A&S Planning and Budget Commmittee Minutes Dec 5 1997

 

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

PLANNING AND BUDGET COMMITTEE MINUTES

DECEMBER 5, 1997


Attending: J. Steffen, G. Brown (Staff Representative), J. Dietrich (Dean's Office), J. Garcia-Varela, J. McCabe (Dean's Office), N. Schwartz, L. S. Weissbach, W. Williams.

 

The meeting was called to order at noon by Professor Steffen. The minutes of the November 12 meeting were approved by the Committee.  Professor Dietrich brought to the Committee a request from Dean Moore that the Committee advise him on a matter dealing with sabbatical leaves. In the past the number of half-year and full-year sabbaticals balanced out -- half-year sabbticals costing the College money, full-year sabbaticals saving the College money. Professor Dietrich reported that next year not enough faculty were taking whole year leaves in order to be able to balance this account. The Dean wished to know if the Committee preferred that sabbaticals be continued.

If the Committee wished to continue sabbaticals, the Dean wished to know how the Committee preferred that funds be generated, from the following alternatives:

  1. Reduce travel funds;
  2. Reduce research funds;
  3. Departments with faculty on sabbatical simply reduce the number of sections that they offer.

 

The Committee strongly supported continuing sabbaticals. At the same time, there was no support for continuing sabbaticals by reducing travel or research funds. The Committee adopted a resolution that, in the short run, sabbatical leaves should be funded by reducing the number of sections offered by affected Departments. The Committee also suggested that the Dean encourage Departments to try evening out the number of faculty on sabbatical leave in a single year, thus avoiding the situation where these leaves would threaten the ability of a Department to offer its instruction progam.

There was also a discussion of the need to revise College governance documents to provide a meaningful role for the Committee given current budgeting practices of the University. Suggestions included having the Committee meet much more frequently in order to be available to deal with fast-moving developments in the Dean's Office, to having the Committee prepare a "State of the College Budget" each year.

Minutes submitted by

N. Schwartz