Minutes of the October 1, 2009
 Faculty Meeting

I. Call to order: at 11:34 President Anderson called the meeting to order and introduced our highly esteemed Associate Pastor Jennifer Koenig.

II. Opening prayer: Pastor Koenig conveyed greetings from Pastor Bruce Benson, who is leading the Term in Asia; she reminded us of the tree planting ceremony honoring Mark Schelske on October 23, 3pm, near the memorial bell tower; she noted that at St Olaf we try to see with different lenses, including those of critical thinking about the world and those of loving the world, and that it can be hard, even tiring, to teach from such multiple perspectives; and so she prayed for stamina.

III. Approval of the Minutes of the September 3 meeting:  Before we voted using the clickers, the President assured those who wondered why we would buy these when money is tight that we already had them.  The minutes were approved, but modesty forbids this secretary to report by what percentage.

IV. Remarks by the President: 1. The endowment: once as high as $334 million, sunk as low as $208 million, and has now rebounded to $270 million.  2. Two new members have been announced for the Board of Regents: Peter Gotsch (class of 1986, Managing Partner at Ellipse Capital) and Elizabeth Nabel (“highly esteemed” class of 1974, Director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health).  The Board’s fall meeting will include two items of interest: 1. It will give final approval to the budget that we are spending right now. The delay is because 70% of our budget comes from tuition, and the Board needs to know the enrollment income before it can baptize the budget that started walking months ago. 2. It will consider the renovation of Old Science, which had been postponed because the Board hesitated to add to our $88 million of debt.  (This sounds serious, but our interest rate varies daily and this morning was at two tenths of one percent—no, we cannot lock that in, but the recent rates mean that we are saving $1 million in interest this year.)  Though the President insisted that he didn’t want to seem coy, he hinted that some substantial gift(s) will present the Board with the opportunity to proceed with renovation without borrowing additional funds.

V. Remarks by the Provost, Jim May: he announced that the search for a new College Librarian has been suspended due to the need of Assistant Provost Arnie Ostebee (who supervises the Library) for medical treatments.  We can talk with Todd Nichol, Chair of the Library Committee, if we have questions or suggestions.  The search likely will resume next spring.  Meanwhile, Sarah Johnston is the interim College Librarian.

VI. The Consent Agenda: after a motion to approve the consent agenda, the chair of the Curriculum Committee, Gwen Barnes-Karol, asked that Religion 282 be removed from the Consent Agenda.  The remainder of it passed 137-5, and included the Winter Sports Schedule as well as the following new courses: Biology 145, Chemistry 390, Classics 121, Dance 241, Economics 214, English 248, History 292, Music 234, Psychology 220 and 222, Religion 224 and 267, Social Work 125, and Sociology/Anthropology 245.

Then Barnes-Karol moved some editorial changes to the description and rationale for Religion 282. (The President, quoting Parliamentarian Chris Brunelle, explained that Roberts Rules does not allow so-called friendly amendments since the property rights for a motion shift from the mover to the assembly as soon as the motion is seconded.) Barnes-Karol said the amendment involved minor editorial changes, though one of them was the eschatologically controversial shift from “Reinhold Niebuhr is arguably the most important….” to “…was arguably the most important…” Nevertheless, the motion to amend passed by a voice vote and the main motion passed142-1, so even the Lutherans voted for it. 

VII. Committee Reports:

      Curriculum Committee, Gwen Barnes-Karol, Chair: First she thanked last year’s chair David Booth for the crucial role he played in the transition from the old CEPC to the new committee structure; listing his many outstanding capabilities and virtues, she said they “merit our deepest appreciation and esteem,” which elicited ecstatic applause and a blush.  Second, she thanked the faculty for the creative and intellectual strength of so many new course offerings.  Third, she thanked all those involved in making the first-year student participation in Week One assessment activities such a resounding success.  Jo Beld, Director of Evaluation and Assessment, reported that she had hoped for a 60% return rate from the randomly selected students, but received an 87% return for the Collegiate Learning Assessment and a 91% return for the Essential Learning Outcomes Assessment.  She explained how the next step for assessment involves departments choosing which specific learning outcomes to assess this year, whether it be a repeat of the outcome assessed last year, or an assessment of a new one, or implementation of changes in program with the intention of measuring changes in student learning.  Also, the Curriculum Committee and the Dean hope that departments will participate in a modest pilot program to assess learning outcomes tied to General Education requirements.  Third, she announced that the Dean has appointed Jeanne Wilcox to the new position of Director of Oral Communication, a position that is being constructed to be analogous to that of Director of Writing.  Wilcox will develop a Moodle site with resources for faculty teaching ORC courses.  Fourth and finally, she expressed hope that faculty remain alert to the influenza dangers and remain flexible about contingency plans.

      Faculty Life Committee, Beth Christensen, Chair: She reminded us of several grant deadlines, including Released Time Grants (high noon, October 23) and Professional Development Grants (March 5), the latter having been combined with teaching grants.  There will be another round for Professional Development grants next fall.  David Schodt, Director of the Center for Innovation in the Liberal Arts, has announced that the FaCE grant applications will be due about the same time as the Development grants, so the deadline may be extended from November 1 to November 6.

      Student Life Committee, Judy Kutulas, Chair: She said that she will be brief, even at the risk of her committee looking like slackers compared to the Curriculum Committee.  She announced that the new Academic Integrity policy is being examined by the college lawyers as it expands from the Student Handbook to the Faculty Manual.  She now wants faculty to let her committee know whether it should start to examine the Honor Code and Council or whether it can rest on its laurels for a while.  She also pointed out that there are now resources on the committee homepage for faculty teaching challenges, including teaching international students or those with English as a second language, as well as teaching students with learning or health issues.  Matt Rohn asked if there could be some easy web access for students to issues about plagiarism; Kutulas said that she would see what she could do.

VIII. Remarks for the Good of the Order:

DeAne Lagerquist, noting that too often faculty gripe and complain, complemented Jim Fisher and his crew on the beautiful college grounds, eliciting hearty applause.

A faculty member, admitting his return to the complaining category, asked for an explanation of the recent changes in the Buntrock Commons parking lot.  The President explained that faculty and staff had been filling up the first rank of the lot for the entire day, and that too often guests, including the elderly and paying alumni, have to park at a far distance, resulting in the administration hearing noises from them.  So keeping open the first rank of the lot for guests seems a humanitarian as well as a prudential move.  He suggested the inconvenient truth that to avoid being late to class, faculty might leave home somewhat earlier.

Judy Kutulas announced that the Faculty Action Association would have a brief meeting right after we adjourn.

Anne Van Briba announced that everyone is invited to the monthly Community Dance Hour, where we can pick up at least 2000 steps on our pedometers.

Greg Kneser, Dean of Students, announced that when students email faculty that they are ill, we should not ask for a note from the college health service, since requiring them to get out of bed and stand in a line is a prescription for spreading the flu.  The President reported that he and Kneser and May had just received a video of a student in bed taking his own temperature and showing 101.4 degrees on his thermometer. Kneser made the radical suggestion that instead we should take a student’s word for it.

Paul Jackson announced that there would be 50-60 folks attending a Sustainability Conference this weekend, and that if we see them wandering around we should steer them in a positive direction.

IX. Meeting adjourned: at 12:11 pm.

Minutes recorded by Ed Langerak, Secretary to the Faculty

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