President Casey opened the faculty meeting on Monday, February 25 with three major matters to report.

The first of these topics was his acknowledgment and appreciation of the Committee on Faculty Affairs (FAC) for completing the composition of the Faculty Advising and Planning Committee. This committee was established to spearhead an initiative deemed “Colgate in its Third Century.” It concentrates on faculty support, a greater arts initiative, diversity and equity inclusion, transcendent admissions and financial aid practices, improved student residential life, an emphasis on athletics and superior facilities for faculty.

Despite this wide range of work assigned to the Faculty Advising and Planning Committee, when the floor was opened to questions, faculty seemed most concerned about one issue: parking.

“The lights in the lot go out at 6 p.m. How many parking spots do we have all together?” Director of the Division of Arts and Humanities David McCabe said.

Casey expressed agreement with the faculty’s concern and said that there would be steps taken to ease the inconvenience many faculty currently feel.

The conversation transitioned into the second order of business, the 2019 honorary degree recipients. The recipient list, composed of six highly distinguished and influential figures, received an excited response from the audience of Colgate professors.

Nick Cave, Professor of Fashion Design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, was introduced first, followed by Dan Hurwitz ’86, P’17, P’20, and outgoing chair of the Board of Trustees. Ellen Malcolm, Founder and Former President of EMILY’S List was the third person included on the list of recipients. Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of “The Refugees” and University Professor of English American Studies of Ethnicity and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California was next, followed by alumni Jung Pak ’96, a senior fellow and the SKKorea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies at Brookings Institution’s Center for East Asia Policy Studies. The final recipient recognized was the class of 2019 Commencement Speaker, Antonio Delgado ’99, who serves as a United States Representative for New York’s 19th Congressional District.

Casey said that Delgado was chosen with the hope that he is “someone who will appeal to the students.”

The third overarching topic of importance was introduced by Dean Tracey Hucks, who revealed and analyzed the the results from the Collaborative On Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) survey based on Colgate faculty satisfaction. The survey was based on a five-point scale and compared Colgate with five peer institutions.

Hucks said she was proud to reveal that based on the data collected, “Colgate faculty are more satisfied with Colgate as a place to work than peers are with their institutions.”

One of the areas of outlying strength for Colgate was the faculty’s high satisfaction in the area of Nature of Work: Service. Hucks attributed this success to collaborated governance roles, “Colgate faculty value shared governance and being able to participate in shared accountability.”

Despite the overwhelmingly positive feedback from the COACHE Survey, Colgate faculty were dissatisfied with the Departmental Quality, specifically concerns regarding promotion of tenure.

The question of tenure allocation, specifically the debate over the necessity of third year review, resurfaced and was addressed following Hucks’ presentation. This debate continues to be an ongoing conversation of high importance to the Promotion and Tenure Committee.

Colgate’s CORE Curriculum, a staple of its liberal arts education, has been an integral element to the University for 90

years. However, Professor Nancy Ries reminded the faculty of the importance of adapting our CORE as modernity advances in an effort to design a CORE that maximizes both the benefits for and the interest to students, the faculty will begin to undertake a CORE Self Study Progress Report and establish a Core Revision Committee Election.

Contact Hanna Murphy at [email protected].