Faculty Affairs Policy Committee (FAPC) Report

given at the Monday, October 29, 2007 University Senate Meeting

by Todd Shiver

1. Annual IFRs and Chair Evaluations. The committee reviewed and discussed faculty feedback regarding the proposed procedural revision to the faculty evaluation process. The committee decided to postpone further discussion until the 2 November FAPC meeting. At such time, information will be presented regarding faculty review at other USG institutions - and a modified proposal will be presented for review.

2a. Retirement Credit for Faculty on Leave: Georgia College is consistent with other USG institutions. If one is not compensated during the leave period, one does not receive retirement credit during this time.

2b. Retirement Credit for Faculty on Grants: Faculty who have received external funding (grants) are paid for work by the grant; however, there are no retirement benefits for such unless those benefits are built into the grant and the funding agency allows for same. Human Resources will work with Academic Affairs and the Grants Office to make sure that retirement benefits are built into grants if feasible from the grant funding agency.

3. Pre-tenure Review:   The questions asked of the committee: Are the GCSU pre-tenure review policies and procedures consistent with BOR requirements? Does the GCSU pre-tenure review process need to change to reflect a more summative evaluation process? The University Senate graduate assistant was asked to obtain pre-tenure review policies and procedures from other 4-year USG institutions for the committee for further review/discussion.

4. Advising as Part of Faculty Workload: The committee recognized that there are different levels of advising: undergraduate, graduate, thesis, research, total number of students being advised by a single faculty member, etc. How is this considered when deciding workload?
The committee was advised that there is a BOR Presidential task force on advising which will be addressing many of the issues listed above. The committee decided to postpone any discussion of advising until the task force publishes its findings.

* Note:  Since the Oct 5, 2007 FAPC meeting, the USG advising task force report was received by President Leland and will be shared with the FAPC to inform future discussions about the advising issue.