He first discussed the concluded process for reviewing new courses for interim and spring.  He stressed that there are advantages with having all new courses reviewed and adopted by the entire St. Olaf faculty, although it is difficult to complete all the tasks involved within the given time constraints.  He thanked everyone involved in this process.  Secondly, the Curriculum committee will recommend to the Dean that he ask each program and department to identify at least one intended learning outcome and gather evidence on how students are achieving it.  Third, he discussed a new course entitled “Literature and the Preservance of the Common Good”.  This course can be taught on short notice by many faculty members in case the physical campus needs to be shut down should there be a pandemic.  They would like to recruit someone to teach this course online next summer. 

Jonathan Hill  reported on the work of the newly formed Faculty Governance Committee.  The committee has specifically been discussing student body size.  He stressed that the topic still in discussion and that if it comes closer to a resolution that faculty input will be solicited so that the GGC is reporting on the sentiments of as many faculty as possible.  The second issue discussed in this committee is the optimal size of the committee, which will be revisited later this spring.  Finally, after the restructuring of this committee, two errors were found in the Faculty Manual.  Any changes to the manual have to be approved by the entire faculty, and thus Hill proposed a friendly amendment to the Faculty Manual. After a brief discussion, the faculty approved the motion.

Judy Kutulas, Student Life Committee, reported on discussions of policy for student technology in classroom.  The Dean of Students will be sending out a survey to gather input to help the committee discuss this topic further.  Please review the current classroom policy, but note that this was written before student-brought technology existed.  The question is whether the College should specifically address these issues in a written policy or if faculty would like to have the flexibility in making their own decisions.

Jim Hanson, Student Life Committee, encouraged faculty to complete an academic integrity survey.  Students are also taking a similar survey. The results of these surveys will help draft new policies.

Eric Cole introduced the new Faculty Life Committee to the faculty.  The Committee is concerned with supporting faculty at all stages of their academic life.  They have two teams, each consisting of five members.  The first team will administer the pre-existing faculty development opportunities.  They will be in charge of applications and nominations for honorary degrees.   The second team will examine future opportunities for funding or issues.  They have started by creating a list of possible issues in which the faculty might be interested. The first issue they have discussed is developing summer grant opportunities that can include both research and teaching.  They will also be discussing pre-tenured leave, post-tenure review and support, adjunct faculty issues, and work-life balance.

IV.  Remarks for the Good of the Order
Eric Lund introduced three visiting research scholars from abroad: Dr. Taoyang Wang and Ms. Yunqiu Liu (China), Dr. Sarah Japhet (Tanzania).  He also introduced three Fulbright teaching scholars from abroad: Jiangang Wang (China), Svetlana Pokrovets (Russia), and Taeko Ueno (Japan).  In addition, Sarah Maenz (Germany) joins the faculty through an exchange with Paderborn University.  The faculty greeted the international scholars with warm applause.

He also reminded the faculty of the November 10 deadline for Off-Campus Interim proposals for 2010 and noted that information would be emailed about faculty opportunities for teaching or researching abroad.
 
Bob Entemann announced that the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs will be hosted at St. Olaf this weekend.

The meeting adjourned at 12.33.

Minutes prepared by Kari Lie, Secretary to the Faculty

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