Fall School of
Science Faculty Assembly Meeting
November 13,
2000
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Attendance: (Biology) Ruth Allen, Marten Bard, Bonnie Blazer-Yost, Ellen Chernoff, Florence Juillerat, Kathy Marrs, Steve Randall, Simon Rhodes, John Watson. (Chemistry) Donald Boyd, Paul Dubin, Raima Larter. (Computer Science) Omran Bukhres, Jeffrey Huang, Mathew Palakal, Mihran Tuceryan. (Geology) Andy Barth, Kathy Licht, Jeff Swope. (Math) Jon Luke, Bart Ng, Sharon Rangazas, Bob Rigdon. (Physics) Ricardo Decca, Jerry Kaplan, Fritz Kleinhans, Jeff Ou, Durgu Rao, Kashyap Vasavada, Steve Wassall. (Psychology) Bob Bringle, Dennis Devine, Greg Fetterman, Kathy Johnson, John Kremer, James Murphy, Soren Svanum. (Dean' Office) Gordon Fricke, Joe Kuczkowski, Kim Nguyen, David Stocum, Kathryn Wilson.
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Kathy Johnson (KJ) opened the meeting at 3:00: She noted that the SOS Steering Committee has a web site with bylaws, minutes, and details of the Steering Committee's activities. At the request of Dennis Devine, Psych, she added an item to the agenda concerning parking. Dennis would like to see the SOS present a unified front on the parking issues we face. One issue is the future of the A, B, E parking categories. Dennis proposed to poll the faculty on the question: "Are we in favor of keeping the current parking categories next year even if this would cost significantly more than other alternatives?" However Kathryn Wilson noted that the latest word says we will probably keep the A, B, E categories next year, but that students may also be eligible to buy A or B spaces. It was noted that letting students buy A and B spaces would not solve the problem of too few spaces.
It was reported that Bob Martin did not think the parking problems would be as severe as thought. The administration does not seem enthusiastic about the idea of converting the space south of LD into temporary parking while garages are being built.
The effect of parking on enrollment problems was brought up.
In some departments the consensus seems to be for the preservation of the A and B faculty/staff spaces regardless of the cost.
It was generally agreed that early arrival ensures a space, but left many problems unsolved. Psych and particularly Math noted that parking was becoming a serious problem for the part time instructors coming to IUPUI for evening classes. Complaints have risen sharply.
An outspoken biologist was strongly in favor of less green grass and more black top.
KJ proposed that the Steering Committee draft a letter from the School at their December meeting.
David Stocum (DS) reported on SOS Finances:
On balance, DS felt the budget was working out fairly well for the moment. Enrollments are below the initial budget projections but it was possible to make up the lost money from salary savings and the reserve fund Enrollments for Summer II 2000 were down significantly, Fall 2000 was down 5% and Spring 2001 is projected to be down 3%. We can live with these reductions. Approximately 900k$ of salary savings were used for start up funds and for the budget short fall from the enrollment decline.
In searching for the causes of the SOS enrollment decline, DS noted that we seemed to be moving towards an Outcome based form of education. I.e. learn enough to do your job, but worry less about the underlying fundamentals. Thus other units are requiring fewer prereqs from science. E.g. nursing no longer requires chem. It also appears that the increasing Community College enrollments correlate well with our own drop in beginning level courses such as remedial math.
DS estimates it will take two years to reach a new equilibrium enrollment level. Next year we can use retirement savings to meet our budget. In the longer run, we can survive another 3% drop in enrollments, but a 5% drop would create serious financial problems and retrenchment issues.
This year the dept chairs and the Steering Comm took part in a budget exercise, exploring alternative ways to allocate the SOS funds. DS felt this led to a deeper shared understanding of the budget as well as some interesting new ideas which are being looked into. DS noted that there have been many complaints about the budget, but that on balance, considering startup money, matching funds, renovation money, and operating funds, no dept has been short changed. Further, although enrollment fee money is dropping, cash funds have made up the difference, so that total budgets have not declined yet. However, we are becoming too dependent on ICR money. For the longer run, DS says we need to press the University about our high assessment fees (taxes). He hopes the furor over money will subside because we basically are in sound financial shape.
Capital Campaign: The school has a goal of raising 3 million dollars, compared with a comparable amount in Liberal Arts and 10 million in Engineering. Our campaign has just started while Liberal Arts is half way to their goal. KW noted that in relative terms, we are doing better than Bloomington at fund raising. Honorary chairs for the Capital Campaign are Art and Pat Mirsky and Marvin Bittinger. Some chairs are still needed, e.g. for the faculty part of the campaign. An important goal of the Capital Campaign is to help fund our graduate program through scholarships. Our graduate enrollments have dropped from approximately 80 students to 60, reflecting a national trend of fewer US students going to graduate school (in the sciences). International recruitment is a partial fix to this shortfall. International graduate students do not cost that much more, because most of the higher tuition money makes its way back to the school.
A faculty comment noted that the Purdue administration has ‘complained’ in the past about international graduate students at IUPUI. The SOS Deans replied that the climate and views of Purdue are changing and becoming more favorable towards the SOS.
Dean Joe Kuczkowski (JK) reported on the work of two task forces in the SOS:
Task Force on Undergraduate Programs and Student Persistence: This committee is working on several issues. They are exploring new certificate and degree programs. The DWF rate is being studied with an eye to improving student success. Departmental approaches at the freshman/sophomore level are being looked at to see what works in departments and can be spread throughout the school. Joe reports that a sense of 'community' is important to retaining students. The first 2 or 3 weeks of a class are important for getting the student engaged. The possibility of an attendance policy for beginning courses has been discussed. When students do not bring adequate skills from high school, we need to provide better bridges to bring them up to college levels. Efforts are being make to improve academic advising and academic student services
Nancy Chism's office has money to develop gateway courses to help students make the transition from high school to college programs (up to 8 grants up to 10k$), as well as 8 small grants to attack the DWF problem.
JK also reported on the activities of the Teaching and Learning Committee, which is chaired by Bob Rigdon. This committee is looking into our implementation of assessment at the Dept, School, and Uni level, which seems to be proceeding slowly. JK noted that the North Central Association for accreditation now looks much more closely at measures of student learning than formerly.
The committee is also collecting information on our implementation of the Principles of Undergraduate Learning. It appears that there are gaps in our data. We are doing more than we give ourselves credit for. A template will be produced for assessing the capstone experience.
There were comments concerning the perception of some incoming students that only a few hours of homework a week are needed and that college is not really a full time job. This was countered with the observation that many of our full time students do also work.
Kathryn Wilson (KW) gave her report, beginning with the upcoming Graduate Program Strategic Planning exercise with Purdue: It is KW's perception that the new administration at Purdue is taking a greater interest in the 'regional' campuses and recognizes that many have been underdeveloped. To deal with this, Purdue is developing a Strategic Plan. IUPUI is slated for a close examination of their graduate programs this year. Purdue will be gathering information on the following:
· Structure and scope of current programs
· Current enrollment by program and degree
· Relationship with WL departments (degree of independence?)
· Community needs
· Potential student populations
· Resources required
· Facilities and faculty
· Opportunities for collaboration with WL faculty
Other Activities reported on by KW:
· 25k$ has been allocated for SOS undergraduate research grants with an application deadline of Nov 20. On March 2 there will be an Undergraduate Research Symposium which will be a campus wide event with poster and oral presentations. KW views this as a valuable recruiting activity to which high school students can be invited. The SOS will also be nominating a candidate to the Chancellors Undergraduate Research Award ($1000). The SOS gets to send one nominee to the campus wide competition.
· Campus wide, 100k$ are available for undergrad research programs with a deadline of March 15. Several travel grants are also available to students.
· KW encouraged faculty to list themselves as potential mentors on the undergraduate research (UROP) web site.
· PRF applications are due Nov 15. We have a good record of obtaining money for international travel. Out of deadline applications can be funded if some of the regular allocation is unused.
· Summer faculty research grants deadline is Nov 22.
· Graduate Showcase 2000, Oct 27: The SOS had the strongest representation, with Engineering second. This is also a good opportunity to invite high school students for recruiting. KW suggested that in the future, we plan other events around this day, for recruiting.
· Recruiting shows up as an important faculty concern on the Dean's Evaluations. Student science skills seem to be holding up but recent recruits seems to have poorer writing and oral skills.
· The Dean's Office is considering the purchase of GRE lists for use in recruitment.
· Research: An RIF proposal will be submitted per the SOS strategic plan. SOS grants are up 7% over last year. A workshop is being planned to increase to increase faculty awareness about electronic resources for research.
· Technology: All faculty should have computers less that three years old and configured to their needs. Student technology fee money is now largely spent centrally, however money can still be requested through our departmental technology representative. Currently the SOS is maintaining their own computer clusters. UITS is being checked to see if they can do this better.
Gordon Fricke (GF) reported on outreach and marketing:
· In Fall 98 a PR committee was formed for liaison between research/scholarly activity and our constituents both within the school and externally. Active researchers from each department were selected for this committee. The committee has been very active, producing Insight (our school newsletter) with 6 issues/year and a total of 80 articles in past two years. A special effort was make to make the articles accessible to non-experts. All Insight issues are on the internet as PDF files. Some items were turned over to other committees. (1) We need an SOS image which people can identify with. (2) We need to standardize our PR material so that it is readily recognizable as coming form the SOS and it should have a consistent look and content across documents.
· We have a Marketing Committee composed primarily of SOS dean's office people with a few faculty and other IUPUI staff. They worked on creating new Dept brochures with a consistent look and format (which would also conform to the university format). After a major effort, these are finished and are being distributed. This committee has also developed a tentative logo for the SOS.
· Careers in Science distance education programs: IUPUI and most high schools have compatible equipment for distance education programs. GF tries to provide four Careers in Science programs a year. These present our discipline to HS students including - What is the discipline, how can they prepare for it, what will they be able to do with it, and why should they come to IUPUI. High schools choose four of our seven depts. to be featured in each program. All depts. have been featured at least once. The actual presentations are done by students from the respective departments. Last year, seven high schools asked for our programs and they seem to be well received.
· IUPUI will host some of IMAX distance education programs.
· Scientists Apprentice Camp: This is a two-week summer camp which is operated with denoted faculty time and resources. Forty central Indiana schools have sent students over the past five years. GF feels this has been effective in spreading the word about IUPUI and the SOS to the central Indiana community. A new faculty member is needed to continue the camp because GF is retiring.
· A new and improved web site is being created for the SOS. It will not be organized along departmental lines. Many school documents will be available as PDF files.
Drew Appleby reported on the work of the Outreach Committee: The objective is to develop strategies for recruiting more and better students. The committee began by looking at individual departmental strategies, which have been successful, and which might be implemented school wide. They also met with the Admissions and Scholarship offices to determine how we could make better use of their resources and to see what they could they suggest? They like Campus Day and a coordinated brochure scheme. They recommend a personal approach with students and suggested we meet with our admissions counselors so that they will have the information needed to do a better job selling us to high schools. The SOS will take the initiative to bring together our people with the admissions people so that we can tell them about the SOS.
Finally, DS reported on responses to his request for ideas concerning the role of the Deans Advisory Council (which includes about 15 community/business/government leaders). The suggestions mentioned the following ideas:
1) Help to make our case to the state legislature, particularly that of our low funding relative to other campuses.
2) Help us with our industrial contacts vis-a-vis our graduate programs and coop programs.
3) Help improve public awareness and recognition of IUPUI
4) Help in contacting potential donors. ie. take a leadership role in finding donors
A final comment asked what funding parity for IUPUI would mean; apparently, about 45 million.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:00
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Fritz Kleinhans
Secretary
11-16-00