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Executive Committee
Faculty of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering
Annual Report
2001-2002
September 2002 The Executive Committee met
weekly during the academic year 2001-2002. In addition, members of the
Executive Committee served as liaisons and met with the Educational Policy
Committee (David Cochrane), the Budget and Priorities Committee (Gary
Goldstein), and the Committee on Committees (Emily Bushnell). Members of
the Executive Committee also served as faculty representatives to the
Board of Trustees and met with three of their subcommittees: Academic
Affairs (David Cochrane), Finances (Gary Goldstein), and Development
(Carol Flynn).
The Committee met in July and August 2001, with new President Larry Bacow
to welcome him, to outline the Committees charge, and to work out various
procedures with him. Related to the changes in the Administration, there
were a number of changes in the Executive Committees procedures this year
in comparison to last year. First, in place of V.P. Mel Bernstein, Deans
Susan Ernst and Ioannis Miaoulis served as the Adminstrative members of
the Executive Committee. They attended nearly all of our meetings and
participated actively. Next, agendas for the AS&E faculty meetings were
not generated within meetings of the Executive Committee, as they had been
formerly. Instead, they were generated in separate agenda-setting
meetings attended by the President, Deans Ernst and Miaoulis, and as many
faculty members of the Executive Committee as were able to meet at the
appointed time. Finally, an Executive Committee member did not co-chair
AS&E Faculty Meetings as had been the case by arrangement with V.P.
Bernstein. Instead, President Bacow presided over AS&E meetings
individually, but turned the meeting over to the chairs of the Executive
Committee, the Committee on Committees, the Task Force on Undergraduate
Education, etc. as dictated by the agenda. Working out these changes in
procedures related to new Administrative personnel and structure occupied
several of our early meetings.
Other major items of business in 2001-02 included:
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Upon a request from the President conveyed through
the Committee on Committees and Dean Charles Inouye, the Executive
Committee conducted a review of the Higher Education Initiative of
several years ago. The President was interested in what lessons that
initiative might offer as part of preparing for the Task Force on
Undergraduate Education he was planning. In response, the Executive
Committee gathered various HEI - related materials and attempted to
reconstruct the process. An evaluative report of the HEI was prepared
and submitted to the President in early December. A major conclusion of
the report was that a great deal of thought and effort had gone in to
the HEI, particularly in the early stages when 15 different groups had
met and prepared extensive reports and recommendations. The TFUE was
urged to consider these HEI products as useful background material for
their similar undertaking. The full text of the report is available
through the Executive Committees new web site at ase.tufts.edu/executive-committee/.
There is a link to this web site under the Faculty & Departments menu
item on the main ASE web page at: ase.tufts.edu.
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The Executive Committee continued with the overhaul
of the committee structure which was initiated the previous year. In
collaboration with the Committee on Committees, a subset of Arts and
Sciences Committees was chosen for revamping in the interest of greater
efficiency, coherence, and use of technological support. A proposal for
reconfiguring these committees was developed in sessions with department
chairs, Dowling Hall staff, and an open meeting with the faculty. The
resulting formal motion was discussed and passed by the faculty in late
spring, and the changes will be implemented by the Committee on
Committees for academic year 02-03.
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Instigated by the search for a new Provost announced
by the President, the Executive Committee met with the Faculty Advisory
Board for Administration to define faculty roles in such searches. These
two committees subsequently drafted a letter to the President requesting
that faculty participation in such searches be developed as outlined in
the faculty bylaws, that is through elected committee structures. This
communication in turn prompted a meeting with President Bacow and
Provost Gittleman to clarify these stipulated structures and to discuss
inconsistencies and conflicts between the faculty by-laws and those of
the Trustees. It was agreed that the two sets of by-laws do conflict in
a number of respects and that these need to be adjudicated; however, no
formal means for doing so was set in motion.
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During the year, the Executive Committee also met in
separate sessions for general information exchange with Dean of the
Colleges Charles Inouye, newly appointed Dean Kevin Dunn, members of the
Task Force on Undergraduate Education, members of the accreditation
subcommittee on faculty governance, and faculty member Jim Glaser (on
behalf of AAUP with regard to faculty salaries).
Respectfully submitted,
2001-02 Faculty Executive Committee
elected faculty members:
Emily W. Bushnell, chair
Gregory Botsaris
David Cochrane
Carol Flynn
Gary Goldstein
Howard Solomon
administrative members:
Susan Ernst
Ioannis Miaoulis
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