The Citadel Faculty Council
Minutes of the Regular Meeting of Feb. 28, 2002
Bond Hall, Room 165

1. 1. Prof. Steve Silver, Faculty Council chairperson, called the meeting to order at 11:06 a.m.
   
   
2. Members attending: Profs. Bishop, Foster, Jones, Lally, Matthews, Pilcher, Silver, Skow-Obenaus, J. Templeton, Thompson, G. Williams, Woo, Heisser for B. Carter and McKinney for Dunlop.
   
   
3. Members absent: Profs. Briggs, Chen, Foley, Hoyle, Kelley, Kuzenski, Ouzts, Webb and Zuraw.
   
   
4. This entire meeting was devoted to a slide presentation by Col. Tomasik and three assistants reporting on the current state of the Physical Plant and the condition of the campus. Col. Tomasik made the following points. A master plan for campus construction is good business and required for SACS accreditation, but we don't have one yet because our strategic plan isn't finalized due to cost and controversy. Priorities for capital improvement projects are Padgett-Thomas Barracks (which has been financed and is underway, with groundbreaking probably in June), Thompson Hall (done), the library, Capers, Bond Annex, improvements to Deas Hall (which is the last building on campus to have an obsolete cooling system, with a cooling tower on the roof which has to go), and deferred maintenance in general. Physical Plant has completed the underground utility system, Watts and Murray Barracks, Thompson Hall, the Altman building in the endzone at the stadium (which he hopes will encourage alumni donations for a new stadium) and the new Alumni Center (done with donations). They are conceptualizing some sort of stadium tower with press boxes, spectator suites, women's locker rooms and handicapped access, which may need some tweaking to get past the zoning board. The women's athletic facilities are nearly finished at the Field House, and the transformation of Kovats Field into a parking area has been accomplished though a flooding problem remains. The Citadel now owns College Park, left to us by the city, and will fix it for the baseball team. Future plans include a water pressure tower, improvements to Capers Hall since it cannot now be torn down and rebuilt, chilling systems for the Field House, Murray Barracks and the library, renovation of Law Barracks which cannot now be torn down and replaced, and some maintenance and energy-saving plans. The National Guard saved us money by building the new rappelling tower for ROTC training. The much-needed dredging of the Boating Center is in limbo because they need to find a safe way of taking the dioxins out of the channel. Finally, Burke High School wants an easement through Citadel property for their new construction.
   
   Council members then asked questions. Prof. Thompson wondered whether the Strategic Plan had gone on so long (since 1993) that it was a joke; Col. Tomasik said it would be finalized. Prof. Lally asked about low water pressure in the Field House fountains; Col. Tomasik said it was a problem and they were trying to address it with booster pumps. Prof. Heisser asked what would now happen on the now-empty site of the former Congress Street Extension apartments; Col. Tomasik said there were no plans, they simply took them down because they were economically unviable to maintain. Prof. Bishop asked for more about dredging the channel; Col. Tomasik said Physical Plant was unwilling to spend the money to retest it for dioxins and so had lost the window of opportunity for this year to finalize the deal with the company which wants to exchange dredging the channel for sludge-dumping rights on our remote spoil site. Also, the city has first rights to this site and must pass on it before the company can use it (and it is being dimninished in size by the salt marsh reclaiming it). Prof. Jones asked whether The Citadel had access to the new boat slip in Brittlebank (?) Park; yes, we have it. Profs. Thompson and Lally asked why the money which would not now be used to replace Capers could not be used for something else, and what happened to the old Capers furniture; Col. Tomasik said the first was not his department and the furniture had been warehoused, auctioned off or put in other buildings. The presentation ended at 11:58.
   
   
5. Prof. Silver asked the remaining Council members whether committee charter reorganizations should come directly to Faculty Council for approval or go through the Committee on Committees; also, whether committee memberships should be picked by clusters or by departments. Since there was no quorum, this quickly turned into a conversation among a few people, and the meeting ended a few minutes after noon.