School of Arts & Sciences Faculty Meetings
Minutes of the Sept. 11, 2003 Meeting:
The meeting was called to order at 12:03 by Moderator Rich Bennett.
- Moderator Rich Bennett announced that parties interested in assisting Bernice
Nuhfer-Halten with the cross-departmental lunch project should contact Bernice
directly (bnuhferh@spsu.edu).
- Dean Gabrielli announced that an inquiry was made into the existence of a seal or logo
for the School of Arts and Sciences. Persons wanting to comment on the concept or offer
their services for a committee to develop a seal or logo should contact Alan directly
(agabriel@spsu.edu)
- Gabrielli discussed the campus focus on identifying resources and developing action plans
to use existing resources to further the University's mission. The focus originated at the
President's cabinet level. IVPAA Hornbeck discussed it with the academic deans and the Academic
Leadership Council (deans, department chairs, directors) prior to the start of the semester,
and with the general faculty at the Fall Kickoff meeting. The other University divisions have
completed their analysis and have presented their results. Within Academic Affairs, each
department has conducted an analysis and has reported to their respective dean. Deans will
report school results to Hornbeck next week.
The presentation that followed included a report summarizing the findings of the departments.
Common items were identified, and the action plans suggested by the departments were discussed
(see annotated attachments).
The high priority of hiring new faculty was discussed. All agree that it is vital that
additional permanent faculty be hired, and that faculty searches proceed in a timely manner.
However, this actually lies outside the charge of the exercise (utilizing existing resources).
We also discussed the high use of adjunct faculty in A&S, the problems (and costs, in time
and money) associated with recruiting, hiring, training, and supervising such a large
adjunct population, and the adverse effects of utilizing too many adjunct faculty.
Gabrielli suggested that A&S concentrate on two action items, "Establish a plan for
training, supervising, and evaluating adjunct faculty" and "Develop new strategies for
faculty assessment"; in fact, there is already an ad hoc A&S committee addressing the second.
He will prepare and distribute a draft document addressing the first item for discussion.
Those action items that require involvement of Academic Affairs or other divisions will be
reported to Hornbeck.
Submitted by Alan Gabrielli