Dean Kathleen Skerrett called the meeting to order at 4:01 p.m. in the Brown-Alley Room of Weinstein Hall. Gene Anderson moved approval of the minutes of the Arts and Sciences faculty meeting from January 16, 2013. Jonathan Dattelbaum seconded the motion and the faculty voted to approve. Stephanie Cobb moved approval of Academic Council Actions from February 5. Reed West seconded the motion and the faculty voted to approve.
Dean Skerrett reported that progress continues on developing a new faculty governance process for developing and revising the curriculum.
Dean Skerrett provided a debriefing of the Program-Based Budgeting (PBB) process. The Dean provided an overview of the process that commenced in September. Budget requests were received from department chairs and program chairs and forwarded to the Dean’s Advisory Council. The Council met weekly from late October to early December to determine priorities. The Dean described the various funding sources, including: a surplus of $70,000 from FY12, $200,000 from salary surplus from FY12; and $24,000 from the continuing operating budget. The Dean’s Advisory Council reviewed all requests and made recommendations and the Dean made the final decision. Requests included new budgets and enhanced continuing budgets. The DAC recommended and the Dean approved seven one-time, non-continuing requests.
Position requests included eight staff positions and five tenure-stream positions. The only faculty position approved for internal A & S funding was an Assistant Professor of Art.
Five requests were forwarded to Planning and Priorities and three of those were approved: The approved requests were the GIS technician; Studio Arts Lab Manager; Assistant Professor in Physics.
Yvonne Howell asked about the process to decide what to fund internally and what to send to Planning and Priorities. The Dean replied that they made strategic decisions with priorities and cost-sharing to make those requests persuasive to Planning and Priorities. She also noted that a chronic term position in Physics was converted to partially fund the tenure-stream Physics position. The Dean is pleased with the outcome of the Planning and Priorities process.
Dean Skerrett reported that faculty mentoring stipends were not approved and she hopes to start building a budget for the stipends. She does not see these stipends as compensation but as honoring the commitment of faculty to mentoring.
Gene Anderson asked about the amount of money in the plant fund. Dean Skerrett replied with the amount, and noted that the fund is still designated for plant renovation and equipment. She hopes that there may be some new policies concerning this use.
Gene Anderson then asked if equipment needs occur during the year, should faculty contact the Dean? The Dean responded that both the Science Initiative and the Arts Initiative are concerned with developing rolling five-year equipment plans for those areas.
Kathrin Bower asked further questions about the plant fund, such as “What is the rationale of the plant fund?” The Dean does not fully understand the history of its development. She suggested that we might want to think of other ways to use it, such as developing a quasi-endowment, etc.
Yvonne Howell asked about endowed chair positions that are not filled and the availability of those funds. Dean Skerrett replied that she plans to start reviewing endowments later in the spring, including the unfilled chairs. Andrea Simpson asked about the Weinstein Fellows funding for interdisciplinary courses. She stated that funding has vanished. The Dean replied that she does not know immediately about this program. Dean Skerrett stated that she is working with the central budget office right now and their assistance will be essential in undertaking a review of our endowments.
The Dean said that, after consultation with the DAC, she would like to change the schedule for faculty position requests from the fall to the spring. Kathrin Bower asked for further clarification on requests for positions and noted the need for ample time in preparing requests, etc.
Yvonne Howell asked if there is any way to produce a document, website, etc. that would provide further information on reviewing the curriculum as a whole, including enrollment, etc. Is there a way to visualize it? The Dean agreed that this would be very helpful and perhaps options can be explored.
Dean Skerrett ended her discussion on PBB by thanking the faculty, chairs, and Dean's Advisory Council for participating in the new process.
Julie Laskaris encouraged faculty attendance at the upcoming Connecting the Humanities and the Professions, on March 21-22, 2013.
The remaining part of the faculty meeting was devoted to a presentation on Title IX. Kerry Fankhauser (Associate Dean, Westhampton College) and Dan Fabian (Associate Dean, Richmond College) presented the latest information on Title IX regulations.
Dean Skerrett thanked the faculty for their presence at the meeting. The next Arts and Sciences meeting will be held on March 20 at 4 p.m. in Keller Hall Reception Room.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:15 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Lucretia McCulley
