Brown University Task Force on Faculty Governance Minutes of Meetings

Minutes of The Task Force on Faculty Governance

June 12, 2002

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

Absent: Anne Fausto-Sterling

1. We approved the minutes of our meeting of June 5.
2. We changed the time of our meeting on July 17 to 2-4pm so that we can meet with the Provost at 4pm for one hour in his office.
3. We reviewed the tasks that we need to assign to committees. We decided that we would not act on those tasks that relate to the support of the research mission of the University but instead we would refer them to the new VP for Research. We also agreed that we would postpone action on those tasks that relate to the Brown Medical School until a later date.

   We agreed to recommend that ACUP be reconstituted as a provostial committee, that is, a committee called by the Provost to which he makes appointments on the recommendation of the Faculty and other campus constituencies.

4. We then revisited our outlines for the three committees that we had defined earlier, namely, the Academic Priorities Committee (APC), the Appointment, Promotion and Tenure (APT) Committee, and the Faculty Personnel Committee for the purpose of preparing them for release to the Faculty.

   We spent most our time discussing how to select faculty members for the three committees. We decided that the faculty members on each committee should serve staggered three-year terms.

   For the APC we recommend the following procedure be used: each year two slates of two faculty members be prepared for election by the Faculty. Candidates are to be chosen by the Provost in consultation with the Faculty Executive Committee (FEC) (or its replacement) from a list prepared by the FEC.

   This procedure is designed to ensure the selection of highly qualified candidates who have the confidence of the Provost and the approval of the Faculty.

   The new description of the APC follows.

   Academic Priorities Committee (APC)

   • Makes recommendations to President
   • Issues regular reports to the Faculty
   • Members: Six senior academic administrators, six faculty
   • Method of selection: each year two slates of two faculty members will be prepared for election by the Faculty. Candidates are to be chosen by the Provost in consultation with the Faculty Executive Committee (FEC) (or its replacement) from a list prepared by the FEC.
   • Responsibilities
     • All major academic initiatives, including change of status of academic units
     • External reviews of academic units; appoints review committees
     • Strategic allocation of academic resources
       • operational
       • instructional/research
     • Review of all major academic budgetary proposals
     • Review of candidates for endowed chairs
     • Evaluation of external academic relationships at university level
     • Appointment of its ad hoc committees
   • APC will not be obliged to review all proposals sent to it.

   We then revised the responsibilities of the APT slightly and expanded the number of faculty sitting on it from 8 to 12, three from each of the four divisions. This was done to ensure that there is an adequate number of faculty members to handle the increased workload that will be encountered with the expansion of the Faculty and the many retirements that are coming. It will also allow for adequate representation of the arts without short changing representation of the humanities.

   Appointment, Promotion and Tenure (APT) Committee

   • Reponsibilities
     • Make recommendations to the Provost concerning faculty appointments, promotions, tenure
     • Review and approve departmental standards, criteria and procedures to ensure excellence across all areas of knowledge
     • Annual reports to the Faculty and the Faculty Personnel Committee
   • Membership
     • Four non-voting academic administrators (Deans of the Faculty, College, and Graduate School and Vice President for Biology and Medicine) and twelve voting full professors, three per division, elected by the Faculty to staggered three-year terms.
     • Faculty members should be representative of diversity in the Faculty.
   • Chair and Support
     • Chair will be a faculty member
     • An office, staff and budget are needed

     After considerable debate about whether to increase the number of faculty members serving on the Faculty Personnel Committee, we decided to keep the number at six. Otherwise, we did not change its description except to require that its members will be elected by the Faculty. It should be noted that the FPC does not have responsibility to hear appeals on individual salaries.

   Faculty Personnel Committee (FPC)

   • Responsibilities
     • Supervise periodic professional assessment of the competitiveness of faculty salaries, benefits and leaves
     • Recommend policy concerning faculty salary, benefits and leaves
     • Assess and advise on faculty retention and recruitment policies
     • Assess and promote faculty diversity
   • Membership
     • Six faculty members elected by the Faculty representative of the distribution of faculty members by division and rank. Faculty members will serve staggered three-year terms.
   • Support
     • An office, staff and budget are needed
   • Reporting
     • The Committee will report to the Faculty and the Academic Priorities Committee

   5. At the end of the meeting we had a short discussion of an educational policy committee. We agreed that we should combine the work of the College Curriculum Council and the Graduate Council into one Educational Policy Committee. We believe this is the best way to ensure the integrated treatment of undergraduate and graduate courses and degree programs. However, we were not able to further organize this committee.

   6. We agreed to put our minutes on a Faculty Governance web site for internal faculty access and to notify the Faculty of the status of our discussions. However, before notifying the Faculty of our proposals we will ask key administrators for their comment.

   Submitted by
   John E. Savage

   Index to Taskforce Minutes