Faculty Chairs SubCommittee Meeting, February 22, 2008

CHAIRS SUB-COMMITTEE OF THE TASK FORCE FOR REORGANIZATION
SUMMARY OF MEETING, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2008

Present: Jay Antle, Rhonda Barlow, Steve Carr, Penny Marshall-Chura, Donna Duffey, Keith Geekie, Dana Grove, Diana Ingham, Stuart Shafer, Anita Tebbe, Lindy Robinson, Jeff Frost

Dr. Grove began the meeting by describing what from his perspective a chair position would look like. For him, chairs would be unit representatives that meet directly with him, the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, on a regular basis. This forum could be viewed as an Academic or Faculty Senate or as a Chairs Council. Operational issues would be discussed in this forum in order to identify processes that could be improved and to suggest methods of improvement. This group would also focus on ways that faculty can have better input into institutional issues. The subcommittee was in agreement that this forum should not be a place for individual personnel matters to be addressed.

The remainder of the meeting was spent in healthy discussion surrounding the structure and function of the faculty chair position. The following questions were raised and discussed:
Should we eliminate the faculty chair concept altogether?
Should all faculty chairs across departments be defined the same?
Is there a way to describe/define the ‘faculty chair’ by each department?
Can we develop a model that defines leadership needs by individual departments, allowing each department to propose it’s own structure and function?

The following definition of a Faculty Chair was proposed:
Faculty Chair: A unit representative responsible for addressing operational issues with the executive vice president, and for assisting in engaging unit faculty in institutional initiatives. Chairs may have other unit tasks and be compensated accordingly.

Dialogue will continue at the next meeting in an effort to identify a range of responsibilities that represents a minimum framework for this position. Topics to be discussed include compensation issues and evaluation. Agreement exists regarding the need for formal sanctioning and recognition of career program facilitator positions, and ultimately the faculty chair position as specifically defined by each department.

Respectfully,
Penny Marshall-Chura, Recorder