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RPC Meeting Minutes
October 25, 2006
Present: Balik, Collins, Flath, Heyman, Hornbach, Hoye, Laskin, Latham, Lindeman, Michelfelder, Nedelsky, and Wheaton.
- Meeting was called to order at 2:07 p.m.
- Minutes from the meeting of October 18, 2006 were approved.
- Committee resumed the discussion of the faculty support issue. Heyman presented a revised model of costs of various changes to faculty support discussed by committee. Revisions from previous version included effect of students studying off campus on study away. New version also determined number of FTE faculty from number of courses taught, so that FTE faculty is reduced, e.g. by course releases, constant with treatment in Macalester Fact Book
- Committee discussed importance of four paths to academic quality: attracting and retaining faculty, providing opportunities for student research and experiential learning, resources for faculty scholarship, and reducing the teaching load to foster curricular innovation. While these issues were seen to be interrelated, there was general consensus that attracting and retaining faculty was most central issue. There was also strong support for supporting student research and experiential learning, with reminders that the students are at the center of everything we do. There was less interest in providing more time for faculty scholarship as a primary path towards improving academic quality. The issue of staff support was raised, reminding us that Macalester has the least staff support of any college in our comparison group.
- Meeting adjourned at 3:30 pm.
Respectfully submitted by James Heyman
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