Posted by Julia Leef
The faculty convened on Feb. 3 to discuss upcoming events for this semester, including raising the student enrollment number, the Starbuck Center relocations and appointing Sarah Goodwin, professor of English, as the new faculty assessment coordinator.
Mary Lou Bates, dean of admissions and financial aid, began the meeting with statistical information on prospective students for the upcoming academic year. She approximates the size of the incoming class at 580-630 students, including 85 Early Decision Two applications. She also reported increases in the percentages of minority students and students seeking financial aid. The College will send out regular decision answers on March 23.
In addition, the Net Fiscal Enrollment number will remain the same in order to maintain over-enrollment revenues. This coordinates with the College's consideration to increase the number of students in the student body by 50.
President Philip Glotzbach spoke about the College's budget, saying that its fee would increase by 3.9 percent this year. Much of the budget will be spent on the 5.5 million-dollar IT project that involves moving the IT department into Scribner Library; $1.5 million will also be allotted to the science department for research purposes, and additional amounts will go into the Scribner Village Reconstruction project. There will be an open forum for the faculty to discuss the budget further. This date has not yet been determined.
President Glotzbach also informed faculty that the Starbuck relocations proceeded on schedule with Card Services, the Bursar and Student Financial Aid offices moving out this week into the second floor of Palamountain. This is part of a larger relocation of all the offices in Starbuck Center due to undisclosed health concerns expressed by employees.
"It was the right thing to move people from there because the testing found some mold in the building," President Glotzbach said. "We will do any regimentation by the people who advise us, and it will probably be done in six months. We will also do some medical studies on the folks who work in Starbuck to see if there are any statistically significant issues."
Susan Kress, vice president of academic affairs, introduced Goodwin as the new faculty assessment coordinator, and Sarita Lagalwar as the new Williamson chairwoman in Neuroscience, as authorized and recruited by Academic Advising. She specializes in cellular mechanisms of neuro-generation. Investigations for a third chairperson are in progress.
Kress also discussed changes to Article X of the faculty handbook, which addresses the discipline of tenured faculty. The article, according to Kress, only deals with the dismissal of faculty who have been on staff for 10 years, and must be altered to apply to the discipline of any faculty member who violates the College codes. She concluded that College officials would look more into the matter.