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Minutes of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Faculty Assembly

Attending: Bern-Klug, Blum, Charlton, Cheatum, Cowles, Curtius, Denburg, Hurtig, Jeske, Kim, Lawrence, Leicht, Lenth, Lovaglia, Maierhofer, Menninger, Mitchell, Moore, Oliveira, Onel, Pusack, Redlawsk, Roseman, Schlütter, Sessions, Stewart, Storey, Yuasa

Excused absence: Algan, Bork, Franklin, Lecuona, Oesmann, Ringen, Singer, Sosale, Young

Absent: Adams, Adrain, Bennett, Blumberg, Boggess, Bolton, Cole, Filios, Gatica, Hunnicutt, Jones, Kimmich, McGannon, Mills, Mooney, Nelson, Porter, Robinson, Rubach, Turner, Weiss, Wittenberg, Yablon

1. Discussion of the CLAS draft strategic plan for 2005-10. Chair Jae-On Kim (Sociology) called the special meeting of the Faculty Assembly to order and asked the Strategic Plan Review Committee to present its proposals for changes to the CLAS draft strategic plan.

Member Christopher Cheatum (Chemistry), representing the committee, led the discussion. He explained that the committee made seven recommendations, and he asked for amendments to the recommendations as they were discussed.

The first recommendation was to retain the language of the mission statement from the 2000-05 strategic plan. The committee explained that the College's mission had not changed. Member John Menninger spoke in favor of the recommendation, especially because the first sentence of the statement identified the College's mission as the advancement of scholarship and creative endeavor, which he believed was the overall guiding principle of a Research I university.

The second recommendation was to declare 2005-10 as an era of experimentation in teaching and learning. The rationale was that to do more with the same or shrinking resources would require the trial and assessment of a wide range of instructional strategies, including new and unorthodox methods. The committee maintained that the College should strongly support and encourage such experimentation.

Member Richard Hurtig moved to strike the last sentence from the rationale of the second recommendation, which referred to learning through regularly scheduled classroom time as possibly being overestimated. His motion was seconded and the amendment passed without opposition.

Some members expressed concern that the word "experimentation" might have an unfortunate connotation and suggested that "innovation" might be a better choice. Cheatum responded that "experimentation" emphasized the risk inherent in trying something new. He maintained that "innovation" implied success, and the committee wanted to stress that not every strategy tried would be successful. Member Mercedes Bern-Klug (Social Work) moved to change "experimentation" to "innovation" and the motion was seconded. Other members spoke in favor of "experimentation," saying that it covered a wider range of activity, such as the implementation or reconfiguration of old methods and resources in new ways. The motion failed on a voice vote.

Member Dennis Moore (Rhetoric) moved to strike the recommendation in its entirety. He said that it seemed to have no substantive or quantifiable meaning. He said the concept of "experimentation" was too important to exploit for the sake of making the proposal sound good. The motion died for lack of a second.

The third recommendation was to reverse the order of strategies 1 and 2 under Goal III, so that "Increase funding for scholarly/creative activity" would be listed first. It also recommended changing "excellent, highly-ranked" to "excellent and highly-ranked" wherever it occurred. The rationale was that the use of "excellent and highly ranked" would allow the College and its faculty to decide how to allocate their resources in ways that included external rankings but were not limited to them.

Member Sara Mitchell (Political Science) asked why the word "departments" was dropped from the recommendation's text. Cheatum said that it was an oversight and accepted the reinstatement of the word as a friendly amendment.

Member David Stewart (Mathematics) moved to change the word "reversing" to "switching" to make it clear that the recommendation applied to the order of the strategies rather than the policies the strategies referred to. The motion was seconded and passed without opposition.

Menninger said that he hated to see the word "enterprise" associated with research and scholarly activity, as it was in the language of Goal III. He said that the connotations of the word were linked to "entrepreneur" and had little to do with the research mission of the College, and that the word was in fact pejorative when used in that way. After some discussion, he moved to replace "enterprise" with "activities" and the motion was seconded. After more discussion, a friendly amendment was made and accepted to change "the research and scholarly enterprise" to "research and scholarship." The motion passed with no opposition.

Bern-Klug said that in her opinion this recommendation was the best and most important of all the committee's recommendations.

The fourth recommendation was to put "attract and retain high-quality faculty and staff" as the first strategy under Goal IV. The rationale was that it was critical to the mission of the College and a prerequisite for all its goals.

Noting a discrepancy in the language of the recommendation, members asked whether the recommendation was for "high-quality" or "highly productive." Cheatum said that it was not the intent of the recommendation to change the language of the strategic plan here, and the original read "highly productive." It was moved and seconded to change "highly productive" to "high-quality."

Member Morten Schlütter (Religious Studies) spoke in favor of the amendment, maintaining that "highly productive" emphasized quantity over quality, which he thought was a general problem in academe. Member Jennifer Sessions (History) asked whether "high-quality" could be added to "highly productive." Menninger maintained that "high-quality" was a more inclusive term that covered "highly productive." The motion passed on a voice vote.

The fifth recommendation addressed gender equity, which the Assembly at previous meetings had said the draft strategic plan neglected. The committee recommended changes to the mission statement and to Goals II and IV.

Member Diane Jeske (Philosophy) asked why the fourth point of this recommendation, which dealt with promoting a supportive work-life environment and family-friendly policies, referred to "men and women faculty." She said the phrasing seemed needlessly awkward. Sessions, a member of the committee, said that it was important to identify the point as a gender equity issue. Member Russell Lenth (Statistics & Actuarial Science) moved to change "men and women" to "male and female," which he maintained was more grammatical. The motion was seconded and passed on a voice vote.

The sixth recommendation involved expanding efforts to assure that incoming students were adequately prepared for college, which addressed some of the Assembly's concerns regarding low admissions standards while recognizing that some admissions policies were mandated by the state legislature.

The seventh recommendation replaced a strategy involving interdisciplinary research and teaching under Goal IV with "Promote an environment in which discipline-based departments value and participate
in interdisciplinary and international efforts." This would maintain an aspect of the College's 2000-05 strategic plan, and would also be in accord with the University's 2005-10 strategic plan.

Member David Redlawsk (Political Science) moved to separate interdisciplinary efforts and international efforts into two different strategies. The motion was seconded. Hurtig spoke in favor of the amendment, maintaining that it would encourage the independent assessment of each area and make it more difficult to hide the failures of one behind the successes of the other. The motion passed on a voice vote.

After some discussion of the effectiveness of task forces, it was moved and seconded to strike the recommendation's reference to forming a task force to examine interdisciplinarity. A friendly amendment was proposed and accepted to change the resulting language to "develop incentives and remove hurdles to interdisciplinary collaboration among faculty in both teaching and research, including the status of interdepartmental team teaching."

It was moved and seconded that the committee re-order the recommendations so that they corresponded to the order of goals in the draft strategic plan. The committee members agreed such re-ordering was a good idea, and the motion passed without opposition.

Hurtig commended the Strategic Plan Review Committee on their work, and the Assembly signaled its agreement with applause.

Chair Kim called for a vote on the committee's proposed recommendations as amended, and the proposal was approved without opposition.

2. Adjournment. Having concluded the business on its agenda, the Assembly adjourned early.

Respectfully submitted,
Mary Kathryn Cowles
Secretary, 2005-06