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Minutes
Meeting of the Faculty of King’s College
March 30, 2007
Present: see attached list
1. The meeting was called to order at 2:10 PM in the Snyder Room of the Sheehy-Farmer Campus Center.
2. Howard Fedrick, Faculty Council Chair, noted Fr. Tom Looney’s service to King’s College and asked the Faculty to thank Fr. Looney.
3. Fr. Looney led the opening prayer.
4. William Bolan, Director of the Shoval Center, spoke about two program initiatives from the Shoval Center and the Service Learning Project Team:
a. Service Learning Curriculum Development Fund
i. There are five awards for $1000 each available for faculty who are either developing and teaching a new course in the 2007-08 academic year that incorporates service learning or incorporating service learning into an existing course in 2007-08. The money will be a salary for the faculty member and is not intended to be used for materials or supplies. The application for the award should be requested from Mr. Bolan and will be sent by e-mail. Applications are due by April 30, 2007. He also noted that on April 25 there will be a drop-in session for questions regarding these awards.
b. On April 16, 2007, a Service Learning Workshop will be presented by Charlene Gray, an expert in service learning. The topic will be integrating service learning into the college curriculum.
Dr. Bolan also said that he and the Service Learning Project Team are available for advice on service learning, can find community partners for service learning, and can speak with classes of students about service learning.
5. Mr. Fedrick reported that on March 23, 2007, Faculty Council passed a motion to distribute ballots to the Faculty for a secret ballot vote on the proposed CORE revision following the Faculty Meeting of March 30. The ballots will ask for a YES or NO vote and give the option for comments. The ballots will be due on April 11, 2007. Mr. Fedrick noted that the vote made by the Faculty will be considered an opinion poll and that the results will be used to help Faculty Council make an informed decision when Faculty Council votes on whether to accept or reject the proposed CORE revision. The Faculty Council vote will serve as the binding vote on the matter.
6. Mr. Fedrick led an open discussion of the proposed CORE revision.
There was a request for more information about the proposed CORE 15X course that is tentatively titled, “The Person in Society: Psychological Perspectives,” including the description of the course and which members of the Social Sciences faculty would be teaching the course. Jennifer McClinton-Temple, Curriculum and Teaching Committee (C&T) Chair, said that CORE 15X would be a psychology-based interdisciplinary course that would be taught by the Psychology faculty. It was noted that CORE 15X is intended to be taught by Psychology faculty, that the CORE 150 Project Team would make decisions about which faculty are teaching CORE 150 and 15X, and that Academic Affairs is committed to ensuring fairness in decision about who will teach CORE 150 and CORE 15X. The Psychology Department Chair, Charles Brooks, said that he was told by the CORE 150 Project Team and by other Social Sciences faculty that any faculty member would be able to teach CORE 15X, which has caused Psychology faculty to be concerned that they would not be teaching CORE 15X.
There was discussion about whether psychology is in the revised CORE, with differing opinions expressed. Dr. Brooks stated that psychology is a discipline, not a theme, and thus may be ill-fitting as the theme of an interdisciplinary class such as CORE 15X. Dr. McClinton-Temple, noted that Dr. Brooks had been the person who originally proposed the current incarnation of CORE 15X that would be in the revised CORE, and that CORE 15X is similar to the CORE 154 course that existed prior to the most recent version of CORE 154 (Psychological Foundations). She stated that it was difficult to find a place in the revised CORE because CORE 154 is essentially an “introduction to psychology” course, whereas other CORE 150 and 15X courses in the current CORE are not introductory courses to specific social science disciplines. She further stated that C&T was committed to finding a place for psychology in the revised CORE and that the C&T Committee thought that the CORE 15X course proposed by the Dr. Brooks was a good solution. She also said that there has been no official reason given to C&T as to why the Psychology faculty are now opposed to the proposed CORE 15X course. She proposed that if the CORE 154 course could be modified to be more like other CORE courses and less like an introduction to psychology course, perhaps it could fit into one of the other categories in the revised CORE. A faculty member expressed concern for majors that require an introduction to psychology course and how that need would be met if CORE 154 is modified to be less of an introductory course. Other concerns noted were that it seems that there is no assurance that Psychology faculty will be teaching the proposed CORE 15X, that critical aspects of CORE 154 will be lost if it is modified to be less of an introductory course, and that college students need more exposure to behavioral sciences and that they’ll get less if CORE 154 is not in the revised CORE.
A faculty member asked how the revised CORE will be overseen. Dr. McClinton-Temple stated that a proposed supervision plan has been drafted and that she will send it to all faculty following the meeting. Nicholas Holodick, Vice-President for Academic Affairs, stated that Fr. O’Hara has approved creating the position of a “CORE Director” to oversee the revised CORE.
A faculty member suggested that majors that are very interdisciplinary, such as Education, should receive exemptions from some CORE requirements.
A faculty member asked if the ballot will ask the voter to indicate his or her department or division. Mr. Fedrick stated that Faculty Council voted to not ask for this information due to concerns that faculty from small departments could be identified and that the data would ultimately not be very useful to Faculty Council. It was suggested that department chairs and Faculty Council division representatives encourage faculty to voluntarily indicate their department and/or division in the comments section of the ballot.
A faculty member noted that there is a provision in the Faculty Constitution (Section II.J.) that allows the faculty to call for a vote to overturn any policy decision by Faculty Council. A simple majority is needed to call for a vote, but the vote to overturn must pass with a super majority of 60% of the ballots cast.
A faculty member asked if the comments from the ballots will be made public. Mr. Fedrick said there are no plans to make them public. He further stated that Faculty Council plans to vote on the revised CORE proposal on April 13, 2007, but can delay the vote until April 27 if necessary.
A faculty member asked who decides which non-CORE courses can be used to satisfy CORE requirements. Mr. Fedrick said that C&T decides, and that this process will be formalized with the CORE revision.
There was discussion about MSB 287 and why C&T voted to allow it to satisfy the second CORE 280 (Philosophy) requirement. Concern was expressed that the CORE 280 Project Team should oversee MSB 287. Jack Ryan, Director of the McGowan School of Business, agreed that he would be willing to have MSB 287 overseen by a project team that had members from both the Philosophy Department and the School of Business.
There was discussion about whether a CORE could be created that would be perfect for each faculty member. It was noted that this is impossible and that the CORE is bigger than any individual person. It was also noted that the revised CORE must have support across the constituencies.
7. Barbara Sauls reminded the Faculty that the Faculty Celebration will be held on May 16, 2007, at Betzler Fields and that there will be a wide variety of activities.
8. Mr. Fedrick thanked C&T for the work they have done on the CORE revision.
9. Mr. Fedrick said that the ballots for the Faculty vote on the revised CORE will be coming in the mail and will be due on April 11, 2007.
10. Mr. Fedrick said that all of the Faculty leadership positions and all of the division representative positions in faculty governance have been filled for the 2007-08 academic year.
11. The meeting was adjourned at 3:35 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Jeremy Simington
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