SOS Steering Committee Minutes

April 20, 2007

 

Present: Voting members: William Bosron (DEAN), Ray Chin (PRESIDENT), John Watson (BIOL), Stephanie Sen (Chem and Chem Biol), Mihran Tuceryan (CSCI), Kathy Licht (EARTH), Ron Ji, substituting for Will Geller (MATH), Durgu Rao (PHYSICS), Silvia Bigatti (PSYC).  Non-Voting Ex-Officio Members: Andy Barth (PAST PRESIDENT), Steve Randall (SECRETARY), Pam Crowell, (ASSOCIATE DEAN), Guests: Scott Orr, Regrets: Andy Gavrin (ASSOCIATE DEAN)

 

 

9:06 President Chin opened Steering Committee meeting.

 

Agenda was adopted and the minutes of 03-23-07 were approved.

 

We met with a representative of SOS staff (Scott Orr) regarding the participation of staff in the administrative reviews. He mentioned that the staff are pleased that we value their input and that he was asked to present their perspectives on the review.  There are three major concerns of staff regarding the admin reviews.

 

1)       They desire safeguards for anonymity.

2)       They suggest that responses to the Associate Deans Administrative reviews all be grouped together

3)       Concerns for anonymity in departmental reviews lead to a suggestion that staff and NTTF be grouped together.  Suggested the issues and responses by these two groups to be similar.  It was also suggested that the Deans office staff have input into departmental chairs reviews.

 

 

The lecturers also contributed to the discussion by way of a letter submitted by Bob Yost, which reflected opinions from six departments (all except Math). The major issues were that most were concerned about verbatim comments and numerical scores being reported to the chairs. They are not concerned about Dean evaluations. They are also pleased to be involved in the evaluations.

 

It was suggested (Barth) that we should collect the data and this year analyze it in two ways (grouped and non-grouped).  We will then have some basis to evaluate how to treat data in future.  It was agreed that we should do this.

 

It was also decided, in interest of time that the SAR would forward all raw data to the Dean.  The SAR will however, create a report to be submitted to the Dean and will meet with the Chairs to discuss the results.

 

 

How to maintain continuity in the administrative reviews was discussed.  It was thought that it might help to have consistent support from the Deans office. Joe Thompson was very helpful this year.  Also support from the past-president would be helpful (along with a SOS Steering Committee member).

 

The security level of material to be contained on the SOS new WEB site was raised.  Following discussion it was agreed that only the minutes should have additional security (pass worded) so that only SOS faculty have access. The  By-Laws, Tenure and promotion documents, etc. would all be open.  This will be communicated to Brenda Bishop (secretaries note, done 4-30-07].

 

J Watson discussed possible modifications to the By-laws (attached), which would make the mandate for administrative reviews to include the acquisition of feedback from all faculty (include both TTFs and NTTFs). After some discussion, it was decided to bring this up for discussion at the Faculty Assembly and have a vote later in summer or next fall.

 

 

 

An agenda was agreed upon for the spring faculty assembly to include: By-Law changes discussion, Discussion of the Deans search, and voting for next year’s secretary. 

 

In new Business: D. Rao discussed the dean search; Points raised during this discussion is that we should not repeat mistakes of the past, we must as a school recognize the importance and to take charge, faculty must be involved in the search, departmental reps to the search committee should consolidate power, that it must be made clear that adequate resources should accompany the position.   We should discuss these issues in the faculty assembly. 

 

The dean forwarded a note emphasizing that the school is underrepresented on the IU and IUPUI faculty councils (attached).  Other announcements included the new hires of several lecturers and tenure track faculty.

 

 

Meeting was adjourned at 10:55

Minutes approved: 5/18/07


Appendix I.

SECTION I. FACULTY

 

 

Subsection 1. Membership

 

 

 

The faculty of the Purdue University School of Science, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, henceforth known as the FACULTY, shall consist of VOTING FACULTY and NONVOTING FACULTY. Meetings of the faculty as a whole shall be known as FACULTY ASSEMBLIES.

 

 

 

The VOTING FACULTY shall consist of members of the School of Science holding full-time tenured or tenure-track academic appointments at professorial ranks, i.e., Professors, Associate Professors and Assistant Professors.

 

 

 

The NONVOTING FACULTY shall consist of members of the School of Science holding full-time academic appointments at non-professorial ranks, i.e., Senior Lecturers, and Lecturers, Research Scientist, Associate Scientist, and Assistant Scientist and members determined by the voting faculty to have faculty status. Emeritus members of the School of Science shall also be nonvoting faculty unless otherwise determined by the voting faculty to have voting status.

 


SECTION III. ADMINISTRATION

 

 

Subsection 4. Evaluation of Administrations

 

 

 

The Dean's Administration shall be evaluated on behalf of the faculty in prescribed academic years by the Subcommittee for Administrative Review (SAR), which will consist of the Departmental Steering Committee Representatives, the President of the Faculty, and the Secretary of the Faculty. While the mechanism for this evaluation may vary, the mechanism must:

 

a)   be approved by the SAR,

 

b)   be based on input from the Voting Faculty,

 

c)   evaluate the Dean's Administration in the context of the tasks for which it is responsible, and

 

d)   be able to produce results by July 1 at the end of the prescribed academic year.

 

 

 

Each Department's Administration will also be evaluated in prescribed academic years by the SAR on behalf of the faculty of the respective Departments. While the mechanism for this evaluation may vary, the mechanism must:

 

a)   be approved by the SAR,

 

b)   be applied to all Departments,

 

c)   be based on input from the Voting Faculty of the respective Departments,

 

d)   evaluate the Chair's Administration in the context of the tasks for which it is responsible, and

 

e)   be able to produce results by July 1 at the end of the prescribed academic year.

 

 

 

 


Ray and Steve

 

Charles Bantz stressed the importance of having good faculty serve on the IUPUI and IU faculty councils.  I would like for the Steering Committee to discuss tomorrow methods to actively encourage faculty to serve on these committees from the School of Science.

 

Bill

 

William F. Bosron, Ph.D.

Interim Dean, School of Science

Chancellor's Professor and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis

wbosron@iupui.edu

 

 

From: Banta, Trudy W.

Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2007 3:44 PM

To: Bailey, Darrell L; Banta, Trudy W.; Bantz, Charles R; Bosron, William F.; Brater, D. Craig; Broome, Marion E; Brown, James W; Callison, Daniel J.; Cronin, Blaise; Eickmeier, Valerie A; Elmore, Garland C.; Evenbeck, Scott E; Froehlich, Janice C.; Goldblatt, Lawrence I; Gonzalez, Gerardo M.; Heller, William G; Irwin, Marilyn; Kellum Jr, Paul Nicholas; Lewis, David W.; Lindsey, Greg H.; Lowther, Gerald Eugene; Martin, Robert E; McDaniel, Craig; Mead, Susanah M; Merget, Astrid Elizabeth; Merrill, Henry S; Murtadha, Khaula H.; Patchner, Michael; Paydar, Nasser H.; Peters, George D; Richards, Gwyn; Schmenner, Roger W.; Sothmann, Mark S.; Sukhatme, Uday P; Tempel, Eugene R; Warner, Amy Conrad; White, Robert W.; Whitney, Karen M.; Wilson, Sherree A; Woods, Shelton; Yurtseven, H. Oner

Subject: UFC Membership

 

During the April meeting of the Deans’ Council, someone asked how many representatives IUPUI has on the University Faculty Council.  That number is 14, and tenure-track faculty may vote for nominees as well as offer themselves for nomination.  Listed below are the current UFC members whose terms expire in 2007 and 2008.

 

6/07:  Eyas Hattab (MED)

6/07:  Dolores Hoyt (UL)

6/07:  Giles Hoyt (SLA)

6/07:  Debomoy Lahiri (MED)

6/07:  Anna McDaniel (NURS)

6/07:  William Schneider (SLA)

6/07:  Vacancy (Was from SLA)

 

6/08:  Simon Atkinson (MED)

6/08:  James Baldwin (UL)

6/08:  Jacqueline Blackwell (EDUC)

6/08:  Mary Fisher (NURS)

6/08:  Richard Meiss (MED)

6/08:  Martin Spechler (SLA)

6/08:  Rosalie Vermette (SLA)

 

 

Trudy W. Banta

Professor of Higher Education

Senior Advisor to the Chancellor for

Academic Planning and Evaluation

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

355 N. Lansing Street, AO 140

Indianapolis, IN 46202-2896