MCS College Council
December 6, 2001

In Attendance:

Richard McCullough
David Owen
Gregg Franklin
Eric Grotzinger
Elizabeth Jones
Hyung Kim
Frederick Gilman
Amy Kennedy
Irene Fonseca
William Brown 
Brianna Blaser
Daniel Hennessy

I. FACULTY MENTORING PROCEDURES IN MCS DEPARTMENTS

David Owen posed the question of whether or not faculty mentoring procedures for each department should be included in the 
MCS Faculty Handbook, and if not, how these procedures should be publicized so that junior and non-tenure track faculty 
members will be aware of them.  Documents describing these procedures for each department were distributed with the College 
Council agenda.

Since each department has a different procedure in place regarding the mentoring of junior and non-tenure track faculty and 
these procedures are subject to change, it was decided that they should not be incorporated into the faculty handbook.

One option would be to include information about mentoring in Annual Reports.  However, it was decided that these reports 
are somewhat public and might not be an appropriate place for this information.  

It was suggested that each department post information about its procedures for faculty mentoring on its web site.  Faculty 
members could then be sent a letter each year reminding them of the importance of mentoring and of how to access documents 
describing the procedure.  It was also suggested that a subgroup be formed to evaluate whether the procedures for mentoring 
lecturer and research track faculty members are appropriate, and the following issues were raised:

- Is mentoring at the college level necessary?
- Are there enough senior research and lecturer track faculty members to mentor the more junior members?
- Due to the nature of their work, research track faculty members are less connected to the rest of the faculty in general, 
and care should be taken to see that they stay on track with regard to research and obtaining funding.

Regarding lecturer track faculty members, it was decided that CUA could serve as a place to raise this issue from time to 
time to ensure that they are receiving adequate mentoring.

COLLEGE COUNCIL ACTION: No action was taken at this time, but the recommendation was made that procedures for faculty 
mentoring be placed on each department's web site and that faculty members be reminded from time that these procedures 
are available. 


II. PROPOSED POLICY ON OMBUDSPERSONS FOR GRADUATE AFFAIRS  

David Owen presented a proposed policy on ombudspersons for MCS departments that has been developed by the Graduate Student 
Advisory Committee (GSAC).  The policy states that each department should review whether or not there is need for an 
ombudsperson for graduate affairs periodically, with these reviews occurring at least once between visits of the Advisory 
Board.  Both faculty and graduate students should be consulted when the issue is reviewed.  A copy of the proposed policy 
was included with the College Council agenda.

Currently, the Departments of Biological Sciences and Chemistry have appointed ombudspersons, but Mathematical Sciences and 
Physics have not.  In addition to handling problems when they arise, an ombudsperson for graduate affairs should provide 
students with someone to go to with personal problems and to find out what resources are available to them in general.  
An effective ombudsperson should improve morale among the graduate students.  It was suggested that in order to emphasize 
the proactive nature of the position, the "Qualities and Responsibilities" section of the policy be included before "Consideration of an Appointment".


COLLEGE COUNCIL ACTION: The council voted unanimously in favor of adding this policy to the MCS Faculty Handbook, with 
revision as described above.

III. TITLES FOR RESEARCH FACULTY

An important digression on the discussions under item I concerned titles for research faculty.  The current titles - 
Research Scientist, Senior Research Scientist, and Principal Research Scientist - are liabilities for grant applicants, 
because they do not accurately reflect the high level of academic achievement of the holder.  The alternative titles, 
Research Assistant Professor, Research Associate Professor, and Research Professor, could remedy this defect, and their 
substitution is under discussion by the Carnegie Mellon Faculty Senate.

COLLEGE COUNCIL ACTION: Council recommended that the MCS Faculty Organization take a position on whether or not the 
university should make the substitution above by holding discussions and polling the MCS faculty.  The MCS chair and 
Chair Elect, Irene Fonseca and William Brown, will organize this action.