Academic Council: October 4, 2011 Agenda

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, October 4, 2011 from 10:30-11:45 a.m. in the Tyler Haynes Commons, Room 305 (THC 305). Please review the agenda below and the cited materials in advance of the meeting.

Approval of minutes from the September 13, 2011 meeting.

Discussion agenda

1. Ad Hoc Faculty Annual Performance Review Committee
2. Merit Rubics
3. Course proposals process (Scott Johnson)
4. Athletic schedules
5. New Business

Consent Agenda

New course proposals:

BIOL 336 Special Topics: Eco-epidemiology

LAIS 333 Introduction to Luso-Brazilian Literatures

MUS 234 Women in Opera

PHIL 350: Topics Seminar: Historical will be divided into two courses,PHIL 351: Topics Seminar: Historical I and PHIL 352: Topics Seminar: Historical II. 

PHIL 380: Topics Seminar: Issues will be divided into two courses, PHIL 381: Topics Seminar: Issues I and PHIL 382: Topics Seminar: Issues II.

PPEL 388 Individual Internship

PPEL 390 Independent Study



Next Meeting

We will meet on Tuesday, October 18, 2011 at 10:30 a.m. in THC 305.

A&S Faculty Meeting: September 13, 2011 Minutes

Dean Kathleen Skerrett called the meeting to order at 4:03 p.m. in the Brown-Alley Room of Weinstein Hall.

• The minutes of April 21 were approved as circulated.
• The actions of Academic Council were approved.

Mike Spear honored retiring faculty member Steve Nash who began his career at the University of Richmond in 1980.

Dean Skerrett acknowledged A&S faculty members who have completed 45, 44, 35, 30, 25, 20, 15, and 10 years of service to the community.

The dean spoke about annual performance reviews with the view to making the process less burdensome and more effective. Specifically, tenured faculty members would not be required to submit large dossiers. Also, a simpler scale would be used for the allocation of merit consisting of three categories: 1) exceptional achievement 2) professional excellence 3) areas of concern.

To aid the dean with the process of evaluation an Ad Hoc Performance Review Committee will be constituted by vote of those with faculty status who are evaluated through this process. The four members of the Ad Hoc Committee will be chairs of departments in each of the quadripartite divisions of the School of Arts and Sciences. The dean distributed a document describing the membership, election process, and responsibilities of the committee.

Discussion ensued, primarily about the Ad Hoc Performance Review Committee. Some of the issues/questions raised were: Do the chairs on the committee need to be full professors? Do we need a procedure for creating the ad hoc committee? Can we protect the identities of individuals in the discussions among chairs?

A motion to constitute the Ad Hoc Performance Review Committee was put forward and approved.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Margaret Denton

Academic Council: September 13, 2011 Minutes

Dean Skerrett called the meeting to order at 10:32 a.m. The minutes of the August 17, 2011  meeting were approved.

All proposals on the September 13, 2011 consent agenda were approved.

1. Budget process
Dean Skerrett informed Council of a pilot program for program-based budgeting. Program-based budgeting would allow department chairs to submit budget request based on the needs of the program. Chairs would receive their three year budget history to start, and from that, forecast their needs for the next three years. Programmatic planning allows room for conversations about how the schools money is allocated. It will take a couple years to pilot this new budgeting process; in the meantime, the dean would like at least five departments to participate in the pilot program. Chairs who are interested in participating in the pilot program should contact the dean. The budget and operations unit in the dean's office would provide support to department chairs in this initial process.

The dean wants to encourage more faculty governance in the schools budget planning process. Members of Council suggested that it would be helpful if A&S endowment funds were more transparent so departments know exactly how much they might receive from year to year.

2. Associate deans
The dean discussed the associate dean nomination process. When a faculty member is nominated, the dean will contact the nominee and ask them to submit her or his c.v., etc. The deadline for applications is October 3, 2011. Three members of the Dean's Advisory Council will review the applications with the dean to make the selection. The dean hopes to appoint both associate deans by July 1, 2012, however, if someone would be willing to begin January 2012, that would be preferable. These three-year positions will allow colleagues to experience work in administration with a diversity of tasks in each portfolio.

3. Annual performance reviews
Dean Skerrett continued the discussion surrounding the annual performance review process for faculty. The dean would like to keep the conversation going over the course of the next year in order to write guidelines for subsequent years. SACS requires annual reviews, but is not specific as to how they need to be conducted. The dean recited an excerpt from the handbook regarding the criteria for salary decisions and performance reviews. The chair is required to inform the faculty member where he/she stands with regard to tenure, promotion, and performance. The guidelines on the A&S website, however, can be revised and modified. This is where the dean will need feedback from Council over the next year.

Questions to think about during this time: What is most meaningful in the current process, and What is the most effective timeline for annual reviews?

4. Ad Hoc Annual Performance Review Committee
The dean requests that chairs submit, for each faculty member, her or his preface, appendices, c.v., and department chair's report. The reports will be due October 26, 2011. The dean will ask the faculty to vote for divisional representatives from among the chairs of the quadripartite divisions to serve on an ad hoc committee. The representative will meet with the chairs in their division to calibrate what are the different ranks of merit. The divisional representatives will discuss with the dean their assessment which will assist the dean in assigning merit.

Some members of Council expressed concern that the faculty would be asked to vote on something that they have not been consulted about prior to today's faculty meeting. There was additional concern about naming the committee an ad hoc committee without a specific charge. The dean asserted that the ad hoc committee would have a limited charge. The dean also stated that this process is not a huge departure from what has been done in the past. The divisional representatives will advise the dean on what they consider excellence in each of the three areas. The same form will continue to be used and the discussions of the ad hoc committee would not compromise the chairs' role.

Council asked whether faculty would vote within their own division or across divisions. While most seemed in favor of voting within their division, there were some who would like to vote across divisions because they identify with departments outside of their division. It was asked if an election was required, since it is, in essence, an advisory committee. The dean stated that it was not required, but that she is seeking faculty input and believes that in general, it is important for the faculty to be part of the process that addresses the allocation of resources, such as merit pay. The dean will continue to consult with faculty and Academic Council about this.

It was suggested to inform the faculty at the faculty meeting that the committee would not have any access to faculty reviews or salaries.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:57 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Cheryl Burns

Changes to organizational structure

Dear Colleagues,

After reviewing the excellent qualifications and capabilities of our staff in the dean's office, I have made some changes to the organizational structure.

Cheryl Burns, former assistant to the dean, today assumes the role of Operations Coordinator, reporting to Terri Weaver, our Director of Budget and Operations.  This transition capitalizes on Ms. Burns's extensive experience managing academic grants and budgets, as well as her graduate education in human resources, which she completed at the University of Richmond in 2007.  Cheryl joins Dustin Engels and Tiffany Jefferson in the Budget and Operations unit, which facilitates all faculty contracts, manages faculty records, and organizes and tracks our budgets.  As all of you have experienced, this is a superb staff, whose intelligence and integrity make things work.

As a consequence, we welcome today a new assistant to the dean:  Ms. Zandria Ivy has recently relocated to Richmond, coming to us from Washington D.C. There she held positions as a legislative associate and as an executive assistant to a congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives.   Zandria is a graduate of Millsaps College with a BA in psychology and a minor in education.  She comes to us highly recommended, and we are excited that she has decided to join the dean's office.  We look forward to introducing Zandria to our faculty, staff, and students in the next weeks; please join us in welcoming her to the University of Richmond.

In a year of transition, there are opportunities for reflective review of our organization and process.  I am grateful to the dean's office staff for their creativity and initiative as we make these changes.  We appreciate your patience as we adjust to new roles.

Kathleen

Annual Performance Reviews

Dear Colleagues,

Thank you for our discussion at the A&S Faculty Meeting last week. I appreciate the diversity of opinion among you, and I hope that every faculty meeting will foster open exchange and argument. In the course of argument, I learn a lot. I also have learned from the comments that many of you have sent to me in the past week. Thank you for the time that you have taken to explain your views and to make suggestions. Here are some revisions that I will make as a result:

Ad Hoc Annual Performance Review Committee:
As a result of hearing your objections and recommendations, I will amend the charge to the Ad Hoc Annual Performance Review Committee to omit reference to individuals’ files. The purpose of the Ad Hoc Committee is to discuss criteria and evidence that chairs have used for discriminating among merit assignments. However, the possibility that chairs might use individual cases as examples in these discussion seems to both confuse the task and to foment controversy around it. Therefore, while I personally believe that our ethics of confidentiality and collegiality should protect any individual faculty members from negative exposure, it seems to me that, in this transition semester, confusion and controversy weigh against my insistence. Therefore, I will remove the reference to individual examples in the charge to the Committee, meanwhile retaining obligations of confidentiality around the chairs’ divisional discussions. In addition, some of you mentioned that department chairs may want the option of meeting with the dean to discussion their evaluations of colleagues. My hope is that the divisional discussions will clarify any issues that you bring forward in such discussions, but I am certainly willing to talk with individual chairs.

We will hold the electronic election on Monday morning. You will receive an email directing you to the site where your ballot will appear. Please elect one of the chairs in your quadripartite division who has indicated to a grateful new dean that he or she is not unwilling to serve on the Ad Hoc committee. The revised charge to the Ad Hoc Committee is now included in the School's list of committees.

Merit Categories
A number of people have sent thoughtful responses to my suggestion of three categories for merit: Exceptional Achievement, Professional Excellence, and Areas of Concern. In particular, many of you have argued a four-point scale has been most effective for chairs in making meaningful discriminations among colleagues. Since the standard of excellence continues after the tenure review, we need a rubric to identify annual performance that does not rise to that standard. Further, many of you noted that Areas of Concern is a rubric that can be relevant even in cases where individuals have exceptional achievements to their credit. You have suggested that an annual performance review is most meaningful when it results in concrete recommendations for enhancing professional achievement in any area of concern. As a result of these arguments and recommendations, I will bring the matter back to Academic Council for further discussion with the chairs when we meet on October 4. I will communicate with all of you the results of that discussion and the amendments I make in response.

I look forward to faculty meetings with you. Please let me know if there is business you would like us to address in future meetings.

Kathleen

Insights and Priorities

Dear Colleagues,

We have closed the Insights and Priorities survey now, although I am certainly glad to read the comments that have continued to come into my inbox. As I have been reading through your comments, I have been struck by how specific are many of your concerns and by how solution-oriented are many of your suggestions. All of this indicates to me an active, problem-solving culture among the faculty.

This week we will work at grouping your responses thematically so that we can announce some general topics for the "listenings" in October and November.

I want to thank everyone who contributed ideas. I received many thoughtful and detailed reflections, which have really helped me to grasp both simple and complex concerns among you. I also want to thank people for signing their reflections. This not only enables me to get to know you better as colleagues, but I now have individuals to consult as we develop responses in future.

Kathleen

Promoting Events on Campus

If you're a faculty or staff member in the School of Arts & Sciences, the easiest way for you to get the word out about an event that your department or program is hosting is to share all the information about the event with the communications staff in the School of Arts & Sciences’ dean’s office.

When you tell us about an event, we develop a strategy for promoting it, both internally to the campus community and externally if we believe the event will appeal to a wider community.

Visit the communications site for a complete list of available promotional efforts as well as a portfolio of our recent work.

Fall 2011 Artes Liberales now in mailboxes

By now you should have received your copy of the School of Arts & Sciences newsletter, Artes Liberales. Featured in this issue:

Cover story: Dean Kathleen Roberts Skerrett
Faculty Teaching: David Burkman, Director of Film Production
Student Research: Tania Bukach, '13
Faculty Research: Bedelia Richards, Assistant Professor of Sociology
In the Community: The Archimedes Initiative
Alumni Focus: Megan Johnson Naylor, '04 and Mark Naylor, '05
In the World: Sheila Carapico, Professor of Political Science and International Studies

Artes Liberales is also available digitally at
as.richmond.edu/deans-office/about-school/newsletter/

For additional copies of Artes Liberales, contact Kirsten McKinney.

Faculty Meeting: September 13, 2011

Our next faculty meeting will be held this coming Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 4:00 p.m. in the Brown-Alley Room of Weinstein Hall.

Our agenda will be:

• Approval of minutes from our April 21, 2011 meeting
• Approval of Academic Council actions
• Honoring retiring faculty member Steve Nash
• Acknowledgement of those A&S faculty who have completed 35, 30, 25, 20, 15, and 10 years of service to our community
• Annual performance reviews
• Ad Hoc Faculty Annual Performance Review Committee
• Insights & Priorities
• Associate deans

Next A&S Faculty Meeting - Monday, October 17, 2011 at 4:15 p.m. in the Brown-Alley Room of Weinstein Hall. Please note:  The meeting will be begin at 4:15 p.m. to allow faculty to attend the President's update in Camp Concert Hall that afternoon.

Actions pending Academic Council approval on September 13, 2011

Faculty Meeting: April 21, 2011 Minutes

Dean Andy Newcomb called the meeting to order at 4:01 in the Gottwald Science Center Auditorium.

• The minutes of March 22 were approved as circulated. 
• The actions of Academic Council were approved.

The Dean presented medallions of the University Seal to Mike Davison (Music) and Ray Dominey (Chemistry) for twenty-five years of service.

Kathy Hoke (Mathematics) and Del McWhorter (Philosphy) read respective testimonials for retirees Gary Greenfield and Gary Shapiro.  Professors Greenfield and Shapiro were honored by their colleagues with prolonged applause.

Associate Provost Neff moved that degrees be conferred on all Arts and Sciences students that the Registrar’s Office has determined to be eligible for graduation.  The motion was approved.   

The slate of committee members from the Nominating Committee (see attached) was approved.

The Dean recognized Gene Anderson (Music) upon his retirement from A&S Faculty Secretary after twenty-one years of service.

The proposed revisions to the A&S T&P process (see attached) were approved item by item.

The faculty recognized Andy Newcomb with personal testimonials, a poem and prolonged applause for his ten years of service as Dean of Arts and Sciences.
       
The meeting was adjourned at 4:30 PM

Respectfully submitted,

Gene Anderson, Secretary

Academic Council: September 13, 2011

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, September 13, 2011, from 10:30-11:45 Tyler Haynes Commons, Room 305 (THC 305). Please review the agenda below and the cited materials in advance of the meeting.

Approval of Minutes from April 19, 2011 and August 17, 2011 meetings

Discussion Agenda

1. Budget process
2. Associate deans
3. Annual performance reviews
4. Ad Hoc Faculty Annual Performance Review Committee
5. Course proposal process (Associate Dean Scott Johnson)

General Information Items

Department Chairs and Divisional Alignment

                                             
                                   Tripartite     Quadripartite
Art & Art History              I                     III                    Tanja Softic*
Biology                             III                     II                    Gary Radice
Chemistry                         III                     II                    Lisa Gentile*
Classical Studies               I                     IV                   Dean Simpson
Education                         II                      I                    Tricia Stohr-Hunt*
English                              I                     IV                   Suzanne Jones
Geography                        II                      I                     Chris Stevenson*
History                              II                     III                    Hugh West
Journalism                        II                     IV                   Mike Spear
LAIS                                  I                     IV                   Sharon Feldman
M&CS                              III                     II                    Lewis Barnett*
MLC                                  I                     IV                    Yvonne Howell
Music                                 I                     III                    Gene Anderson
Philosophy                        II                     III                    Nancy Schauber
Physics                             III                     II                    Con Beausang*
Political Science               II                      I                   Andrea Simpson
Psychology                      III                     I                     Jane Berry*
Religion                           II                     III                  Jane Geaney
RHCS                              II                     III                   Mari Lee Mifsud*
Sociology & Anth.          II                      I                    Carol Wharton*
Theatre & Dance              I                     III                   Dorothy Holland

*Due for chair review and election

Tripartite Divisions:

Division I - Arts/Languages and Literatures (Art & Art History, Classical Studies, English, Latin American & Iberian Studies, Modern Literatures & Cultures, Music, Theatre & Dance;

Division II - Humanities and Social Sciences (Education, Geography, History, Journalism, Philosophy, Political Science, Religion, Rhetoric & Communication Studies, Sociology & Anthropology);

Division III - Mathematics/Computer Science, Natural and Psychological Sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Math & Computer Science, Physics, and Psychology)

Quadripartite Divisions:

Division I - Social Sciences (Education, Geography, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology & Anthropology);

Division II - Math and Natural Sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Math & Computer Science, Physics);

Division III - Humanities, Fine Arts (Art & Art History, History, Music, Philosophy, Religion, Rhetoric & Communication Studies, Theatre & Dance);

Division IV - Languages & Literatures (Classical Studies, English, Journalism, Latin American & Iberian Studies, Modern Literatures & Cultures)

Interdisciplinary Program Coordinators

American Studies                                                        Bert Ashe
BMB                                                          Krista Stenger & Michelle Hamm
Criminal Justice                                                          Joan Neff
Environmental Studies                                                Chris Stevenson
Film Studies                                                                Abigail Cheever
Interdisciplinary Programs                                         Scott Davis
International Studies                                                   John Gordon
Jewish Studies                                                            Sam Abrash
PPEL                                                                           David Lefkowitz
WGSS                                                                         Crystal Hoyt

Dean’s Advisory Council

Scott Davis - Academic Council Interdisciplinary Programs (12)
Sharon Feldman - Academic Council Division I (13)
Nancy Schauber - Academic Council Division II (12)
Gary Radice - Academic Council Division III (14)
Tricia Stohr-Hunt - Planning and Priorities Division I (13)
Lisa Gentile - Planning and Priorities Division II (12)
Geoff Goddu - Planning and Priorities Division III (14)
Kathrin Bower - Planning and Priorities Division IV (14)

Consent Agenda

Again this year we will use the Consent Agenda to deal with routine business that requires Academic Council action and would not be expected to generate discussion. Any item can be moved from the Consent Agenda to the Discussion Agenda.  All course proposals are on the Arts & Sciences website at http://richmondas.blogspot.com/search/label/academic%20council

Course Number & Title Change:

ART 218 Modern Art, 1900-1960 (formerly ART 318 20th Century Art)

Course Number Changes:

ART 223 Studies in the History of Photography (formerly ART 323)

RELG 240 Lost Christianities (formerly RELG 340)
RELG 347 Women in Early Christianity (formerly RELG 247)

Course Title Changes:

ENGL 401 Creative Writing Portfolio (formerly Creative Writing Seminar -- course no longer required for the minor in creative writing)

LAIS 151 Spanish for Advanced Beginners (formerly Accelerated Elementary Spanish)
LAIS 302 Spanish in Fiction (formerly Spanish through Literature)

ARAB 101-102 Elementary Arabic (formerly Introduction to the Arabic Language & Culture)
ARAB 201-202 Intermediate Arabic (formerly Intermediate Arabic Language & Culture)
ARAB 301 Advanced Arabic (formerly Arabic in the Media)
ARAB 302 Advanced Arabic 2 (formerly Arabic in Literature)
CHIN 401 Advanced Chinese I (formerly Crossing Cultural Boundaries)
CHIN 402 Advanced Chinese II (formerly Advanced Chinese Syntax and Conversation)
ITAL 305 Writing in Italian Culture and Literature (formerly Advanced Grammar and Composition)

RELG 281 Introduction to Islam (formerly Islam Muhammad to the Modern Age)
RELG 341 Peter, Paul, [Mary] and Mary (formerly Paul and Christian Origins)

Major/Minor Revisions:

Art & Art History (see documents below)

Philosophy (see documents below)

New Course Proposals:

ART 219 Alternative Photographic Processes

JOUR 314 Literary Journalism 

ARAB 401 Arabic in the Media
ARAB 402 Introduction to Arabic in Literature 

MUS 208 Global Pop (FSVP)

RELG 385 Sufism: Introduction to Islamic Mysticism

DANC 218 Capoeira Angola
DANC 251 Contemporary Dance Technique
THTR 229 Going Solo: The Politics of Identity in Contemporary Solo Performance
THTR 239 Latina/os On Stage: From the Barrios to Broadway

WGSS 202 Feminist and Queer Theories

Unit Revision:

IDST 281 Principles of the Natural Sciences II - Zero units of credit (formerly 0.25 - see justification in documents below)



Next Meeting
We will meet on Tuesday, October 4, 2011 at 10:30 in THC 305.

Call for Nominations/Applications for Associate Dean Positions

Dear Colleagues,

After consulting with members of the Dean’s Advisory Council and the chair of the Nominating Committee, I now invite nominations and applications from tenured faculty members in the School of Arts & Sciences for two associate dean positions. All candidates must be willing to begin a three-year term of service no later than July 1, 2012. Candidates who would be willing to begin a term of service on January 1, 2012 should please indicate this.

Nominations or applications should include a letter that sets out the contributions the candidate is prepared to make, discussion of relevant leadership and administrative experience, and the candidate’s curriculum vitae. Please submit nominations or applications and the requested materials to Cheryl Burns by October 3, 2011.

Appointments of associate deans will be for three-year terms, with a procedure for performance review and discernment in the third year. In some cases, one further three-year appointment may be possible. The associate deans will hold mixed portfolios of responsibilities, including some work that is typical in a dean’s office, such as hiring, personnel reviews, budget planning, curriculum planning, and institutional procedures, etc. However, I will also assign to individuals specific projects that are dear to them, such as undergraduate research or support for pedagogy. I will consider the complementary capabilities and experiences of the academic deans as I make appointments and assignments.

I will ask three members of the Dean’s Advisory Council to review all nominations and applications with me, and I will take very seriously their advice and recommendations.

The dean’s office staff values very highly integrity, clear communication, creativity, and effectiveness. We look forward to welcoming two new members this year.