Brown University Task Force on Faculty Governance Minutes of Meetings

Minutes of The Task Force on Faculty Governance

September 6, 2002

Attending: Nancy Amstrong, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Peter Gromet, and John Savage

Absent: Russell Church, Richard Fishman, Rajiv Vohra, and Michael White.

Guests: Profs. Elaine Bearer, Bill Beeman, Steve Rabson.

1. The meeting started at 8:35am and ended at 10:50am.

2. The Minutes of August 28 were approved with one change; the word "agreed" in Item #3 was replaced by "suggested." The new text reads

   We also discussed the role of FAC in salary studies with Dean Besdine and he suggested that FAC should limit its attention to salaries outside of the Division of Biology and Medicine.

   We expect to revisit the issue described in this paragraph later.

3. Affirmative Action Monitoring Committee Prof. Steve Rabson of East Asian Studies told us that he believed a function currently performed by AAMC is missing in our proposal, namely, that of reviewing "cases in which a woman or a member of a minority group is denied reappointment or promotion." After considerable discussion the members of the Task Force, there being only four of the eight members present, agreed to recommend to their colleagues that the following charge be added to the Faculty Affairs Committee:

   It shall review cases in which a woman or a member of a minority group is denied reappointment or promotion.

   The new plan for affirmative action rests on three legs, administrative monitoring of hiring plans and searches, assessing and promoting progress at the level of divisions and departments, and proactive recruiting via a senior administrator and an Administrative Advisory Board for Diversity. The Task Force recommended a meeting with the President to discuss the latter topic. (A meeting of the Chair and Co-Chair has been organized by Wednesday, September 11.)

4. Committee on the Status of Women (SOW)

   Elaine Bearer, Chair of SOW, stressed her concern that the status of women be properly represented in the new structure. Others also expressed concern that issues important to the LGBT Committee be reflected in the proposed new structure.

   Our proposal is that the Dean of the Faculty designate an associate or assistant dean as an administrative contact person for sex and gender issues, that she make this person a member of a Faculty Development Advisory Board, and that she also appoint a faculty member to this board who can represent such interests.

   We also agreed to highlight the role already assigned to FAC in this regard. We have previously stated that if the proposed changes carry, we recommend joint meetings between new committees and those whose responsibilities in order to educate the members of the new committees about the issues addressed by old committees. We also note that the new committees can create subcommittees as needed.

5. The Graduate School and the Proposed Changes

   We met with Deans Peder Estrup and Joan Lusk. They expressed concern that the proposed changes would require the Dean of the Graduate School to spend unnecessary time attending meetings of the UCC.

   They expressed the concern that the Graduate Council will not be respected by the Faculty if its members are appointed the Dean of the Graduate School rather than elected.