Dean Skerrett called the meeting to order at 10:32 a.m. The minutes of the November 13, 2012 meeting were approved.
All proposals on the
November 27, 2012 consent agenda were approved.
-Short term disability benefits with Laura Dietrick-
Dean Skerrett welcomed Carl Sorensen, associate vice president for human resources, and Laura Dietrick, director of compensation and benefits, to Academic Council. Currently, staff and faculty members must purchase a short term disability plan on their own. The University will be adding a short term disability benefit on January 1, 2013 through Cigna. All employees should apply for short term disability if they expect to be out from work with a serious health condition for three or more days.
The dean informed council members that Dean's Advisory Council (DAC) has one meeting remaining to discuss program based budgeting. The goal is to present budget decisions made by DAC at the first academic council meeting in January.
-Title IX training
Kerry Frankenhauser, associate dean of Westhampton College, and Daniel Fabian, associate dean of Richmond College, presented information on how the University enforces Title IX. Kerry explained the importance of Title IX and the recent coverage of sexual violence and sexual harassment. Daniel discussed sexual violence statistics and explained how to report incidents. If employees need to report incidents, they should call either Dan or Kerry directly or use the University's online reporting form. Employees should not use email to report incidents. There is a 60 day timeline from the time of the report to the judicial process. Dan and Kerry also discussed their roles as coordinators and took questions from council members. More information can be found
here.
-Summary of merit scores submitted by chairs-
Dean Skerrett thought it would be helpful for chairs to see a summary of merit scores departments have submitted to the dean's office as a group. The dean, with the help of Malcolm Hill, presented a snapshot of this information. Malcolm Hill explained the department ratings and comparisons. It was suggested that it would be helpful if chairs could receive the criteria that each department used. The dean suggested that this should be an inter-divisional discussion so there is an awareness of what departments are doing. The dean's office will look at evidence in merit review dossiers, and will come back to council to explain how and why revisions were made, if any.
The meeting adjourned at 11:47 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Zandria Haines
