Whitman professors, faculty and staff are often honored for their hard work throughout the year. Three of Whitman's faculty and staff members, featured here, have recently received huge acknowledgements of their projects and accomplishments.
Among the various types of faculty on the Whitman campus, the visiting professor holds an unusual place. Though most stay for only one year, there always seem to be plenty around.
In the past three years, the Whitman music department has undergone monumental shifts in its faculty, both tenure-track and temporary. After a recent decision to not rehire highly esteemed piano specialist Melissa Loehnig, some music students are questioning the policies of the administration and the nature of the tenure track at Whitman.
On Oct. 2, Health Center staff, with funding from the Human Resources Center, gave a free flu shot clinic to all staff and faculty members in hopes to make vaccination convenient and encourage people to stay healthy during flu season.
Trustees approved a two percent salary increase for college faculty and staff this year. The increase was recommended to the Board by President Bridges at a board meeting in November, and went into effect Sunday, Jan. 1.
Last June, Whitman was awarded a $644,000 grant from the Andrew J. Mellon Foundation that will allow eight faculty positions to be converted to tenure-track over a four-year period.
In order to help combat this problem of rising class sizes and course compression, the faculty voted in November to create a Curriculum Committee with the express purpose of coordinating the academic schedule across departments. When the committee was first proposed it included a student representative. This was done to have the insight of the students when making decisions about what times classes should be offered. In a later revision of the proposal, however, the provision for student representation was taken out over concerns about privacy.
Whitman faculty, feeling the stress of large course loads, advising and overseeing senior theses, are working on a proposal to decrease their teaching load.
A proposal from the Feasibility Study Committee...
