Approved Minutes of the Faculty Affairs Meeting
December 3, 2010
(approved 12-10-10: 5-0-1)
Present: M. Lewandowski, L. Sperry, R. Guell (Exec Liaison), J. West, D. Nichols, L. Behrendt,
H. Ganapathy-Coleman
Absent: K. Harris, A. Solesky (SPF Advocate), N. Rogers (AA Liaison)
Guest: Virgil Sheets
The meeting was called to order at 2:35 p.m. in Cunningham Library room 028.
1. Approval of the minutes of 11-19-10 (6-0-1)
2. Reports
a. Academic Affairs (Rogers)—no report
b. Executive Committee Liaison (Guell)
i. The performance document is in another iteration, and will be on
the docket for the December Senate meeting.
ii. Movement of Safety from CNHHS to COT is working its way through
Exec. There is some controversy over resources, but no academic
concerns. It is expected to emerge from Exec on Tuesday and be on
the December agenda.
iii. Constitutional changes are ready for December Senate meeting.
The faculty vote must take place within two weeks of the Senate’s
approval. Given the upcoming semester break, Chairperson Lamb is
working to make the 2 week period begin with the opening of the
university in January 2011.
c. Special Purpose Faculty Advocate (Solesky)—no report
d. FAC Chair (Sperry)
i. Emeriti designation that FAC worked on has emerged in a slightly
changed form
1. After 15 years of continued honorable service to ISU the
retiree may be nominated by their department chair for
emeriti status
2. After 20 years of continued honorable service to ISU the
retiree will automatically receive emeriti status
ii. FAC sabbatical leave proposal was unanimously rejected by Exec
1. It lets the administration “off the hook” for their decision to
cancel sabbaticals last year.
2. Would the policy set a precedent so that administration
could use it in the future to cancel sabbaticals?
3. Faculty who have made significant plans for a particular
academic year for an anticipated sabbatical would not be
eligible.
4. It is not certain whether Exec will rewrite the proposal
themselves or send it back to FAC to be rewritten.
a. After discussion by the committee, it was decided to
request Exec to send the proposal back to the
committee to be rewritten.
i. FAC requested that Exec provide some
direction regarding their thoughts about
what the proposal needs to include.
3. Old Business
a. Procedure for Annual Audit of Faculty Senate Elections
i. V. Sheets reported on past voting techniques, and the problem with
paper ballot voting – getting nominees and then getting the ballot
set up.
1. Issues blocked the use of voting using portal accounts set up
by IT
a. Only tenure and tenure track faculty can vote and
portal faculty accounts go to special purpose and
part-time temporary faculty as well
b. Difficulty setting up a ballot that had multiple
choices
2. Sheets set up voting using Qualtrics
a. A survey was set up for each college to gather
nominees. Some colleges had only enough
nominees to fill the open spots, so those individuals
were automatically elected.
b. At the end of the voting ballot faculty were redirected to another page asking for committee
volunteers.
c. E-mails inviting faculty to vote are sent with unique
numbers that only allow each person to vote once.
d. The voting process can be structured so that it’s
completely anonymous; however this hasn’t been
the case in the past.
e. Guell suggested that a password be used in which
the FAC chair would know half of it and the Senate
person would know the other half.
f. Nominations turned in need to have names checked
for eligibility
g. Suggested that the secretary of the Senate and the
chair of FAC need to work together throughout the
election process.
3. L. Sperry will create a process and bring back to FAC for a
vote next week.
4. New Business
a. Charge 12—Promotion and Tenure Oversight Committee
i. FAC examined related points from the Faculty Handbook. It was
decided that in order to properly address the charge it was
necessary to see the letter from Betsy Frank for background
information. Frank addressed concerns regarding individuals who
are hired at rank but are ultimately not given credit for service and
publications from a previous institution with regard to tenure.
b. Charge 10—Examine the Summer School policy regarding the minimum
enrollment for sections to be offered.
i. The discussion focused on 2 issues
1. Creation of bracketed fee structure for student summer
school tuition. Currently summer school fees are charged by
the credit, which amounts to approximately 25% higher cost
for students than during the regular academic year.
2. What is the appropriate number of students for summer
school courses? The policy for summer school enrollment
has been 15 students for undergraduate courses, 12
students 4/500 level courses, or 8 students for a graduate
course.
a. There is no rationality to the system—a constant
number of students doesn’t relate to instructor pay.
Currently summer school pay is equal to 7.5% of the
instructor’s salary. Therefore it costs more to offer
some classes than others.
b. Need to know what students do when a class is
canceled. Do the students pick up another course at
ISU, or do they go elsewhere for summer school?
The second option means lost revenue for the
University.
3. FAC will decide next week whether to take on the summer
school charge and tie it to the issue of salaries
The meeting adjourned at 3:50 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Linda Behrendt, Secretary ’10-‘11