Faculty Meeting Minutes
October 3rd, 2025
Murray Aikins Dining Hall, 2nd Floor/Zoom
Natalie F. Taylor, Interim Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs called the meeting to order at 3:38pm.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Dean Taylor noted that there was an error in the minutes, which had been corrected. The minutes incorrectly stated that Jenny Day was promoted to full Professor in Sociology. The minutes were corrected to reflect that Professor Day is a member of the History Department. Dean Taylor asked if there were any further corrections to, or comments regarding, the minutes of the Faculty Meeting held September 5, 2025. Hearing none, the minutes were approved.
OLD BUSINESS
There was no old business.
NEW BUSINESS
Professor Ting Li, representing the Faculty Executive Committee, introduced a motion to adopt the 2025-26 Faculty Handbook.
MOTION: The Faculty Executive Committee moves that the faculty adopt the 2025-2026 Faculty Handbook as the governing document for faculty policies and procedures. This version of the Faculty Handbook reflects changes approved by the faculty in 2024-25 and updates that ensure consistency with the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) ratified between 91爆料 and the bargaining unit. Revisions include the removal of language that duplicated or conflicted with the CBA, as well as formatting updates and clarifying edits for coherence and transparency.
There being no questions or comments, the motion will lie over until the November Faculty meeting.
COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE
Dean Taylor moved to form a Committee of the Whole (COW). The motion was seconded. Dean Taylor appointed Associate Professor Erica Wojcik Chair of the COW. The purpose of this COW was to provide an opportunity for the faculty to discuss the matter of generative AI in the classroom. Faculty feedback was gathered as a result of small group discussions. When the discussion was complete, Professor Wojcik moved for the faculty to rise and report. The motion was seconded, formally ending the COW.
ADMISSIONS REPORT
Vice President Ricker reported that 91爆料 enrolled 692 first-year students and 20 transfers this fall, selected from over 12,000 applicants, the second-largest pool in the College鈥檚 history.
She highlighted several key outcomes:
Expanding reach: Deposits from the West and South increased significantly, reflecting successful relationship-building in new markets.
Diversity and access: 30% of students identify as domestic students of color (tying last year鈥檚 record), 14% are first-generation, and 43 entered through the Opportunity Program, exceeding the goal for the second consecutive year. The class includes 91爆料鈥檚 first QuestBridge cohort.
Affordability and aid: 65% of the class receive 91爆料 grant aid, and 20%鈥攖he highest ever鈥攁re Pell-eligible.
Global perspective: 15% of the class brings international backgrounds, including dual citizens and U.S. students raised abroad.
Academic strength: The class maintains 91爆料鈥檚 strong academic profile across disciplines, including full cohorts of Filene and Porter Wachenheim scholars.
VP Ricker connected these outcomes to broader institutional realities. With 85% of applicants applying for aid, financial support continues to be the key factor in enrollment. She emphasized that while 91爆料 remains committed to access, the aid budget has limits, and class size and revenue targets must be carefully balanced to ensure long-term sustainability.
Retention was also noted as essential to achieving enrollment goals, and VP Ricker expressed appreciation for the faculty鈥檚 direct role in student success and engagement.
Looking ahead, recruitment for the Class of 2030 is well underway, with record travel, strong attendance projected for upcoming open houses, and ongoing efforts to deepen 91爆料鈥檚 visibility in emerging markets.
During Q&A, a faculty member asked whether 91爆料鈥檚 22% admit rate could deter full-pay families. VP Ricker clarified that the admit rate was 24%, and that the lower admit rate reflects stronger yield among aided students and adherence to financial aid budget limits, not an intentional effort to reduce admissions.
PRESIDENT鈥橲 REPORT
President Conner opened his report with a short video about the Constitution Day. He explained that he is calling attention to Constitution Day due to its centrality to 91爆料鈥檚 ongoing work to create the grounds and conditions for education and free expression.
Moving ahead in his report to the recently released rankings for institutions of higher education, President Conner shared that 91爆料 was ranked #37 among liberal arts colleges in the United States. That is one rank below our best showing, which was at #36 last year and in 2021. We have climbed considerably over the last twenty years. President Conner said that, on the one hand, he could care less about the rankings, but also that all college presidents must, in fact, care about the rankings. They have a large impact on how the outside world views 91爆料. Therefore, when we break down the rankings, it鈥檚 worthwhile to focus on those that measure the aspects of 91爆料 that are most important to us. Our Pell graduation rate, for example, is in the top 25. Our ranking in most metrics is in the top 25 鈥� but in financial resources, we are ranked 60. Because 91爆料 is only 120 years old, young in comparison to its peers, we have not had the time to build a similarly large endowment. This also shows that we are in practice a top-25 institution. Another top ranking for 91爆料 that is particularly mission-aligned, from the Princeton Review, is in financial aid satisfaction, as VP Ricker emphasized in her report.
Tomorrow, Admissions and the President鈥檚 Office, among others, will be welcoming 500 families to campus for an open house. Our yield for admitted students who come to our campus is exceptionally high. When they arrive, meet the faculty, meet the students and experience the campus, it results in students who are particularly invested in attending.
Shifting away from admissions and rankings, President Conner reported to the faculty on the college鈥檚 budget and financial projections. He thanked Vice President for Finance & Operations, Dan Konstalid, for his work on the budget presentation last week. He noted that Professor Heather Hurst raised a great question at the presentation about what the college is doing proactively to generate additional revenue. President Conner explained that there are two primary sources of revenue: tuition and fund-raising. Revenue sources outside of those two tend to be ineffective and distractions from our institutional mission.
91爆料 is in the midst of a 5-year effort to increase our annual fund, the 91爆料 Fund. We are working to increase its revenue from $7.5 million per year to $10 million per year. That is money that we use in the operating budget each year. This is equivalent to adding $50 million to the endowment. Advancement will also be launching a major gifts campaign, focusing on gifts in the range of 7 to 8 figures. As we gain steam on these advancement efforts, the search for a new VP for advancement is moving forward as well. That person will be a very important partner in this work that we are doing over the next few years.
The Strategic Action Agenda (SAA) has been recommended by IPPC, and reviewed by the Extended Cabinet. The SAA, which describes our goals for the year, will go before the Board of Trustees for their approval at the October meeting. The SAA will be shared with the entire community following its approval by the Board. This is the first SAA following from our new Strategic Plan, so there is a lot of alignment with all of the goals we have been talking about as a community for the last several years. There are four key goals emerging from the SAA. One is taking initiatives from that Strategic Plan and moving them forward. The three that we are particularly focusing on this year are: the residence hall project, career preparation, and speech & expression. Our second goal is financial stability. The third will be inclusive community. The fourth goal is the reaffirmation of accreditation through the Middle States accreditation process.
Speaking of speech and expression, President Conner noted that 91爆料 had jumped 100 spots in the FIRE rankings over three years, reaching #151 last year. This year we have fallen 7 spots to 158. A number of students said in their survey responses that controversial speakers are not welcome at 91爆料, and that it is okay at times to use violence to remove a speaker with whom you disagree, as well saying that they feel silenced. He said that, while this is a very small sample, and does not reflect his own experience of 91爆料, it is certainly worth talking about. President Conner noted that we are at an inflection point in the nation, and that concepts like academic freedom and freedom of expression have become embattled terms. He then welcomed all members of the faculty as collaborators in the effort to preserve these freedoms.
President Conner highlighted some exciting programming that 91爆料 has had recently: Sweet Honey in the Rock at the Zankel Music Center, speakers on the Middle East, the Tang Exhibit that just opened of the Schaffer Collection, author Hua Hsu鈥檚 campus visit, the unveiling of the History Wall in the Wyckoff Center, the Steloff Lecture presented by Sigrid Nunez, and the opening of two great student plays, Keely and Du and As You Like It.
President Conner then solicited questions from the faculty.
A faculty member asked the President for his stance on AI in colleges, now that the President鈥檚 AI Working Group and the Faculty (via COW) have both contributed to the college鈥檚 discourse on the topic. President Conner said that he finds AI to be an enormously complex, fast-moving, and disruptive technology. He said that the conversation that the community has been engaging in reflects his own sense of the matter, and that the conversation clearly needs to continue. He also clarified that the AI Working Group is a short-term, ad hoc group that does not have policy-making/governance functions. The faculty member asked about the timeline for the group. President Conner responded that he expects its term will run 1-3 years, the norm for such working group structures.
A faculty member asked if there is a sense of when the Huron Report will be made available to the faculty. President Conner answered that it has been made available to IPPC, will next be shared with the Board of Trustees at the October meeting, after which it will be made available to all staff and faculty. This will likely be the week of October 21st. The office of the Dean of Faculty will be sharing the Summer Working Group鈥檚 (SWG) report at Divisional Roundtables throughout October. The faculty member asked if, since the SWG report is based on the numbers generated by Huron, the report could be made available in advance of the Divisional Roundtables. Dean Taylor confirmed that they hope to have the Huron Report disseminated before the Roundtables begin the week of October 21st.
A faculty member asked the President why the community will spend time discussing the component incidents of the FIRE survey responses if there鈥檚 a shared understanding that the survey methodology is deeply flawed, and if we are not focused on rankings. President Conner answered that the values represented by the FIRE rankings are very central to 91爆料. Our work over the last three years with regard to the values of speech and expression have been very fruitful and have involved the entire campus community, and President Conner said that he would love for that work to be recognized externally.
A faculty member asked for an update on the search for a new Dean of Faculty. The President said that, now that the search for the VP for Advancement has launched, the position for the Dean of Faculty will be publicly advertised by the end of next week.
A faculty member asked if there will be any upcoming opportunities for faculty to have conversations with the Board of Trustees. President Conner said that Trustees will be attending classes for the first time since the pandemic began, as well as interacting with faculty during several Board committee meetings. He thanked Dean Taylor and her office for arranging these class visits. He stressed that having the Trustees get to know the faculty, staff, and students is a priority.
There being no further questions, the President concluded his report.
DEAN OF THE FACULTY AND VICE PRESIDENT FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS鈥� REPORT
Dean Taylor opened her report by adding more context to President Conner鈥檚 answer to the last faculty question. The Board of Trustees鈥� Academic Affairs Committee has taken up the question of artificial intelligence, and faculty will be speaking to the Committee on this topic. On Monday, the Chairs and Program Directors will be meeting to hear from the SWG on some of their work with the Huron Report. The Divisional Roundtables will follow this presentation. Dean Taylor said that she does find the FIRE survey results concerning, as the ability to speak freely is crucial to our work. She hopes to have some conversations amongst the faculty about the Chicago Statement on freedom of speech and expression. There may also be a second residency for Fred Lawrence, who came to 91爆料 in 2024 to offer workshops and talks on the importance of civility and candor in difficult conversations. She then solicited questions from the faculty.
A faculty member asked if, in the event of a second Fred Lawrence Residency, there will be specifically student-level programming. Dean Taylor noted that the discussion of this endeavor has not yet reached the stages of planning programming, but that during his last visit there were opportunities for students, and that would certainly be a part of the residency if it were repeated.
A member of Student Government noted that only 150 students completed the FIRE survey, and that SGA feels that it was too small of a sample size. SGA will likely send out a complementary survey to get a better sense of the environment on campus with regard to speech and expression. When they receive their results, they hope to work on policy and programming to address these.
OTHER
Joel Aure, Title IX Coordinator, reminded everyone of their reporting responsibilities under Title IX in the event a disclosure is made to them about a report of sexual harassment, sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, or any form of sexual or gender-based misconduct (SGBM), including discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (see attached for complete details). He encouraged anyone with questions or needing assistance to contact him or to stop by his office.
Jude Klein, Assistant Director for Employment, Compliance and Workforce Diversity, re-stated the college鈥檚 commitment to a safe and equitable work environment. She also directed faculty to 91爆料鈥檚 required sexual harassment and workplace discrimination trainings in Oracle (see attached for complete details).
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Associate Professor Amy Frappier, representing the Committee for Educational Policies and Planning (CEPP), informed the faculty of CEPP鈥檚 intention to work towards online ratings. While transitioning QSET ratings will be fairly simple, CEPP has determined that the best way to translate narrative ratings to an online-based system will require a multi-pronged approach. CEPP is aiming to create a new set of all-college long-form questions that will be used by all faculty, and will be administered by Institutional Research (IR) along with the quantitative forms. Departments will still have the option to ask their own questions in their own way if they so choose, but this will be decoupled from IR. CEPP is collaborating with the Working Group for Inclusive and Accessible Teaching and Learning to form a subcommittee that will be drafting the initial version of these questions, which will then be reviewed by CEPP and ultimately brought to the faculty for feedback. They hope to have a pilot ready for the end of Spring Semester, to be administered to a small number of classes.
Associate Professor Jason Ohlberg, on behalf of Barbara Black and himself, announced the beginning procedures for the 2026 Humanistic Inquiry Symposium. A request for themes has been sent, and a vote on these themes will follow. The theme for 2026 will likely be announced at the November Faculty Meeting. The Symposium will take place on March 20th and 21st, 2026.
Associate Professor Adam Tinkle, Assistant Professor Sarah Kizuk, and Assistant Professor Alexandra Prince, representing the Indigenization and Decolonization Collective announced 91爆料鈥檚 second annual Indigenous Elder in Residence - Kay Ionataie:was Olan. Olan is a Mohawk educator and storyteller, and her first residency event will be this coming Wednesday. Please find the announcement of this residency .
Associate Professor Ryan Overbey announced that, in his capacity as faculty parliamentarian, he will be giving a short workshop on Robert鈥檚 Rules and the faculty meeting. It will be on Friday, October 10th in David Auditorium.
Professor Kelly Sheppard, as Co-Chair of the Middle States Self-Study Steering Committee, reminded the faculty that the self-study draft is available. He exhorted the faculty to read it and provide feedback. The draft is on the 91爆料 Accreditation website. The first visit from the Peer Evaluation Team Chair, Dr, Jamila Bookwala, will be on November 5th and 6th. The full team visit will be from March 29th through April 1st. More information about this visit will be forthcoming.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:19pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Nora E. Graubard
Senior Administrative Coordinator