FACULTY EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Minutes

Tuesday, November 25, 2003

PRESENT: William Beeman, Michel-Andre Bossy, Deborah Cohen, Mary Ann Doane, James Egan, Anne Fausto-Sterling (Chair), Donald Forsyth

GUESTS: Andrew Brem, Lewis Lipsitt

The Chair opened the meeting at 3:07 p.m. Minutes of the 11/11/03 FEC meeting were approved as submitted.

Professor Fausto-Sterling gave a Chair’s Report. Professors Beeman and Bossy met with the President and Provost while she was away. Discussion with both parties involved issues of retirement and the evolving role of chairs within the administrative structure of the University. When the Provost restructures the role of the Dean of the Faculty, it was suggested he consider convening all chairs from a single division of the University to serve as a council for that section in lieu of divisional deans. This will help in developing a stronger academic planning role for the Dean of the Faculty. The FEC will discuss the Search Committee for the Dean of the Faculty later this afternoon in executive session.

The FEC discussed nominations for replacements on the Advisory Committee on Honorary Degrees and came up with several names to fill four impending vacancies effective January 1, 2004. Professor Fausto-Sterling will contact the individuals and nominations will be voted on at the December 2 faculty meeting. Professors Chung-I Tan and Fausto-Sterling are gathering nominations for an ad hoc Committee on Retirement. Professor John Savage will be chairing the search committee for Vice President for Public Affairs and University Relations and would appreciate the FEC suggesting individuals he could contact to serve on that committee.

The FEC reviewed and discussed annual committee reports from the Advisory Committee on Honorary Degrees, College Curriculum Council, Commencement Speakers, and Advisory Committee on Summer Studies. All were approved and will be presented at the December 2 faculty meeting except for Honorary Degrees, which will be brought before the faculty in February.

The University Resources Committee (URC) ballot was discussed, and a list of proposed nominations from the FEC will be forwarded to Provost Zimmer for consideration. A ballot will be prepared for mailing as soon as the Provost decides who the nominees will be.

The FEC will be preparing a report on University committee membership diversity, and data has been collected based on rank, gender, minority status, and discipline. Discussion ensued about the data gathered so far, and it was decided that information on advisory boards should be included even though the FEC is not involved with appointing members to the boards. The FEC will present the report at the February faculty meeting.

Professor Fausto-Sterling recently met with Professor Chung-I Tan (FAC), Associate Provost Brenda Allen (SDH), Dean Eric Suuberg, and Mr. Russell Carey about revisions to the Faculty Rules and Regulations. It was determined that there are several areas of the Rules which are outdated, and there are also technical problems with formatting the document. It was recommended either a student or someone from CIS be hired to deal with the technical issues in formatting the Rules, and the FEC agreed this was a good idea. Dean Suuberg noted that the Handbook for Academic Administration will be revised once revisions to the Faculty Rules and Regulations are completed.

While the new process for a hiring plan is being developed, areas in the Rules related to the old process will be identified, and the Subcommittee on Diversity in Hiring (SDH) will do the background work. Discussion ensued whereby a question was raised as to whether or not departments will continue to have faculty members serving as affirmative action monitors under the new system. Professor Fausto-Sterling will check on that. She noted that the SDH and FAC will be invited back to an FEC meeting some time in early spring to discuss their progress. In the meantime, Professor Fausto-Sterling will check with Professor Fayneese Miller to get an update on the SDH’s progress up to this point in time.

Professor Lewis Lipsitt was invited to speak with the FEC about the Society of the Elderbears. He is currently chair of the group, and it is his hope that the Elderbears can have some useful function within Brown’s governance structure. The group recently created their own set of by-laws, and one does not have to be a retiree to belong to the Society. Professor Lipsitt gave some background on why the Elderbears was formed. Many emeritus faculty are not happy in their retirement because they want to remain active in University affairs but do not have access to office space or staff support. One issue retirees face is that Brown does not provide any medical coverage. The Elderbears are currently exploring medical benefit data from other universities, which they plan on sharing later with the entire Brown faculty.

Discussion ensued with regard to how the Elderbears could help Brown University. It was suggested they bring their issues and ideas to the attention of the Faculty Affairs Committee, the new ad hoc Committee on Retirement, and the FEC. The FEC could bring their concerns to the attention of the faculty. If the Elderbears want something to be formally written, there would need to be a change to the Faculty Rules and Regulations, requiring a formal proposal to the FEC. Since they are an independent organization and not a body constituted by faculty governance, this will need to be clarified.

The general consensus was that faculty will want to recognize the Society of the Elderbears. At the FEC’s suggestion, Professor Lipsitt will work with the Elderbears to prepare a written proposal which will include their by-laws. It would be helpful if they also included suggestions for ways they could communicate with the faculty and the FEC. A final draft of the proposal will be presented to the FEC at a later date.

The meeting was called to Executive Session at 4:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Cheryl A. Moreau

Secretary