August 30th, 2007
This forum began at 11:30 AM in the Conaway Center on the 1st floor in the 1104 S. Wabash Building. Ultimately there were perhaps 100 in attendance by about 11:45 AM.
The Provost began this forum by introducing CCFO President Keith Kostecka (Science/Mathematics Department). Keith introduced CCFO’s officers for the 2007-2008 academic year: Vice-President Ann Hemenway (Fiction Writing) who was not present due to illness; Treasurer Howard Schlossberg (Journalism) and Secretary Elizabeth Davis-Berg (Science/Mathematics Department). Keith then proceeded to publicly acknowledge the services of the immediate past CCFO Secretary Brendan Riley (English Department) with a card and gift. Keith would have done the same with the immediate past Vice-President Dawn Larsen (AEMM Department) but Dawn was not able to attend the Forum [Dawn received her card and gift later in the day at the reception welcoming F&PA Dean Eliza Nichols] to our college.
Keith then spoke about CCFO’s goals for the academic year. They included working on: evaluation of teaching; on-line evaluation of teaching; improving health care and retirement benefits; the full implementation of the teaching load adjustment (TLA); rank and promotion; advocating for higher base salary raises for full-time faculty; revision of the tenure process; salary compression; improving communication with its constituents and in revising the policies and procedures within the faculty handbook. Keith also briefly described the upcoming CCFO electronic survey and exhorted all faculty (lecturers, artists-in-residence, tenure-track and tenured) to complete the survey. There will be nine flash drives (split up equally) awarded to those who finish the survey (with three recipients per school).
With Keith’s comments finished, Provost Kapelke began his remarks. He welcomed LAS Dean Deborah Holdstein from her previous position as English Department Chair at NIU and F&PA Dean Eliza Nichols from her administrative position at the New School in New York City. Thanks were given to previous LAS Dean Dominic Pacyga and F&PA Dean Leonard Lehrer (both of whom are enjoying sabbaticals during this academic year). He continued by noting that there are some 20 new full-time faculty that have joined the college – as well as many new part-time faculty. In the 2007-2008 academic year, the college will continue its aggressive hiring of faculty – with 12 new “lines” open as well as searches for replacements. In addition, Doug Jones, chair of Audio Arts & Acoustics, will be stepping down at the end of this academic year. Provost Kapelke then asked all the new faculty to stand and be recognized – he noted to them in particular that we are a good place to work.
The Rank/Promotion Task Force will hold town hall meetings soon where time will be available for a Q/A session [these meetings are tentatively set for Monday, September 24th Wednesday, October 3rd]. After the Provost has reviewed the recommendations from this task force, the CCFO will, with the Provost, organize a referendum about rank for the faculty. A recommendation on rank/promotion will hopefully go to the Board of Trustees in the spring of 2008.
The five year review of our college’s tenure process is occurring this year; the review committee has met once already and will have its recommendation to senior college leadership and the Board of Trustees in early 2008; in fact the efforts of the Rank/Promotion Task Force and the Tenure Process Review Committee will intersect at some point – they cannot be parallel in their work.
In 2008-2009, an NCA re-accreditation team will visit us. VP Anne Foley is chairing a college wide steering committee that met last Friday. This serious process [of re-accreditation] allows us to evaluate ourselves and all within the college will be involved and have a voice in the process. The college can also take a look at its operations and fundraising and see if it has met its goals. More information about the self-study will be disseminated over time.
The Provost noted that he recently attended an arts conference. In a conference in the United Kingdom, our faculty from the Marketing, Theater and Liberal Education Departments gave presentations. In fact, Theater Department faculty Brian Shaw gave new, splendid ideas to the conference’s participants through a wonderful movement workshop.
The Provost continued by noting the wonderful work done by Amy Hawkins and Lott Hill on the first year Critical Encounters Initiative on HIV/AIDS. He noted that this year’s Critical Encounters Initiative will be on Poverty/Privilege and that Stephanie Shonekan is the Critical Encounters Fellow for this year and I am certain that the task force on Critical Encounters will bring forth the same energy and determination as occurred last year. There will be a kickoff town hall meeting on September 26th from 5:30-7:30 where experts in their fields will discuss a variety of global issues. All are encouraged to attend – especially students! Contact Stephanie or Lott Hill for more information on this program.
The 2008 All-College Faculty Retreat will be held from August 19-21 of next year at Lake Lawn Lodge in Delavan, Wisconsin. All full-time faculty are expected to attend. Phillipe Ravanas is the Chair of the Retreat Committee and the committee is working hard on an agenda – more information on this will soon follow.
The Provost next briefly noted the Distinguished Faculty Fellows. He mentioned the “initial” group of Chap Freeman, Steve Asma and Barbara Kasten. This group is now beginning their second year. A second group of Distinguished Faculty Fellows consisting of Garnett Kilberg Cohen, Dominique Cheenne and Sara Livingston are beginning their two-year fellowships this year. The Provost noted that he had the chance to go into Barbara Kasten’s studio recently and see her artwork — he encouraged everyone to see and buy her work since Barbara is certainly showing that she was a good choice as the Distinguished Artist.
The Provost continued by acknowledging the outstanding administrative support that his office receives from Deborah Coney, Ted Harwood and Saundra Hill. He further stated that all full-time faculty need to update their CV’s every year and that these documents need to go the appropriate Dean. The Provost’s office will conduct a workshop during this academic year to help faculty so accomplish this task.
Provost Kapelke noted that we will continue to work on a comprehensive advising policy. Work on this is due to a Title III grant that the college recently received and the efforts of Juile Redmond and her staff. The college will continue to work on a comprehensive evaluation of teaching (we are a teaching institution) given that it is needed. The PFAC contract is moving us along on this matter.
The Provost noted that we have a “bumper crop” of new students with overall enrollment up ~ 6%. Some departments have had enrollment increases while others have remained flat in enrollment. Overall, we show a face to our external constituencies that we are committed to quality education.
COMMENT/QUESTION/ ANSWER SESSION
(I HAVE DONE MY BEST HERE TO CAPTURE THE ESSENCE OF THE C/Q/A SESSION).
Could you please post the names of the members of the Rank/Promotion Task Force and the Tenure Process Review Committee?
Answer (Provost Kapelke)
Answer (Provost Kapelke)
I believe that Louis is saying we need to continue to encourage dialog about our responsibilities as citizens and the stance we need to take and that our academic freedom needs to be respected. I agree with this and feel that it is important that ours students understand that the world we live in does effect what happens at our college.
Comment
Offered by Stephanie Shonekan
This type of discussion is what the Critical Encounters Initiative is designed for. Such discussion has occurred about Ethiopian and Sudanese refugees. Alan Weisman, the author of the book “An Earth Without People” will be appearing on campus in early October [thanks was given to Science/Math Department Associate Chair Kevin Fuller for this invitation] and a Robert Redford movie [“Lions for Lambs” – official release date is 11/09/07] on the war in Afghanistan will be pre-screened shortly on campus.
Comment
Offered by Joan Giroux
On October 4th, the Science/Math Department will have a speaker on Scientific Diplomacy [Dr. Alex Dehgan] as one speaker in its year-long colloquium series. [Additional information on this year long series can be found at http://www.colum.edu/Academics/Science_and_Mathematics/colloquium.php]
Answer (Provost Kapelke)
This is still being worked out. More details will come soon. Decisions involving tenure will be my responsibility.
Answer (Provost Kapelke)
This is a complicated issue. Work is being done now to deal with this problem. I hope that this will not be as major a problem in the future. We need to be more proactive about student schedules.
Answer (Provost Kapelke)
Academic managers are badly needed within the college. We are able to bring on board a limited number each year [six this year]. How they are selected is based on proposals written by departments where they had a chance to articulate the responsibilities of these proposed additional personnel. These academic managers will free up faculty to teach and advise thus allowing us to see more of the fruits of the TLA this year. The Liberal Education Department is receiving and reviewing applications now for such a person.
Academic managers can certainly apply for tenure-track positions and they can hold their current job until they resign from it.
Question
Asked by Benj Kanters
What about the problem in having the beginning of the academic and fiscal calendar being so close to each other? IT HAMSTRINGS US! Answer (Provost Kapelke)
Our old academic calendar was silly – I have heard some departments extol the new calendar we have.
Some departments have noted the difficulty in buying new equipment on or near September 1st and installing it before the school year starts. This leaves little, or no time, install and test new software. Summer is a good time to do this installation and testing. We have spoken to the Deans about the departments that have this difficulty. Maybe purchases could be made in fiscal 2007 rather than fiscal 2008. I think this needs to be addressed — if money is available earlier then departments, where this is an issue, could plan better.
Question
Asked by Joan Giroux
Given that we have only 14 class meetings in the fall semester on Monday, Thursday and Friday, is there an effort to deal with this calendar issue?
Answer (Provost Kapelke)
Though there is no concerted effort to deal with this, the issue has been discussed.
Follow-up Question
Asked by Dennis Rich
What about having an examination week?
Answer (Provost Kapelke)
We can talk further about this.
Comment offered by Provost Kapelke
Programming is still being done for our new acquisitions: 916 and 1000 S. Wabash. One of these building will probably be good for offices. The Space Planning Committee is still working on this.
A question has been raised about our endowment. Eric Winston’s efforts in raising money and increasing our “profile” continue. Our silent capital campaign also continues [the goal is to raise $20 million in this campaign]. The size of our endowment is between $120-130 million dollars; this is not that much with respect to our operating budget. I would like to see our endowment be about 2.5 times that of our operating budget. We are tuition dependent and it is important that we increase our endowment.
Follow-up Question/Comment
What about capping our enrollment? To do so, we would need a substantial endowment. Our current income from tuition is dependent on price and our student “volume”. There is a concern about freezing out our demographic groups.
Question
Asked by George Bailey
What is our relationship with Buddy Guy and his property “near”
campus?
Answer (Provost Kapelke)
Buddy Guy leases that property currently from the college. We have no desire to see him leave. We are aware he is looking for a new place. When he leaves, the current property where his club is located will be for our student center. This will be in the near future. Our second capital campaign shall precede this, of course. We already do this as circumstances arise.
Question
Asked by Rose Anna Mueller
Given Royal Dawson’s comments at the recent LAS faculty retreat about the upcoming decline in student population, how are we looking forward to this?
Answer (Provost Kapelke)
There will be a drop in the number of 18-21 year olds to recruit in/or about 2010-2011. This group is our largest demographic and dominates our student body. How we handle this drop-off could be through new programs, continuing education being one possibility. My intuition is that we may not be that seriously influenced by this projected drop in student numbers. Mark Kelly’s feelings on this are the same.
Discussion on this issue has begun and has moved along well. We are looking at distance learning as an option — this could certainly attract a new population (a consultant is working with the college on this). Provost Kapelke closed by reminding all of the Student Convocation that is occurring in Grant Park and encouraged all to attend.
Notes submitted by
Keith Kostecka
CCFO President