The Citadel Faculty Council
Minutes of the Regular Meeting of May 9, 2002
Bond Hall, Room 165

1. 1. Prof. George Williams, new Faculty Council chairperson, called the meeting to order at 11:20 a.m.
   
   
2. Members attending: Profs. Bishop, Briggs, Chen, Foster, Lally, Ouzts, Pilcher, Silver, Skow-Obenaus, J. Templeton, Thompson, G. Williams, Zuraw and Frohnsdorff for B. Carter.
   
   
3. Members absent: Profs. Dunlop, Foley, Hoyle, Jones, Kelley, Kuzenski, Matthews, Webb and Woo.
   
   
4. Since there was no quorum, the minutes of the April 25 meeting could not be approved, but a couple of corrections were suggested and made to reflect more accurately the intention of the speaker.
   
   
5. Prof. Williams led a round of applause for the outgoing chairperson, Prof. Silver.
   
   
6. Prof. Thompson distributed and went over with the Council the new template for committee charters, which has a uniform format but choices of words and phrases to suit each committee's nature. The real work for each committee in making up its up-to-date charter will be to list its specific activities in the appropriate place in the template. Committees which have already sent Faculty Council their charters in a different style will be asked to adjust them to this form. There was some discussion about the use of the word "groups" in the template to describe the entities which will be represented on committees; this is so that the template will fit departments, schools or whatever other units may be formed in future. Prof. Williams noted that the Education Department, if and when it became a school, might want to divide into three smaller departments. The template would now be valid for all committees except the Committee on Committees and the Core Curriculum Oversight Committee, whose membership is not distributed like the rest, but they could adjust. Submitting the template for our discussion was advisory only and required no vote and thus no quorum; Prof. Thompson will be on sabbatical in the fall but will be on campus in the mornings to advise on it if necessary.
   
   
7. Prof. Williams suggested that the two replacement members on the Committee on Committees be chosen in the fall.
   
   
8. There was a good deal of discussion off the record about the issues of the student evaluations.
   
   
9. Prof. Bishop asked whether, since there would now be no possibility of approving the minutes for any spring Faculty Council meeting until fall, unofficial, unapproved drafts of minutes should be put on the Web temporarily. Prof. Lally and others were definite that they should not. The possibility of approving the minutes by e-mail vote was raised and also spoken against.
   
   
10. Prof. Briggs suggested that the problem of getting a quorum be addressed by redefining a quorum, now sixteen, as half the members plus one, which would be thirteen. Prof. Silver suggested that a quorum be redefined as two-thirds of the non-ROTC members, which would be fourteen. It was agreed that this issue would be officially discussed in the fall.
    
    
11. The Council gave the members who will be off it in the fall a round of applause. This was thought to be Profs. Ouzts, Pilcher, Silver, Skow-Obenaus and Thompson, but Prof. Pilcher turned out to be staying on the Council.
    
    
12. Prof. Williams noted that he would welcome any suggestions to strengthen Faculty Council.
    
    
13. 13. The meeting was declared adjourned at 11:55 a.m.