skip to main content Indiana State University University Faculty Senate Committee # 12 Approved April 19, 2007 March 29, 2007 Minutes Indiana State University Faculty Senate 2006-07 Present: Brian Ceh, Bob English, Julie Fine, Arthur Halpern, Betsy Hine, Susan Hoffman, Harriet Hudson Absent: Bill Clyburn, Larry Kunes, Tom Sawyer, Rich Schneirov, Linda Sperry Meeting was called to order by chair Hudson at 3:40. There was no quorum. Agenda: 1. Approval of the minutes of March 15, 2007 ( - - ) No quorum 2. Reports: Academic Affairs liaison: Bob English reported that they have finished their evaluations of 3, 4, and 5-year pre-tenure faculty. There were 22 cases of inconsistency in this year’s evaluations so much time was spent on this task. Discussion followed about this process and there were many questions about what needed to happen to help the consistency of decisions. Perhaps this committee needs to address this early next year. For example, where does the PTOC come into the process? Offers are currently being made to new faculty. There have been some failed searches. A few searches are still ongoing. Executive Committee liaison: Arthur Halpern reported. Provost reported on the search for VP of Enrollment Management. Finalists should be able to be scheduled in May. Tom Ramey chairs this. There was discussion about and concern over campus website and the fact that the web oversight committee has been inactive for awhile. Bill Herndon will talk to EC next time. Ed Kinley spoke to this issue. ITAC does have a subcommittee to deal with this. They are meeting soon and will bring a recommendation back to ITAC. Progress is being made on this. Enrollment seems to be flat so budget projections will be very conservative. The Academic Integrity Policy and Procedures document was again revised and approved. Gen Ed Task Force is being formed to study that issue and could give a report in Jan ‘08. Main concern of the committee is the lack of specificity in the document from the Provost’s Office. He Chairperson: Harriet Hudson attended the PPARC meeting and the budget was discussed. The House bill currently moving forward calls for an increase of about 1.5% but projected increase in utilities, compensation, etc. will be more than that. Some other indicators that compare enrollment activity seem to be improved. Students seem to be applying to more institutions so the fact that we have more applications might not necessarily mean more students overall in the fall. There was some discussion about the faculty grade distribution being publicized on the web and the possible benefits and problems associated with that. It is public information but is that sort of information really appropriate for open access on the web? 3. Old Business: Evaluation of on-line courses. Next meeting 4. New Business: Proposal for new faculty orientation (Ed Kinley). Version 8 was previously distributed. It is not our responsibility to address the syllabus but FAC can address the concept and the process of input for the content of the syllabus. While it’s too late to change or address the syllabus itself for this year, we would like to address the concept, the duration of the orientation, etc. and make comments in a more timely manner next year for the ‘08 orientation. Ed read a document from TAFFY that recommended that the proposed syllabus be for basic, truly entry level new faculty in some disciplines. There were some questions about the compensation that is proposed since the new faculty member could get a class load reduction. Different models were discussed. Couldn’t it be done online? Department chairs suggested using that group as a sounding board for future developments of this program. Couldn’t the time of the sessions be decided once schedules are done? The F07 program should be looked at very critically during the fall including by the participants and some careful consideration given for a modification of this document and make comments before the final syllabus comes out. It seems certain that future versions of this program need to contain several combinations of and a more varied content. There needs to be a mentoring component for example and perhaps this could be addressed even before next year. It was suggested that this Fall07 document needs to be called a pilot program. Certainly we need to be addressing how we can better retain new faculty. Harriet Hudson will draft a motion which will be sent out electronically for a vote. FAC members should read these minutes and take the discussion above into account and then act once the “motion” is distributed. Some kind of non-compensated attendance in a revised program should be included. Background check document: This document just came to FAC and VP Floyd would like to have approval of it through the Senate before the year is over but because FAC cannot act on anything today that is not likely to happen before fall. Chair Hudson distributed this document to FAC via e-mail. Harriet Hudson will check with the committee about having the next meeting April 19 instead of April 12. It will be essential that we have a quorum so that a decision can be made on the background check document. Meeting adjourned at 5:35. Respectfully submitted, Betsy Hine, Secretary Last modified: September 11, 2008 Copyright © 2007 by Indiana State University.