Minutes of the September 3, 2009
Faculty Meeting

I. Call to order: At 9am President Anderson said he was pleased and honored to call to order the first faculty meeting of the 135th year of St Olaf College.

II. Opening prayer: Pastor Jennifer Koenig noted that Pastor Bruce Benson is leading the Term in Asia.  She reflected on three things on her mind: 1. Gratitude for, among other things, the care of faculty for the students.  2. Death; two loved and respected colleagues—Mark Schelske and Ralph Haugen—were among those who died during the past year.  3. Spaciousness, including the aimless rambles that cannot be programmed into a syllabi (in any case, already printed, of course) but which can be lived and prayed for; which she did.

III. Remarks by the President: after quickly securing faculty consent, President Anderson moved his remarks ahead of the approval of the minutes.  He noted that there will be a tree-planting ceremony on October 23, 3pm, in honor of Mark Schelske.  He then introduced our cool new toys, which are electronic voting clickers that we immediately practiced using.  Among other votes, 56% of 187 voters said that Todd Nichol was the King Olaf V Professor, which elicited from him a later thanks for this “tepid affirmation of my professional identity.”  Concerning the clickers, “go” means “stop my vote” and the most important rule is to give them back.  The President said he would save the rest of his remarks for the opening meeting and dinner this evening.

IV. Approval of Minutes of the May faculty meeting: this was done with the new clickers and the minutes received a 98% approval rating.  One feature of this new way of voting is that the number of voters is counted; the President noted that we now have a bar for attendance that is at least 188.

V. Remarks by Provost Jim May: He first welcomed back the faculty returning from leaves and terms abroad, and then he read the names of new faculty, who stood and received the applause of the group.  The Provost then talked about “The Flu and You,”
noting that he has spent 52 of his 58 years in school and only missed one day and then only because of spousal coercion.  But now he has to bend and, incredibly, encourage us to stay out of class if we show symptoms and encourage our students to do the same.  The Provost concluded by encouraging us to promote the lecture by Lincoln expert Frank Williams on Constitution Day, September 17.

VI. Remarks by Vice President and Dean of Admissions Michael Kyle: He announced that 813 new students would be arriving on campus, and gave profiles of 7 of the 777 first year students.  We have the highest number ever of multi-cultural students, including 106 students of color.  The profile of the group is impressive, including 21% with perfect GPAs.  He admitted that one of the new students is named Kyle but assured us that she has the looks and disposition of her mother rather than her father.  He warned that this coming year is the first one in which families will begin their college search in full realization of the current financial crisis, and they will be comparing a $44,000 year at St Olaf with a $14,000 one at University of Minnesota, which has become one of our major competitors.  He introduced his team of Admissions people, who were warmly applauded, and he pledged that they will work hard to keep up the numbers.  He concluded by thanking the faculty for all their cooperation with the admissions people.

VII. Remarks by Cody Venzke from the Honor Council: He explained the details of the pledge and the role of the honor council as well as the faculty in initiating investigations and implementing penalties.  He urged us to use the exact wording of the pledge: “I pledge my honor that I have neither given or received assistance, and that I have seen no dishonest work.”  With unsigned pledges, if the student checks the box next to “I have intentionally not signed the pledge,” it automatically becomes an Honor Council, but if that box is not checked, we are to contact the student first.  Rich DuRocher, Associate Dean of Students, then reminded us of the Academic Integrity Policy that we passed last year and that covers paper-writing and other academic work.  He noted that Judy Kutulas had sent us an email that enabled us to put on our syllabi (now already printed, of course) a link to the policy.

VIII. Remarks by Registrar Mary Cisar: She begged us not to mix up student registration cards, and reminded us of materials in our packets that can help us help our advisees.  She also reminded us of the resources on our www.stolaf.edu/sis site: click on “Forms and Link” and we will find many excellent resources under “Advising,” including tips on how to keep the conversation going (and even worthwhile) at that first picnic on Saturday.  Placement results are also on sis, but if new advisees have not yet taken a placement exam, we should warn them to do so (online) before Monday; the exams are available on the registrar’s page at http://www.stolaf.edu/services/aac/newstudentinfo.htm

IX. Remarks by Todd Nichol, King Olav V Professor of Scandinavian-American Studies: As Coordinator of this year’s theme of “Migration,” he announced a number of upcoming special events, some of which are cosponsored by the Boldt Chair, Solveig Zempel.  He mentioned four events in particular, about which more information will be forthcoming.

X. Remarks for the Good of the Order
1. Jeanine Grenberg expressed concern over the new policy on copyrights and course packets, saying that academic freedom issues are involved in the college’s decision to buy into the rather narrow publishers’ interpretation of the law rather than the more liberal librarian interpretation. 
2. Dan Hoffrenning, the new Associate Dean of the Social Sciences, announced that the social scientists are destined for another meeting but at least it would be in Valhalla.
3. Jo Beld, Director of Evaluation and Assessment, asked us to read the blue sheet in our packets and to encourage our new advisees to participate in the research project.  She will labor at her desk all day on Monday in case there are questions.
4. Michael Fitzgerald asked about Xerox stuff and was informed that our AAAs have the answer to this and other of life’s persistent questions.

Meeting adjourned at 10:21am.

Minutes recorded by Ed Langerak, Secretary to the Faculty

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