Faculty Council News
4 March 2014
The March meeting began with open session, which included a quick chat with Professor
Cyndy Scheibe, Psychology, who reported on her proposed change in the final grade
submission date for the fall semester. Cyndy indicated that a 12/30 deadline might be possible.
Ultimately the issue seems to be mid-year student academic standing reports, which necessitate
early grade fall submission deadlines. It was mentioned by Stan Seltzer that many other
schools do not do a mid-year report, which could eliminate the deadline issue.
The Chair’s report followed; Peter provided the following updates:
Advising Center: The formation of a permanent advising committee continues; the
composition and charge of the committee are being discussed. There was some question of a
faculty role on the committee. Council supports faculty participation on the advising
committee. Ultimately the committee will report to the Provost, with meeting minutes sent to
Council.
Town Hall Meeting: 15 to 20 folks, who engaged in constructive conversation, attended the
recent Town Hall meeting.
Shared Governance Research Task Force: The task force continues their meetings; their goal
is to formulate three to four shared governance proposals. An all-campus open meeting is
planned for Thursday, April 17 at noon in Klingenstein. Publicity will be forthcoming.
Faculty Council Chair email address: Peter has a new email address:
facultycouncilchair@ithaca.edu.
Faculty Council Budget Priorities: Council will establish priorities in the spring rather than
the fall. The college budget is essentially set early in the fall, making our efforts superfluous.
Does IC Support Foreign Students: Some issues include language barriers and housing over
breaks. More to follow.
Conversation with Gerald Hector, VP Finance and Administration, and Robert Cree,
Associate Vice President for Business and Finance: Gerald indicated that he is forming four
advisory committees, which are: Information Technology, Change Management, Strategic
Sourcing, and Purchasing and Travel Cards. The composition and specific charges of these
groups aren’t fleshed out yet.
Council followed the Chair’s report by unanimously recommending to the Board of Trustees to
confer degrees to all seniors that have meet the graduation requirements.
Two faculty members (Michael Titlebaum and Ivy Waltz, both assistant professors in music)
have been elected to the Faculty Benefits Committee.
Carol Henderson, Associate Provost for Accreditation, Assessment and Curriculum, spoke next
about proposed APC grade change policies. Original policies required students to rectify grade
changes and disputes within the first two weeks of the following semester. The new policies
require students to just notify the faculty member and the Registrar’s office, rather then rectify,
in writing (electronically or otherwise), that they are concerned with or disputing a grade.
Council approved the policy change without opposition, and recommended to APC to examine
language in the policy to clarify which administrators make the various decisions in the
processes.
Danette Johnson, Assistant Provost & Director of the Core Curriculum, spoke next about ICC.
She indicated that she has thought about a survey and perhaps a round table to better understand
the pressure points in ICC. She also noted that there was a need for broad based assessment of
ICC and to tackle the issue of supply and demand for the various themes and perspectives.
The last order of business was Council’s budget report, prepared primarily by Professor John
Rosenthal, Math, with the aid of Professors Carol Dennis, Occupational Therapy, and Tom
Swensen, Exercise and Sport Sciences, all of whom sit on the Institutional Effectiveness and
Budget Committee. Council voted unanimously to distribute the report to the faculty. The
report is found here:
http://www.ithaca.edu/fc/docs/fcn/FCNewsletterAY1314/FCN_Budget_Report/. The entire
Board approved budget, from which John derived his report, is found here:
https://www.ithaca.edu/budget/approvedbudget0910/
Respectfully,
Tom Swensen
Secretary Faculty Council
Professor and Chair Exercise and Sport Sciences