MINUTES OF THE FACULTY HANDBOOK REVISION COMMITTEE

MONDAY, APRIL 24, 2006

MASON HALL, room D5, 3:00 – 4:30 p.m.

Present: Kevin Avruch, Professor of Conflict Resolution and Anthropology, ICAR; Lorraine Brown, Professor of English (CAS) and President of the AAUP Chapter of George Mason University; Rick Coffinberger, Associate Professor of Business and Legal Studies, School of Management, Chair; Martin Ford, Senior Associate Dean, College of Education and Human Development; Dave Harr, Senior Associate Dean, School of Management; Marilyn Mobley, Associate Provost for Education Programs; Suzanne Slayden, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Absent: David Rossell, Associate Provost for Personnel and Budget, ex-officio.

Summer Meeting Schedule: A proposed calendar for summer meetings will be circulated based on feedback from committee members.

EMERITUS Discussion continued from April 21, 2006 meeting:

• How emeritus status is granted is not a Faculty Handbook issue. Some faculty strongly feel status should be based on merit.
• A list of retirement benefits currently exists in the Faculty Information Guide (FIG)
• Recommend changes in placement of emeritus status in Handbook, but no recommendation at this time where to go with emeritus status.

INSTITUTES (Section 1.3.4.2): Need to accommodate the reality of two organizations which do not fit into Handbook anywhere; not schools or colleges. As the university grows, creation of units of special purpose variety which do not fit into other categories may occur; need to address in the Handbook.

• ICAR functions like the Law School (a local academic unit without departments), fully autonomous administration, director with the rank of dean, has its own budget and FTE allocation. Governance: has primary affiliated faculty who do their own hiring and review. ICAR offers three degrees: BA, MA (since 1982), and PhD (since 1988). There are 169 MA students, between 80 and 90 PhD students and about 35-40 undergraduate majors at this time. There are 16-17 full time faculty with 2-3 course loads; not easy to mentor our PhD students; not all MA students do theses. Language is needed to protect that level of autonomy for an existing unit. The Provost and ICAR Director Sara Cobb have discussed whether ICAR should become a school. It will not occur in the short term as ICAR needs a larger endowment and a larger undergraduate program. A group of institutes set up by Provost Clara Lovett all eventually became schools except for ICAR.
• The Krasnow Institute is a research unit; has a director with the rank of dean; receives E&G support with sponsored research, etc. It does not have academic programs or degrees.

• Origins of many institutes emerging in the early 1980s which eventually became schools not the same as origin of Krasnow, which was established by endowment. ICAR began as an academic unit. Krasnow began as an outside unit brought into the university. All the other institutes were internally competing. Some institutes which ceased to be useful disappeared.

• While the Krasnow Institute faculty does not define its own voting membership,that does not mean that they do not have meetings and establish their own procedures; broadening of definition to be more inclusive?
• To create a paragraph under Institutes for research institutes specifically? To consult director of Krasnow regarding definition of two types of institutes?

The proposed draft of 1.3.4.2 Institutes (version 1) prepared by Kevin Avruch and reviewed by James Olds, Director of the Krasnow Institute, appears below:

An institute is an organizational unit of the University for interdisciplinary activities that transcend the disciplines housed in any single college or school. These activities include research and/or service. Institutes may offer interdisciplinary academic programs, normally at the graduate level, that do not duplicate those of other units. Organizationally, institutes are analogous to schools or colleges without departments.

An institute has a nucleus of full-time faculty appointed directly and specifically to primary affiliation in it. In addition, it may have (i) faculty who are assigned to work in it (full or part-time) but who are affiliated primarily with other local academic units; and (ii) part-time faculty whose work for the University is solely in the institute. Of sufficient size to ensure a sense of community and responsible faculty governance, the faculty of an institute establishes degree requirements, authorizes the conferral of degrees; proposes, reviews, and approves courses and programs; and plays a primary role in faculty personnel actions.

Administratively, the director of an institute is regarded as the equivalent of a dean, and is therefore expected to possess appropriate academic credentials or their equivalent. Institute directors report directly to the Provost.

An institute has an instructional budget that includes FTE-funds for the payment of its faculty’s salaries as well as funds for goods and services in support of its academic programs. Normally, however, an institute derives a substantial portion of its non-instructional funds from a source or sources other than the Virginia General Assembly.

The faculties of institutes define their own voting membership. Together with their directors, they determine the processes and procedures of governance they will employ, but all institutes must act within the guidelines listed in Section 1.3.3.

An alternate text was also proposed by Martin Ford:

“An Institute is a flexible organizational unit designed to facilitate some specific aspect of the University’s mission. Institutes may have some of the characteristics of other organizational units (departments, Schools, Colleges, Centers), but because they are designed to take advantage of special strengths and opportunities, they are not required to conform to all of the parameters of those units.

Institutes are autonomous organizational units led by a Director who reports directly to the Provost and serves as a member of the President’s Council.”

To add “with an attached academic program” to paragraph 2, sentence three in Version 1, so that the revised sentence reads: “Of sufficient size to ensure a sense of community and responsible faculty governance, the faculty of an institute with an attached academic program establishes degree requirements; authorizes the conferral of degrees; proposes, reviews, and approves courses and programs, and plays a primary role in faculty personnel actions.”

Kevin Avruch will prepare a second draft version for review at our next meeting, May 16, 2006.

2.1.3 Other Types of Fixed Term Appointment and 2.1.4 Part-Time Appointment: to refer to David Rossell for review. A few observations:

• “Field” title no longer in use
• Differences between contract part-time and adjunct faculty with regard to voting rights
• Use of different terms in different academic units; idiosyncratic.

Respectfully submitted,

Meg Caniano

Clerk, Faculty Senate