Brown University Task Force on Faculty Governance Minutes of Meetings

Minutes of The Task Force on Faculty Governance

October 17, 2002

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

Absent: Russell Church, Anne Fausto-Sterling

Guest: Russell Carey

1. The meeting opened at 1:10pm and ended at 3pm

2. The Minutes of October 17 were approved.

3. Change in Charge to FEC

   We added to the charge of FEC the requirement that it report annually to the Faculty on committee composition by protected groups.

4. Revision of UCC and CCC
   1. Currently CCC limits chairs of its subcommittees to faculty members unless FEC approves. This was carried over to UCC. At the suggestion of Sr. Research Engineer Bill Patterson we agreed to drop this requirement from both committees.

   2. The reference to adjunct committees in the charge to CCC was changed to subcommittees.

   3. Again at the suggestion of Bill Patterson, we changed the membership of UCC by stating that the second faculty member from the CCC and the Graduate Council should be chosen by the respective council rather than be the faculty members in their third year of service since that person might be on leave or unavailable.

   4. We discussed a third suggestion by Bill Patterson, namely, that supervision of advising programs should be taken from CCC and given to the College Advisory Board. Because some advising programs have an important educational component, we decided not to act on this suggestion.

5. Committees Subsumed by the College Advisory Board

   After debating another suggestion by Bill Patterson, namely, that CAS be a standalone committee we agreed that it would probably be desirable that it be a subcommittee of the College Advisory Board along with the Committee on Athletics and Physical Education.

6. Should the Diversity Officer be on TPA?

   We debated the desirability of putting the diversity officer to be appointed by the President on TPA to support affirmative action, a suggestion originating with Prof. Steve Rabson. Since the role of TPA is to certify that procedures have been followed and that the high standards of Brown are applied, we decided not to accept this suggestion.

7. Relationship Between Medical and Non-Medical Faculty Committees

   The Chair reported on a conversation with Prof. Martin Weinstock, Chair of MFEC. Dr. Weinstock said that he favored establishing formal relationships between MFEC and other Faculty committees but that he would discuss his ideas with his colleagues on MFEC before making proposals to tht Task Force.

8. Website of the Task Force

   We revised the classification of our proposed committees. The classification now is the following:

   PRIORITIES AND RESOURCES
   Academic Priorities Committee (APC)
   University Resources Committee (URC)
   

   ADVANCEMENT AND RETENTION
   Tenure, Promotion & Appointments
   Committee (TPA)
   

   MANAGEMENT OF THE CURRICULUM
   College Curriculum Council (CCC)
   Graduate Council
   University Curriculum Committee (UCC)
   Standing Committee on the Academic Code
   

   FACULTY AFFAIRS
   Faculty Affairs Committee (FAC)
   Faculty Diversity Subcommittee (FDS)
   Committee on Grievance
   

   MANAGEMENT OF FACULTY BUSINESS
   Faculty Executive Committee (FEC)
   Nominations Committee for FEC
   

   ADMINISTRATIVE ADVISORY BOARDS
   Description Examples
   

9. Planning Legislative Action on Task Force Proposals

   We debated the order in which our proposals should be brought to a Faculty vote. We believe that we should begin with Priorities and Resources, take on Management of the Curriculum, move to Faculty Affairs, and finish, probably in December, with TPA, Management of Faculty Business, and Administrative Advisory Boards. We also need to pass omnibus resolutions to a) make small changes throughout the Faculty Rules to bring the rules into alignment with the changes, and b) permit existing committees to complete outstanding projects before being absorbed into new committees.

   Submitted by
   John E. Savage