1. Prof. Hack Ezell, chair of the Faculty Council, called the meeting to order at 11:05am.

2. Members attending: Professors Woolsey (for Alford), Barrett, Brannan, Carter, Durgun, Hilleke (for Epple), Ezell, Feurtado, Greenawalt, Trautman (for Hoyle), Hutchisson, Lipovsky, Rushing, Brown (for Siskind), Thompson, Toubiana, and G. Williams.

3. The minutes of the November 19, 1998 meeting were amended to show that Prof. Williams seconded the motion in item number four. The minutes were approved as amended.

4. Prof. Ezell opened the discussion on the clarification of a change on college regulations regarding the decision/recommendation-making process for academic matters. Referred to his memo to Faculty Council dated Wednesday, November 18, 1998 (copy attached), Prof. Ezell summarized the clarification as follows:
* Items from Faculty Council and Academic Board are treated as equal recommendations.
* Items on which the two bodies disagree go forward as dual recommendations to the decision-maker.
* Academic Board does not make decisions.

In response to concern raised by Prof. Rushing that this wording might preclude the formation of ad hoc joint committees to work out agreements, the phrase "and efforts to reach consensus fail" (before the last sentence) was added to item #2 of the memo.

Prof. Thompson moved, and Prof. Lipovsky seconded, to accept the November 18, 1998 memo "Clarification of the Clarification" from Prof. Ezell, with the addition of the phrase "and efforts to reach consensus fail". The motion carried unanimously.

5. General Order 12: Policies and Procedures on Probationary Reappointment,

Prof. Ezell said Faculty Council has the opportunity to accept or modify recommendations on the document from the Professional Standards Task Force. The task force reviewed the document and highlighted items that were changed by Academic Board and approved by the VPAA. Faculty Council changes will go to Academic Board, and that body can agree or disagree. Both versions will then go to the VPAA for approval.

The highlighted items appear to be improvements or clarifications and were accepted by the Task Force. The Task Force recommended omitting items so marked on pages 5 and 10 regarding external reviews. The Task Force's rationale for omission was that external reviews are not mandated by the "best practices" document, although it is always an option. In addition, faculty hired as full or associate professors and coming up for tenure after three years were hired based on external recommendations. The Council of Faculty Chairs considers acceptance of papers as external reviews. The Task Force recommendation does not preclude the use of external reviews.

Prof. Barrett moved, seconded by Prof. Hutchisson, to adopt the amended General Order 12 with omissions recommended by the Task Force.

Prof. Greenawalt recommended that Student Evaluation of Teaching (page 5, last paragraph and top of page 6, and similar language on pages 10 and 11) be generalized. For example, change the phrase to lower case to indicate the concept rather than a specific instrument. Prof. Durgun expressed concern that a department head could skew comments against a candidate. Prof. Hutchisson suggested cutting the phrase "that the head feels warrants discussion" from page 6 and page 10. Prof. Barrett accepted both recommendations and amended the motion. The motion carried unanimously.

6. Prof. Ezell reported that those attending the Vice President's meeting praised Pat Conroy's letter to the Post & Courier about the merger of the Charleston area colleges and the decision to omit The Citadel from the study. Prof. Ezell said he raised the issue of the problems that being excluded from the discussion could cause The Citadel. He asked Faculty Council members to send him their comments,

7. The meeting adjourned at 12:05pm.