MCS College Council
Minutes for meeting of Friday, November 21, 1997

1.  PETITION CONCERNING UNITS FOR PHYSICS UNDERGRADUATE COLLOQUIUM FOR
SENIORS (R. Swendsen)

Physics proposes reducing the units earned for 33-401 and 33-402 from
two units each to one unit each.

COLLEGE COUNCIL ACTION: The change was approved.


2.  EVENING EXAM POLICY DRAFT (E. Grotzinger)

The College Council discussed the policy draft written by the MCS Dean's
Student Advisory Council.  There was concern that the proposed policy
was too restrictive, though members recognized the need to prevent
unregulated increase of contact hours for a course.

COLLEGE COUNCIL ACTION: College Council recommended a rewrite of the
policy based on the discussion.  The revised policy draft will be on the
next College Council agenda.


3.  PROPOSED MCS FACULTY HANDBOOK CHANGES (J. Schaffer)

Juan Schaffer highlighted several incorrect or inconsistent changes in
the handbook that occurred between 1992 and 1995.  His proposals were as
follows:

A. To restore the provisions on Research Faculty (pp. 23) to be again
part of the Appointment and Tenure Policy of the Mellon College of
Science.

B. To change Item IX of the Checklist (p. 22), concerning collection of
letters from students.  In particular, the revised checklist item would
require the inclusion of copies of the letters of request, a summary of
the criteria for selecting the students (including the number of
addressees), a list of the addressees responding, the current status of
those responding, and an indication of which ones were proposed by the
candidate.

C. To change the Policy on Lecturer Track Appointments in the Mellon
College of Science to include on p. 26 promotions as well as
reappointments and initial appointments as Senior Lecturer or Principal
Lecturer.

COLLEGE COUNCIL ACTION: Each proposal was approved.

The College Council also made the following recommendations for
improving the rate of return from students asked to supply letters for
faculty:
. request letters in the spring for cases to be considered the following fall
. more reminders
. shorter turnaround time (2 weeks)
. encouragement of electronic responses
. follow-up from the dean as to the outcome of the decision
. immediate reply by the department head thanking the student and
indicating that the outcome will be finalized in about 6 months


4.  OFFER LETTERS TO SPECIAL FACULTY (J. Schaffer)

The current form of the offer letters includes a statement indicating
that an appointment renewal is contingent on performance and
availability of funding.  Legally, this could be interpreted as a right
to reappointment, not just a condition of reappointment.  We considered
three alternative wordings for this statement:

1. [Within the limits specified by University policy,] this appointment
may be renewed at the University's discretion.

2. [Within the limits specified by University policy and] subject to the
continued availability of the funding, this appointment may be renewed
at the University's discretion.

3. [Within the limits specified by University policy and] subject to the
continued availability of funding, this appointment may be renewed at
the University's discretion.  In exercising this discretion, quality of
performance would of course be one consideration.

COLLEGE COUNCIL ACTION: The College Council approved use of alternatives
2 and 3, pending confirmation of their legality.