After a faculty vote of 97-20, the DePauw Dialogue has been made an annual event until 2020. This vote was the first of those held on Monday at the last faculty meeting of the 2015-16 school year.
The second vote of the meeting, which ultimately passed, involved the creation of a major, minor and program in Global Health, presented by Professor and Chair of the Curricular Review Committee, David Guinee. Two directors would help lead the program: one in the sciences and one in social sciences. Furthermore, The Global Health program, major and minor “encourages” students to be proficient in a foreign language.
President-elect Mark McCoy also made an announcement regarding first-year admissions for next year. He said that the number of incoming first-year students, which was revealed Tuesday morning following the midnight deadline for deposits, and the amount of revenue collected from deposits, were lower than expected.
Inclusion continued to be a popular topic at the meeting. Professor Glen Kuecker introduced a motion to include an understanding and dedication to diversity and inclusion as part of faculty review by the Committee on Faculty. He said this motion was a result of student demands that teachers also need to be committed to the fight for equality on DePauw’s campus. Kuecker said this requirement would aid professors in “building and developing the pedagogies . . . that we need in our liberal arts education.” An 82-31 vote determined that this would be put into action.
Other business included information on changes to the faculty handbook, which will be voted on in the fall. It was also determined at the meeting that first-year seminars will not count as part of the Power, Privilege and Diversity requirement that will be put into place next year.
Also announced at the meeting was that a group of professors will be attending a week-long seminar with the Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity (SEED) project. The participating faculty members will then take part in nine monthly meetings regarding the content of the seminars in order to improve faculty understanding of issues of diversity and inclusion on college campuses.
The meeting ended with celebratory measures, including a light-hearted “motion” to thank outgoing University President Brian Casey for his contributions to DePauw. This motion was informally “voted” on by the faculty present with a round of applause. Computer science professor Douglas Harms was also presented with a teaching award.