Minutes
FacultyAssembly,SchoolofLiberalArts
2:00‐4:00pm Friday, April 15, 2016, LE 105
Faculty Members Present:
Anton, M.; Barrows, R.; Beckman, E.; Bennett, G.; Bingham, D.; Bivin, D.; Bjork, U.; Blomquist, W.; Bomke, A.; Brooks-Gillies, M.; Buchenot, A.; Cabrera-Castro, T.; Cohen, M.; Craig, D.; Curtis, E.; De Tienne, A.; Dicamilla, F.; Eller, J.; Fox, S.; Friesen, A.; Gibau, G.; Goff, P.; Grossmann, C.; Harrell, S.; Hetrick, B.; Hoegberg, D.; Hyatt, S.; Jettpace, L.; Kostroun, D.; Kraatz, C.; Kubitschek, M.; Kuriyama, K.; Lamb, C.; Latham, K.; Laucella, P.; Lauten, K.; Lindseth, E.; Lulla, V.; Lyons, T.; Mashhour A.; Miller, A.; Miller, L.; Modibo, N.; Moosbrugger, M.; Morgan, A.; Mullins, P.; Nnaemeka, O.; Polites, M.; Rebein, R.; Ricke, A.; Robertson, N.; Roesch, K.; Russell, S.;
Sandwina, R.; Scarpino, P.; Schuvaks-Katz, D.; Shaker, G.; Shepherd, S.; Shrum, R.; Sickmann Han, C.; Steensland, B.; Strong, D.; Stump, S.; Thill, E.; Tucker Edmonds, J.; Van Wyke, B.; Vincent, J.; Wang, J.; Weeden, S.; White, R.; Wilson, J.; Wininger, M.; Wood, E.; Zulaica Hernandez, I.
Guests: Heavrin, K.; Illg, M.; Kelley, S.; Smith, C.; Walters, S.
1. Call to order at 2:00 p.m. — David Bivin
2. Approval of the minutes from March 4, 2015
A motion was offered and seconded. The minutes were approved unanimously.
3. President's remarks—David Bivin
President Bivin reflected on his time as president and thanked those he has worked with.
4. Dean's remarks — Tom Davis
HVAC work will occur this summer on floors 3, 4, 5 on the south end.
Faculty and staff awards and honors:
a. Sue Hyatt and Paul Mullins — Inaugural Bantz Community Fellowship Award for "Invisible Indianapolis: Race, Heritage, and Community Memory in the Circle City"
b. Women's Leadership Awards
o Amanda Friesen, Political Science – Newcomer, Faculty
Category
o Shannon Kelley, Office of Student Affairs – Part-Time
Employee, Staff Category
o Merle Illg, Dean’s Office – Inspirational Woman Award, Staff
Category
o Etta Ward, SLA Alumna – Veteran, Staff Category c. Phillip Goff, Religious Studies – Chancellor's Professor
d. Jonathon Rossing, Communication Studies – Chancellor’s Award for
Multicultural Teaching
e. Karen Roesch, World Languages and Cultures (German) – New
Frontiers Arts and Humanities Experimentation Fellowship
f. Thorsten Carsten, World Languages and Cultures (German) – New
Frontiers Exploratory Travel Award
g. Rosa Tezanos-Pinto, World Languages and Cultures (Spanish) – Indiana Language Teacher of the Year
h. Jose Vargas-Vila, World Languages and Cultures (Latino Studies) – Cesar Chavez Dinner Sequeme (Follow me) Award
i. Kristy Sheeler, Communication Studies – Ball State University
Department of Communication Studies Distinguished Alumni for
2016
j. Chris Lamb, Journalism – 2016 Media Orthopaedic Reporting Excellence (MORE) Award, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), for the Indianapolis Star column, “Epidemic of Injuries Hits Young Athletes.”
k. Audrey Ricke (Anthropology), Janice Bankert-Countryman (Communication Studies), Ingrid Cummings (Communication Studies), Sumana Jogi (Communication Studies), Russ Kennedy (Communication Studies), Jennifer Mahoney (English), Desirae Masterson (General Studies) – Bronze Star Status, Gateway Academy, University College.
Student Awards and Honors:
a. Elizabeth Valencia-Gutierrez, Sociology – Cesar Chavez Dinner Si Se
Puede (Yes, we can) /Fernando Mercado Award
b. Isaiah Horn, Economics – Chancellor’s Scholar, SLA.
On April 23, $295,000 in scholarships will be awarded at the Honors
Convocation.
Dean Davis expressed appreciation for how much faculty in the school inspire him, especially in the trying circumstances the school finds itself. He encourages faculty to continue with its impactful work even in these trying times.
5. Old business
6. New business
New Strategic Plan — Robert Rebein, Resources and Planning Committee
a. Rebein opened by thanking members of the Resources and Planning
Committee for its work on the new strategic plan.
b. Next, Rebein gave background on the document and then opened the floor for questions and comments.
c. Question: Can the information on the generalized liberal arts minors described in the document be explained further, especially the number of minors being offered? Answer: The idea is to draw more students through more minors and to create flexibility for students.
d. A motion was offered: Endorse the spirit of the document and its goals so that the Research and Planning Committee can move forward. Voice vote taken: One abstention and the rest ayes.
Approval of the List of 2016 Graduates — Gina Gibau, Office of Student
Affairs
a. Associate Dean Gibau offered the following motion: The Office of Student Affairs moves that the list of 2016 School of Liberal Arts graduates be approved by the School of Liberal Arts Faculty. Voice vote taken: the list was unanimously approved.
Ad Hoc Committee on Enrollment — Dennis Bingham
a. Bingham opened by providing background on the committee
o Began with a charge from David Bivin. The committee held meetings in the fall and spring. Meetings will need to continue in order to discuss productive ways forward for promoting enrollment. The most significant proposal from the discussions thus far has been the formation of a new
committee on online teaching. This new committee represents an opportunity to start to address trends facing the school.
b. Questions and discussion:
o Question: What is the relationship between the new committee and the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee? Answer: The two committees will need to cooperate. The details of that cooperation need to be worked out.
o Comment: This committee may help to facilitate the upcoming work on the strategic plan.
o A concern: This new committee may create an oversight burden for faculty working to develop addition online courses. Response: The new committee is designed to encourage faculty and to be a resource.
o Question: Will there be professional development for online teaching? Answer: This is a good idea.
o Comment: Perhaps the new committee should be made up of new and veteran instructors of online teaching.
o Question: Has the school looked into name changes in order to boost enrollment? The use of the term liberal arts is one students do not know. What does it take to change the name? Answer: It would be a process similar to changing a course name, although more would be involved (The trustees, for example, would have to be involved.) The school has not looked into initiating a name change.
o Question: Declining enrollment has been going on a long time: did the committee conduct research on how other institutions are handling this? Answer: No. Perhaps this is a task for the second year of the committee.
o Comment: Those working with online teaching in other places have shown that there can be some pitfalls; in other words, online teaching is not a silver bullet. Response: This supports the rationale for the new committee: the committee can look at the trends at other institutions and use this information to guide its recommendations and its work.
o Comment: We need to find out where the students receive their information. It might be helpful to work with Registrar to create wording for classes that students can understand.
o Bingham invited the group to email additional suggestions.
7. Announcements
Baccalaureate Competencies for the B. S. Degree Option — Mel
Wininger, Undergraduate Curriculum Committee
a. Wininger announced that a discussion on the B. S. degree in science option will occur in the fall. Wininger also indicated that the competencies for science differ and they will be circulated for comment ahead of the discussion in the fall.
SLA Election Results — Joseph Tucker Edmonds, Nominating
Committee
a. Tucker Edmonds opened by thanking the committee and those who have helped. The results of the recent elections were announced:
o Faculty Assembly President – John Parrish-Sprowl, Communication Studies
o Faculty Assembly Vice-President – Herbert Brant, World
Languages and Cultures
o Agenda Council – Carly Schall, Sociology; Rebecca Shrum, History
o Promotion and Tenure – David Bivin, Economics; Elizabeth Kryder-Reid, Anthropology/Museum Studies; Chris Lamb, Journalism; Brian McDonald, English; Anita Morgan, History
o Enhancement Review – John Kaufman-McKivigan, History; Kristine Brunovska Karnick, Communication Studies; Didier Ghislain Bertrand, World Languages and
Cultures
o Nominating – Vijay O Lulla, Geography; Susan Shepherd, English
o IUPUI Faculty Council (IFC) – Cornelis De Waal, Philosophy;
Megan Musgrave, English;
Raymond Haberski, History
Blue Evaluation Process – Teaching and Advising Committee
a. An email reminder about the Blue evaluation process will be sent out ahead of the open period for students to complete the evaluations. The Teaching and Advising Committee will be circulating suggestions for completing the process successfully, as it did in the fall semester.
Trustees Teaching Awards – Mike Polites, Teaching and Advising Committee a. Polites announced the winners for Trustees Teaching Award:
o Lecturers:
Amy Bomke, World Languages and Cultures
Nancy Goldfarb, English
Lynn Jettpace, English
o Tenure-track faculty:
Didier Ghislain Bertrand, World Languages and Cultures
Thorsten Carsten, World Languages and Cultures
Catherine Dobris, Communication Studies
Megan Musgrave, English
Jane Schultz, English
Joseph Tucker Edmonds, Religious Studies
Outstanding Faculty Awards – David Bivin
a. President Bivin announced the Outstanding Faculty Awards for
2016:
o Outstanding Assoc. Faculty – Steven Overbey, Communication
Studies
o Outstanding Lecturer – Amira Mashhour, World Languages and
Cultures
o Outstanding Tenure Track – Tim Lyons, Philosophy
"Passing the Gavel" — David Bivin
a. The president’s gavel for Faculty Assembly was passed to new Faculty Assembly president, John Parrish-Sprowl. However, because President-elect Sprowl was not present, the exchange was symbolic. President-elect Sprowl will take up the gavel next fall.
8. Motion to adjourn
A motion was offered to adjourn, and a second was offered. The motion passed at 3:50 p.m.
Respectively submitted by Scott Weeden, Secretary of Faculty Assembly
