The Citadel Faculty Council
Minutes of the Regular Meeting of Nov. 20, 2002
Capers Hall, Room 302

1. Most of the current members of Faculty Council met on the steps of Bond Hall facing the parade ground to have the Council's official picture taken for public posting.
   
   
2. The Council moved to Capers 302 and Prof. George Williams, its chairperson, called the meeting to order at 12:16 p.m.
   
   
3. Members attending: Profs. Bishop, Bloss, Briggs, B. Carter, Chen, Davakos, Dunlop, Foley, Foster, Matthews, Niksch, Pilcher, G. Williams, Woolsey, Woo and Zuraw, Heuston for Allen and White for Lally.
   
   
4. Members absent: Profs. Andrade, Kelley, Lipscomb, Murray and Snively.
   
   
5. Prof. Niksch moved and Prof. Davakos seconded that the minutes of the meeting of Oct. 24 be approved. After a reference to the notes taken at that meeting to clarify that something had indeed been put that way, this was passed unanimously.
   
   
6. Prof. Williams announced the completion of the Council membership for this year by the addition of Profs. Foley, Woolsey and Bloss, and noted that there would be a caucus with the Administration on Nov. 22 and an open town meeting about the parking issues on Dec. 11. He also proposed a round of applause for Prof. Bishop for her work as secretary, which was given even though much of that work had not yet been done.
   
   
7. The proposed new subcommittees were further discussed. Prof. Williams, who is heading the Ethics subcommittee, said he hoped to get the Ethics Initiative work over by Gen. Grinalds' goal of May. He also hoped that the Student Evaluation subcommittee would carry over its work from past years instead of having to start anew, and that the Faculty Manual subcommittee would clarify and update Faculty Manual to reconcile it with college regulations and clarify where to go for the rules. Prof. Heuston noted that Prof. Allen had directed him to say he particularly wanted to be on the Long-Term Planning subcommittee and revive the issue of a joint Faculty Senate.
   
   
8. The issue of redefining the quorum requirement for a Faculty Council meeting was raised. It was established that the Faculty Council charter is available on the Web; Prof. Williams said the Council should examine and revise it before we redefined the quorum. It was objected that that would risk further meetings without quorums where nothing could be voted. Prof. Bishop moved and Prof. Davakos seconded that provisionally, until the Faculty Council charter was revised, a quorum for a Faculty Council meeting be redefined as half the members of any kind plus one, or 13. There was some discussion of this; some felt that if only 13 were there and three of them were the ROTC members there would be too little strictly academic representation. Prof. Dunlop suggested that a greater effort be made instead to get department heads to pressure their department's members to come to meetings. Prof. Briggs expressed concern that if this new quorum rule was found upon examination of Faculty Council's charter to be illegal the business of future meetings could be invalidated. The motion was passed 12 to 4.
   
   
9. Prof. Williams raised Provost Carter's question for Council members to consider: on what basis, department/school or by other means, should the five faculty representatives on the Appeals Committee be selected?
   
   
10. Prof. Williams brought to the Council's attention that General Orders are no longer being distributed in paper form but only by e-mail.
    
    
11. The Council discussed Provost Carter's proposed policy on academic integrity of students, which involved requiring that all research-style papers be submitted in electronic form. The reasoning behind this was discussed: primarily so that the students would know the paper could be passed through the plagiarism-detecting database Prof. Briggs said this was all right as a suggestion but unacceptable if Dr. Carter proposed to make it compulsory for professors. Prof. Chen raised the questions of papers written in class and papers lost to glitches and viruses on the Web.
    
    
12. This discussion was tabled till later as the quorum was lost, and the meeting was adjourned (as Prof. Niksch moved and Prof. Foley seconded) at 12:55 p.m.