In attendance at the meeting were: Mr. Howard Fedrick, Dr. Marc Marchese, Dr. Trent Snider, Dr. Jennifer McClinton-Temple, Dr. Joan Coffin, Dr. Fred Sauls, Chairperson, Dr. Jayne Moore, Dr. Charlie Brooks, Dr. James Dohlon.

Guests: Dr. Nick Holodick AAVP and Dean of Faculty, Dr. Brian Mangan

The meeting began promptly at 2:05. Dr. Sauls opened the meeting by thanking all of the members who showed up on the Friday before spring break to attend to the business of the council.

Dr. Marchese gave the report of the A & P committee. The "chairs’ evaluation of faculty" form and the new form for the "faculty evaluation of the chair" have been approved by the Committee and will be formatted into bubble sheets.

Dr. Snider gave the report from C & T, Dr. McClinton-Temple has put together a web site (http://departments.kings.edu/candt/ ) with the minutes of the committee and their progress. Dr. Snider states that "we expect to present a rough draft of a ‘new core’ at the next all faculty meeting" (Friday 31 March). At this time the committee has been working on the critical thinking component of the Core curriculum and has some recommendations. The plan is to look at the rest of the curriculum and make suggestions for changes. Dr. McClinton-Temple is in the process of writing the preamble for the Core. This preamble, along with the "new" Core will be distributed to the faculty before the all faculty meeting on 31 March.

The next topic was the folding of neuroscience program back into the Psychology department, where it becomes a major within the Psychology department and no longer a stand alone program. Dr. Holodick was on hand to lend some perspective as to how this decision had been made.

At the February Board meeting there was a need to defend all tenure appointment positions. The question arose about where a faulty member would be tenured - the department or the program. The interpretation of the Board and administration regarding this issue was that tenure does not lie within a program, it lies within a department. This is what the Board wants.

*Note: later in the discussion this point was refuted when it was noted that page 27 of the Faculty Handbook states that "The tenured position is located within a department or program." This will have to be pointed out to the Board.

The discussion then branched into defining what the role of a program director was. At this time the idea of the Major Coordinator position was reintroduced. As this has already been referred to A & P it was not further discussed.

Dr. Holodick reminded the council that Neuroscience is within the Psychology department: that was where it came from and it is the logical place to bring it back to for a major. The other side of this line of reasoning is that Neuroscience (and e. g. Environmental) are inherently interdisciplinary.

The college is looking to streamline departments and programs where appropriate and where the numbers indicate it is prudent to do so. More flexibility in scheduling is a goal. We need to look at where we as a college will be in 10 years. "We are taking a hard look at programs".

The next factor in the decision was numbers. Bottom line: how many students are in this major?

*Note that the data used in this decision may be unreliable. Ms Skavarla will be asked to reexamine them.

Summing up the discussion: the board considers that there is reasonable justification for the decision, and it was done with the approval of the president. Its reversal is unlikely at present.

However, there was consensus that a more open dialogue with stake holders would have been beneficial. It omission in this instance was an error. Faculty should be consulted in future decisions before they are finalized.

It was pointed out that future decisions would be substantially influenced by the enrollment statistics. Other programs such as the Environmental program will be handled in the same manner.

Dr. Holodick, Dr. Coffin and Dr. Brooks have been requested to work together on analyzing the results of this decision and to report back to Faculty Council in a year.

Dr. Snider moved that the meeting be adjourned at 2:55 pm; we adjourned.

Respectfully submitted

Dr. Jayne Klenner-Moore