Brown University Task Force on Faculty Governance Minutes of Meetings

Attending: Nancy Amstrong, Russell Church, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Richard Fishman, Peter Gromet, John Savage, Rajiv Vohra, and Michael White.

1. As convening chair, John Savage distributed a handbook containing materials on faculty governance and gave a report on conversations early the same day between Faculty Officers and President Ruth Simmons.

   The President told the officers that the goal of the task force should be to help Brown make better decisions.

   Savage reported that both the President and Provost-Designate support the replacement of the Academic Council by a joint faculty/administration committee with a preponderance of faculty members.

   Savage also reported conversations with the President, Provost-Designate, FEC and within the Faculty concerning the pros and cons of a committee dealing with faculty compensation, noting that this matter needs much more discussion.

   Savage noted that students and faculty have been frustrated by their service on ACUP. He cited the article by Schuster et al. on this type of committee that is in the handbook.

   Savage said the President will make recommendations to the Task Force for a new committee structure to address diversity at Brown. She believes we need to be proactive and not rely primarily on policing of the hiring process.

2. We agreed to meet over the summer. Savage reported that the President will cover our reasonable expenses.

3. At our next meeting the following members will summarize the collected information on colleges and universities:

   Member	Institutions
   Nancy Amstrong	Cornell	Dartmouth
   Russell Church	Brown	Stanford
   Anne Fausto-Sterling	AWAY
   Richard Fishman	Duke	Williams
   Peter Gromet	Amherst	Berkeley
   John Savage
   Rajiv Vohra	Chicago	Columbia
   Michael White	Princeton	Penn

4. We agreed at our next meeting to try to settle on a couple of governance models that we understand and use them to guide our discussions.

5. We agree that our highest priority would be to find a replacement for our Academic Council.

6. We agreed to consider how to get the best people to serve on committees.

7. We also agreed upon the importance of good communication with our faculty colleagues. We may want to use Brown's public relations channels to put out information on the working of our committee.

8. Our next meeting will be Tuesday, May 7 at 8:30am in the English Department. A major objective of this meeting is to prepare a message to be delivered at the Faculty meeting later in the day.

9. At our next meeting we agreed to choose a chair and vice chair.

Submitted by
John E. Savage