Minutes of Faculty Forum Meeting
LSC Conference Room
Ernie Dezolt, Chair
Paul Lauritzen, Vice Chair
Yemi Akande, Secretary
Call to Order:
Chair Ernest Dezolt called the meeting to order at
Invocation: Dr. Dezolt offered the poetry of Lao Tsu.
Review of April 2004 Meeting Minutes:
Dr. Dezolt made two corrections to the minutes. The amendment was to a quote attributed to Bob Kolesar (History). The original quote was as follows, “Bob responded he did not have time to develop such data given all of the duties he currently was required to address in his role at JCU.” The amended quote now reads, “Bob in his role as director of Core, responded that the data presented are not the type of data to do analysis on.” The minutes were approved as revised.
Announcements:
In breach of new policy to post announcements on Faculty Forum website, the Chair made the following important announcements:
· Masters in Arts
· Africana Studies concentration
· Mercer Proposition for changes in health care benefits
Members were reminded to check the forum website (http://www.jcu.edu/forum/) for additional announcements.
New Business:
Karen Gygli (Communications), new
vice chair closed nominations to serve on the Boler School of Business Deans’ Search
Committee and the
Jim Lissemore addressed the Forum regarding reconstitution
of the Ad Hoc Committee for J.C.C.I. He
reviewed previous discussion on the issue and quoted from a passage in the
book, Universities in the Market Place: The
Commercialization of Higher Education
(Bok), Princeton University Press. The
passage in his opinion captured the essence of the comodification issue JCU is
currently experiencing. “Impatient at the thought of being mired in
endless debate, enterprising presidents and deans are tempted to bypass faculty
review when launching new entrepreneurial ventures. Detailed accounts of commercialization
repeatedly document this tendency…Unilateral decisions of this kind are an
invitation to trouble.” As such, faculty can
contribute and should take a more active role in J.C.C.I, especially as it
relates to the oversight issue. Dr. Lissemore noted that the current Oversight
Committee lacks sufficient accountability.
He explained how J.C.C.I evolved from a proposal presented 5 years ago with
three primary objectives, to the current activities of the committee and his
disappointment with the current direction of the committee.
When
the members of the committee were appointed by the President five years ago,
the charge of the committee was to:
Since
then, the activities of the committee and the process in which matters were
handled were of concern to him.
Some
of his concerns included the following:
Dr. Lissemore
then proposed the following motions:
1.
Review the Ad Hoc
Committee’s Jan. 2000 report on J.C.C.I;
2.
Review J.C.C.I
policies and procedures and the process by which they are developed;
3.
Review the current
oversight structure for J.C.C.I;
4.
Review financial
implications of J.C.C.I for JCU;
5.
Review the Batelle
Institute’s March 2002 report and recommendations contained therein;
6.
Assess potential
impact of J.C.C.I on JCU students and faculty; and
7.
Report to the faculty with
recommendations.
The
motion was seconded by Val Flechtner (Biology).
There
was discussion on the motion and Jack Soper (Economics and Finance) asked if
there would be a report in five years or if an appropriate time frame would be set
for the presentation of the annual report. Dr. Lissemore responded that it would
be up to the committee to make that decision.
Dr. Soper also asked what would happen if it took another five years to
produce a report. Dr. Lissemore noted that
policies and procedures are still in development and perhaps a report that
would be useful to faculty could be presented in January 2005. Ann Kugler (History) asked for clarification on
what reconstituting the committee meant. Dr. Lissemore explained that the
committee would retain its original name, with some of the current members
retained for institutional memory, however new members would be added. Dr. Kugler
asked that if the current committee make-up was the issue, and did Dr.
Lissemore have reason to believe that current members could not address his
questions and report back to the Faculty Forum. Dr. Lissemore reiterated that
he would not like to see all current members remain on the committee,
especially since they have had three years to make a difference and nothing has
materialized. Marcia Malotta (Library)
agreed with Dr. Soper with regards to the time frame and suggested a March 2005
deadline for the committee to present a report to the Faculty Forum since no Faculty
Forum meeting is scheduled for January 2005.
Dwight
Olson (Math) asked Dr. Lissemore what he hopes to see happen once the report is
presented. Jim Lissemore said it depends on the findings of the report, which
may address such issues as cost of J.C.C.I and whether there should be further
faculty polling. As a follow-up to Dr. Olson’s question, the Chair, Dr. Dezolt
stated that the Ad Hoc Committee when reconstituted will present the findings
of the report at which time it can be debated.
Jim Krukones
added that he received an e-mail from David Ewing (Chemistry and J.C.C.I) who
wanted him to pass along the following comments “the two committees (J.C.C.I Development
Committee and the Oversight Committee) in existence were doing the job and I feel
that and the Ad Hoc Committee would be redundant.”
Lauren
Bowen (Political Science) acknowledged that she was in support of greater
transparency and asked if there were other possibilities in asking the Oversight
Committee to come to the Faculty Forum and engage in discussions. Dr. Lissemore
responded that it would be fine, but it should be in addition to reconstituting
the Ad Hoc Committee. Dr. Bowen further noted that the 2000 report primarily
spoke to process concerns and recommendations where made on how to
review the current process and that reconstituting the committee may not be
ideal. Dr. Lissemore
acknowledged there were serious process and procedural issues.
The
Chair asked Dr. Bowen if she was making a friendly amendment. In response she
stated her interest was to clarify the long-term goals and perhaps redraft the
charge. Paul Shick (Mathematics and Computer Science) proposed a friendly
amendment that item 7 on Dr. Lissemore’s original amendment be changed to
reflect the following: “Report to the faculty with recommendations by March
2005. “No vote occurred.
David
LaGuardia (Academic Vice President) asked that the charge of the Ad Hoc Committee
be considered in terms of a broader vision. He also stated that there needs to
be an understanding of the tremendous controversy and energy directed towards
the creation of the committee instead of the energy now being spent on changing
the direction of the committee. Despite Dr. Lissemore’s objection to the activities
of the committee, there has been movement in the right directions and wonderful
and important gains have been made to JCU and faculty. Dr. LaGuardia expressed
concern that the work that has been done is being undercut by Dr. Lissemore’s
proposal. He stressed that the University needs to work collaboratively and asked
faculty to look beyond the awkwardness and focus on good things that concern
JCU as an institution and not on moral capitulation.
Dr. Lissemore
responded that there are differences in what a University should do, or who
they should collaborate with and feels that issues raised are important especially
since the process has not gone well. Faculty should therefore, look at the insufficient
accountability that exists. Matt Berg (History) encouraged faculty to look at
the transparency issue and look for compromises. Paul Lauritizen (Religious studies) indicated
that he didn’t necessarily agree with Dr. Lissemore, and he found Dr.
LaGuardia’s characterization was partially accurate. He further stated that,
initially, he was not opposed to J.C.C.I, but stepped down due to issues of
control by the Chair of the Oversight Committee and noted that the issue of
transparency was also raised when he served on the committee.
Roy
Day (Physics) pointed out that the Development Committee addressed many of
Lissemore’s concerns, regarding intellectual property. He suggested that
information on current procedures be presented to Faculty Forum, then everyone
might be in a better position to make a decision on reconstituting the Oversight
Committee. The Chair clarified that perhaps an alternate solution was to
reconstitute the Ad Hoc Committee as a fact finding committee. Bob Kolesar
(History) seconded. The Chair’s comment was not a motion, but comments as part
of the discussion. Dr. Shick pointed out there was a conflict with the two
motions that had been made. Brent Brossman asked if the original friendly amendment
proposed by Dr. Shick would be removed. In later discussion Dr. Shick’s
original friendly amendment was removed from the floor.
Dr. Day
noted that it was important to review process and perhaps a shorter proposal
and shorter deadline would be amiable. Bob
Kolesar (History) suggested item 6 of
Dr.
Lissemore’s original motion be removed. Discussion ensued and there was
consensus that item 6, which reads as follows: “Assess potential impact of J.C.C.I
on JCU students and faculty” be removed.
Dr. Lissemore agreed to removing item 6 from his original set of motion.
Discussion
returned to the date when the report to faculty will be presented. Val Flechtner
made a motion to call to debate. Brenda Wirkus (Philosophy) seconded the motion,
which she later retracted because Lauren Bowen’s (Political Science), friendly
amendment was now on the floor. The amendment to the motion now read as
follows:
Brent
Brossmann (Communications) then called for a vote.
The
Amendment passed.
Lissemore
expressed thanks to those in attendance for their indulgence over the years.
The
Chair noted that the remaining agenda items will be discussed at the next Forum
meeting. The meeting was adjourned at
Note:
The next 30 minutes was spent introducing new faculty from the following
departments:
Notes prepared by Yemi S. Akande,
Secretary Faculty Forum