Brown University Task Force on Faculty Governance Minutes of Meetings

Minutes of The Task Force on Faculty Governance

October 31, 2002

Attending: Nancy Amstrong, Russell Church, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Richard Fishman, Peter Gromet, Rajiv Vohra, and John Savage.

Absent: Michael White

Guests: Bill Beeman, Ruth Colwill, Bill Crossgrove, Spencer Golub, Beverly Ledbetter, Peter Richardson

1. The meeting opened at 1:05pm and ended at 3pm.

2. The Minutes of October 24 were approved.

3. Committee on Grievance

   We made the following changes to Section 2, Procedures:

   ITEM a. We added as the last sentence the following:

   The Committee shall offer the parties to a grievance the opportunity to mediate the matter in advance of any formal consideration of it.

   ITEM c. We rewrote the first sentence and added a second.

   c. The Committee shall have the right to decide whether or not the charge and supporting materials are sufficient to procede with the grievance and/or whether further investigation is necessary. The Committee shall notify the petitioner in writing whether the petition has been accepted and, if not, why. Submission of a petition will not automatically entail such an investigation. Normally, the Committee shall initiate review within one week of submission of the petition, and shall act with all reasonable speed.

   ITEM d. We reorganized it and added a new sentence.

   d. Normally the completed petition of grievance with supporting material should be filed within six month of the decision or action that is the cause for the petition. The Committee shall have the right to decide whether or not a petition has been filed too late to be reviewed The Committee may consider special circumstances, such as an allegation with supporting materials of a long-term pattern or practice, in making its determination as to whether the petition has been timely filed.

   ITEMS e. thru l. We added a new Item e., changed Items e. thru j. to f. thru k, and added a new Item l. The new Items e. and l. follow.

   e. The Committee shall give timely notice of the specific charges to the party or parties against whom the petition is filed. The respondent shall be given the same privileges and opportunities in both responding and appearing as are provided to the petitioner. If the acts of other parties are considered as part of the allegation, those parties shall be notified of any allegations or assertions that relate to them. The Committee shall make adequate arrangements to receive the response of such parties, providing them with the opportunity to appear before the Committee or to present a response in writing.

   l. Any failure of a department or administrative unit to act in accordance with the terms of these provisions shall be referred to the Provost for final action. If the Provost is a party to the grievance, the matter shall be referred to the President for final action.

   Item f. (New Item g.)

   We replaced "report filed with the Committee" by "reports relating to the reconsideration are filed with the Committee"

   Item g. (New Item h.) We changed the last sentence.

   Current sentence: It shall report to the President and the Provost whether or not it has requested reconsideration.

   New sentence: If reconsideration of an administrative process is involved, the Committee shall inform the President and the Provost of the requested reconsideration.

   Note: We added the following note at the end of the Procedures section.

   Note: Items i., j., and k. apply only to grievances relating to reappointment, tenure, and promotion.

   In Section 4, Method of Election, Item b.

   We changed "among the faculty members" to "among the full professors."

4. Names of Intellectual Divisions of the University

   Early in our Task Force discussions we agreed that it would be desirable to clarify the makeup of the Humanities division of the University by referring to it as the Arts and Humanities division. Unfortunately, we did not make use of this name in our motions.

   In a brief discussion of this issue we agreed that the Task Force should ask the FEC to bring a motion to the Faculty to change the name of the Humanities division to Arts and Humanities as it is used in Section 12, II of the Faculty Rules and Regulations (FR&R) where it is said that "Departments, centers, and programs are divided into four sections for nominating purposes." Section 2, II, A, 1, c of the FR&R states general requirements on the membership on Faculty committees. It refers to Section 12, II. Thus, the names used in this section are subject to change by the Faculty.

Submitted by
John E. Savage