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January 24, 2003
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January 24, 2003
Attending: Nancy Amstrong, Russell Church, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Peter Gromet, Rajiv Vohra, and John Savage (Chair).
Absent: Richard Fishman and Michael White.
Guests: Bill Beeman, Lynne Joyrich, and Lewis Siefert
The Chair reported on conversations with Faculty officers with President Simmons and the chairs of the Affirmative Action Monitoring Committee (AAMC) and the Committee on the Status of Women (CSW).
On December 19 at a regular meeting of Faculty/FEC officers with the President, we (Anne Fausto-Sterling and John Savage) discussed the amendments to the charges of the Faculty Affairs Committee (FAC) and the Faculty Diversity Subcommittee (FDS) being proposed by the AAMC and CSW. FAC and FDS are new committees proposed for adoption at the February 4 Faculty meeting.
CSW feels a strong need to stay alive as a voice for women faculty members. In particular, hospital-based faculty have been meeting with CSW and have brought to its attention their concerns about hiring and promotion in the hospitals. President Simmons encouraged us to retain CSW as a non-legislative committee (its current status) and she also volunteered to fund a study by an outside consultant of hiring and promotion practices in the hospitals. Both Anne and John strongly supported these proposals. Bill Beeman, Chair of the Faculty, strongly endorsed them also.
Following the meeting with the President John conveyed the results of the meeting to Elaine Bearer, Chair of CSW, who greated them with enthusiasm.
At today's meeting, the Task Force also strongly endorsed them.
The AAMC has proposed introducing an amendment on February 4 to require that the FDS review all denials of promotion and reappointment by TPA for nondiscrimination purposes. John and Anne explained the problems with this proposal to the President. They include: a) Because this committee will not have any experience with positive decisions on promotion and reappointment, they will not have a basis for making objective decisions. b) They will second guess TPA, a newly designed faculty committee whose responsibilities include reviewing cases presented to them on the same grounds. c) According the Brown's General Counsel, discrimination as a grounds for review allows every aspect of a case to be considered. d) We have a new Committee on Grievance that has been very carefully designed to fairly represent the interests of individual faculty members; it is the proper body to review such cases.
The President suggested that we should consider having a faculty ombuds person, an individual who would act as a neutral agent to hear and help resolve individual complaints and make periodic assessments of hirings and promotions. This person would have full access to confidential information. Cases that could not be resolved by such a person would be forwarded to the Committee on Grievance. The ombuds person could be the chair of a committee of advisers available to untenured faculty members. Confidential information should not be provided to such a commmittee.
John and Anne greeted these suggestions with enthusiasm, as did Bill, and they were conveyed to Jim Valles, Chair of AAMC, who in turn communicated them to his committee. Jim and another member of AAMC have been invited to attend the next regularly scheduled meeting of Faculty officers with the President on January 28.
Members of the Task Force also expressed their support for these proposals.
Lynne Joyrich and Lewis Siefert of the LGBT Committee met with the Task Force to discuss their proposed amendment to the charge of FDS. After reading through the charges to FAC and FDS, its subcommittee, we discussed the amendment. After lengthy discussion it was agreed that it was best to add a modified version of the LGBT amendment to the charge of FAC. The new charge, which is shown below, will be offered as a friendly amendment. We expect FEC, which will vote on this next Tuesday, to accept it. The Task Force reports to FEC, the body bringing these motions to the Faculty. The new motion will read
d. It shall promote a fair and equitable environment on campus, in
intellectual and pedagogical pursuit, and in employment, compensation,
and benefits and leaves practices in accordance with the Corporation
Statement on Nondiscrimination.
We also discussed the title and acronym of FDS and agreed that a more descriptive title would "Subcommittee on Diversity in Hiring (SDH)", which will also be offered as a friendly amendment.
TPA is a very important committee that will have a faculty chair and vice chair. It is essential that it procedures be put in place for replacement of members and officers. Such procedures were included in FEC and FAC but not for TPA where they are equally important. The Task Force agreed to recommend to FEC that TPA be changed to include such procedures. The language of a motion that would implementt this follows.
Motion
To Revise the Tenure, Promotions and Appointments Committee (TPA) by
Addition of Procedures to Handle Resignations
Motion to amend the Faculty Rules, effective July 1, 2003, for the
purpose of revising the Tenure, Promotions, and Appointments Committee
(TPA) described in Part I, Section 2, VI, C of the Faculty Rules and
Regulations by the addition of a new Section 4 and renaming of the old
Section 4 as Section 5. The new section provides procedures to be
followed in the event that a member of TPA resigns.
4. Resignations
a. Officers
i. Chair
If the Chair is unable to continue in office, he or she shall be
replaced by the Vice Chair, who shall hold office for the unexpired
term of the resigned Chair and for the year that he or she would in
the normal course of events be Chair.
ii. Vice Chair
To replace a Vice Chair who has taken the office of a resigned Chair
or who has resigned, the Committee shall elect a replacement from
among its members; the elected person shall hold the office of Vice
Chair for the unexpired term of the Vice Chair being replaced, and
that of Chair for the following year.
b. Non-Officers
The Faculty Executive Committee shall make an interim appointment to
replace any resigned non-officer member, subject to review by the
Faculty at its next Faculty meeting. Such interim appointments shall
last only until the next election.
The Task Force discussed election to the new committeess and agreed to recommend to FEC that every position in each new committee should be open to every faculty member. That is, there should be no presumption that individuals currently serving on interim committees or precursor committees, such as ConFRAT, would serve out their terms on the new committees. On the other hand, this should not preclude such individuals from serving on the new committees. Committees in this category are APC, URC, TPA, FAC, SDH, and Committee on Grievance. Committees in which current members would serve out their terms on revised committees are CCC, Graduate Council, Standing Committee on the Academic Code, FEC, Honorary Degrees Committee, Medical Faculty Executive Committee, the Committee on Medical Faculty Reappointment, and the Status of Women Committee. This will be the full list of faculty committees after the approval of FAC and SDH on February 4. In addition we will have administrative advisory boards.
We discussed this issue but recommended against it.
The Chair said that he had contacted Russell Carey who is working with the Task Force on the creation of individual administrative advisory boards. The Task Force agreed that it would like to meet with individual administrators who would chair such boards to discuss their charges and methods of operation.
Submitted by
John E. Savage