FACULTY EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Minutes

Tuesday, November 12, 2002

PRESENT: William Beeman (Chair), Carolyn Dean, Mary Ann Doane, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Michael Rosen, John Savage, Susan Short

ABSENT: James Egan, Constantine Gatsonis

GUESTS: Nancy Dunbar

Professor Beeman opened the meeting at 3:10 p.m. Minutes of the October 29, 2002 meeting were approved as submitted.

Professor Beeman gave a Chair’s Report. The CCC submitted a recommendation to the FEC to try and regularize the convening of classes at opening convocation every year. There are many instructors that have no idea what to do during the hour that convocation is held. The CCC has a complicated plan, but Professor Beeman preferred not to present the proposal to the FEC in its present form. He contacted Laura Fried’s office and Russell Carey in the President’s office, who will be providing him with information regarding the amount of time that convocation requires and whether or not it is held at the same time every year. At some point in the near future, the FEC will try to make a determination of how this issue can be resolved. It may be that something will have to be written into the Faculty Rules, in which case it will need to go before the faculty as a resolution.

The MFEC is working very hard on a proposal for revising its committee charge so they will have more input into policy and strategic planning in the Medical School. Professor Beeman suggested adding the Chair of MFEC to the FEC membership as an ex-officio member once the FEC receives its new charge, and committee members agreed. In the meantime, the FEC will extend an invitation as a courtesy to Dr. Martin Weinstock, the current MFEC chair, to attend future FEC meetings.

Professor Beeman recently learned that hospital-based faculty members do not receive the George St. Journal. It was suggested that the George St. Journal be posted to the Web and the URL address be given periodically to the hospital-based faculty via e-mail so they can log onto it. Another thought was to add a footnote to their e-mail about faculty meeting agendas stating that if one wishes to subscribe to the Journal, do the following. The FEC officers will bring this to the attention of Russell Carey in the President’s office.

The FEC officers will meet with the President tomorrow and asked if there were any questions or concerns they feel should be mentioned to her. There was some concern with regard to when faculty can expect to hear about the distribution of FTEs. Professor Savage reported that the Academic Priorities Subcommittee has been reviewing the proposals, asking how to best allocate the resources. No definitive decisions have been made yet, but there is a rough sense of how to allocate positions. The Committee’s intention is to review every departmental submission as well as centers and interdisciplinary units, asking how they should be treated. Another concern raised was about guidelines for determining targets of opportunity, which are not very clear to most people. It would be helpful if the President or Provost could issue vague guidelines that would not restrain faculty or departments, but would at least give some framework within which one could work. The FEC officers will bring these issues up at tomorrow’s meeting with President Simmons.

Professor Susan Short and Michael Rosen reported briefly on the President’s Workshop on Diversity. The organizers distributed a mailing list of attendees for the workshops and announced that if there is someone else that should be added, they should contact Russell Carey.

The President asked people for new definitions of diversity, which she feels has been too narrowly focused. Dean Fennell spoke about diversity among the faculty, stressing the importance of minority retention as well as recruitment, and the hiring process was discussed in detail. She explained how the target of opportunity worked in the past and how it will be different in the future. Dean Armstrong talked about diversity in the curriculum and named some courses that could be offered on diversity. All who attended seemed very enthusiastic. Discussion ensued about enforcement mechanisms for diversity goals, and the FEC officers will bring this up with the President at their next meeting.

The FEC discussed proposing a resolution to the faculty on the Conflict of Interest (COI) Policy for Officers of Instruction and Research. Associate Provost Nancy Dunbar reported that there have been very few people who opposed this policy, and she noted that the hospital-based faculty and CEOs were generally supportive. Therefore, it seemed unlikely that there would be any significant opposition at the faculty meeting. The Provost feels it is important to get this policy approved soon because the University is in a position of extreme vulnerability. Many of Brown’s faculty members are not covered under the existing COI policy. Nancy Dunbar reviewed the most recent amendments to the policy and reviewed the MFEC’s feedback that was brought up at this morning’s MFEC meeting. After some discussion, the FEC concluded that a resolution for faculty endorsement of the COI Policy should be presented at the December 3 faculty meeting. Where it will actually appear on the agenda will be discussed at the faculty agenda meeting with President Simmons.

Professor Savage reviewed several changes to the Task Force on Faculty Governance motions concerning the University Research Council (URC), University Curriculum Council (UCC) and the College Curriculum Council (CCC), Committee on Grievance, Faculty Executive Committee (FEC) and the Nominations Committee for the Faculty Executive Committee (NCFEC). A motion was made and seconded to approve the changes and to bring these motions to the faculty on December 3. There was brief discussion about the current committees and how they should phase their work out. Discussion on this issue will continue at a later date.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Cheryl A. Moreau

Secretary