Faculty Council Minutes 2026-2027

    November 2, 2026

    Faculty Council Meeting
    Monday, November 2, 3-4 pm
    Tomson 255

    In attendance: Dan Hofrenning (Chairperson Pro Tempore), President Susan Singer, Provost Tarshia Stanley, Dana Gross, Hsiang-Lin Shih, Olaf Hall-Holt, Shelly Dickinson, Louis Epstein

    1. Dan called the meeting to order at 3:01 pm and celebrated the inaugural meeting of the pilot Faculty Council. 
    2. Agenda Setting for the 11/12 Faculty Meeting
      1. Curriculum Committee will bring seven new course proposals and a new major proposal for a vote. These may be consent agenda items.
      2. There will be no New Business (unless something gets pulled from the consent agenda).
      3. Some committee chairs will make oral reports; others will speak from the podium. Chairs continue to make an effort to put more information in written reports in order to save time during the meeting for discussion.
      4. For the first time, there will be a committee report from the Faculty Council. 
      5. After the Remarks by the Provost and Remarks by the President, we considered making time for discussion of the following topics:
        1. Ethics and Social Impact of AI
        2. Daily Schedule
        3. An Academic Senate
    3. Agenda Setting for the 11/5 Faculty Forum
      1. AI
        1. There’s hunger for a faculty-led discussion about the rules governing AI use, both among our students and among ourselves. It’s unclear which standing committees have the charge to lead this conversation. The Faculty Forum seems like the obvious place to start.
        2. We need a high-level map of AI efforts already underway on campus.
          1. Student AI fellows (grant funded)
          2. Futuring Technologies Committee (currently getting staffed)
          3. Several grant proposals already submitted by Provost to fund further discussion of AI use and its implications
            1. Lilly Grant – Student Engagement in the Age of Artifice: Culture, Community, and Self-Awareness
            2. Humanity AI Grant – “Communities Leading on AI,” through the Associated Colleges of the Midwest
          4. AI Experimenters Group (organized by Nancy Thompson)
          5. AI Volunteer Committee
          6. Hsiang-Lin’s proposal for Academic Integrity Subcommittee of SLC, especially to help adjudicate AI-related issues
        3. The question we’ll pose is: What questions do we have about the College’s response to AI? What does our agenda for AI need to look like?
      2. Daily Class Schedule
        1. Articulate problems we’re trying to solve
        2. Share several distinctive new schedules
        3. Solicit feedback on schedules
      3. Open Q&A
    4. Committees can engage in distinct conversations about AI ethics and policies.
      1. Curriculum: Policies on student use in learning context; faculty use in teaching contexts
      2. Faculty Life: Is AI-defensiveness increasing our busyness? (Oral exams, etc.)
      3. Faculty Governance: What are the academic freedom implications of AI policies governing faculty use?
      4. Student Life: Academic Integrity concerns
    5. The Provost asked which committee is responsible for discussing the academic calendar. Starting on a Thursday rather than a Tuesday costs a significant amount of money and results in difficulties for international students at the end of the semester. 

    The meeting adjourned at 4:01 pm.

    Respectfully submitted by Louis Epstein