John Carroll University
Faculty Forum

Chair: Darrell Horwath
Vice Chair: Jerry Moreno
Secretary: Karen Gygli

Minutes for

February 17, 2000

LSC Conference Room

1. Invocation: Rev. Dr. Valentino Lassiter

2. Minutes for November 19, 1999: Approved.

3. Announcements:
   • Student Union President Melanie Shakarian was detained and unable to come to Faculty Forum today as planned.
   • Dick Horwath asked the candidates for Chair of the Faculty Forum to please stand.
   • The Admissions Office is asking for faculty volunteers to make phone calls to prospective students. Each faculty member would make 10 calls by March 10, 2000. If interested, call the Admissions Office.
   • At the March Faculty Forum meeting, the Academic Vice President and Provost’s annual address will be a question and answer session, with answers submitted in advance to a subcommittee of the Forum Executive Committee. A question form is attached to this meeting’s agenda. The deadline for submissions is March 3. Questions can be submitted anonymously. It was requested that the Executive Co. send to the faculty via campus mail or email a list of all the questions submitted with a cover sheet indicating questions actually answered. Dick stated that the subcommittee would be primarily grouping questions on similar topics.
   • If there are any volunteers for an ad hoc committee to examine the selection process of faculty for university search committees, please submit your name to a member of the executive committee.
   • At the last meeting with the President, Dick, Jerry, Karen and Fr. Glynn discussed forming a committee to examine whether JCCI should be pursued, and, if it is pursued, to oversee the program. This committee would have 9 members, 6 of which would be faculty. The Dean of Arts and Sciences would chair this committee. In response to a question, Dick stated that Fr. Glynn did not mention a timeline for the committee, but that the committee would make a recommendation on JCCI to Fr. Glynn.
   • Faculty Forum meeting minutes will henceforth be posted on the JCU web page, along with a list of current committee members.
     
     
4. Committee Reports:
   1. Rank, Tenure and Salary: Paul Shick reported that the committee was investigating issues of gender and salary, as well as the usage of part-time faculty.
   2. Finance: Jerry Moreno reported that the committee had lunch with Jonathan Ivec, at which time a productive discussion ensued over how to improve communication between the committee and the Business Office.
   3. Research, Service and Faculty Development: Gerry Weinstein reported that the committee is holding hearings on how to best recognize and reward good teaching. They are meeting next week to discuss the feedback from the hearings.
   4. Committee on Academic Policies: Ernie Dezolt reported that the committee is still discussing the Final Examination policy statement.
      
5. Verification of Faculty Voting List: Nancy Campbell, representing the Faculty Service Committee, stated that for spring semester, 2000, the numbers are as follows: there are 237 voting faculty, 48 for a procedural quorum, 95 for a substantive quorum.
   
6. Nominating Committee Report: Karen Gygli announced the candidates for Faculty Forum committee elections. Nominations were heard from the floor, and then a motion was made and seconded to close nominations.
   
7. Committee to Evaluate First Year Seminar: Completion of report begun at the November Forum meeting. Hard copy of the report was attached to the agenda for the November meeting. The committee was urged to implement information from the report.
   
8. New Business:
   1. Plus/Minus Grades in Graduate Courses (attached to the February 17 meeting agenda). Ernie stated that the new graduate students admitted for fall semester, 2000, would fall under this new policy. Discussion ensued. There was a motion, which was seconded, to amend the proposal: the graduate bulletin should be reworded to state that a graduate student must receive a B- or above in a 400-level course for the student to receive credit. The motion carried. Discussion ensued over the use of plus/minus grades in other graduate colleges and the use of these grades at Jesuit universities. It will go out for a vote soon.
   2. Academic Honesty policy: Tabled until March Forum meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 5PM.

Submitted by Karen Gygli, Faculty Forum Secretary