Minutes (Update) 1-27-17

Minutes

Faculty Assembly
School of Liberal Arts
2:00–4:00pm, Friday, November 11, 2016, Lecture Hall 105

Anton, M.; Banerjee, A.; Barrows, R.; Beckman, E.; Bivin, D.; Bjork, U.; Brant, H.; Carstensen, T.; Chakrabarti, S.; Cohen, M.; Coleman, M.; Conway, J.; Craig, D.; Cramer, K.; Curtis IV, E.; Davis, T.; Dicamilla, F.; Dwyer, O.; Fox, S.; Gondola, C.; Grossmann, C.; Guiliano, J.; Jain, A.; Jettpace, L.; Kaufman-McKivigan, J.; Kaviani, M.; Kim, J.; Kryder-Reid, E.; Kuriyama, K.; Labode, M.; Latham, K.; Laucella, P.; Lauten, K.; Lulla, V.; Lyons, T.; Mak, Y.; Meister, J.; Miller, A.; Miller, L.; Moran, M.; Morgan, A.; Morrison, G.; Payne, M.; Roesch, K.; Russell, S.; Saak, E.; Sandwina, R.; Schneider, W.; Steinberg, R.; Stump, S.; Terza, J.; Thill, E.; Thuesen, P.; Upton, T.; Wang, J.; Weeden, S.; White, R.; Wilhelm, M.; Wininger, M.; Wokeck, M.; Wood, E.

Guests: Heavrin, K.; Illg, M.; Kelly, S.; McEvoy, T.; Millikan, E.; Smith, C.; Walters, S.

1.   Call to order at 2:00 p.m. —Herbert Brant

2.   Approval of the minutes from September 9, 2016   A motion to approve the minutes was offered and seconded. The minutes were approved unanimously.

3.   President's remarks —Herbert Brant   Vice-President Brant indicated that a request was made to Agenda Council to return to the approach of introducing new faculty at the first Faculty Assembly of the academic year. A new approach was tried this year.  Brant reported that Agenda Council decided that this year's approach worked well and would continue.   Vice-President Brant announced that the planning committee for the Staff Appreciation Lunch needs volunteers. Jennifer Guiliano has agreed to lead the committee.

4.   Dean's remarks —Tom Davis   Dean Davis drew attention to recent accomplishments of students, staff, and faculty: a)  Alexis Turban, a Spanish student, won the 2016 Outstanding Student Spanish Award (Indiana chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese) b)  Abby Hadley, a Sociology student, was presented with the Stonewall Award at the recent Harvey Milk Dinner c)   Merle Illg of the dean's office was awarded the 2016 Glenn Irwin Experience Excellence Award d)  Edward Curtis won an NEH grant working with K-12 teachers on Muslim American Identities, Past and Present e)  Sue Hyatt and Paul Mullins were recognized at the recent TRIP Showcase

f)   Beth Goering is only one of 100 faculty members nationwide selected to contribute to the development of an assignment library for the Degree Qualifications Profile (see http://degreeprofile.org/) by the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (http://www.learningoutcomesassessment.org/).   Dean Davis spent several minutes discussing campus climate concerns because of problematic responses to the recent national election. He announced that resources are available, and he indicated that a handout describing the resources that are available would be circulating at the meeting.  (The resources include the IU Employee Assistance Program for faculty, and Counseling and Psychological Services, or CAPS, for students.) He also reminded everyone that threats and incidents of intimidation should be submitted to the Office for Equal Opportunity for review and investigation, and that the campus police is available as well. The dean then proposed the formation of an ad-hoc committee to work on a resolution to reaffirm the civility statement that is part of IUPUI's policies and on a resolution that reaffirms the school's continued commitment to and support of diversity within our campus community and beyond. The dean asked for volunteers from the faculty to serve on the ad-hoc committee and indicated that names should be forwarded to Vice-President Herbert Brant and Secretary Scott Weeden.

5.   Baccalaureate Competencies for a New BS Degree —Eric Saak, Undergraduate Curriculum and Standards Committee   Eric Saak reviewed the proposal from the Undergraduate Curriculum and Standards Committee. It has been in the works for a while. The proposal was circulated previously, but he reviewed its main features: it creates a change in competencies and creates a framework that makes it possible for individual programs to form Bachelor of Science (BS) degrees. The framework would change foreign language requirements now present for the Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree and open space for students to achieve an international dimension through the courses they take. It would also allow them to work on math, science, and analytic skills. The change would make it possible to draw students from outside programs, such as those in the medical school who have credit hour requirements preventing them from working with present BA requirements.   The floor was open for questions and comments. A summary of the discussion follows: o One expressed concern centered on the effect to World Languages and Cultures.  Others wondered whether this might have the unintended consequence of eroding the BA into a BS and of altering the meaning of a liberal arts education. o The main response to the above concerns was that the framework being proposed opens an opportunity for students who otherwise would not take SLA courses. Economics and Geography were mentioned as two departments that would benefit from the proposed framework because

they could attract more students. The proposal would not affect current BA students and would not necessarily attract students away from the BA to the BS degree.   The proposal was read again and a vote by show of hands was taken. Results: 47 yes, 8 nays, 2 abstentions.

6.   Election for Liberal Arts Representative on the IUPUI Promotion and Tenure Committee —Herbert Brant   A paper ballot was distributed with one name on it, Subir Chakrabarti, who had been placed in nomination. A space for write-ins was available.   Result: 51 in favor of Chakrabarti to serve, 2 write-ins were offered, 4 abstentions occurred. Chakrabarti was named representative.

7.   Old business   None.

8.   New business   None.

9.   Announcements  Update from the Liberal Arts Staff Task Force — Elee Wood a)  Elee Wood began by deferring to Dean Davis, who pointed out that no matter what we do in liberal arts, the staff on the campus will be reorganized. The School of Liberal Arts will not be able to hire until a plan for reorganizing the staff is implemented. This is what is behind the task force's effort to come up with a plan.  The new plan will involve a culture change in the school, but Dean Davis hopes it will end up helping to support students. The dean ended his comments by acknowledging the work committee members have been doing to prepare the new proposal and he closed by thanking them for their work. b)  Elee Wood followed by providing an overview of the process and the focus of the work of the task force. The first was to set up goals for the school that included “must objectives” that the new plan should follow and identified 5 key areas where support for the academic units is required. Following this the Task Force established working groups changed with developing in detail what processes should occur in areas of work and what type of staff time is involved. As we move the process, the 5 working groups will submit a report and the plan is then put together by the whole committee. Questions or comments were invited. c)   Questions and comments: o Question: How is the staff in administration organized? Answer: Not sure, but the situation is different.

 Information about the New Faculty Annual Report (FAR) Software —Thom Upton, Associate Dean a)  Associate Dean Upton showed the faculty the new system, which can be found in One.IU. One goes to Faculty Systems and looks for the "Digital Measures–Activity Insight" app.  He pointed out that the old system, the Annual Report Worksheet, is not being used and its old information will have to be referred to in writing reports with the new system. The list of classes faculty have taught, shown in the new system, will need to be checked for accuracy in Activity Insight. Any corrections can be made within Activity Insight. A handout was offered to explain Activity Insight. b)  Questions and comments: o Question: What kind of administrative access is available in this system? Answer: Chairs have access, although IFC is looking into who should see what in order to provide guidance. o Question: Will there be a transition time period, say one year? Answer: No, Activity Insight will be used right away, which is why it would be good to get into it soon and begin to upload information.  Support for IPFW Faculty — Nancy Robertson (Marianne Wokeck and William Schneider in her absence) a)  Faculty at IPFW have taken a vote of no confidence concerning their chancellor because of a plan to cut programs. The question is whether Faculty Assembly should encourage IFC to compose a statement in support. b)  Background: Nancy Robertson was unable to attend, so Marianne Wokeck offered a review. She began by referring to the web site, https://ipfwwatch.wordpress.com/, where information on what has been happening has been gathered. Bill Schneider pointed out that what is important to SLA is an Indiana General Assembly legislative committee took up the issue and called for a break-up and elmination in programs. Given how this plan was put into action at IPFW, the faculty voted no confidence. What the legislative committee called for could have implications where efforts occur to separate units from the rest of the campus on other campuses. c)   Wokeck proposed that the ad-hoc committee that the dean recommended forming in his remarks could be used to formulate a statement of response for SLA. d)  A motion was offered to add this additional purpose to the ad-hoc committee the dean proposed. The motion was seconded, and a vote was taken. The motion passed with 56 yes and 1 abstention.

10. Adjournment   A motion was offered and seconded. The assembly was adjourned at 3:45.

Respectfully submitted by Scott Weeden November 18, 2016