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Indiana State University 		University Faculty Senate
EC#22.
Approved
March 25, Minutes. 	

Indiana State University
Faculty Senate 2007-08

 

Time:          3:15 p.m.

Place:          HMSU, Room 227

Present:     V.Sheets, Sister A. M. Anderson, J. Fine, J. Hughes, M. Miller, S.  Pontius, T.    Sawyer, D. Worley

Excused:   A. Halpern

Ex-Officio: J. Maynard

Guests:        T. Sauer, R. Lotspeich, G Bakken, G. Stuart, T. Steiger, J. Conant

 

 

I.                    Chair’s Report

 

Chair Report 3-25-2008

 

Thank you all for attending today.  As you know, I have called this special meeting of the Executive Committee.  I did so in reaction to the briefings I received from Arthur and SAMy regarding last week’s EC and Senate meetings.

 

As you know, we received a briefing in Executive Session on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008, indicating that the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences cancelled the departments of EOB and Life Sciences and created a provisional Department of Biological Sciences headed by a faculty member from outside of these groups. These actions resulted in the subdivision of EES, a unit involving Geology and Anthropology as well as Ecology that had been operating as a provisional unit since last fall and that received endorsement by the College of Arts & Sciences Faculty Council in December.

 

Such extreme actions appropriately raise faculty concern.  I have heard from faculty who are worried about this process and whether it shall be as a precedent for future administrative abrogation of faculty authority and governance.

 

I am told that the EC last week passed a resolution to ask Dean Sauer to provide a rationale for his actions, and that Faculty Senators—though not by passing a resolution—also asked that the EC investigate this matter further.  I am pleased that Dean Sauer has agreed to be here to assist in this.

 

 

Now, before moving on to this—the sole item of focus today—I want to highlight that we as members of the EC, are charged with the responsibility to act in the best interests of the university. The handbook specifies that at this level of governance, we are not representatives of our disciplines, our departments, nor our colleges; rather, we are elected as representatives of the faculty to act in the best interests of the entirety of our colleagues.

 

If we are unable to fulfill our responsibility in this regard—or are perceived as unable to fulfill this responsibility—we are obligated to recuse ourselves—not only from voting but also from the discussion. To fail to do so is to undermine the credibility of any response we might make.

 

In this vein, Arthur Halpern asked me to inform you that he will not attend the meeting today. I would like to formally invite Jim Hughes to excuse himself as well.

 

 

Following the chair’s report and request there was extensive discussion about the chair’s invitation. It was, finally, agreed by most members that the agenda could not proceed with objectivity.

 

A motion was made to go into executive session (Sawyer/Miller), which failed (3.4.0).

 

The meeting was adjourned at 3:50 p.m.
Last modified: September 09, 2008

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