Steering Committee Minutes – September 5, 2007

 

Present: Voting Members: Silvia Bigatti (Psych), William Bosron (Dean), William Geller (Math), Kathy Licht (Earth Sciences), Snehasis Mukhopadhyay (CS), Steve Randall (President), BD Rao (Phy), John Watson (Bio). Non-Voting Ex-Officio Members: Ray Chin (Past-President), Pam Crowell (Associate Dean), Andy Gavrin (Associate Dean), Jane Williams (Secretary). Absent: Stephanie Sen (Chem)

 

11:05   President Randall opened the Steering Committee Meeting.

 

1.      The current meeting agenda was approved. The minutes of the 5-18-07 meeting were approved.

2.      Introduction of members.

3.      SR noted that a role of the committee members is communication to faculty and bringing issues of concern from the faculty to the committee, administrative reviews, other bylaw changes, and advise the Dean on budgetary issues.

4.      SR addressed the issue that the administrative reviews have not all been completed. Not all reports and chair meetings have taken place. Perhaps translating the data into graphical analysis was time consuming. DB has agreed to pay some graduate students take the data and create the appropriate tables. RC suggested that computer science undergraduates could do the training. For the future, the suggestion was to create an excel file for the future. Jane Williams will oversee the graduate students and department representatives will complete the verbatim, and NTTF and staff responses.

5.      Need to start thinking about next years review. Should try to get the surveys out in December.

6.      SR noted that the SC needs to be participating in the search process for the new Dean. He suggested that the SC should perhaps meet with the Chair of the search committee and let him know of the faculty concerns. WG asked about the stage of the search process. BR stated that there are 13 applications currently. Deadline for applications is Sept 15. All applications are currently external. Targeted letters have been sent out and an ad has run over the summer. SR asked if the SC would like to make a statement or have some input. We will request that Greg Lindsey, chair of the search committee, attend the next SC meeting. Jane Williams will contact Greg Lindsey to see if he can attend.  PC noted that faculty really want to participate in the process and meet with the candidates. The committee generally discussed the process of campus interviews. SOS will be responsible for the cost of the search. The SC would like to meet with the Exec. Vice Chancellor to have some input to the process. There is some concern regarding the financial package that would attract a successful candidate for the position. Also, once the search committee comes up with a short list, how will the list be handled by upper administration? Members of the search committee indicated they would like to meet in person with upper administration to go over the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates and other issues to ensure that they take into consideration the opinions of the search committee. Several faculty felt that we should ask to submit a ranked list. The SC will also ask for knowledge of the decision before it is made public. AG noted that another suggestion was for members of the search committee to visit the campus of origin for a small number of candidates. The search committee will be meeting with Chancellor Bantz and the Exec. Vice Chancellor to discuss these issues on Sept 24.

7.      DB suggested that there are multiple reasons to meet with the Executive Vice Chancellor beyond the search, so perhaps we should try to set up a meeting with him. The SC will try to have the EVC attend the Oct 17th meeting.

8.      Suggestion to try and have SOS faculty meet with the new Presidents at IUB and PWL. DB felt we should be proactive and seek them out. Invitations should be sent out this semester. KL suggested that there should be an agenda for these meetings rather than an open format. McRobbie is meeting with the Deans soon to discuss IUB/IUPUI relations.

9.      Bylaw changes for this year. The goal will be to get all proposed changes ready for vote by the Fall assembly. First is the inclusion of NTTF and staff in administrative reviews. The second change would be to formalize three committees: Graduate Education, Research, and Diversity Committee. Each committee will need to identify the duties of the committee. Formalizing the first committee will require changes to the Ed Policies Committee as it is currently constructed. PC, chair of the first two committees, will work on that issue. SB will construct a draft for the Diversity Committee. The diversity committee is new and was originally constructed at the request of Karen Whitney.

10.  An issue held over from last year was the Student Satisfaction Surveys. RC, SR, DB, AG and John Kremer met to discuss some of these issues. P&T and awards are two contexts in which these data might be used.  A discussion occurred about how the numerical data are currently used and that it is the faculty member’s responsibility to document evidence of teaching and these numbers are easy to obtain. SR noted that a bigger concern might be for awards, merit etc. that they be used as evidence of learning, etc. AG noted that individuals seeking an award need to document in multiple ways their effectiveness.  DR suggested that it is hard to develop a single method that would fit all departments and he suggested that it should be handled uniquely at the Department level.

11.  SR wanted to suggest that Nominations and Awards often do not meet with success and he would like to see the list of nominations that need to be made each year so that they can be met more easily. The chair of that committee has not yet been identified.

12.  DB news: There are 5 other Dean’s searches ongoing on campus (School of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences, Liberal Arts, Optometry, SPEA, Physical Education), 3 Vice Chancellor positions (Administration & Finance; Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion; Research), and an Associate Vice Chancellor for Lifelong Learning.  Within the school, there are 5 faculty searches: Chemistry Chair and faculty member, Director of the Center for Regenerative Biology, Earth Sciences Faculty member, and one within the Math Signature Center. McRobbie has formed a Dean’s council that includes IUB and IUPUI Deans and is initially focusing on the relations between the campuses. DB feels this is in part a result of the IUPUI faculty council letter sent last spring. The EVC is continuing with signature center applications, enrollment shaping, and action teams. Enrollment shaping includes less prepared student admits. A summer math course offered this summer influenced the number of students admitted which will positively influence our statistics. The EVC is also hoping to increase the % of students that are non-resident students. Some of the money brought in above the stated goal would be money given to the school outside of RCM. A potential problem for the SOS might be capacity of courses, etc. A new proposal about how assessments are handled was just communicated to the Dean, but this information is rather new and more details will come in the future.

13.  PC and AG news:    

 

AG mentioned that enrollment is up slightly (1.6% in credit hours). Freshman class is very strong in terms of academic credentials, are consistent with IUB and PWL numbers. Faculty search will ensue in math and/or science education that comes out of a CTE Grant. This position could come out of any department. The faculty member will be a member of that department. Tenure track will focus on scholarly work within teaching.

 

PC communicated about a number of upcoming events. 1) NSF grant workshop at Butler on Nov. 5th 2) Signature Center applications due in early October. 3) Open House on Oct 26th for Signature Centers. 4) Graduate Student Recruitment opportunities that include IUB, especially under-represented areas. 5) Research workshop/retreat will be held this Fall. PG will look for input at the next meeting to identify topics for the retreat. Finally, PC noted that Ora Pescovitz is now a Vice President focusing on research administration for IUB and IUPUI. This will mean that the entire oversight of grants for IUPUI researchers will be handled on this campus.