At the Nov. 5 meeting of the Faculty Senate, Dr. Adrian Reuben, newly elected chair from the College of Medicine—Clinical Sciences, announced that the Faculty Senate meeting minutes would begin appearing in The Catalyst. This will be a new monthly feature, which the Senate hopes will reach as many interested faculty as possible. The Faculty Senate meeting minutes are also posted on the Senate website at < http://www.musc.edu/facsen>. Faculty wishing to express comments about the meeting minutes or other concerns should e-mail the Faculty Senate Executive Committee (facsen@musc.com) or call the Faculty Senate Office at 792-7862.

Thursday, Nov. 5

Minutes taken by Faculty Senate secretary, Debbie Carson, College of Pharmacy.

The meeting was called to order by Dr. Adrian Reuben at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 5. A quorum was established and the agenda approved. Approval of the October minutes was deferred until they could be posted on the website.

Reuben introduced Patrick Cassano as the Faculty Senate administrative assistant.

Reuben reported on the Executive Committee meetings from Oct. 22. Items discussed included the need for a better public relations campaign by the Faculty Senate to assure that all faculty know the purpose of the senate and are kept abreast of senate activities. Mechanisms to accomplish this could include: a newsletter; publication of the meeting minutes in The Catalyst; and the introduction of a five minute “free speech” slot at the end of each senate meeting to allow faculty at large to offer input to the Senate. The Executive Committee also would like the Senate to consider changing the election promotion of women and minority faculty members.

Subcommittee Reports

University Affairs Committee (UAC)

Bob Poyer gave a brief description of the UAC duties. Last year, this committee reviewed the senate budget, hired staff to support the senate, and placed articles in The Catalyst. The focus for the coming year may include review of the university budget and review of university programs for physical development and policies on services to the faculty. Thierry Bacro from the College of Health Professions was elected chair of the University Affairs Committee for the 1998-99 term.

Faculty Affairs Committee

Lyndon Key from the College of Medicine—Clinical Sciences was elected as the new chair and briefly stated some of the accomplishments of this committee in the past year including planning Faculty Senate retreats and development of a Department Chair evaluation.

Academic Affairs Committee

Jean Nappi from the College of Pharmacy has agreed to remain chair of this committee until completion of the ATP Guidelines, at which time, Jerry Webb from the College of Medicine—Basic Sciences will take the chair's position for the remainder of the year. Dr. Nappi reported that the committee last year developed a policy regarding review of tenured faculty which was approved by MUSC Board of Trustees in February 1998 and assisted Dr. Connie Best in evaluating a policy for dealing with cases of sexual harassment for non-classified employees. The ATP Guidelines subcommittee will bring the draft document back to the full Academic Affairs committee this month. It is hoped that the document will be brought before the Faculty Senate for discussion by the December meeting.

Governance Committee

Yvonne Michel, last year's chair, gave a report on the duties of this committee which includes running the Faculty Senate elections and revisions of the Faculty Handbook. She reported that Dr. Ray Greenberg is reviewing the current handbook revisions and hopes to have the revised handbook available close to the beginning of the New Year. Other issues that this committee expects to look into in the coming year are sabbatical leave and mechanisms to quickly update the Faculty Handbook via electronic means. Elizabeth Huggins from the College of Nursing was elected as the new chair.

Don Tyner gave a financial report. The senate is expected to be well within budget for the coming year.

In closing the meeting, Reuben announced that the charge to the Terms of Appointment ad hoc committee would now be given to the University Affairs Committee since two thirds of the ad hoc committee are no longer on the senate. The Terms of Appointment information needs to now be discussed in a full committee.

The meeting adjourned at 8:30 a.m.