University of Iowa
FACULTY SENATE
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Terrace Room, 166 IMU
Minutes
Members Present: David Asprey, Daniel Balderston, Kenneth Brown, Garry Buettner, Gloria Bulechek, Christine Catney, Jay Christensen-Szalanski, Steve Collins, Jane Desmond, Edwin Dove, David Drake, Claibourne Dungy, Sarah Fagan, Richard Fumerton, Jennifer Glass, Thomas Grabowski, Carin Green, Kathleen Hanson, Paul Heidger, Ronald Herman, Geoffrey Hope, Bruce Justman, Johna Leddy, Thomas Loew, Rene Martin, Steve McGuire, David Min, Frank Mitros, Jose Morcuende, Michael O’Hara, Christine Pawley, Beth Pelton, Todd Pettys, Amy Poremba, Lynn Richman, Catherine Ringen, Thomas Schmidt, William Sharp, Linda Snetselaar, Karin Southard, Anne Sullivan, John Sutphin, Downing Thomas, Steve Vincent, Walter Vispoel, Marcia Ward, John Westefeld,
Members Absent: William Clarke, Robert Garrett, Judith Heggen, Lance Lichtor, Donald MacFarlane, Mazen Maktabi, James Nepola, Thomas O’Dorisio, Gary Russell, Jarjisu Sa-Aadu, Janet Specht, Christie Thomas, Catherine Woodman
Members Excused: Susan Birrell, Linda Boyle, Virginia Dominguez, Denise Filios, Frederick Goodman, Vicki Grassian, Mark Karwal, Craig Kletzing, Yi Li, Victoria Sharp, Geb Thomas, Brad Thompson, Tuong Ton-That
Faculty Senate Officers in Attendance: Richard LeBlond, President; Sheldon Kurtz, Vice President; Katherine Tachau, Past President
Faculty Senate Officers Excused: Michael Cohen, Secretary
Guests: Thomas Charlton (UI Libraries), Sam Edsill (Daily Iowan), Gregg Hennigan (Press-Citizen), Jennifer Modestou (EOD), George Lance (EFC), Tom Rocklin (Office of the Provost), Susan Johnson (Office of the Provost), Charles Drum (University Relations), Julie Thatcher (Faculty Senate Office)
I. Call to Order
President LeBlond called the meeting to order at 3:34 pm.
II. Approvals
A. Revised Meeting Agenda
A motion to approve the revised meeting agenda was made by Professor Loew and seconded by Professor Dungy; it was approved unanimously by voice vote.
B. Faculty Senate Minutes, October 18, 2005
Professor Loew moved, second by Professor McGuire, to approve the Minutes of September 6, 2005. The motion was unanimously approved by voice vote.
C. Recommended Committee Replacements
Professor Kurtz made the following recommendations for Committee replacements, seconded by Professor Ringen: Nicole Nisly, Internal Medicine will serve on the University Diversity Committee. The motion was approved unanimously by voice vote.
Vacancies in the Diversity Committee (1 year) and Financial Aid Advisory Committee (1 year) remain, for which suggestions are being sought. The vacancy on the Diversity Committee is due to the appointment of Prof. Salome Raheim as special assistant to President Skorton.
III. Reports
A. Faculty Senate President, Richard LeBlond
1. Board of Regents Meeting, November 2-3. Prof. LeBlond reported that the BOR approved the first hearing of the UI request for tuition increases for the ’06-’07 fiscal year. The request is for a 4.5% increase in resident undergraduate tuition. Final approval of the request is anticipated at the BOR meeting on December 6, 2005. In addition the BOR approved moving forward with the new College of Public Health Building.
2. CIC Faculty Leadership Meeting, East Lansing, MI, November 4-5. Prof. LeBlond reported on the meeting. The key observations were:
- Each institution is uniquely organized with some including students and staff in a combined University Senate;
- The UI faculty leadership has an unusual level of access to and a cooperative relationship with the University provost and president;
- Some faculty senates, notably Minnesota, Michigan and Penn State, have full-time staff support which greatly assists their effectiveness. The largest offices are on campuses where the faculty senate also serves as an academic senate reviewing all new programs and major program changes and proposals; this is work done in the provost’s office at the UI;
- In summary, the UI organization of shared governance is more effective and efficient than most, but could be improved with full time staff support and sharing of staff resources with the staff council and student government.
3. Proposal for a Shared Governance Task Force. Prof. LeBlond reported that the presidents of the faculty senate, staff council and student government have formally asked President Skorton to empanel a task force to look at ways that the three organizations can work more closely with each other on common issues affecting the University. In particular, the Task Force should address full-time staff support for each organization, sharing of staff resources (both personnel and facilities), development of an Office of Shared Governance at a central location, preferably the IMU, and coordination and communication with the University Charter Committees.
4. Provost Hogan is convening a task force to address questions regarding time to tenure decisions. Faculty Senate VP Sheldon Kurtz and Associate Provost Susan Johnson will co-chair the task force. The faculty senate officers and Provost Hogan have had initial discussion about the make up and membership on this task force. It will have 9 members, all tenured full professors; five will be selected by the senate officers and four by the Provost. It is anticipated that the task force will report in the fall of 2006. Prof. LeBlond asked for suggestions from the senate of individuals who might have unique abilities to contribute to the task force.
5. Prof. LeBlond reported that student government is planning to circulate a one-page questionnaire to Iowa’s gubernatorial and legislative candidates in the upcoming election year. He has reviewed the questionnaire with student government president Mark Kresowik and several of his suggestions have been incorporated into the final document. It is anticipated that the responses to the questionnaires will be made available to the University community.
6. Salome Raheim, special assistant to President Skorton, is empanelling the search committee for a new Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity. Three faculty members, one of whom will be selected from the faculty senate on Review of Central Academic Officials, will be nominated by the faculty senate president after consultation with the other officers. Prof. LeBlond asked for recommendations from the senate for individuals to serve of this search committee.
7. Prof. LeBlond called attention to the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity/ Affirmative Action Work Force Report to the Board of Regents. Excerpts from the report were distributed at the meeting; the full report is available on line (http://www.uiowa.edu/ %7Eeod/reports/index.html). Prof. Tachau noted that the report does not identify faculty by individual college and therefore may obscure the disproportionate loss of faculty in some colleges, especially the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Jennifer Modestou, Interim Assistant to the President and Director of Equal Opportunity and Diversity, responded that the format of the report is what is required by the Board of Regents. The data is available by College, but this is not included in the report. Prof. LeBlond observed that the BOR is very prescriptive in terms of what information it wants and how it wants it reported to the Board office; this has made it more difficult for University officials to present information that they feel would be useful to the Board.
B. Iowa Engagement Corps, Downing Thomas
Prof. Thomas reported that the proposal from the faculty senate had been funded for $10,000. The project will send approximately 39 recently promoted faculty members, with representatives from each of the Colleges, along with faculty senate leadership to visit northwestern Iowa to meet with community leaders. The tour is being organized by Jan Van Voorhis with assistance from Prof. Thomas and Prof. McGuire. Prof. Thomas noted that he has requested to meet with the Council of Deans to present the program to them and to solicit their active support in the selection of the most appropriate faculty members from each college. The funding is for one year, but it is hoped that, if the program is successful, funding can be sustained so that this becomes an annual event.
C. Health and Wellness Project, Joni Troester and Laura Reed
Joni Troester introduced the senate to the Live Well initiative being undertaken by UI Wellness in participation with several University Colleges and programs. The program has been piloted in facility services and significant changes in health profiles have been obtained and sustained for > 1 year. The program has several components: participants will be receive a financial incentive to complete an online health assessment tool; the responses to the questionnaire will be used to identify individuals at moderate or high risk for adverse health outcomes (and hence higher health resource utilization) who will be offered a “health coach” to assist them in behavior change; significant health concerns will be addressed by referral to the appropriate health care resources on campus. Over 3-5 years it is hoped that university employees will be healthier, feel supported in their health care needs by the University and ultimately require less health care due to positive changes in their life style and use of preventive care services. Experience in industry has been a 3:1 return of investment with similar programs. Health care spending accounts can be used for those parts of the program requiring payment of fees. Initially the program will be offered to faculty, P&S and merit exempt employees. It is hoped that the program will eventually be expanded to include all University employees and spouses. In response to a concern raised by Prof. Tachau concerning the lack of exercise facilities where more senior faculty and staff might feel more comfortable, i.e. apart from students, Ms. Troester responded that they have recommended incorporation of just such a facility in the planned east campus recreation building.
IV. New Business
A. UI Libraries Resolution, Thomas Charlton
Prof. Thomas Charlton presented the resolution from the UI Libraries Committee. He noted that the cost of periodicals, especially those in the sciences, is increasing to such high levels that the university will not be able to provide the full range of periodicals required for faculty and student scholarship. He noted that the faculty write the articles, choose where they are to be submitted, participate as reviewers and editors of these journals and, ultimately, are the purchasers and users of their own and colleagues’ work. Online publishing offers at least the possibility of decreased costs and greater ease of dissemination. The resolution is an attempt to raise faculty awareness of the issues, to encourage faculty individually and collectively through their professional societies to try to influence a system which currently enriches for profit publishers at the expenses of not for profit libraries and universities. It was noted that there has been a major consolidation in the scholarly print publishing industry with a small number of publishing houses now controlling the market. Professor Ringen noted that in her field the major press is Cambridge University Press, a not for profit, and prices are much smaller. Prof. Green observed that subscriptions are bundled by the publishers making it impossible for the libraries to be more selective in their purchasing choices. Prof. Kurtz stated that one of the concerns expressed in the Council discussion was whether reports and manuscripts published online would be evaluated differently than those published in traditional print journals during the promotion and tenure process. He noted that Provost Hogan has indicated that peer-reviewed manuscripts should have equal standing in either medium, depending only on quality. It was pointed out that impact factors for specific journals are an integral part of the evaluation of publications in some disciplines and that online publishing is not part of that assessment. Prof. LeBlond also noted that the lack of a published page constraint for the number of articles accepted by online publishers could lead to a decrease in the standards of acceptance of articles for publication. All agreed the issues were important but difficult.
MOTION: Prof. Tachau moved approval of the resolution which was seconded by Prof. Balderston and unanimously approved by a voice vote.
B. Council on Teacher Charter Amendment
The Council on Teaching has recommended an amendment to their Charter to reflect their current activities. The only substantive changes are the addition of the Director of the Center for Teaching as an ex officio member, section a.4, and section b.2.b which describes their activities regarding establishing guidelines for University-wide teaching awards and selecting and evaluating candidates for these awards.
MOTION: Prof. Loew moved to approve the changes which was seconded by Prof. Kurtz and passed unanimously by voice vote.
V. From the floor
None
VI. Announcements
- Faculty Senate, February 7, 2006, 3:30-5:15, W151 PBB *Note room change
- Legislative Reception, December 8, 2005, 4:30-600 pm, Museum of Art
VII. Adjournment
There being no further business, Senate President LeBlond adjourned the meeting at 4:50 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Richard F. LeBlond
Faculty Senate President