Committee on Faculty Meeting Minutes

Friday, 9/14/2007

Bartley 1030 (Faculty Boardroom)

In attendance: Lillian Cassel, Sohail Chaudhry, Q Chung (Chair), Linda Copel, Joseph Dellapenna, Jeffrey Johnson, Sarvesh Kulkarni, Susan Mackey-Kallis, Victoria McWilliams, Frank Mercede, Barbara Ott, Joseph Schick, Seth Whidden

Absent:            Rich Jacobs (notified in advance)

 Meeting was called to order by the chair at 11:30 a.m. in Bartley 1030.

1.                  Housekeeping and announcements

·         New member, Joseph Dellapenna of the Law School, was introduced and welcomed. Members introduced themselves and greeted.

·         Minutes of 5/3/2007 meeting were approved.

·         Upcoming meeting dates and times were announced:

-          COF … 10/11 (1:00 p.m.), 11/13 (1:00 p.m.), 12/12 (11:30 a.m.)

-          Faculty Congress … 10/3, 11/6, 12/5, all 4:00 p.m.

-          Meeting with Fr. Peter … 9/17, 11:30 a.m.

2.                  Academic Citizenship

Quoted below is the position of COF with regard to Academic Citizenship, which was adopted unanimously in May 2007 meeting.

The question concerning reasonable expectations, for faculty, in terms of presence on campus (how many days per week), in one’s office (how many days per week), and holding office hours (how many hours, and how spread over a week’s schedule to facilitate student access) raises a substantive issue, namely, “academic citizenship” and its praxis.

At Villanova University, which prides itself as being a “community,” substantive issues—like that of academic citizenship—are best solved not by establishing institution-wide policies (and, policy manuals) to govern the faculty as if this collegial body is a monolith where “one size fits all.”  Instead, and commensurate with the principle of subsidiarity, substantive issues are best resolved by a self‑governing faculty who reflect upon the mission and heritage of this University, determine what those principles require in the individual departments, and hold one another accountable to those determinations.  The role of administrators (including Chairs, Deans, and the Vice President of Academic Affairs) is to support faculty in this regard so that they will function effectively as a self-governing and collegial body.

In light of the University’s unique mission and heritage, the issue of academic citizenship and it praxis requires the faculty to answer an important question: How might we best conduct our work to provide for these needs?  This question not only hearkens the faculty to consider first principles but also challenges the faculty to think creatively and independently about how they will govern themselves by translating the University’s mission and heritage into the praxis of academic citizenship.

The following motion was made, seconded, and passed (12-0-1):

“The Committee on Faculty requests the Vice President of Academic Affairs to disseminate the above statement to the deans and department chairs.”

3.                  Definition of Collegial Governance

The “Definition of Collegial Governance” should be posted more prominently on the Web, including the homepages of Faculty Congress and COF.

4.                  Facultas Award

·         No change will be introduced, and thus, will proceed as it has been done.

·         The chair will start the Fall 2007 Facultas Award process.

5.                  Events Policy

In light of the documents recently released by AAUP that are closely related to the current issue, the following motion was made, seconded, and passed (13-0-0):

“The Committee on Faculty (COF) proposes that an ad hoc committee be formed to propose a revision of the current draft of the Events Policy. The ad hoc committee will comprise of members of COF and APC. The revised draft will be submitted to the Chair of the Faculty Congress, who will forward it to the VPAA, COF, and APC for review and adoption.”

The revision will incorporate the core values of the University reflected in the current draft and the guidelines suggested by AAUP.

It was a general consensus in COF that open events that involve outside speakers and freedom in the classroom should be considered two separated issues.

Seth Whidden and Joseph Schick were elected to serve on the ad hoc committee.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Q Chung