FRC Chair Rich Freer of the law school raised several issues the FRC wants the Council to consider, including:

*Whether an FRC hearing should precede or follow firing or suspension action taken by a dean. The FRC's fact-finding hearing currently follows the dean's action, and the FRC then makes a recommendation to the president, who in turn makes a recommendation to the Board of Trustees.

*Whether the academic unit in question should be allowed to have legal counsel at the FRC hearing. The faculty member in question is allowed legal counsel if desired, but no other person is permitted to act as a legal counsel in an FRC hearing. Freer suggested that allowing other attorneys into the process would open the door for FRC hearings to become adversarial, rather than strictly fact-finding.

*Whether the FRC should serve as a resource for the fired/suspended faculty member or the dean, or neither.

Freer said that only four faculty members have gone through the FRC hearing process in the past five years. The Council will continue its discussion of the FRC's role this fall.

Ann Stevens, director of the Office of Sponsored Programs, asked for the Council's assistance in compiling a faculty directory, an idea that emerged from last year's luncheon conversations with faculty, staff and students sponsored by the Provost's Office. Stevens, who is heading a task force charged by Provost Billy Frye with creating the directory, said that a national database maintained by the Community of Science (COS) will be used to make the directory available on the World Wide Web. She said 750 Emory faculty are already listed in the database which, despite its name, includes faculty from all fields.

A majority of faculty members said they would like to see teaching and collaborative interests included in their COS biographical information. The COS database already lists research interests.

Several Council members expressed concern about World Wide Web listings compromising their privacy, and about the right to review their COS entries after they have been edited. Council President Rick Letz said he will share the Council's concerns with Stevens and the task force.

John Bugge of the English department, who is chairing the Senate's Emory Village Committee, said he plans to expand the committee membership to include local residents (especially Druid Hills Civic Association members) as well as representatives from the real estate and restaurant industries and from Georgia Power. "We have ascertained who owns what, and we found that a lot of people own Emory Village," Bugge said. He said the idea of moving the Emory Bookstore from Dobbs Center to Emory Village and including a faculty club in the new facility has received substantial support, and the committee is likely to recommend such a proposal to the Senate. Bugge said he hopes a final recommendation will be made by December.

In a separate discussion of the faculty club issue, Letz said that President Bill Chace is "very supportive of moving forward" with the creation of a faculty club. Letz, who said the Board of Trustees also has expressed support for the idea, said he wants the Council to set the goal of having the faculty club well on its way to completion, if not entirely in place, by the end of the academic year.

Council member Nanette Wenger suggested that data be collected from other universities of Emory's size to determine what type of faculty club they have, if any, what type of services they offer, and how they are financially structured. Letz appointed a small faculty club subcommittee to deal with the issue.

President's Commission on the Status of Minorities
In her first meeting as chair of the President's Commission on the Status of Minorities (PCSM) on Sept. 18, Pat Marsteller of the biology department said she wants to bring as many voices as possible into a community discussion of minority issues at Emory.

Marsteller said she would like each dean to discuss with the commission how they are dealing with issues of diversity in their respective colleges and schools, including a discussion of actions they are planning to take to continue improving the campus climate for minority faculty, staff and students. She also voiced support for the idea of collaborative meetings between the PCSM and the President's Commission on the Status of Women and the President's Commission on Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual Concerns.

The PCSM will sponsor a reception for faculty and staff on Oct. 25 from 4-6 p.m. The location will be announced later. --Dan Treadaway