Changes to the Proposed Faculty Handbook



Changes to the Proposed Faculty Handbook

The following items involve changes to the proposed Faculty Handbook that were mentioned at the September faculty meeting or sent by email to members of the Council on Academic Policy. Academic Policy then applied a triage system with three categories to these items.

Category 1: Editorial changes

These changes have been made in the electronic copy of the proposed Faculty Handbook and an email copy has been sent to all faculty members.

• Pages C2-C3: Do the senior staff job descriptions need to be updated, especially considering the student affairs reorganization during the summer? I will send this to the President’s Office for advice.

• Page C5: Replace the job description for the Coordinator of Academic Support Services with the following text.

The Coordinator of Academic Support Services is responsible for providing services to promote academic success. The Coordinator provides individual and group learning strategy instruction, coordinates initiatives and procedures for at-risk student populations, and oversees the Peer Tutoring program.

• Page C22: Change the coordinator for the Hendrix Campus Catholic Ministry to Ferrer.

• Page D4: Change “adviser” to “advisor” in lines 3 and 11.

• Page E1: In the fourth line from the bottom of the page change the comma to a period.

• Page E3: In the last bullet under teaching change “life long” to “lifelong.”

• Page E5: Replace the last sentence of the paragraph at the top of the page with the following text.

Whatever their origins, mentoring relationships are appreciated by both faculty and students and are an important part of student development at Hendrix.

• Page E9: In the sixth line under Schedule of Evaluations, delete the work “then.”

• Page F2: In the twelfth line from the bottom of the page, delete the hyphen.

• Page F6: Change the tenth line to “misconduct involving moral turpitude are examples of grounds for dismissal for cause.”

• Page F6: In the first line under Intent to Terminate Process, change “which” to “and.”

• Page F11: In the fifth line from the bottom of the page, change “the” to “their.”

• Page F11: In the “Leave Without Pay” title replace “Operating Policy” with “Operating Procedure.”

• Page G2: The second paragraph should have “Odyssey Program Guide” in italics.

• Page G20: Add “(hendrix.edu/odyssey)” to the end of the last sentence of the text for the Odyssey program.

• Page H4: In line 14 of the phased retirement policy change “appoint” to “appointment.”

Category 2: Changes that can wait until after Trustee review

These motions or suggested changes can wait for faculty review after Trustee review. They can be considered as soon as all the Category 3 changes are discussed.

• Page D3: In the section on Class Attendance insert a new third paragraph of the section and move the existing third paragraph to a fourth paragraph. Two suggested wordings of the new paragraph are given below.

o A course instructor can drop from the roster any student who fails to attend the first two class meetings without approval from the instructor.

o If a student misses the last two class meetings in the first three meetings of a semester, the instructor has the right to withdraw the student from the course.

The motivation for the suggested change is to make room for students who really want to be in the course and to get them into the course early enough to be successful. One issue is resolving how this fits with the current confirmation roster system.

• Page G3: Replace the first paragraph of the section on “grant budgeting and indirect cost recovery” with the following text.

Hendrix currently has a federally approved rate for indirect costs of 59.6%. In drafting grant proposals, and when permitted by the granting agency, departments should budget indirect costs of 59.6% on all direct salaries. Fringe benefits are based on actual rates available from the Human Resources Office.

Category 3: Changes that need to be discussed before moving forward

The following issues need to be resolved before moving forward with a faculty vote on the Handbook.

• Page D1, paragraph 4, line 8: Clarify the sentence about independent studies and supervision of experiential learning activities. Bob has asked Rebecca Resinski to suggest some language to replace this sentence. She suggests replacing the sentence with the following two sentences:

"Because independent studies are not part of a normal teaching load and are not compensated, they are undertaken solely at the discretion of the instructor. The faculty has endorsed the important role which experiential learning plays in a Hendrix education, and professors are therefore expected to offer opportunities for engaged learning within or beyond the traditional classroom setting."

• Page E3, second bullet under assessment of teaching: I forgot to mention this one in the last AP meeting. Quoting from an email from Alex Vernon:

This is my fifth year. If I had tenure, and were I up for review, that would mean 17 different courses! That’s how many I’ve taught through the end of this academic year. Even if we remove the courses I taught under the term system that will never be repeated, and use only those courses in the catalogue I regularly teach, we’re talking 11 courses, two of which are “topics” courses that are new each time I teach them. I’m not the only one in this boat. Several others, especially in the Humanities I think, have similar course responsibility. It’s excessive to require that much material, an unnecessary burden on the faculty member already burdened with extra class prep and a burden on the reviewers and on the environment.

We discussed this one quite a bit on the first round, but it will come up again. Does AP have any suggestions or do we want to take a stand?

• Page E3, last bullet under assessment of teaching: We talked about this one in AP but didn’t mention independent studies. Proposal: “where applicable, summaries of independent studies and experiential learning projects.”

• Page E4, assessment of advising: Carole Herrick needs to talk about this one to show the faculty what she has in mind.

• Page E8, fourth bullet in the middle of the page: This is Bob’s wording to include the issue of enrollment in the process. Replace the existing language with the following.

“the relationship between faculty member and the long range developmental plans of the institution, with particular attention to issues of curriculum and enrollment, for the department as well as for the college as a whole.”

• Page E8, first sentence after the bullets in the middle of the page: This is, I think, Garrett’s suggestion from AP. Replace the existing language with the following.

“Following the conference, the Area Chair will prepare a letter based on the material provided by the faculty member, the department letter, classroom visits, evaluation conference, and other pertinent evidence.”

• Page E9, second paragraph, first sentence: Replace with

“At the conclusion of the evaluation by the Committee on Faculty, the Provost will write a summative letter for the faculty member reflecting the decisions of the Committee on Faculty.”

• Page F8, under Allocation of Faculty Positions, add as final sentence:

“It is the responsibility of the Committee on Faculty and the department chair to communicate the expectations for the position clearly to each new hire; to continue to monitor each new, reassigned, or reaffirmed faculty position to determine whether the expectations are being met; to consult with the faculty member in a timely manner in order to develop a strategy for addressing any perceived deficiencies; and if necessary, to recommend that the position be redefined, reallocated, or eliminated.”

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