Dean Kathleen Skerrett called the meeting to order at 4:05 p.m. in the Brown-Alley Room of Weinstein Hall.
Art Charlesworth moved approval of the minutes of the Arts and Sciences faculty meeting from October 10, 2012. Laz Lima seconded the motion and the faculty voted to approve.
Dean Skerrett urged the faculty to read the document, Report to the School of Arts & Sciences on the Priorities and Insights Project, that she distributed recently via the a-s-info listserv. This report highlights her responses to the “listenings” last year, particularly in respect of appeals for enhanced faculty governance, transparency concerning resource allocation, the strength and challenges of scholar-teacher model at the university, and the concerns of directors with faculty rank. Dean Skerrett noted, as we enhance faculty governance we need to let go of faculty engagement in administrative matters that so not demand meaningful judgment. For example, she praised the motion to dissolve the Arts and Sciences Honors Committee, which requires faculty time but little discretion. In this respect, David Lefkowitz moved approval of the Academic Council actions of October 23, 2012 (which included the action dissolving the Honors Committee). Suzanne Jones seconded the motion. After discussion, the faculty voted to approve.
Dean Skerrett then introduced a presentation provided by representatives from Alumni and Career Services. She explained that the A & S Dean’s office has now appointed two associate deans to work directly with Career Services on different projects. Career Services staff members at the meeting included Leslie Stevenson (Director, Career Development Center), Megan Wallace (Director of Business Development) and Diana Burkett (Manager, Communications).
Leslie Stevenson expressed enthusiasm for collaborating with Arts and Sciences faculty. She reminded faculty of recent changes with Career Services, now a part of Alumni and Career Services. Their offices are located in the Jepson Alumni Center and Tyler Haynes Commons. The merger has paid off with increased contacts with employers as well as with alumni connections. She also noted that career advisors are now assigned to work with specific academic departments. Megan Wallace spoke about how she works with employers to recruit students through on-campus visits and virtual recruiting. She emphasized that employers are interested in liberal arts majors and mentioned several upcoming programs that may be of interest to students. Diana Burkett explained her role in communications. She uses a variety of methods to advertise events and opportunities to students and she coordinates emails from Career Services to faculty. Diana asked the faculty for feedback on how Career Services can improve communication with faculty and enhance the partnership.
Dean Skerrett emphasized the need to develop a format that enables students to identify the capabilities they have acquired through Arts and Sciences, such as writing, quantitative reasoning, team-work, and analytical attributes. She encouraged faculty to regularly remind Arts and Sciences students to attend various interest meetings with employers and to continue brainstorming on how we can bring employers and students together. Dean Skerrett posed the following questions: What ideas do you have as a faculty? How do we help students understand and integrate the liberal arts as background for a variety of careers and opportunities? How we can strategize and build reflection on capabilities into the curriculum?
Several faculty offered their ideas in response. Bert Ashe and Laz Lima spoke about the need to convince both parents and students about the benefits of a liberal arts degree for employment. Jennifer Nourse provided an example of using information from the American Anthropological Association to exemplify how a student can use an anthropology degree. Art Charlesworth suggested the use of short video interviews with recent graduates that students and parents could view on department websites. All agreed that both students and parents need further education on understanding the practical purposes of liberal arts education. Suzanne Jones commented on the usefulness of targeted emails to department chairs from Career Services. She finds that she can easily send this information on to students. Several other faculty members agreed that targeted emails on majors and relevant capabilities are worthwhile. Associate Dean Lisa Gentile reminded the faculty that the monthly advisors’ newsletter contains Career Services information.
Dean Skerrett noted that department websites will be updated in the near future and that she would like to include some element of employment pursuits for each department website. We need faculty members to help develop the conceptual work while communications staff can assist with design. She encouraged faculty to think about what we want to convey about liberal arts capabilities. Dean Skerrett would like to gather an ad hoc group of faculty to envision content and to provide a coherent strategy that can be used in Admissions, Career Services and other areas of the university.
The Dean and Career Services representatives appreciated all of the ideas expressed at the meeting. Leslie Stevenson will follow up with department chairs in the next few weeks to gather information on employment, graduate school entries, etc., from 2012 graduates. Institutional Effectiveness follows up with graduates after one year and five years.
Dean Skerrett then moved into a discussion of the budget process for FY14. She emphasized that faculty governance should be consulted in major decisions concerning resource allocation within the School of Arts & Sciences. She acknowledged that program based budgeting sounds rather dull, but when we look at budget requests in a cohesive process, we are forced to make trade-offs and plan priorities. This is critical to the development of the academic program. She also reminded faculty that program based budgeting does not protect departments from possible reductions in their budget. It is important for faculty leaders to be involved in the process, but final budget decisions are ultimately the Dean's responsibility since she assumes the risk of being wrong.
Dean Skerrett explained the role of the Dean’s Advisory Council is playing in the budget process. All department chairs reviewed their budgets and these were collected on a spreadsheet so that Council members could see all new requests. The information was presented in categories, such as continuing funding, one-time requests, staff and faculty position requests. The Council is in the process of developing an agenda for upcoming meetings to start making recommendations. The Dean reminded the faculty that $270,000 in one-time money is available for FY14. These funds are available due to the surplus of faculty salary and operating funds in FY 12. The Dean’s Advisory Committee will also recommend request that should be advanced to the university’s Planning and Priorities Committee for new funding. There are nine people discussing various documents, spreadsheets, etc., including herself, Vincent Wang and Terri Weaver from the Dean’s office and then eight elected faculty members. The dean asked that faculty members continue to think critically about the type of governance structures that they want. The Dean’s Advisory Council will end its work on December 5. The dean will present the disposition of budget requests in January after her presentation to the university Planning & Priorities Committee.
Michelle Hamm asked the Dean if she will release which budget proposals were funded. Dean Skerrett replied that she will make a report to Academic Council in January. Gary Radice asked who is included in the sharing of information and the Dean replied that anyone can ask to see the information. She also noted that department chairs can be strong players in the decision-making process and this role is welcomed. The Dean’s Council can also serve as an influential group in the process. The ultimate goal is to develop a robust faculty governance that ties budgetary decisions back to the curriculum
Julie Laskaris asked about the policies and processes of who is elected to committees, such as the Dean’s Council. Dean Skerrett replied that the Dean's Advisory Council was created by University Faculty Council and we are following the published guidelines for constituting its membership. The Council is in the midst of developing a protocol for its practice, but Dean Skerrett does not want to write the protocol too quickly since the group is still developing and reflecting on process.
In a similar fashion, Associate Dean Malcolm Hill is working with department chairs in the sciences to develop process for making recommendations on replacements or new equipment. The outcome will be a rolling five-year plan that is reviewed and advanced semi-annually by a collaborative faculty-driven process. Dean Skerrett emphasized again that we want to build infrastructure to connect faculty governance to the educational program.
Dean Skerrett expressed her appreciation to the faculty for their questions and discussion. The meeting was adjourned at 4:50 p.m. The next Arts and Sciences faculty meeting (holiday reception) will be held December 4, 3:30 – 5:00 p.m., at the International Center Commons.
Respectfully submitted,
Lucretia McCulley
