Faculty Meeting Minutes
September 5, 2025
Gannett Auditorium, Palamountain Hall/Zoom
Natalie Taylor, Interim Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs called the meeting to order at 3:35pm.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Dean Taylor asked if there were any corrections to, or comments regarding, the minutes of the Faculty Meeting held May 14, 2025. Hearing none, the minutes were approved as distributed.
WELCOME
Dean Taylor introduced herself to the faculty as a member of the Political Science Department and the new Interim Dean of the Faculty/Vice President for Academic Affairs. She opened her welcome remarks, which were greeted with applause by the faculty, with thanks to the members of the Dean鈥檚 Office. Dean Taylor explained that she accepted the offer of the position in large part because of the President鈥檚 commitment to freedom of speech and expression, and her own commitment to the intellectual mission of higher education. She is looking forward to getting to know more of the faculty and to the work that the college will be doing over the course of this year.
OLD BUSINESS
There was no old business.
NEW BUSINESS
There was no new business.
PRESIDENT'S REPORT
President Conner opened his report by welcoming the faculty back to campus. He expressed his appreciation for Dean Taylor鈥檚 willingness to take on an enormously challenging job, and how pleased he is that we have an interim dean from within the ranks of the faculty. He noted that his report will be somewhat brief as the Welcome Reception for new faculty and staff at Scribner House would begin at 4pm. He reminded the faculty that he will be holding office hours, there will be forums over the course of the semester, and that communication from the faculty is always welcome.
At the staff meeting earlier in the day, Dean of Student Affairs Adrian Bautista, Dean of Enrollment and Financial Aid Jess Ricker, and Dean Taylor joined him in talking about the work done over the last few weeks to begin the academic year. Because of the pace of campus life and work, it is rare that we have the opportunity to take a moment to celebrate the smaller wins. He stressed the importance of making time for gratitude and celebration before continuing on to the next project. President Conner highlighted the work of Dean Ricker, Director of Admissions Janessa Dunn, and Director of Financial Aid Beth Post in building our highly impressive first-year class. This class has 吃瓜网鈥檚 largest ever percentage of students from the South and West; it is the second year in a row of exceeding our targets for enrollment in the Opportunity Program; 20% of students are eligible to receive a Pell Grant; 14% are first-generation college students; and 30% of the class are domestic students of color, tying with last year for our largest-ever percentage.
President Conner brought the faculty鈥檚 attention to a paragraph on the first page of the Strategic Plan. 鈥淲e are one of the great liberal arts colleges in the nation, with a concept of the liberal arts education that distinguishes us from all other schools.鈥� He urged the faculty to think about 吃瓜网 in this way, and to continue returning to this paragraph in the Strategic Plan throughout this year. He acknowledged that we are in an unprecedented time of disruption in higher education, and that we do not know what may be coming. Thus, we must be clear about what we stand for, what our principles are, what our strategy will be, and have a plan that we can point to that includes those principles that are important to us.
Having spoken about many of the external factors creating uncertainty in higher education, President Conner turned towards anxieties more internal to the institution. He noted that the primary anxieties for most will be centered around budgets and finance. 吃瓜网鈥檚 fundamental situation in its financial future is that our projected expenses outstrip our projected revenues. He explained that the only reason none of the formerly projected deficits have yet come to pass is due to actions taken by the college in response to these projections.
The Huron Consultancy was engaged to help us meet these financial challenges. Last year, they worked with Skidmore and gave us the benefit of their expertise. They reviewed our operations and what we do, and compared it to about 60 other similar schools across the country. They identified areas that we might want to explore where there might be opportunities for savings or efficiencies, and they shared these findings with college leadership. The college will decide collectively how to move forward with the information that Huron has provided. This work will continue over the course of the year and, probably, for years to come. Any and all changes will happen through our regular governance and decision-making processes. Hard decisions will need to be made; though we are lucky that 吃瓜网 is in a position to reduce workforce through attrition. As we continue to confront these difficult choices, the Strategic Plan will serve as a guidepost.
President Conner then updated the faculty on the search for a new Vice President of Advancement, following Carey Ann Zucca鈥檚 departure over the summer. 吃瓜网 has engaged WittKieffer as the search firm for this role. The Appointments and Tenure Committee, Faculty Executive Committee, the Institutional Policy and Planning Committee and other various campus stakeholders have been notified and will be participating in the search. The likely time-line for the search for our next Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs will begin after the Advancement search has launched. President Conner suggested a faculty vice-chair for that search, and expressed his wish to work very collaboratively with the faculty throughout the process.
He provided a reminder to the faculty about the upcoming Budget and Finance Forum presented by Vice President of Finance and Operations Dan Konstalid. It will take place on Friday, 9/26 at 3pm on the second floor of Murray Aikins Dining Hall. President Conner then solicited questions from the faculty.
A faculty member asked if there will be a report distributed regarding the work that the Huron Consultancy did. President Conner affirmed that there will be a report shared with the faculty and staff. The report that Huron submitted to the college will be discussed by IPPC at its meeting in two weeks, and some of the recommendations in the report will be shared at the budget presentation on the 26th. Sharing the unvarnished report in its entirety to the community as a whole could engender unfounded anxieties, as no recommendations are being taken on whole cloth without substantive review by the college.
President Conner closed his report with a welcome to the new faculty, and an invitation to the assembly to the reception at Scribner House following the meeting.
OTHER
Faculty Executive Committee
Dean Taylor invited Ting Li, Associate Professor of Management & Business and Chair of the Faculty Executive Committee, to the podium to report out to the faculty on the matters of the Committee of Committees' Report and Faculty Handbook revisions. Professor Li informed the faculty that the Committee of Committees met in May 2025, with each committee sharing their spring semester updates and their plan for the coming semester. Some highlights from the report include: ATC streamlined tenure materials and hosted several presentations to support tenure-track faculty; Promotions Committee updated promotion procedures and will explore requiring full professor representation on the committee; Committee for Educational Policies and Planning is advancing the transition to online course evaluations and reviewing summer and online teaching policies; Curriculum Committee processed over 200 curricular proposals, and refined policies around course caps and Global Cultural Perspective designation. There were no questions from the faculty about the report.
Professor Li explained that this year鈥檚 revisions to the Faculty Handbook were particularly involved, as it was revised to align with the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Feedback has been coming in to FEC about the revisions, and the Committee will present the motion to approve the revisions at the October Faculty Meeting. The vote to approve will occur at the November Faculty Meeting in order to give the faculty sufficient time to read and review this version of the Handbook.
Tenure and Promotion
Dean Taylor then recognized those members of the faculty who have been approved at the May meeting of the Board of Trustees for receipt of tenure and promotion to Associate Professor:
Kristofer Covey, Environmental Studies and Sciences
Bakary Diaby, English
Kirsten Hogensen, Mathematics
Lucia Hulstether, Religious Studies
June Paul, Social Work
Murat Yildiz, International Affairs
Also tenured in the 24-25 academic year were:
Associate Professor Russell Haight, Music
Assistant Professor John Galt, Art
The Board approved the promotion to the rank of full Professor for:
Hope Casto, Education Studies
Jenny Day, History
Siobhan Hart, Anthropology
Stephen Ives, Health and Human Physiological Sciences
Sarah Sweeney, Art
Chris Vescey, Neuroscience
Melora Wolff, English
In the Scribner Library, Charlie Bettigole was promoted to the rank of Associate Librarian. Several non-tenure track faculty members were promoted as well:
Pete Murray, Karen Arciero, Diana Barnes, Colleen Burke, Dung Lan Chen, Yvette Cortes, Anne Ernst, Catherine Hill, Beatrice Kendall, William Kennerly, Andrew Krzystyniak, Jill Lentz, Beatriz Loyola, Evan Mack, Rachel Mann Rosen, Peter McCarthy, Masami Tamagawa, Rebecca Troussil
This was greeted by applause from the faculty. Dean Taylor then introduced the new faculty to the assembly. Please find the slideshow linked here.
Reaffirmation of 吃瓜网 Diversity and Inclusion Statement
Dean Taylor welcomed the new faculty to 吃瓜网 before inviting Joshua Woodfork, Vice President for Strategic Planning and Institutional Diversity, Mariel Martin, Director of the Wyckoff Center, and Aiwu Zhao, Associate Professor of Management & Business and co-chair of the Committee for Intercultural and Global Understanding (CIGU) to the podium. VP Woodfork shared the history of the creation of the Diversity and Inclusion statement, and reminded the faculty that it is a living document, which is partly why we reaffirm it each year. Professor Zhao read the statement. VP Woodfork thanked the faculty for considering the charge seriously each year, and for participating in its dynamism. Under consideration for CIGU this year will be adding 鈥渃aste鈥� to the statement and removing 鈥渓earning styles.鈥� VP Woodfork also reminded the assembled faculty of various open groups on campus that they can access for community and support.
Ms. Martin shared with the faculty the schedule for this year鈥檚 Init10 series. Please find the full event schedule at this link.
DEAN OF FACULTY/VICE PRESIDENT FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS鈥� REPORT
Dean Taylor opened her report with recognition for the summer work done across campus through summer courses, the Opportunity Program, and Collaborative Faculty-Student Research among others. A great deal of progress was made on the Middle States reaccreditation process. Kelly Sheppard, Faculty Director of Assessment and Professor of Chemistry, and Amy Tweedy, 吃瓜网鈥檚 Institutional Effectiveness Specialist, have nearly completed their draft of the Self-Study. They will be sharing that document and seeking input from the community very soon. There will also be opportunities throughout the year to participate, with upcoming visits from the Middle States Accreditation Team and Team Chair. The full team will be visiting in the spring.
Some of the other work of the summer for the Dean of Faculty鈥檚 Office has been implementing the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Department Chairs and Program Directors will be central to this work, with guidance and support from Director of Human Resources Julie Delay and Sarah Vero, Vice President for Human Resources and General Counsel.
Dean Taylor said that her office is keeping a close eye on potential changes and challenges to higher education, and will be working to address some of the negative effects that we might see. There are concerns about matters such as funding and discrimination, and Associate Dean of the Faculty Oscar Perez Hernandez has been thinking hard about how we might support our faculty in these moments. Dean Taylor encouraged the faculty to reach out to the Dean of Faculty鈥檚 Office if they have questions or concerns.
She thanked the four faculty members and the various college administrators who spent the summer working through the Huron materials, analyzing the recommendations and determining which might be suitable for our institution. She expressed admiration for the collegiality and dedication of the entire group. As President Conner said, some of that work will be ongoing, and will involve the entirety of the faculty. There will be meetings this semester with Department Chairs and Program Directors on these topics.
Dean Taylor then solicited questions from the faculty. There being none forthcoming, she concluded her report with announcements. The Annual Steloff lecture, featuring author Sigrid Nunez, is coming up on September 25th at 8pm. She will give a lecture and receive an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from President Conner. Reunion weekend this year has shifted to begin on May 29th, 2025. Professor Cholnoky, who directs the Science in Society Program, asked faculty to look out for an email announcing this year鈥檚 Science in Society opportunities. These are offered through the Honors Forum, and provides faculty the chance to team-teach one-credit interdisciplinary courses in the spring. There will be information sessions next week. The topic for this year will be 鈥渢he future.鈥�
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:47 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Nora E. Graubard
Senior Administrative Coordinator