Dean's update

April 3 , 2009

With the completion of our strategic plan, we can now turn our attention to other matters important to our future as a college. When I arrived, I was quite surprised to find that we did not have a college-wide set of bylaws and operating policies. While the College was managing itself effectively, much was based on common practice rather than written policy. I believe it is important for us to codify our committee structure, faculty governance, promotion and annual evaluation system, and other matters. For example, after going through the PTR process this first year it seemed that both the College committee and my office were reviewing a number of documents unnecessarily on an annual basis. I have met with the College PTR committee, and they are proposing some changes to be considered by the College faculty this spring. These changes, if approved, will be included in our to-be-written by-laws. I will be forming a faculty committee to begin working with me to create a draft document for consideration by the faculty as a whole this fall.

I have also formed an international committee to review all of our current relationships, propose potential new relationships based on clear criteria and to develop a process for review of existing and new collaborations. A number of faculty members have proposed potential relationships and we have been approached by several international institutions expressing interest in collaboration, and we need some mechanism for considering the merits of these potential collaborations in some systematic way. I hope that this will become a permanent standing committee of the College.

Gregory J. Weidemann

Dean and Director