The Policies and Procedures Committee has met six times so far this academic year 2005–2006. Each year, the committee reviews one-fifth of the total number of files in the Policies and Procedures Manual for currency.

The procedure is to (1) refer the policies to their originators for revision, (2) review returned revised policies, and (3) submit revised policies with substantive changes to the faculty for their approval.

This year, seventy-three policies were selected. (Twenty-six of these policies involve administrative units and are not officially published in the Faculty Manual.) Thirty-two policies were completed. Six were forwarded to, voted on, and adopted by the faculty. Two more policies are pending a faculty vote at the regular May meeting. Seven policy files are pending action by other committees; and five more were held over for next year by request. The remaining twenty-seven policies are presumed current given no further word from their originators.

The committee also proposed three Constitutional amendments. Article IV, Section 1 was amended to allow for the scheduling of faculty meetings on a basis other than regular monthly meetings. Article V, Section 5 was amended to establish the Academic Discipline Committee as a standing committee of the faculty. These two amendments were adopted. Likewise, a third amendment has been proposed to Article V, Section 5 to establish the Faculty Scholarship and Awards Committee as standing committee.

The Faculty Chair consulted the committee on several occasions for advice and recommendations. This included formal reviews of (1) the plan for the Implementation Task Force for curriculum reform and (2) committee assignments to the Curriculum Review Committee’s recommendations.

Finally, the committee adopted a two-year plan to consider all Policies and Procedures for possible revisions due to and in anticipation of the calendar change in 2008.

The chair wishes to express thanks to the committee members for their time and efforts in this service.

Bill Baker, Physics
Bill Berg, Director of Planning and Institutional Research
Tom Hay, Director of Human Resources
Les Hicken, Music
Paul Kooistra, Sociology
Melinda Menzer (Recording Secretary), English
Steve O’Neill, History