1 Depauw University Faculty Meeting Agenda December 7, 2015 1. Call

DePauw University Faculty Meeting Agenda December 7, 2015 1. Call to Order – 4 p.m. Union Building Ballroom The Chair welcomed everyone and make a few quick reminders: • Let’s continue to be inclusive in our conversations by always introducing ourselves when we speak. • If you’d like to speak please come to one of the microphones so everyone can hear you, depending on where folks are sitting the acoustics are great or NOT. • If you don’t like to be startled when your cell phone rings aloud, please check that it is silenced. 2. Verification of Quorum (86 for the fall) Jim Mills signaled that a quorum was reached at 4:05 p.m. 3. Faculty Remembrances for Catherine E. Fruhan Catherine E. Fruhan, Professor of Art History passed away unexpectedly November 20, 2015. She was a full-time faculty member at DePauw from 1984 through her passing in 2015. Anne Harris, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Art History wrote and read the remembrance found in Appendix A. 4. Faculty Remembrances for Glenn E. Welliver Glenn E. Welliver, Professor Emeritus of German was a full-time faculty member at DePauw from 1964 to 1999. Glenn passed away on November 8, 2015. Professor Emeritus of Romance Languages, James Rambo wrote the remembrance found in Appendix B. Alejandro Puga, Associate Professor of Spanish and Chair of the Department of Modern Languages read the remembrance. 5. Consent Agenda There were no requests to move anything from the consent agenda to a regular item of business. The consent agenda was approved. A. Approve Minutes from the November 2, 2015 Faculty Meeting B. Conferring of Degrees for December 2015 Graduates C. Announcement of change in course description (approved by Course and Calendar Oversight) HONR 400 – Management Fellows Senior Seminar (1 credit) Course descriptions for item B can all be found in Appendix C. D. Approve the following changes to the European Studies Minor (recommended by Course and Calendar Oversight) Updates to requirements language and deletion of an optional course. Complete description of the proposed changes can be found in Appendix C of this agenda, note that additions to the text are found in red text, deletions are struck through. Reports from Core Committees Committee rosters are available at: http://www.depauw.edu/offices/academic-affairs/faculty-governance/committees-and-contacts/ 1 6. Faculty Priorities and Governance – (Pam Propsom) B. Faculty Priorities and Governances gives advance notice of intent to ask the faculty to approve a name change for the Writing committee to the Writing Curriculum committee changing all references to the committee in the faculty handbook. Rationale Faculty Priorities and Governance endorses the Writing committee request for the name change because the “Writing Curriculum” more accurately describes the committee’s function. Since this requires a change to the By-laws advance notice is being given this month for a vote in February. The Chair noted, because this motion requires a change to the by-laws we need advance notice one month with voting the next. No clarifying questions were asked. A. Motion to be voted on: ““That the faculty support a request from DePauw Student Government to take a day out of the academic calendar and cancel classes on Wednesday April 6 to devote DePauw Dialogue 2.0.” Rationale As our students explain, DePauw Dialogue 2.0 will give faculty, staff, and students the opportunity to come together for a rigorous intellectual learning experience featuring a series of workshops, insights from a keynote speaker, and opportunities for dialogue and self-reflection, all emphasizing inclusion, community building, and good citizenship. Their concise proposal in Appendix D has a broader explanation and a draft proposal for the day. Faculty Priorities and Governance endorses the students’ request and encourages everyone to read the proposal and letter from Student Body President, Craig Carter, and Student Body Vice-president, Katie Kondry in support of taking class time for DePauw Dialogue 2.0 (Appendix E) to gain additional perspective. Also, Craig Carter, Student Body President, as always, was present at the meeting and willing to answer any questions. The Chair noted, this motion comes from a core committee and therefore needs no second. There is no need to give a month’s advance notice because the action is not a change the by-laws or graduation requirements all that is required is that the motion appear on the agenda released in advance of the meeting. Question from Faculty Member: Will it be mandatory? Response from Pam Propsom: This is an expectation as a DePauw community. Classes are mandatory. Last time, many students opted out of the programming. I think we need to work together as a faculty to assure that as many students as possible will participate. Remark from Faculty Member: I strongly suggest that on the day of cancellation--which will be a Wednesday-- let's not give our students the message that this is 'free' time. Let's put it on our syllabi, require the students to attend, and make discussion of the dialogue into part of our courses. It's our responsibility to help our students see the day of dialogue as a productive one. Comment from Faculty Member: It is not just students that might not attend. How can we encourage our colleagues to attend as well? There was a request for a secret ballot. The motion carried by a vote of 90 in favor and 13 against. 2 There were no questions for Faculty Priorities and Governance. Written Announcements – none 7. Curricular Policy and Planning – (Dave Guinee) A. Motion to be voted on: That the faculty approve the following changes to the description of general education requirements found in the catalog. The final version after proposed changes are approved can be found in Appendix F. Language showing the actual additions and deletions with the additions in bold and the deletions struck through can be found in Appendix G. The substantive changes are (1) adding two overarching umbrellas for organization and changing the introductory language to include explanation of that vision, (2) changing sentence construction in the liberal arts foundation areas to be parallel with the sentence construction for the global and local awareness, and (3) reordering and organizing policies. Rationale: The changes to graduation requirements approved last spring led to an incoherent construction of the description of the graduation requirements. There are no new changes to the requirements for students just a reframing of the language for clarity. (Chair’s note: The additional phrases ‘or cultures’ that was announced during the November meeting, appears in red text in Appendix F and G.) There were no questions. The motion passed. B. Curricular Policy and Planning gives advance notice of intent to ask the faculty to approve changing the designation of “World Literature” from an “Interdisciplinary Minor” to an “Interdisciplinary Program.” Rationale included on the agenda: When the minor in World Literature was approved by the faculty, the proposal for the minor did not designate World Literature as an “Interdisciplinary Program,” and it has operated as an “Interdisciplinary Minor” housed in the English Department. World Literature, however, has been and continues to look like and operate is if it were an interdisciplinary program. It has a steering committee and a director, has active courses from a wide variety of departments (with over 20 eligible courses from 8 course listing areas and 6 departments in Fall, 2015), and now has a small budget. It’s current status as an Interdisciplinary Minor has several negative ramifications: • World Literature is not listed on the DPU website’s Departments and Programs page, which lists Academic Departments and Interdisciplinary Programs and provides a link to information on Independent Interdisciplinary Majors. • World Literature does not have its own page on the DPU website, and the only place to find the minor requirements is at the bottom of the English Department’s “Majors and Minors” page. • World Literature, along with the Business Administration and International Business minors and the Premedical Studies focus area, is relegated to the “Course Finder” rather than appearing in the SOC “Departments and Interdisciplinary Studies” list. This clearly makes it much less likely that students will know how to find courses that meet the minor requirements. • An interdisciplinary minor, unlike a program, is not guaranteed any budget for programming. 3 Although the Registrar’s Office will have to overcome some technical issues to make this designation meaningful, World Literature should stand on equal footing with the other Interdisciplinary Programs. Additional comments in support of the motion by committee chair, Dave Guinee: According to the Faculty Handbook a would-be Interdisciplinary Program must submit details on how the steering committee will be constituted and the chair selected. Thanks to Ken Kirkpatrick for alerting me to this requirement, which I had missed in the handbook. I have asked Istvan Csicsery-Ronay for those details, and we will hopefully be able to circulate them well before the vote in February. A note on your agenda indicates that “the Registrar’s office will have to overcome some technical issues to make this designation meaningful.” What we mean by that is that a significant roadblock in this process is our current registration database. The only current way we can easily put “World Literature” into the Schedule of Classes is by dropping another interdisciplinary program. The registration program simply can not easily handle adding another category onto its main page, and this is why World Literature is currently relegated to the “Course Finder.” The Curricular Policy and Planning Committee would like to put it into the faculty minutes that we think our Registration program is a serious problem, and we think that upgrading the program should be a University priority.

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