Brown University Faculty Task Force on Faculty Governance Minutes 07.17.02


Brown University
Task Force on Faculty Governance
Minutes of Meetings


Minutes of The Task Force on Faculty Governance

July 17, 2002

Attending: Nancy Amstrong, Russell Church, Richard Fishman, Peter Gromet, John Savage, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Rajiv Vohra, and Michael White. 0. The meeting came to order at 2pm and concluded at 3:55pm. It was followed by a meeting from 4pm to 5:45pm with the Provost.
  1. We approved the minutes of our meeting of July 10.

  2. We revised the description of the Academic Priorities Committee in several ways. First, we required that faculty members be full professors and representative of divisions of knowledge in the University and diversity in the Faculty. Second, we added to its responsibilities in two ways; we made it responsible for making recommendations on appointment to endowed chairs and for making recommendations to the Faculty of new departments and degree programs that the APC approves. We reaffirmed that the APC should make budgetary recommendations to the provostial committee charged with making recommendations on the University budget. We also revised the Faculty Personnel Committee by requiring that its faculty members be representative of diversity in the Faculty. In the subsequent meeting with the Provost we agreed to delete from the responsibilities of the APC that it is not obliged to review all proposals sent to it. We also agreed that the faculty ballots for APC should be to an elect a member to APC and an alternate member. The new draft descriptions of APC, APT and FPC follow. 
      =============================DRAFT=================================
  Academic Priorities Committee (APC)
  -----------------------------------
    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, strategic allocation of academic resources
          for operational, instructional and research purposes, appointment
          to endowed chairs and university-level external academic
	  relationships.
       	* To appoint its own ad hoc committees
	* Recommend to the Faculty for its approval all new departments
	  and degree programs approved by the APC.
  
    o Membership
        * Six senior academic administrators and six full professors.
	  Each year two slates of two faculty members will be prepared for
	  election by the Faculty as a member and alternate member of the
	  committee. Candidates are to be chosen by the Provost from a list 
	  prepared by the Faculty Executive Committee (FEC) (or its
          replacement).  Candidates should be representative of divisions
          of knowledge in the University and the diversity in the Faculty.

    o Reporting
	* The committee will make recommendations to President and submit
	  regular reports to the Faculty 

  ===================================================================


  =============================DRAFT=================================
  Tenure, Promotion and Appointment (TPA) Committee
  -------------------------------------------------
    o Reponsibilities
  	* Make recommendations to the Provost concerning faculty
	  appointments, promotions, and 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, Graduate School, and 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
  ===================================================================


  =============================DRAFT=================================
  Faculty Personnel Committee (FPC)
  ---------------------------------
    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.
  	* Faculty members should be representative of diversity in the
          Faculty.
  
    o Support
  	* An office, staff and budget are needed
  
    o Reporting
  	* The Committee will report to the Faculty and the Academic
  	  Priorities Committee

  ===================================================================
    We agreed to discuss with the Provost whether APC might issue calls for proposals and whether APC might make recommendations on the academic budget to the new provostial budget committee. These issues were discussed with the Provost at the subsequent meeting and taken under advisement.

  3. We agreed to discuss with the Provost at the subsequent meeting the President's April 11 request to the FEC through its chair (John Savage) that the Task Force propose a committee structure for discussion among faculty and staff employment benefits that would be granted to both groups. We agreed to recommend to the Provost that he create a committee for this purpose as a subcommitee of a new provostial budget committee. He agreed at the later meeting to take this matter under advisement.

  4. Design of the University Curriculum Council

    We discussed a draft charge prepared by Nancy Armstrong and revised with John Savage for a new University Curriculum Council (UCC). The charge that emerged is shown below. It will be discussed with the Deans of the College and Graduate School and on the agenda for our next meeting. 

      ==========================================================================
			     DRAFT Proposal for a
			University Curriculum Council

  Co-Chairs: Deans of the College and Graduate School
  
  1. Responsible for the general supervision of undergraduate and graduate
     degree programs and the development of criteria and standards for
     them.  Will submit proposed changes in degree programs, criteria and
     standards to the Faculty for approval. 
  
  2. Responsible for making recommendations to the APC and the Faculty
     concerning the changing curricular needs of Brown undergraduate and
     graduate students.
  
  3. Reviews curricula for all new degree programs (graduate and
     undergraduate) and makes recommendations on them to the APC. If
     APC approves of them, it will take them to the Faculty for approval.
       
  4. Conducts periodic reviews (3-5 years) of all departmental and
     program concentrations and curricula (graduate and undergraduate).
     It reports annually on these reviews to the Faculty. It may recommend
     termination of inactive concentrations and degree programs.
       
  5. Approves changes in undergraduate concentrations and graduate degree
     requirements consistent with approved criteria and standards.
  
  6. Adjudicates curricular conflicts as they arise between programs and
     departments. 
  
  7. Delegates the responsibility for reviewing and approving new courses
     to a standing screening committee that brings only problem cases
     forward for a decision.  These subcommittees will be chaired by the
     Dean of the College or the Dean of the Graduate School depending on
     whether the purview of the committee is primarily undergraduate or
     graduate matters.
       
  8. The following subcommittees are chaired and constituted ad hoc by the
     Dean of the College who must bring forward controversial issues and
     changes in policy to the UCC: 
          WHAT ARE THEY?
  
  9.  The following subccommittees are chaired and constituted ad hoc by
      the Dean of the Graduate School who must bring forward controversial
      issues and changes in policy to the UCC:  
  	WHAT ARE THEY?
  
  Deans of College and Graduate School chair this committee as business
  within their respective domains appears on the docket. 
  ==========================================================================

  5. Assignment of work of existing committees.

    We discussed the following list of committees whose work we had not previously assigned Shown are the actions/recommendations taken. 

       * denotes committees whose members are not elected by the Faculty

==========================================================================
COMMITTEE				ACTION
==========================================================================
Faculty Executive Committee		postponed action
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Committee on Nominations		We may assign its work to the FEC
					Might advise administrators on fac
					membership on their comms.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lectureship Committee			Assign to Dean of the Faculty
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Committee on Academic Standing*		Assign to Dean of the College
					As mentioned below, discuss role
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
University Creative Arts Council	Recommend report to the APC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comm. Athletics and Physical Ed		Assign to VP for Student Life
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Medical Faculty Executive Committee	Action postponed
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Medical Faculty Bodies			Action postponed
 a. The General Assembly
 b. The Biomedical Faculty Council
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Committees Reporting to the President	Offer to advise the President
 a. Adv. Comm. Corp. Resp. in Invstmnt
 b. Campus Planning Committee
 c. Comm on Medical Faculty Appntmnts
 d. University Research Council*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Comittees
 a. Standing Comm. on Academic Code*	Needs to be examined closely
 a. University Benefits Review Comm.*	Discuss with President
 b. University Comm. on the Arts*	Has been absorved into Creative Arts
					Council
 c. University Disciplinary Council#	Needs to be examined closely
    Reports to Corporation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

  6. We discussed the desirability of providing an explicit mechanism for faculty members sitting on administrative advisory committees to report to the Faculty, perhaps through the FEC without reaching a conclusion.

  7. We agreed to recommend a workload reduction for service on the major committes, namely, APC, APT, and FPC.
  8. At our next meeting we will focus on FEC, UCC and decide what information about our work to release.

  9. We will have meetings on July 24, August 7 and August 21. The first and last will be from 3-5pm and the middle one will be from 2-4pm, all in the English Department. Our meeting of August 7 will be followed at 4pm by a meeting with the Provost.

  10. At our subsequent meeting with the Provost the Task Force agreed to make the changes in APC, APT and FPC described above as well as to take under advisement whether the APT should report to the Dean of Faculty and the Dean of Biology and Medicine instead of the Provost, as we had proposed. (In the July 24 meeting, we agreed that this reporting relationship makes more sense.) He also asked us to make a recommendation on the procedure for the selection of a faculty Chair for APT. It was suggested at the meeting that we follow the current procedures used by the FEC in which a Vice Chair is elected during the first year of service on the committee who becomes Chair during the second year. (A modified version of this proposal was approved on July 24.)

    He also suggested that the committee consider whether some "committees" be viewed as "boards" if it would be more appropriate to the nature of the work the group does, and thus communicate the nature of this work somewhat more clearly to members and others. We agreed to discuss this.

    We also agreed to discuss the role that students might play on key committees.

    Submitted by
    John E. Savage

    Index of Taskforce Minutes