Minutes: FACAS Meeting, 4/3/08

Time and Location: 10:30 – 11:50 am, KL 505

Present: D. Biers, G. Doyle (chair), E. Gustafson, P. Johnson, L. Laubach, Y. Raffoul, D. Sink, L. Snyder, R. Wells

Absent: T. Lasley, C. Letavec

Guest: L. Rismiller

1. Minutes of 3/27/08 were approved as written.

2. The FAC continued reviewing a Maternity Leave Survey constructed by Lisa Rismiller.

a. Most faculty will not be able to answer most of the questions, so they will “skip” to question 32.

b. Our goal is to determine if the present policy is effective, and does it need to be changed/expanded.

c. A secondary purpose is to determine if faculty know any of the details of present policy.

d. We want to know what the faculty think the policy should be. To this end, some of the questions need to be reworded. Some questions need “do not know.”

e. Perhaps the most serious issue is that the present policy does not cover summer births between May 15 and July 15. Most faculty are not under contract during the summer.

f. Although most faculty have a 9 month contract, medical and other benefits are covered for 12 months. Why shouldn’t maternity leave be covered for 12 months? Faculty that have to take care of themselves and a new child during the summer lose research time. One way around that problem is to stop the tenure clock.

g. Present policy addresses only teaching, but teaching is ¾ time of the semester’s assignment. There is no mention of leave from ¼ time for research/service during the 12 weeks.

h. Back to the idea that the questionnaire is too long. Suggest a couple general questions to see if faculty know anything about the policy. Then concentrate on problems in the present policy and potential fixes. We specifically need to know about any problems faced by new mothers and department chairs since the present policy was enacted.

3. Lisa Rismiller will revise the questionnaire, and the FAC will look it over again.

4. The next meeting of the FAC will be Thursday, April 10, 2008 in KL 505 to review a third draft of the maternity leave questionnaire.