Indiana University Northwest
Faculty Organization
November 11, 2010
Hawthorn Hall 107
10:00 -12:00
I. Call to Order—President Gallmeier called the meeting to order at 10:03 a.m.
II. Minutes of October 22, 2010—A motion to approve the minutes of October 22, 2010 was
made, seconded, and passed unanimously.
III. President’s Report—President Gallmeier made the following announcement:
a. Several members of the Executive Committee were concerned that Executive Vice
Chancellor for Academic Affairs David Malik's tenure was due to expire in July 2011.
President Gallmeier thanked Chancellor Lowe for working to extend EVCAA Malik's
appointment to at least June 30, 2012 and congratulated Dr. Malik. Applause greeted this
announcement.
Because Chancellor Lowe and EVCAA Malik needed to leave the meeting early,
President Gallmeier called upon them for their reports at this time.
IV. Chancellor’s Report—Chancellor Lowe began his report by congratulating Dr. Malik. He
then turned to salary increases going into effect at IU Northwest. The process to implement
these increases provided an opportunity for him to not only learn the rules and the procedures for
the increases, but also take a good look at salaries for everyone on campus. It struck him that it
may be possible that salaries may improve here, particularly with our proximity to the Chicago
area. He was able to speak with IU CFO Theobold about this matter last month when he visited
IU Northwest.
Chancellor Lowe has formed a small Salary Study Group to set up a framework for discussion on
salary equity as well as salary levels. The Group includes our CFO Marianne Millich, Director
of Human Resources Carolyn Hartley, Affirmative Action Office Ida Gillis, and EVCAA David
Malik. The chancellor remarked that support staff salaries are particularly low and that he has
not seen such salary levels for fifteen years. So, he's interested in doing something about faculty
and staff salaries over the next several years. He's asked the Salary Study Group to give him
some ideas by the end of the semester, so that we can start talking about salaries in the current
economic environment. He asked for questions, and addressed the following queries:
Q: Will adjunct salaries be examined in this process?
A: Yes, that's something that interests us.
Q: Will there be a faculty member on this Study Group as it moves forward?
A: This Group is a preliminary committee and is not charged with a project to improve salaries
at this point. The Group is simply to look at some of the technical issues involved in this process
so that the chancellor can get familiar with what he can do to move this process forward. Then,
he will take advantage of the faculty and staff expertise on this campus to make the process an
inclusive one.
A faculty member then commented that he was pleased that we'll be looking at support staff
salaries, for they have been at the low end of the scale for many, many years.
V. EVCAA’s Report—Vice Chancellor Malik reported on several items:
1. Salaries--The group mentioned by Chancellor Lowe is gathering some generic data on just
where our salaries are compared with other campuses and institutions. Reports on adjunct
salaries from the various units have been received and a preliminary report should be ready next
week.
2. Faculty Searches--Our faculty searches began in October, much earlier than in past years. We
launched thirteen searches, with ads visible in the Chronicle and other venues by mid-November.
It was certainly a major change in how our campus operates, thanks to the many people ready to
begin the process so much sooner in the academic year.
3. Village Project--Construction has begun. We want some fanfare events when the facility is
ready. COAS and Fine and Performing Arts Departments are working on plans for those events
to draw favorable attention to this new venue and perhaps bring Fine and Performing Arts to a
new level.
4. Review of Hawthorn Hall's First Floor--We're going to have a review of the space for offices
of Admissions, Registrar, Bursar, and Financial Aid to try and make it more student-friendly.
5. Chronicle Front Page--For the first time in campus history, IU Northwest has made the front
page of the Chronicle for Higher Education. He called on College of Health and Human
Services Dean Patrick Bankston to provide details. Dr. Bankston informed the faculty that the
IU School of Medicine--Northwest's Cadaver Program is highlighted on the Chronicle's
November 7, 2010 issue.
President's Report (continued from above):
b. Need for a second candidate for Faculty Organization Vice President--President
Gallmeier announced that we have one person willing to run for Vice President, but we need
another for an election, so please consider yourself and/or others to be a candidate for this office.
VI. LEAP (Liberal Education and America's Promise)--President Gallmeier reported on a
teleconference between VP Applegate and the UFC Agenda Committee, where some concerns
about LEAP were discussed, so he wanted to bring this issue to the Faculty Organization for
discussion. The Executive Committee and the General Education Committee have discussed
these concerns. President Gallmeier noted that the LEAP Program could provide a defense
against the state legislature determining the curriculum for us. He called on AVCAA Cynthia
O'Dell and General Education Committee co-chair Vesna Kilibarda to present the details about
the LEAP Program.
AVCAA O'Dell outlined the issue. Indiana University is concerned about the possibility that the
state legislature may require that a standardized common core curriculum be instituted at the
state's colleges and universities, along with a common course-numbering system. The American
Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU) has developed the LEAP Program for
undergraduate education (IU is a member of the AACU). LEAP is a set of broadly-based
essential learning outcomes to prepare students for the challenges of the twenty-first century.
They map pretty well with the general education learning outcomes defined by many of the IU
campuses, including ours, because they are very broad. Our General Education Committee has
looked at the LEAP outcomes and found they match our general education requirements nicely.
If all the IU campuses find similar mapping, then IU would become a member of the LEAP
Initiative. IU is also working with Purdue and IVTC to see if they would also join LEAP. If that
occurs, then Indiana would become a LEAP state, along with California, Oregon, Utah, Virginia,
and Wisconsin. We could then tell the legislature that we fit a national model of accepted
learning outcomes adopted by other states and that a standardized common core curriculum as
defined by the legislature is not needed.
President Gallmeier would like the Faculty Organization to discuss this LEAP option for IU
Northwest, and if it agrees that it would be a good thing for our campus, that we adopt/endorse
the LEAP Initiative. He could then bring this endorsement to the UFC plenary session on Nov.
30, where LEAP will be discussed and possibly voted on at that time. At this point, several
Faculty Organization members had questions of Drs. O'Dell, Kilibarda, and Gallmeier:
Q: Will LEAP also be part of the future of K-12 in Indiana?
A: So far, the other LEAP states have focused only on higher education.
Q: Are there any "down sides" to the LEAP Program?
A: No, there are no intellectual "down sides," however, if IU/Purdue/IVTC adopt LEAP, then a
general education transfer package across the institutions would be the next step. That process
may entail a lot of work.
Q: Would we have to change anything with our new general education requirements/outcomes if
we joined LEAP?
A: No, our outcomes map very well with the LEAP learning outcomes.
Q: We will need to maintain quality, correct?
A: Absolutely!
Q: Where is the ICHE Commissioner on all this?
A: We don't know. She hasn't been mentioned in the IU discussions so far.
Q: Will Ball State, Indiana State, etc. join LEAP? Certainly, the more partners we have in
LEAP, the stronger we'll look to the legislature.
A: Probably--VP Applegate has started with the bigger players, i.e. IU and Purdue. We'll take
that suggestion back to VP Applegate's office.
A motion to endorse, in principle, the LEAP Initiative by the IU Northwest Faculty Organization
was made, seconded, and approved unanimously.
VII. General Education Amendment--Dr. Vesna Kilibarda, Co-chair, General Education
Committee, asked for approval of an amendment to the IU Northwest General Education
Principles and Requirements, as follows:
All syllabi for courses designated as satisfying the General Education Student Learning
Outcomes (GESLO) in a particular Principle/Domain will contain these GESLO among course
goals.
Dr. Kilibarda explained that adding this paragraph to these syllabi will help with assessment.
After some discussion including the necessity and appropriateness of adding this paragraph to
GESLO course syllabi, President Gallmeier noted that this recommendation has come to the full
Faculty Organization as a committee report and therefore already moved and seconded. He then
called for a vote on the recommendation, which was approved unanimously.
VIII. I.T. Tech Tips—I.T.’s Jackie Coven presented a very helpful session about Slashtmp, a
way to share non-sensitive research data via the Web. One can share large amounts of
information (ex. 2GB) with Slashtmp, which one cannot do as an email attachment. Visit
https://slashtmp.iu.edu and kb.iu.edu for more information on Slashtmp.
IX. Urban Project--Professor Earl Jones presented an update on his research on the role of the
university in urban and downtown revitalization. He has focused on how to revitalize Gary's
Historic Midtown. It's been an asset-based approach, and also a historic preservation and
historical significance approach, that is, how memories can be used as platforms for
revitalization. In addition, it looks at how an urban campus, such as IU Northwest, impacts its
local environment in terms of businesses and jobs.
The Historic Midtown Plan, sometimes called the Gary Plan, was described in a couple of recent
newspaper pieces which caught attention in Washington, D.C., particularly by HUD. About a
week ago, a conference sponsored by GRIP (Gary and Region Investment Project, a group of
civic, political, and development leaders and sponsored by The Times), examined specific
projects to bring back Gary and the NW Indiana region. After creating a list of thirteen specific
projects, the participants prioritized their top choices from those lists, and among the top seven
projects, two of them had been initiated by IU Northwest: the University Park, and Historic
Midtown.
Regarding the Midtown Project, its Phase 1 was determining historic places in Midtown and
publishing a tour/informational guide of the neighborhood. Phase 2 brought in planning experts
to prepare plans to revitalize Broadway. Over 100 planners from across the nation met for three
days and produced a Vision for Broadway Plan, which won two major planning awards and was
also adopted by the City of Gary. Two major recommendations focused on building a
trolley/light rail system from 4th and Broadway to Crown Point, and establishing a university
center in downtown Gary to offer classes from IUN, PUC, and IVTC--similar to the Academic
Learning Center in Merrillville--in a "university district." At certain points along the rail line,
retail and housing would develop.
The main question at this point is: Is such a thing do-able? The answer is yes, because it's
already being done in the City of Portage. Dr. Jones will keep us informed about the Gary Plan.
X. SafeZone Program--Lindsay Dixson, from IPFW, described that campus' SafeZone
Program. It's a diversity training program, but it focuses primarily on the gay community. If IU
Northwest would like to start a SafeZone Program, Lindsay and her co-coordinator Kimberly,
would help us do so.
XI. Dr. Charles Gary--Dr. Gary had a death in the family, so he will not be able to join us
today.
XII. Announcements--If Faculty Organization members are looking for an activity this
evening, here are some options:




The IUN men's basketball team is playing Valparaiso University this evening.
"Angel Street" will play in the Savannah Center this evening and weekend.
A "Future of NW Indiana" conference will get underway this evening in HH107.
The One-Dollar Used Book Sale concludes this evening.
XIII. Old Business—There was no old business.
XIV. New Business—There was no new business.
XV. Adjournment—A motion to adjourn was made, seconded, and passed unanimously.
Meeting adjourned at 11:40 a.m.