Policies and Procedures Committee
Annual Report, 2009-2010
The Policies and Procedures Committee met 20 times during the 2009-2010 academic year.
The committee’s work involved two major tasks: 1) regular policy reviews and 2) an attempt to clarify Furman’s definition of faculty.
1. Policy Reviews
The Committee completed reviews of 39 policies this year. Seven of those policies required no faculty action. Recommended revisions to the remaining 32 policies were approved by the faculty (18 accepted as part of consent agendas and 13 policies approved through regular faculty votes). The faculty also voted to delete one policy whose content was absorbed into other policies. Details related to all policy revisions (including rationales for those revisions) can be found on Faculty Notices.
2. Definition of Faculty
Early in the academic year, Suzy Summers, Chair of the Faculty, and John Beckford, Dean of the Faculty, both presented questions to the Policies and Procedures Committee that made clear the need to examine and clarify Furman’s definition of faculty. These actions followed.
a) The Committee described the problem, seeking input and guidance from the faculty in an open forum following the December 7th faculty meeting.
b) The Committee put forth a revised draft of the Faculty Constitution for discussion at the February 4th faculty meeting.
c) Based on discussion and feedback from the February 4th meeting, the Committee proposed revisions to the Constitution to be considered at the March 1st faculty meeting. The faculty voted to send the proposal back to the Policies and Procedures Committee for further consideration.
d) The Committee then recommended revised amendments to the Constitution for discussion and vote at the April 14th faculty meeting. The Committee’s motion failed to receive the two-thirds majority vote necessary for a second vote at a subsequent meeting.
More detailed information about the proposed amendments to the Constitution, including several documents developed by the Committee to explain the problem and to describe rationales for proposed solutions, can be found on Faculty Notices.
The chair wishes to express her sincere gratitude to the committee members for their unselfish commitment to the work of this committee throughout the 2009-2010 academic year.
Respectfully submitted,
Bob Chesebro, Music
Charles Delancey, Communication Studies
Jana Grimes, Human Resources
Harris Heath, Education
Jean Horney (Chair), Economics
Tom Lewis, Mathematics
Don Pierce, Planning and Institutional Research
Bill Rogers, English