(pages of minutes for Special Meeting No. 1 of 1991 are out of sequence for the date.) *************************************************************** Page 3269 The Senate of Michigan Technological University Minutes of Special Meeting No. 1 of 1991 (October 8, 1991) (No roll call was taken) 1. Discussion of the formation of search committees. a. Faculty members expressed the opinion that chairpersons and associate chairpersons should be elected from the committee memberships. b. Tompkins said he wants to reduce the search committee workload. There will be several searches going on this year. He believes that the students and the staff council should be represented on search committees. c. Tompkins agenda for the provost and vice president for academic affairs is as follows: 1. Select the search committee (Fall 1991). 2. Develop revised position description (Winter 1992). 3. Seek candidates by advertising and personal contacts (Spring 1992). 4. Screen candidates and sell them on MTU (Spring, Summer, Fall 1992). 5. New Provost/Vice President begins duties (January- July 1993). d. Senate should develop a proposal about forming search committees and search committee operating procedures. 2. Discussion of department heads/chairpersons. a. Faculty members expressed concern about the way the department which currently have chairpersons were informed about changing to heads. There does not seem to be any procedure for doing this. Rudolf Greuer submitted a copy of an old senate proposal related to changing the form of departmental governance. This proposal was not accepted by President Stein. b. Tompkins made some remarks about this issue. He says that the title is not important, but the person holding the position must pay attention to the following points. 1. Be an advocate for the department. 2. Be oriented toward student needs. 3. Be able to develop a consensus about department directions, goals, and needs. There should be an evaluation procedure in place. Tompkins favors frequent (annual) evaluations which are not perfunctory. *************************************************************** Page 3270 c. Senate should develop a proposal for a policy on departmental governance which includes evaluation procedures and procedures for changing forms and titles. 3. Discussions of university governance. a. Tompkins did not agree with the statement made by one faculty member that the university administrative procedures are bankrupt. He says his new administration can make them work. b. Tompkins said that the Senate should be a faculty Senate and that the change should be made as soon as possible. c. Tompkins discussed the need for a faculty council for each college or school. Such councils could be modelled after the staff council. These councils would decide how the college should be operated, what the goals should be, and other matters of college-wide concern. d. The Senate should develop a proposal about reorganizing the Senate into a faculty Senate. .