Present: Holt (recorder), Chilton, Forward, Pi Sunyer, Samuels, Page, Joseph, Perez, Krause, Dambach, Stewart, Douyard, Montezgudo, Lixandra, Kasper, Woods, Labrador, Lewis, Bauer-Clapp, Hart, Henderson, Harper, King, Matarazzo, Paynter, Walker Johnson, Sievert, Sugerman, Ventum

Meeting was called at 3:35 pm

Agenda:  Finalize job descriptions for archaeology and linguistic positions (editing of draft circulated by Chilton after preliminary department meeting on August 31 2006), form committees for both searches, and vote on committees.

Chilton confirmed that Dean Rifkin has approved starting process to search, although funding is not yet approved.

Archaeology position

Oriol/Sugerman propose changing “specifically” to “preferably” so as to broaden emphasis on ethnic horizon

Paynter: Reorder bullets
Page: “Geographical focus on the Americas” should be first bullet
Much discussion went on regarding the issue of the focus on the Americas: Specifically, does this focus mean that the candidate’s research must be exclusively in the Americas?
For instance, Lewis asked whether a candidate’s work on African slave trade in Africa disqualifies the candidate.
Page and Wobst reminded us of our desire to strengthen our focus on the Americas and that broadening the phrasing of the ad would make the selection process more difficult.
In the end, the phrasing adopted was “have at least one geographical focus on the Americas and a commitment to building a program in the Americas”

Discussion also involved the January 3 date as a deadline and whether the AAA should be used for the beginning of the selection process. Chilton reminded us that the department decided in the late 1980’s not to do screening at AAA because it is unfair to candidates who cannot attend the conference.
An additional problem is that we will not be ready to screen by AAA because of the bureaucratic process (a November deadline would not give enough time if funds are not available until end of October.
Chilton proposed a motion that the search committee be in charge of deciding on an appropriate date. Motion was approved.

Linguistic position
Samuels proposed that the last line in the third paragraph be replace with “latino, indigenous and other bilingual communities”
Page responded that it is too restrictive: use “multilingual communities”
Sentence now reads:.” ..institutionalized discourses of education and socialization and multilingual communities”
Series of proposed editorial changes to bullets
Samuels asked that 3rd bullet be moved to top of third paragraph
Bullet 3 has been eliminated  (combined with 3rd paragraph)
(Wobst: let the minutes show general elation!!)

Lewis asked why topical area of research is open and argued that it gives too much power to committee to make ranking decisions
Phrasing was replaced with: “The department has a strong preference for research that addresses…”

A question was asked about the last bullet (integration in racialized communities)
Page argued that this is an important point to include because candidate needs to be doing service, not just scholarship
Krause raised the concern that we need to be mindful of the fact that the administration does not regard activism in tenure cases, they care about publication/scholarship, so the search committees need to pay attention to that
Samuels proposed to reinsert second bullet (record of research, teaching and community service) to reflect emphasis on service in addition to scholarship
A bullet was added:  demonstrates a willingness to serve language communities through their research.
Krause asked that bullets be reorganized as was done with the bullets in the archaeo add

Nominations:
Linguistic position
Holt was nominated, but had to decline (will not be present in January)
Samuels: chair
Urla
Pi Sunyer
Lisa Green (Linguistic Department), alternate of Theresa Austin
Sweetapple (grad rep)
Stewart (grad rep)

Archaeology position
Paynter: Chair
Sugerman
Page
Lewis (grad rep)
Hart (grad rep)

Both committees were approved unanimously, with  no abstentions
Meeting was adjourned at 5 pm.