SOS Steering Committee Minutes
March 23, 2007
Present: Voting
members: Ray Chin (PRESIDENT), John Watson (BIOL), Stephanie Sen (Chem and
Chem Biol), Mihran Tuceryan (CSCI), Kathy Licht (EARTH), Will Geller (MATH),
Durgu Rao (PHYSICS), Silvia Bigatti PSYC). Non-Voting Ex-Officio Members: Andy
Barth (PAST PRESIDENT), Steve Randall (SECRETARY), Pam Crowell, (ASSOCIATE
DEAN), Guests: None, Regrets: William Bosron (DEAN), Andy
Gavrin (ASSOCIATE DEAN)
9:05 President Chin
opened Steering Committee meeting.
Agenda was adopted
and the minutes of 02-16-07 were approved.
Details of
management of the administrative reviews was discussed. The following points were agreed upon.
1)
President Ray
Chin will contact all chairs to allow them time to prepare summary statements
to their departments before the review goes online.
2)
A trial run
using survey monkey will be sent out this week to the steering committee to
check for any problems with the survey mechanism.
3)
The discussion
regarding who (staff or non-tenure track faculty) in addition to tenure-track
faculty should be surveyed using the administrative review instruments for the
Chairs and Deans continued from our previous meeting. It was decided that Andy Barth would contact
appropriate representatives of Staff and Lecturers to determine how they desire
their input to be handled (the Steering Committee decided to defer the decision
on the final mechanism that appeared in the minutes of 2/16/07, until Andy
reports back)
4)
Groups were
formed to evaluate the data that returns from the administrative reviews:
a.) Two SOS reps will summarize and meet
with each chair (one will be from the same dept as the chair). For Biol, John
Watson and Silvia Bigatti; for Chem, Stephanie Sen and John Watson; for Earth,
Kathy Licht and Stephanie Sen; for Math, Will Geller and Kathy Licht; for
Physics, Durgu Rao and Will Geller; for Psyc, Silvia Bigatti and Durgu
Rao. There will be no review for acting
Comp and Info Sci Chair. b.) The
Associate Dean summaries and review will be prepared by Ray Chin, Andy Barth,
Steve Randall, and Mihran Tuceryan.
A date for the Spring
Faculty Assembly was set (tentatively) for Tuesday, May 1 from 11-1.
(Secretaries note: we now have the room reserved for that date and time).
New business: the
following questions were raised and discussed.
a. Should the
Lecturers and research scientists (NTTF’s) be voting members of the SOS
faculty? This was discussed particularly
on including NTTF’s in the administrative review (inclusive with voting
faculty) whether. The question ws raised on whether the wording of the by-laws
could be changed to include both non-voting and voting members for
administrative reviews. It was agreed that this item should be put on the
agenda for discussion for the Spring Faculty Assembly.
b. Methods to enhance the relations between the staff and
their Department Chairs and faculty supervisors. It was understood that the
staff council was strongly in favor of holding a workshop for department chairs
and faculty supervisors to provide them with the understanding needed to
"enhance staff relationships”. However, the workshop never moved forward
because of the change of leadership of the SOS.
It was agreed that Andy Barth invite a representative of Staff to the
next meeting to obtain a perspective on 1) input into administrative reviews
(item a), above and 2) on HR training
for supervisors.
c. Response to EVC Sukhatme’s request that all departments
prepare P&T docs to be submitted to his office. Should these be reviewed at school level (for
consistence with School T & P doc) before forwarding? A discussion
regarding the implications of this ensued.
The following resolution was proposed, seconded, discussed, and passed
unanimously.
The SOS
Steering Committee requests that the documents describing the departmental
criteria for promotion and tenure to Associate Professor and for promotion to
full Professor be reviewed at the School level before submission to the
Executive Vice Chancellor's office to
insure that such guidelines are not so inconsistent with school guidelines as
to place a candidate at risk.
It was asked that Ray Chin communicate this at the next
Chairs meeting. It was also agreed that this item needs to be discussed in the
next Faculty assembly meeting.
Deans announcements:
Pam Crowell,
announced the MISB building (now known as Health Information and Translational
Sciences (HITS)) officially is open, the opening ceremony was impressive.
Graduate fellowships
allocated from
The school Diversity
Council has been formed and they are working on a document addressing the
schools diversity goals.
Meeting was adjourned at 10:55
Minutes approved: 4-20-07