The FCP met with Dr. White in Founders Hall on Wednesday, December 2, at 4:00PM.

Minutes:

A list of questions was sent to the FCP. Dr. White, would you be open to addressing
questions in a Town Hall meeting sponsored by the FCP? This could be a good way to
build trust and provide transparency between faculty and administration. Dr. White
would be glad to hold a town hall, but the FCP does not need to sponsor such events. He
will work toward scheduling two for next semester, if the FCP could help with
determining the best time to offer these, that would be a helpful perspective.
FCP committee would like to sponsor a Brown Bag luncheon to introduce our committee
to faculty. This could be a good way for faculty to get to know their faculty
representatives better. Feel free to proceed, and this may be a good way to gather input
from the faculty. Dr. White would like feedback on the following: 1) How is our new
automated advising system for students working from the faculty’s perspective? 2) He
also would like to know more about faculty scholarship in their given disciplines. As he
understands it, each department and school was asked to develop a list of acceptable
scholarship achievements that would suffice for tenure and promotion considerations.
To his knowledge this process was never completed. Could the FCP find out how that is
coming in each school/department and bring Dr. White suggestions for how it looks
across the board, i.e., even or uneven relative expectations given the differences in
disciplines.
Some faculty asked for clarity on the role of Director of Integration. In the previous FCP
minutes, some faculty were surprised to see criteria for integration (excluded, included,
and redeemable). These criteria also showed up on the strategic planning survey. Could
you speak to the process of creating these three criteria? This is a work in progress.
Clarity will be forthcoming as the Vice President for Academics has been and will
continue to work with the Academic Leadership Group, the Center for Biblical
Integration, and the committee responsible for recommending tenure and promotions.
He has received good, constructive feedback already.
Dr. White asked Dr. Mach to include those questions in the survey so that he
could gauge faculty perspective on this issue, and he is pleased that the majority of our
faculty feel comfortable with expressing a biblical worldview and interacting with their
given disciplines. That input is helpful and part of the process. No need for alarm as
these questions were part of an ongoing process and an opportunity for broad input
based on a desire to include everyone into the decision making process where possible.
In regards to keeping faculty informed and educated about faith integration, what are
your thoughts on the FCP sponsoring a forum on Integration across disciplines? Past
Integration of Faith Faculty Award recipients could be called upon to present at this

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forum. Dr. White has already asked the Vice President for Academics, who is working
with the Center for Biblical Integration, and the Academic Leadership Group on biblical
integration to take the lead on this. At the moment, anyone desiring to have specific
input should work through his or her Dean or Chair.
Some faculty are concerned about possible differences between their understanding of
shared governance and the trustees, given the different language between faculty and
trustees in last year’s documents.

FCP members have met with President White on two occasions to explain some of the
recent history of the call for shared governance, faculty fears, and why some faculty are
so concerned about shared governance. President White said that he does not plan to
do anything more with shared governance because it is his understanding that current
Handbook policy satisfies the HLC requirements. He believes that further discussion of
the issue could create distrust and be divisive.

Some faculty inquired about university letterhead stationery without the CU motto to
use when they are recommending students to grad schools and programs that are
hostile toward Christianity. This would be a question for the appropriate Dean or Chair
and for General Reno as the Vice President for Academics (Interim) to discuss with ALG
for equitable handling across all areas. Following the chain of command adds value,
knowledge of specific budget resources, potential solutions to problems, and following
chain of command demonstrates respect to the people assigned those responsibilities.
It would be an overstep of authority for Dr. White to weigh in on this before others in
the chain of command have had the appropriate opportunity to do so.

Some faculty still had questions about the CCCU and our possible departure. It was
stated that “CU belongs to other organizations that do not share our beliefs such as:
Honor’s Society’s, NCAA, OIC”. What are your thoughts on this? Those institutions are
not “Christian” institutions, so they do not pose the same theological compromise or
legal liability. We plan to continue membership in those and other organizations
because we must continue to engage culture and not retreat from culture wherever we
can do so without compromise.
Some faculty inquired about getting hand rails for internal chapel steps. Dr. White will
pass the request along to our Vice President for Business for his consideration.
Some faculty inquired about the chalk on the buildings. Could this lead to more
permanent graffiti? The chalk on the buildings was not authorized, but Dr. White doubts
the people who did it are likely to pull out spray paint next. He suspects they would
have done spray paint first if they had malicious intentions. The chalk said, “you are
loved.” That’s not the typical attitude reflected in harmful graffiti. Dr. White thinks we

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should all pause to thank God that our students want to write, “you are loved” and not
something else for their faculty members. He can imagine more than a few schools that
deal with choice words for faculty members and extreme disrespect among students.
And we should recognize that winter is looming, which means very few students will be
outside for the length of time a project of that nature would take. He wouldn’t give
much thought to this one.
Some faculty inquired about a plan for more women being promoted to chair and
administrator positions. Most members of the faculty believe this is necessary for a
healthy, diverse work environment. We hire the best person for the position. Dr. White
believes we have an excellent group of men and women serving in chair/Dean and
administrator positions that serve God and Cedarville well. He has the utmost
confidence in our current leaders’ ability to create a healthy work environment.
In our previous meeting, we were assured that CU is not at risk with the lack of
separation between student counseling and student life. But many faculty are still
expressing concern and pointing to a federal lawsuit filed against The University of
Oregon, student life director, director of counseling, and VP of student life for sharing
confidential student information without the student’s written consent. Can we be
certain practices are currently in place to prohibit confidentiality issues in our own
counseling center? Dr. White is aware of the January 2015 lawsuit filed by a student
against Oregon University and the $800,000 settlement as well as two other lawsuits
filed in that case. The University of Oregon’s case is too complicated for elaborate
discussion here. As stated in our last meeting, we have the appropriate safeguards in
place. Dr. White thanks the FCP for making sure he is aware of the University of Oregon
Case, and he wants us to know that he watches the Chronicle of Higher Education and
other higher education news outlets closely.
Some faculty feel the cost of study abroad has simply become prohibitive. For example,
study abroad in England this summer is now in excess of $8,000. What can/will the
university do to help combat this? Scholarships? Dr. White will have someone look into
this more, but currently there are no plans to subsidize one program at the expense of
others.