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July 10, 2002
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July 10, 2002
Attending: Nancy Amstrong, Russell Church, Richard Fishman, Peter Gromet, John Savage, Anne Fausto-Sterling, and Rajiv Vohra
Absent: Michael White.
1. We approved the minutes of our meeting of June 12.
2. The task of this task force is to make proposals for better joint decision making by the Faculty and the Administration as well as proposals that are designed to promote better decision making that is strictly within the parameters of faculty governance. Even though the injunction to devise a faculty governance structure that enables better decision making occasionally requires us to consider changes in Brown's administrative structure that would serve this objective, we do not plan to make any formal recommendations about administrative structure that are outside our purview.
3. As stated in the minutes of our June 12 meeting, we will refer to the new VP for Research action on those committees that relate to the support of the research mission of the University. We also agreed that we would postpone action on those committee that relate to the Brown Medical School.
We agreed to recommend that ACUP be reconstituted as a provostial committee, that is, a committee called by the Provost to which the Provost makes appointments on the recommendation of the Faculty and other campus constituencies.
4. We revisited the draft descriptions of the three committees that have been organized previously, namely, the Academic Priorities Committee (APC), the Appointment, Promotion and Tenure (APT) Committee, and the Faculty Personnel Committee (FPC).
In the context of these descriptions, the word "divisions" means the campus-based life sciences, physical sciences, the social sciences, and the arts and humanities.
We made small changes in the description of APC. We decided to transfer the responsibility for handling grievances from the FEC to the FPC without changing the rules on this matter. We also made small changes in the description of the FPC.
The new draft descriptions of the three committees follow.
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Academic Priorities Committee (APC)
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o Responsibilities
* To make recommendations on all major academic matters, including
external reviews of and change of status in academic units,
appointment of external review committees, major academic budgetary
proposals, and strategic allocation of academic resources for
operational, instructional and research purposes, and
university-level external academic relationships
* To appoint its own ad hoc committees
* The committee is not obliged to review all proposals sent to it.
o Membership
* Six senior academic administrators, six faculty.
Each year two slates of two faculty members will be prepared for
election by the Faculty. Candidates are to be chosen by the Provost
from a list prepared by the Faculty Executive Committee (FEC) (or its
replacement).
o Reporting
* The committee will make recommendations to President and submit
regular reports to the Faculty
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Appointment, Promotion and Tenure (APT) Committee
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o 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
* Make annual reports to the Faculty and the Faculty Personnel Committee
o Membership
* Four non-voting academic administrators (Deans of the Faculty,
College, and Graduate School and Dean of 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.
o Chair and Support
* Chair will be a faculty member
* An office, staff and budget are needed
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Faculty Personnel Committee (FPC)
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o 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
* Implementation of existing grievance procedures.
o 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.
o Support
* An office, staff and budget are needed
o Reporting
* The Committee will report to the Faculty and the Academic
Priorities Committee
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5. These three committees are expected to subsume the work of many exisiting
committees, as shown below. We recommend that the current role of AMC to
screen faculty searches be handled administratively.
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Committee Subsumes the work of the following committees
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APC: Academic Council; Academic Priorities Subcommittee; Committee on
Admissions and Financial Aid; Faculty Committee on Educational
Legislation.
APT: CONFRAT
FPC: Affirmative Action Committee (AMC); Awards and Benefits Committee;
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Committee; Status of Women
Committee; Committee on Minority Faculty Recruitment.
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6. We recommend that the following committees be converted to advisory
committees appointed by and reporting to the relevant administrator with the
understanding that their existence should be dependent on the needs of the
administrator.
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Administrator Current Committee
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Dean of College Commencement Speakers
Prizes and Premiums
Resumed Undergraduate Education (RUE) Policy/Advising
D. of Admission Resumed Undergraduate Education (RUE) Admissions
U. Librarian Library Committee
VP for CIS Faculty Advisory Committee on Computers
We recommend that the activities of the RUE committee be absorbed without
dilution into the normal processes for admission, granting financial aid,
and student advising.
7. We recommend the removal of the following committees.
8. We recommend the consolidation of the Honorary Degrees Committee and the Rosenberger Medal of Honor Committee into one new committee to be called the Awards and Honorary Degree Committee.
9. We examined the responsibilities of the College Curriculum Council and the Graduate Council. Although our discussions have not concluded, strong arguments were given for combining the activities of these two councils into one University Curriculum Council. This would have the effect of ensuring that courses and degree programs at all levels be considered in one forum. There was also strong support for departmental curriculum committees whose role is to oversee, update, and give coherence to departmental curricula at all levels.
10. We will discuss the reallocation of activities associated with other committees at later meetings.
Submitted by
John E. Savage