SOS Fall Faculty Assembly – Dec 3, 2007

Faculty Present: Silvia Bigatti, Pavel Belher, Dean Bill Bosron, Ben Boukai, Ray, Chin, Pam Crowell, Andy Gavrin, Will Geller, Bruce Kitchens, Kathleen Marrs, Michal Misiuresicz, Bart Ng, Meeta Pradhan, Steve Randall, Rajeev Raje, Jay Siegel, Jesse Stewart, David Stocum, John Watson, Jeff Watt, Jane Williams

UL Auditorium

1. SR called the meeting to order at 11:05.

2. Approved the Spring 2007 Assembly minutes.

3. Current agenda – added Kathy Marrs to the business agenda – agenda approved with the one addition.

4. Andy Gavrin provided the first Dean’s report. Enrollment tracking – Fall # 65400 credit hours for the current semester, things look up for the Spring – perhaps 3% +. At an all time high in the #’s of majors. Graduation numbers are also up and may be close to 300 graduates this year. Commencement for this year will change as the Dome is not available. Two ceremonies will be held, the SOS will be from 3-4:30, the SOS ceremony and hooding will occur at from 5-6:30 in The Sagamore Ballroom. The breakfast hooding ceremony is being eliminated. More information will come in the future. Introduced the curriculum issue of what to do with the Jr/Sr integrator credits. The course is being suspended and so the faculty should really decide what to do with these hours and put it into the bulletin. Dean Gavrin did not suggest a solution, but is encouraging the faculty to determine the best solution. Departments should submit proposals to the Ed Policies committee.

5. Pam Crowell provided her report to the faculty. Grants and Contracts are fairly steady and so far this year we have more awards and more money than at this point last year. Many new opportunities for research collaborations across the campus, state, and country. Successful open houses with the signature centers. Met with scientists at Argonne National Labs to discuss research connections. Met with Dean Vitter at PWL, the Purdue Trustees recently visited and resulted in a positive visit, and are meeting with Pres. Cordova on Jan 3^rd. Many new internal research funding opportunities were discussed. Signature Center proposals will be awarded in January, 7 will be supported across the campus. Graduate program updates – the Biostatistics PhD will be voted on by the IU Trustees this coming Thursday. Forensic Sciences MS is under review by the Purdue Graduate Council. NSF grant to support 11 graduate fellows between science and medicine would be teaching in the middle or high schools in the area. The proposal looks promising.

6. Dean Bosron reminded faculty about the Dean candidate on campus. Faculty searches: Chemistry Chair search – 2 candidates remain: Jay Siegel and Tom Hurley. Chemistry faculty search and are in negotiations with a candidate. Director of the Center for Regenerative Biology and Medicine and are currently negotiating with Gunther Zupanc and will be here for a second interview next week. The earth sciences search will be restarted for this next year. The searches in math are ongoing.

7. Budget Deficit – 1.2M remain and should be out of debt in 2 years. Restrictions on hiring and growth in general fund budgets will remain through next year. Credit hours income remain strong, grant income is flat (in a difficult time). We will receive an additional 400K in base income from lab fees next year. Are continuing to work on enrollment shaping and increasing non-resident tuition.

8. Taxation – paid 200K in enrollment shaping in the Fall, the President’s tax seems to be on hold this year. A proposal has been made to have a flat tax that would support infrastructure, it would be on expenditures. Recently heard that there may be two tax rates; undergraduate and graduate. Need to stay on this issue closely.

9. Innovation Center – major construction in 09-11 budget cycle, 250K sq ft. Science would get 50K sq ft., so would Engineering, and the Kelley School would get the lion’ share. Our space would likely include teaching labs, earth science, regenerative biology, forensic sciences, and animal housing.

10. Questions to the Deans – MM raised the issue of taxation/appropriation. The issue is consistently being raised and needs to be continued by the incoming Dean. BN asked about how we will search in the future without start up funds and how are we covering the current searches/hires. WB noted that start up funds have been generated in multiple ways to cover the current hires. The enthusiasm for the flat tax is going down across the campus. Jay Siegel communicated that a private institute that trains police officers and the director wants to retire but remain as a consultant. They have approached Jay about taking over the IFI. Could raise money for faculty to teach courses. It’s non-profit and wouldn’t be a drain on the school and looks like a win-win for the school. BB requested that we look very closely at it to make sure there are not hidden costs – or something that gets us away from our School goals. WB feels strongly that we should look at it, but clearly need to stay true to our mission. JW raised the issue of the Jr/Sr integrator course. Suggests we should look at where the three hours came from, look back to GenEd (2 courses in one discipline). Also suggested that we should think about the role of foreign language. BN asked about the process for proposals to the Ed policies committee. A discussion could take place at the school level to identify proposals which would go back to departments. It is a school level rather than department level decision. JW reminded us that we should be talking with Liberal Arts so that students who transfer between schools or double major would have similar requirements for those 3 hours.

11. Business Agenda for the Day : Pam Crowell introduced making Research Committee and Graduate Committee Standing Committees. Finally, to remove the graduate education and programs responsibilities from the Ed Policy committee. The Ed Policy committee would be focused solely on undergraduate issues. It would get renamed the Undergraduate Education Committee. KM asked that we leave “policy” in the name. DS asked if the research and graduate committee could be combined. PC responded that the work load for the Research committee has increased substantially and probably can’t also include graduate education issues. John Watson discussed the administrative review changes. Idea passed that we include NTFF in the administrative reviews. Proposal is to remove the phrase “voting faculty” to be “faculty”. BN asked for clarification about who is reviewed and who is currently included. Asked that we specify lecturers and senior lecturers in this section. JW noted that these are defined in the first section of the bylaws. Kathy Marrs introduced a resolution on community college transfer credits. Will go in front of the faculty council tomorrow. Limit the # of credits a student can transfer in to 64 hours. It ranges currently across campus from 60-90. This proposal would make the limit consistent across campus. No concerns or comments were raised – all present were in favor of the resolution.

12. Update on the Dean’s Search. No comments or questions were raised.

13. Pres. Cordova will meet with the SOS and Engineering – January 3^rd 10-12 pm in the IT Auditorium. SR asked for agenda issues. BN noted that she requested this meeting and she was here for the Purdue Trustees meeting. She was very interested in what Purdue gets out of this relationship. WB thinks that we should raise some issues to her to think about prior to the meeting. BN asked about the format of the meeting – WB believes we have input to this. WB suggested that she will come with some remarks prepared, but will also be open to a question and answer session.

14. Committee Reports - SR asked if the library committee had gotten a response to the letter. MM has two remarks – serial costs increase is larger than the library budget. Wonders how the numbers add up. Does not like the focus on assessment and wants us to do our work. AG asked how the Assessment Committee came about. SR noted that it was an adhoc committee that became a standing committee in the recent past. SR asked about the technology committee and how tech fees were being assessed on the graduate students. This was the first year that the grad students were charged a tech fee. An 1/8 of the tech funds will be from the grad students. PC noted that the graduate students are also wondering where it came from. It was not a decision of the faculty, Deans, or students.

15. SR concluded the meeting at 12:51.

Minutes submitted by Jane R Williams, SOS Faculty Secretary