A&S Faculty Meeting: April 19, 2012 Agenda

Our next faculty meeting will be held on April 19, 2012 at 4:00 p.m. in the Weinstein International Center Commons.

Our agenda will be:

• Approval of minutes from our March 29, 2012 meeting
• Approval of Academic Council actions from  March 20, 2012,  April 3, 2012 and consent agenda from April 17, 2012
• Motion to approve rewarding of degrees
• Emerita presentation for Daryl Dance
• Honoring Scott Allison, Jerry Gilfoyle, and Mark Rhodes for 25 years of service
• Election of A&S committee nominees
• Merit Review Process: guidelines for merit review; triennial schedule; chair evaluation

You are all invited to the A&S End of Year Reception on April 26th honoring Kathy Hoke and Scott Johnson. The reception will be held from 3pm-5pm in the Brown-Alley Room of Weinstein Hall. 

A&S Faculty Meeting: March 29, 2012 Minutes

Dean Kathleen Skerrett called the meeting to order at 4:01 p.m. in the Tyler Haynes Commons, Room 305.

    Dean Skerrett moved directly into an open discussion of the revisions of the Merit Review Process for faculty. 

    Dean Skerrett discussed three areas that she sees as central as we all look at the revision of our current system of merit and annual reviews of faculty. (1) Tenure (exists to protect academic freedom and the free pursuit of truth and exposition in scholarship and teaching in the community of scholars); (2) Time (required of individual faculty, department chairs, and the Dean’s office for annual reviews and merit decisions); (3) Transparency (need to clarify “who, what, why” for the new procedures and create a rubric for “written evaluations”, not just using numbers, that all can readily understand and easily locate when questions arise).

    Dean Skerrett spoke to some of the issues relating in the existing practice of using “too many numbers,” in the evaluation process. The Dean suggested that written evaluations from department chairs might be preferable?  And limit the department chairs’ written comments to a 1,000 words?  The Dean discussed - how will teaching and advising, community service, and scholarship be weighted in the revised processes for faculty evaluation and merit review?

    Dean Skerrett and Assistant Dean, Malcolm Hill, then presented a slide showing the “draft” categories and definitions being proposed for faculty evaluation and merit ratings. Dean Skerrett indicated that the slide is illustrative of some of the ideas that she and the Associate Deans had been reviewing. 

Dean Skerrett went on to discuss the role of the department chairs in writing the summary reports for each faculty member.  These written reports will be forwarded to the Dean’s office. Faculty members will be evaluated as “exceptional, excellent, good, adequate, and inadequate” with a five-point scale. The overall scores are determined in the course of the merit review process by the Dean.  But the individual faculty scores will not be a part of the annual appointment letter.  Dean Skerrett indicated that she is willing to share the information with any individual faculty who asks for their score.

Dean Skerrett then opened the floor for questions.  These included requesting further guidance and feedback for the chairs related to the role of advising and mentoring in the evaluation process?  Dean Skerrett indicated that she felt that advising was a major component of “teaching and advising,” and that mentoring has a separate and distinctive role as part of teaching.  Do faculty dossiers need to be sent every year to the Dean’s office in the new process?  Dean Skerrett suggested that she felt full dossiers are not needed every year by the Dean’s office for tenured faculty members. Dean Skerrett then discussed one proposal being considered in the revision for a triennial schedule o of reviews for tenured faculty.  This would entail an in depth review in year A and short reviews in years B and C.

 Others suggested that it might be best to have each department decide as a whole whether or not to accept the triennial review process for their tenured faculty members.  There were some questions related to the “weight of scholarship” as part of the triennial review process?  What role does “sustained accomplishment” over time with tenured faculty play in this new triennial process? What do these new revisions of the existing merit review process do to improve the value of the whole process for each tenured faculty member?  Are these revisions qualitative for the whole process?  What other institutions similar to UR are using a triennial review process for their tenured faculty? Several faculty expressed their appreciation to the Dean for developing a triennial review process to replace the current system.

Dean Skerrett reported that the University is pursuing a study for bench-marking salaries.

The Dean closed the meeting by saying that she plans to have a more complete draft of the new merit policies and procedures available for the next faculty meeting which will be on Thursday, April 19th at 4 p.m. in the Carole Weinstein International Center Commons.   
   
   
 The meeting was adjourned at 5:21 p.m.


 Respectfully submitted,

            Jim Gwin
       
             Secretary

Academic Council: April 17, 2012 Agenda

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, April 17, 2012 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 April 3, 2012 meeting.

Consent Agenda
Environmental Studies Course Credit Change 


Discussion Agenda:

1. Benchmarking Presentation- Steve Allred 
2. Benchmarking
3. Other Business 

Academic Council: April 3, 2012 Minutes

Dean Skerrett called the meeting to order at 10:31 a.m. The minutes of March 20, 2012 meeting were approved.


All proposals on the April 3, 2012 consent agenda were approved.


 Discussion Agenda:


1.Office of International Education presentation
Dean Skerrett welcomed Uliana Gabara, Dean of International Education, and Joe Hoff, Associate Dean of International Education. Uliana mentioned the opening of the international center and spoke on goals and challenges of the center. A main challenge is how to define and solidify the Center’s role in campus-wide internationalization. The University of Richmond has 75 institutional exchange and collaboration agreements, and more than 60% of students participate in study abroad programs. Uliana stressed the importance of faculty involvement in these institutional exchanges. A full presentation can be found here. 


Joe  Hoff spoke to Council about the C-LAC program at University of Richmond. He explained the goals of the program and also stressed the main purpose  of the C-LAC program is to promote a multi-lingual presence on campus. OIE is currently working with 13 departments to encourage students to study abroad for majors and degree requirements. A full presentation can be found here.


2.New Chair Training/New Faculty Orientation


Lisa Gentile thanked everyone for helping with the coordination of new chair training. Trainings will start on Wednesday May 2nd and will focus on a variety of issues, such as how to work with administrative coordinators, how to read department budgets and balances, and many other chair responsibilities.  Lisa would like to ask new chairs and program directors if a mentoring program would be helpful for them.  Ideally, new chairs and program directors would meet once a month with their mentors over lunch. There was a suggestion from a Council member on mentoring term hires. Lisa has been working with University Communications to put together a new site for chairs and program directors. The goal is to have everything a department chair would need on one webpage.
Malcolm Hill updated Council on new faculty orientation. Malcolm informed Council that he has met with most recent hires as well as chairs that have hired new faculty within the last 3 years. Malcolm is also working with University Communications to put together a webpage that will provide information for new faculty members. Malcolm mentioned the possibility of reorganizing the program by increasing the number of Q&A sessions and offering more social opportunities for the group. Third and fourth year faculty members will also be included as they are often great mentors for new faculty.  A question was asked if this program would be limited to A&S faculty or if it will be for all new hires across schools.  Dean Skerrett welcomed other schools to participate in this program, as the goal is to build a community. Malcolm will be sending out the schedule soon. 


3. Chair Merit Review Process


The dean asked Council to suggest best processes for the annual merit review of department chairs. In the past chairs who are full professors were reviewed by the senior associate dean, and chairs who were associate professors were reviewed by colleagues, such as a committee from their department or a former department chair. Many agreed that faculty members often feel uncomfortable reviewing chairs but some felt that colleagues should still be included in evaluations. Council members suggested the dean evaluate department chairs since the dean knows more about their work. . Another suggestion was to split the evaluations between the three associate deans.  Department chairs would have an in-depth review their first year, followed by two short reviews the following years.  The main goal is for this process to be consistent. There was also a discussion about the timing of the department’s evaluation of the chair’s administrative work, which occurs in the chair’s third year. Several members suggested that it would be helpful if this evaluation by departmental colleagues were moved up and done after the chair’s first year, rather than in the spring semester of the third year.




The meeting adjourned at 11:44 a.m.


Respectfully submitted,




Zandria Ivy

Academic Council: April 3, 2012 Agenda

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, April 3, 2012 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 March 20, 2012 meeting.

Consent Agenda

Major/Minor Changes

Education Minor



Discussion Agenda

1.  Office of International Education presentation
2. New Chair Training/New Faculty Orientation -Lisa Gentile & Malcolm Hill
3. Chair Merit Review Process