November 1997 Faculty Senate Draft Minutes

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DRAFT MINUTES

Third Meeting Academic Year 1997-1998 of the Faculty Senate of Villanova University in the Cinema Room, Connelly Center, Tuesday, November 11, 1997 at 4:00 PM.

PRESENT: Professors William J.Barnhurst, Walter E.Conn, Trudi Graves, Lowell Gustafson (Chair), Masako Hamada, Karyn Hollis, Edward Kresch, Michael L.Levitan (Executive Secretary), Howard Lurie, Harry Strack, Robert Styer and Margaret King (Recording Secretary).

ABSENT: Professors Cheryl Asher, Victor Brooks, John D.Caputo, Linda Copel (Treasurer), Rick Eckstein (Vice-Chair), William Fitzpatrick, Michael Hones, Kenneth Kroos, Joyce Willens and Virginia Powers.

AGENDA:

Approval of Minutes of October 6, 1997 Meeting

Announcements and Correspondence

A.A.U.P. Policy Statement

Course and Teacher Evaluation Surveys (CATS)

Proposed Revision of Faculty Handbook for Rank and Tenure

Faculty Affairs Committee Report

New Business

I. Approval of Minutes of October 6, 1997 Meeting

Professor Lurie corrected the minutes regarding his modification of the Revision of the Faculty Handbook. Subsequently, the minutes were approved unanimously.

II. Announcements and Correspondence

a) Professor Copel has agreed to serve as Treasurer of the Faculty Senate.

b) Professor Graves requested clarification of the policy, stated in the Benefits report, concerning the availability of on-campus housing for dependents of adjunct faculty.

III. A.A.U.P. Policy Statement

Last year the Faculty Senate passed a resolution adopting the A.A.U.P.policy statement concerning faculty governance. Since Villanova University belongs to the Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities which has already passed and accepted this statement, the Faculty Senate is requesting the endorsement of this policy by the Board. To this end, the Executive Board of the Faculty Senate made the following motion:

FS 9798-3-1: RESOLVED:

That the Faculty Senate respectfully request that Fr.Dobbin recommend that the Board of Trustees adopts the A.A.U.P.policy statement on Government of Colleges and Universities (1967) as the basis for faculty governance and faculty participation in university governance at Villanova.

The motion carried unanimously.

V. Course and Teacher Evaluation Surveys (CATS)

Professor Strack reviewed the history of course-teacher surveys at Villanova. In the 1970's the students devised questionnaires and, with the professors' consent, requested that professors administer them in their classrooms. The students summarized and presented the results. At a recent Academic Policy Committee meeting, the students expressed their interest in doing this again. When they realized the time, effort and money that would be involved, Dr. John R. Johannes, Vice President of Academic Affairs, suggested that perhaps there could be a tie-in with the University's standardized Course and Teacher Evaluation Surveys (CATS). The students on that committee found this to be acceptable.

Many faculty have expressed concern with the proposed use of the CATS. These forms were developed as an instrument to be used by appropriate administrators to evaluate the faculty for rank, tenure and salary considerations. Furthermore, they were to be used by the faculty as feedback, so that faculty could improve their development and presentation of courses. After considerable discussion, Professor Strack made the following motion, modeled after the motion that was passed by the Faculty Affairs Committee:

FS 9798-3-2:

WHEREAS in the 1970's when the students published the results of course-teacher evaluations, it was done {only} with the consent of the course instructor, and

WHEREAS the new Course and Teacher Survey (CATS) will be used by the appropriate administrators to evaluate faculty for rank, tenure and salary considerations thus making it a part of the faculty's personnel record, and

WHEREAS any employee, including faculty, have the right to expect confidentiality in matters related to their conditions of employment, therefore,

RESOLVED:

The Faculty Senate (Council), without expressing an opinion on the use of CATS by administrators for faculty evaluation, urges as a matter of the highest priority, that the University Senate adopt the position of the Academic Policy Committee that:

CATS results will be made available in Falvey Library only for courses in which 50 percent or more of the enrolled students responded and only if the course instructor gives his or her consent in writing to such dissemination.

Under no circumstances will the CATS results be made available to the Villanova University community (or any other community) on electronic media (including the ``web").

The motion carried unanimously.

V. Proposed Revision of Faculty Handbook for Rank and Tenure

The Faculty Senate has received much feedback from faculty about the proposed revisions to the Faculty Handbook. At this meeting, it decided to focus its attention on the proposed changes put forward in the Draft Revision of the Rank and Tenure Policies and Procedures dated May 6, 1997, specifically, in section ``III. Policy On Promotion And Tenure," subsections ``A" and ``B."

A heated discussion followed the reading of these two subsections, with particular initial attention paid to sub-subsection III.A.2 which reads as follows:

2. Additional Criteria: Professional character and behavior which advance the mission of the University are essential for promotion and tenure. Possession of these criteria, however, will not substitute for deficiencies in teaching, scholarship, and service. Faculty must:

a. Understand and be supportive of the Catholic and Augustinian character of Villanova University and its mission:

b. In a manner appropriate for one's discipline, contribute to that character and mission;

c. Exhibit professionally appropriate, respectful behavior to one's colleagues and students; and

d. Adhere to the regulations of the University and to the ordinary procedures determined for the effective and orderly conduct of the University's operations.

Many faculty vehemently objected, noting that the concept of ``respectful behavior" is a social, not legal, norm. Questions arose such as: Who determines what is respectful? Who determines what is effective and orderly conduct of the University's operations? What if one administrator, faculty member or student feels that he or she is treated disrespectfully by some other administrator, faculty member or student. How would this grievance be handled? It was felt strictures such as these would have an inhibiting effect on the normal interactions of administrators, faculty and students. Since we have maintained a sense of civility and propriety for so many years, why is there a need for this directive to be placed in the Faculty Handbook?

An additional observation, tangential to this discussion, concerned the E-mail message sent by University Information Technology. This message stated that ``material published on the University's WWW sites should comply with commonly accepted ethical standards as well as with VU's specific values as a Catholic Institution." These issues prompted a heated discussion concerning academic freedom and what was intended by these administrative directives. Professor Styer made the following motion:

FS 9798-3-3}: RESOLVED:

In view of the ambiguity and potential threat to academic speech of the proposed Rank and Tenure Policies Section III.A.2 ``Additional Criteria," we respectfully request that this section be deleted from the final document.

The motion carried unanimously.

Professor Levitan made the following motion, jointly prepared with Professor Tim Feeman, University Senator:

FS 9798-3-4:

WHEREAS the Faculty Senate is aware that there have been suggested revisions to the Faculty Handbook concerning standards for promotion and tenure, and

WHEREAS the current Faculty Handbook states that excellence in teaching and substantial achievements in scholarship are required both for tenure and for promotion to the ranks of Associate and Full Professor, and WHEREAS the current criteria for promotion to the rank of Full Professor also require that the recipient must have ``demonstrated consistently superior proficiency" in two of the three areas of teaching, research and service while maintaining satisfactory performance in the third area, and

WHEREAS the proposed revision of the criteria for promotion to the rank of Full Professor mandates superior performance in teaching and research, requiring a nationally established reputation as a researcher, and

WHEREAS the proposed revision includes a definition of what constitutes scholarship which we believe to be too restrictive, given the focus of undergraduate education at Villanova, and

WHEREAS the proposed revision includes the statement ``service ... cannot substitute for teaching or scholarship," which we believe will discourage members of the faculty from devoting themselves wholeheartedly to the service component, $i.e.$, to the development of the Villanova community, thereby eroding the strong tradition of service that exists today, and

WHEREAS we strongly urge an approach that encourages the all-around development of each faculty member as a teacher-scholar with a passion for knowledge and its advancement and a dedication to the Villanova community and its ideals, and

WHEREAS we believe that as a matter of principle, discussion of any revisions to the criteria for tenure and promotion should include, from the outset, the participation of tenured and tenure-track faculty of all ranks in an official way, and

WHEREAS there has been no open forum with the faculty as a whole whereby those who believe that these revisions are necessary demonstrate the merit or need for such revisions, and

WHEREAS the Faculty Handbook recognizes that the Faculty Council, now called the Faculty Senate, as ``a proportional representative body constituted by the full-time faculty of the University for the purpose of discussing all matters affecting the faculty ... ,"

RESOLVED:

The Faculty Senate expresses its grave concern regarding the proposed revisions to the Faculty Handbook concerning standards for promotion and tenure. In the spirit of shared governance and open communication, the Faculty Senate invites Dr.John R.Johannes, Vice President for Academic Affairs, to make a presentation to the faculty as a whole at one of the Faculty Senate meetings in the spring of 1998, to discuss the merit and need for these and other revisions to the Faculty Handbook.

The motion carried unanimously.

VI. Faculty Affairs Committee Report

The report was not available at this time.

VII. New Business

It was decided that there should be a meeting in December where the issue of the University Academic Strategic Plan would be discussed.

Motion for adjournment was carried at 5:25 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Michael L. Levitan

Executive Secretary