Executive Board
Meeting Minutes
May 11, 2004 | 3:00-5:00 p.m.
107 Lab of Mechanics
Present: B Allen (Provost);
S. Agarwal (FS President); C. Baldwin (FS President-Elect); S. Carlson
(Provost's Office); S. Crase (FDAR Council Chair); J. Girton (RPA
Chair); C. Heising (Engineering Caucus Chair); G. Palermo (Academic
Affairs Council Chair); J. Maves (Design Caucus Chair); G. Phye (Education
Caucus Chair); B. Robinson (Judiciary and Appeals Council Chair);
E. Thacker (Vet Med Caucus Chair); D. Vrchota (Governance Council
Chair); T. Zanish-Belcher (FS Secretary)
Absent: B. Yang (Agriculture
Caucus Chair); B. Mennecke (Business Caucus Chair); Anne Marie Fiore
(Family and Consumer Sciences Caucus Chair); A. Van Der Valk (Liberal
Arts and Sciences Caucus Chair)
Call to Order - 3:10 p.m.
Agarwal called the meeting
to order at 3:15 p.m.
Introductions - 3:10 p.m.
The group introduced themselves.
Consent Agenda - 3:10
p.m.
Agenda
Minutes, Executive Board,
April 20, 2004
Girton moved, Phye seconded
and the consent agenda was approved.
Announcements and Remarks
- 3:15 p.m.
President
Agarwal welcomed the new
and old members. He is still compiling reports from the successful
spring conference. He met with President Geoffroy and discussed the
budget situation, especially in regards to raises, it looks like we
will be in the red. Will result in cuts in the colleges, especially
in regards to faculty lines.
Phye noted there was no
overall strategy, but each college handles it on its own. Difficult
to see full picture. Majority of money is in salaries. Palermo noted
the tendency to delete open lines, a chipping away at permanent faculty.
Tenured faculty are not expendable, and so you rely on P & S,
graduate assistants, not tenure line hires. Also, relates to the NTT
numbers given at the last FS meeting by the Provost.
Agarwal asked what the
FS can do? Girton noted we don't have a lot of facts, so how can we
make recommendations? Teaching loads remain the same even if the faculty
leave, or are promoted into administration. Girton suggested Council
go over the departments who are heavily relying on NTT teaching, so
see what is really going on with specifics?
Carlson noted the Provost's
Office did ask some questions of the departments, and some did respond
in detail. She would be glad to share these responses. Carlson noted
Bloedel's suggestion to fund faculty positions with soft money. Palermo
noted that this might be possible with high-end research, but not
everywhere. Maves recommended that a complete campus survey of all
60 departments be completed. Palermo asked about College numbers and
whether anyone was below 15%. The numbers were not calculated that
way, but Carlson said some probably are.
The group also noted the
tendency for Deans to make budget decisions without faculty input.
Going to soft money is not an answer. Our quality is being lowered.
Carlson noted the data
is available from Institutional Research, but the questions need to
be specific. Agarwal plans to form a Task Force to look at this issue.
President-Elect
No announcement from the
President-Elect. S. Agarwal will be gone through June 21, and Baldwin
will be charge during that time period. Palermo asked about funding
for the spring conference. Agarwal did not spend much at the past
conference, so some funding may be available. Agarwal said he received
comments about liking the feeling of a “faculty academy.”
Provost
No remarks from the Provost's
office.
V. Governance Issues (Denise
Vrchota) -3:45 p.m.
A. Procedures
B. Handbook Committee
A copy of by-laws has
been sent to the Executive Board membership, as well as the Procedures
for Councils, such as electing a president and secretary. Copies of
minutes, agendas, and other documents should be sent to both Tanya
Zanish-Belcher (FS Secretary) and Sherri Angstrom (Office Secretary).
Councils should meet at
least once in the fall and has also sent a checklist to Caucus chairs
and distributed a chart laying out the Faculty Senate Committee Structure.
As Past President chairs
the Handbook Committee, and Jack is chairing a council, should we
look for someone else? Vrchota noted that in 2005, the Governance
documents need to be reviewed, starting January 2005, and also conduct
a census of the faculty to determine at-large Senator positions. Girton
agreed to continue as needed.
VI. Review of Council
Agendas for the year -4:00 p.m.
Report from each Council
chair about old and new business
Academic Affairs:
Noted recent report that
has been sent, and revisions for the catalog are coming through FS
Curriculum Committee. The temporary enrollment language will take
awhile to review. There will also be an international perspectives
and diversity review with questions about the review of courses, enriched
objectives, assessment based—the guidelines should be forthcoming.
ISUComm currently includes 27 courses. Principles will be included
in the catalog, but we need to call for the Colleges to approve.
The Provost arrived near
the end of this discussion.
Procedural issue: the
signing of add/drop slips, in-person appt. should be left out as a
convenience. There will also be a review of academic probation, probably
not done in time for the fall.
Agarwal noted he has received
a request concerning students about having 3 exams on one day. Requires
explicit explanation from the faculty to the student, should the burden
be part of the faculty, or in the student handbook?
There was a brief discussion
relating to making the catalog available online as part of the new
Policy Library. It would be important to have an electronic archive
for the catalog to make it available to students, in addition to a
permanent, paper copy.
Judiciary and Appeals:
Ford's final report has
been sent and cases will be heard this year. The report of the Promotion
& Tenure Procedural Review Task Force will also impact on J &
A. This has been discussed with President Geoffroy, and he is very
concerned about issues and problems such as double voting. The Task
Force will make recommendations.
There is still need for
policy relating to alternative appointment policy, currently nothing
handled in the Handbook
University Resources and
Policy Allocations:
Has met, trying to develop
planning based on the council's mission. Will try and review budget
process and impact of cuts over the past several years. Would like
to look at how to prepare for next budget cycle, and hopes to provide
both short term and long term advice. Will look at trends and ways
to convert strategic plan into budget action.
Palermo asked about the
status of differential tuition, is RPA involved in this discussion,
and how does it involve strategic plan and budget? Allen hopes by
the end of the summer, there will be a white paper, laying out a budget
model—multi-year planning, integrating the experiment station and
extension into the university, differential tuition, for the community
to respond to. Past cuts have been random, previous strategic plan
was more of an umbrella document, did not provide guidelines. How
do we have these discussions without wearing people out?
There is a need for institutional
memory—a need for am educated faculty group, without having to relearn
everything. The Board discussed issues relating to the general education
fund supporting the experiment station and extension—this is a very
big issue.
Governance:
Would like to examine
how the university is governed and the costs of transactions. Content
and process are both needed, and many times we don't have both. Governance
will look at these issues, possibly disseminated, in taking care of
non-disciplinary business.
For example, the Council
will follow an issue through university channels. How does FS policy
(administrative support)—go through President, how does it travel
to Deans, Dept. chairs, etc.?
How do we effect change?
The Board also discussed
the lack of faculty input for hiring administrators—official mechanism,
what should FS do in these situations? The Associate Provost position
was used as an example, there has been ad hoc handling of the situation.
There is a need for an official Senate role with actual participation.
Vrchota also recommended
the creation of a database of Senate business that would record previous
resolutions. This could be used by Committee and Task Force Chairs
and be available online.
Vrchota also noted the
need to continue working on the Old Faculty Values Network conflict
of interest policy. J & A did send something in, but can't remember
what has happened to it.
Finally, Governance is
gearing up for review of documents and the Faculty Census.
It was also noted the
President-Elect is Chair of the Committee on Committees.
There was a brief discussion
related to the Recruitment and Retention of Women and Minorities Report
and the Faculty Senate responses to it from the Faculty Development
and Administration Relations Council and FS Committee on Women and
Minorities subcommittee. It was agreed the 2 reports should be made
available on the website and it was also recommended that S. Crase,
as Chair of FDAR, work with the Provost's Office.
Baldwin moved, and Robinson
seconded that reports received by the Executive Board be posted within
1 week on the Faculty Senate website. Palermo raised the issue of
confidentiality.
VII. Summer Retreat (August
11)
Format and Agenda
VIII. Summer EB Meetings
Date and Time
IX. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned
at 5:10 p.m.
NEXT MEETING
June 29, 2004 3:10 -5:00
107 Lab of Mechanics
