University of Iowa
FACULTY SENATE
Tuesday, September 5, 2006
3:30- 5:15 pm
Senate Chamber, Old Capitol
Minutes
Members Present: David Asprey, Daniel Balderston, Jill Beckman, Linda Boyle, Kenneth Brown, Christine Catney, Jay Christensen-Szalanski, Michael Cohen, Steve Collins, Virginia Dominguez, Maureen Donovan, David Drake, George El-Khoury, Sarah Fagan, Richard Fumerton, Thomas Grabowski, Vicki Grassian, Ronald Herman, Geoffrey Hope, Bruce Justman, Craig Kletzing, Johna Leddy, Susan Lutgendorf, Donald MacFarlane, Mazen Maktabi, Steve McGuire, Frank Mitros, Sue Moorhead, Adelaide Morris, Mary Noonan, Faryle Nothwehr, Michael O’Hara, Bryce Plapp, Amy Poremba, Catherine Ringen, Gary Russell, Jarjisu Sa-Aadu, Thomas Schmidt, Kathy Schuh, William Sharp, Linda Snetselaar, Anne Sullivan, Downing Thomas, Brad Thompson, Tuong Ton-That, Richard Tubbs, Ruth Wachtel, John Westefeld, Steven Wolfe, and Jerold Woodhead
Members Absent: George Bergus, Susan Birrell, Gloria Bulechek, Javier Campos, Jonathan Carlson, William Clarke, Jane Desmond, Edwin Dove, Claibourne Dungy, Robert Garrett, Frederick Goodman, Judith Heggen, Paul Heidger, Mark Karwal, Yi Li, Thomas Loew, David Min, Jose Morcuende, Thomas O’Dorisio, Christine Pawley, Beth Pelton, Lynn Richman, Janet Specht, John Sutphin, Christie Thomas, Geb Thomas, Marcia Ward, and Catherine Woodman
Members Excused: Lioness Ayres, Jeffrey Cox, Donna D’Alessandro, Lance Lichtor, Rene Martin, Karin Southard, James Tomkovicz, Steve Vincent, and Walter Vispoel
Faculty Senate Officers in Attendance: Sheldon Kurtz (President), Victoria Sharp (Vice President), Jennifer Glass (Secretary), and Richard LeBlond (Past President)
Guests: Pat Cain (Office of the Provost), Lee Anna Clark (Psychology), Marcella David (Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity), Hillary Dover (Faculty Senate), Charlie Drum (University Relations), Diane Heldt (Gazette), Michael Hogan (Provost), Cynthia Joyce (Ombudsperson), Carl Orgren (Emeritus Faculty Council), Craig Porter (Ombudsperson), and Evalyn Van Allen-Shalash (Faculty Senate)
I. Call to Order
President Kurtz called the meeting to order at 3:32 pm. He introduced Evalyn Van Allen-Shalash, new Program Assistant in the Faculty Senate Office, and Hillary Dover, new student office assistant.
II. Approvals
A. Meeting Agenda— Professor O’Hara moved, seconded by Professor Ringen, to approve the meeting agenda. Motion passed by voice vote.
B. Faculty Senate Minutes, April 25, 2006 and Organizational Meeting Minutes, April 25, 2006
Professor Cohen moved; Professor Thomas seconded; motion carried by unanimous vote to approve both sets of minutes. [Subsequently, it was noted that Professor Collins did in fact attend both sessions on April 25, 2006]
C. Committee Replacements
Vice President Victoria Sharp made the following recommendations for Committee replacements.
- Parking Appeals Committee: Bryce Plapp, Biochemistry, to replace Naeem Haider, Anesthesia, 2006-08
- Information Technology Advisory Committee: Victoria Sharp, Urology, interim member during the leave of Carin Green, Fall Semester 2006.
A motion to approve was made by Professor Steve Collins; seconded by Professor Maktabi; approval by unanimous voice vote.
D. Honorary Degree Selection Committee
President Kurtz proposed the following five nominees to serve on the new Honorary Degree
Selection Committee:
- Nicholas Colangelo, Professor, College of Education, and Director, Connie Belin and Jacqueline N. Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development
- Rita Frantz, Professor and Area Chair, Systems & Practice, College of Nursing
- Sheldon Kurtz, Percy Bordwell Professor of Law
- John Beldon Scott, Professor, School of Art and Art History, CLAS
- Christopher Squier, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in the College of Dentistry, and Professor, Oral Pathology, Radiology and Medicine.
He announced that the three remaining nominations, made by the Provost, will include an ex-officio member from his office, Dr. Susan Johnson of the College of Medicine and Associate Provost for Faculty, and two faculty nominees, including Professor Jay Sa-Aadu, Department of Finance in the Tippie College of Business and an as-yet-unnamed eighth member.
Professor McGuire moved; seconded by Professor Balderston, to approve the five nominees. Professor Ringen commented that there were too many men on the panel. The motion was passed by a show of hands—all but one in favor, one opposed.
E. Senate Replacements
a. College of Public Health
Based on the current Faculty Senate bylaw concerning vacancies arising between elections, the position will be filled by the Senate from eligible members of the constituency affected. Two faculty members from the College of Public Health volunteered to run for the open senate position:
- Larry Robertson, Professor, Occupational and Environmental Health
- Brian Kaskie, Assistant Professor, Health Management and Policy
President Kurtz wished to publicly thank them for standing in the election. He suggested that changes to the bylaws might need to be considered regarding these situations. They were crafted before the wonders of the technology and internet, which would make a collegiate election a timely and straight forward process. He will refer the matter to the Bylaws Committee.
b. College of Nursing
- Kennith Culp, Nursing, to replace Kathleen Hanson, 2005-08, who undertook an administrative position within her college.
Professor Beckman, moved, Professor Cohen seconded, a motion to appoint Kennith Culp to the Senate. Following a unanimous voice vote, the motion was approved.
c. President Kurtz announced the need for members on the Faculty Judicial Commission from the Colleges of Education, Pharmacy and Public Health. He sought Senate volunteers or nominees. He commented that, with hope, there will be no need to convene the commission, but should a case arise, there need to be enough representatives across colleges to consider the situation. Interested parties should send their own name or other nominees in an email to him (sheldon-kurtz@uiowa.edu).
III. Reports
A. Diversity Action Committee, Marcella David, Special Assistant to the President, Equal Opportunity and Diversity and Associate Provost
Professor David introduced herself as the chief diversity officer at the university. Under the leadership of Provost Hogan and former president David Skorton, there is a strong desire to further diversity efforts. The Iowa Promise elevated Diversity to one of its primary goals and, as such, it is recognized as a key component in achieving excellence and national prominence. She said she hopes it will guide all efforts of the university. There are specific targets set forth there, but the overarching goal is to create a warm and welcoming environment to underrepresented communities.
To advance these goals, Provost Hogan commissioned the Diversity Action Task Force, co-chaired by Sandy Boyd, Raúl Curto, and Professor David. After nine months of consultation, they provided their results and recommendations to the Provost. Hardcopies of the report are available from the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity.
There are three categories within the report: student success, faculty/staff success and university climate and coordination. Recommendations related to faculty success include best practices in faculty searches, diversity service and faculty evaluation, and providing training to give faculty the tools they need to promote these goals. She said she looks forward to input from the Senate on how best to implement the recommendations. In particular, she called for improvements in faculty hiring and creating a climate to reduce sexual harassment.
David said that everyone has responsibilities related to diversity awareness. Faculty have a responsibility to contribute to a positive learning environment; to facilitate learning to adequately prepare students to handle materials, the institution has a commitment to faculty, and she has a commitment to everyone to make sure the environment is a good one. She added if anyone has been treated unfairly or has witnessed sexual harassment, she can put them in touch with people who can help.
This has been a record year for recruiting underrepresented faculty, especially within CLAS and the College of Education. While numbers are not yet final, she is confident that undergraduate numbers have been preserved.
In response to a question from Professor Brown, David said there was not sufficient time to revamp orientation this Fall to include diversity issues specifically related to faculty or to involve the Center for Teaching. Although there is a diversity component in the general university orientation, this is something she would be happy to work on with the Center.
David thanked Faculty Senator Michael O’Hara for his participation on the Diversity Action Task Force. President Kurtz noted that Professor O’Hara is the chair of the former Faculty Welfare Committee (now known as Faculty Policies and Compensation), which puts him in an excellent position to discuss these issues.
B. Programmatic Reviews
Pat Cain, Vice Provost, oversees all academic reviews. She noted that there are three upcoming reviews during 2006-07, namely the Colleges of Law and Education, and University Libraries. She hopes to compile a list of names of faculty members willing to be called upon to serve on these review committees. She explained that internal review committees are comprised of faculty members outside the college in question, but that external experts are brought in to advise the process. She asked Evalyn to send out a follow-up message to seek volunteers. She encouraged senators to self-nominate.
C. Sexual Harassment Survey and Report
Lee Anna Clark, Department of Psychology and primary co-author of the report, explained that the Council on the Status of Women was commissioned in 2003 to conduct a survey on harassment. 42,839 people received the survey; over 11,000 responded. Taking into account the nature of the survey, this was considered a very positive result. While the representation was generally broad, there was a higher percentage of women respondents and lower percentage of undergraduates. She noted that the University of Iowa is one of the first universities to have put in place a sexual harassment policy. Clark referred to an earlier survey, conducted in 1992, that was sent out to a sample population, specifically framed around sexual harassment. This latest survey also included questions about unwelcome behavior in general.
She was pleased to report that incidents do not appear to have gotten worse over the past ten years. Still, it was disturbing to discover that knowledge about where to report was very low. She said that sexual harassment is a red flag. It is much easier for people to report specific behavior. Physical assaults of a sexual nature were reported by 56 people on campus; 334 people said they had experienced unwelcome comments of a sexual nature about their bodies, but had not considered it sexual harassment.
Clark said that in many cases where the person who experienced unwanted behavior actually told the offender to stop, the behavior did stop. However, results also indicated people are tolerating a lot of bad behavior; perhaps because they don’t know if they can or where to report it. They thought it might be too much hassle to report it, they feared retaliation, or thought the complaint would not be taken seriously. 60% of respondents reported that there were no consequences for the perpetrators. The sense of hopelessness is a huge concern that needs to be addressed. As a community, we need to let them know they can report it; where and how to report it; and that someone else’s behavior will not reflect badly on them.
Clark suggested starting a conversation with faculty, staff and students. Departments should invite representatives from EOD or CSW to speak about the survey results. Also, ensure that the topic is addressed in graduate student orientation so we can see change before the next survey is done.
From the audience, the comment was made that tailgating is often associated with sexual harassment. It was suggested that the new director of athletics should be held responsible for solving that problem. President Kurtz said he would pass along the comment.
Asked if there were differences in the distribution of unwelcome events in one constituent group over another, Clark said that the results were not analyzed in that way. Some of the distinctions are highlighted in individual tables, but not overall.
D. Faculty presentations in the residence halls
President Kurtz read out a message from Tom Rocklin, Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education, seeking faculty involvement in resident hall programming. Interested faculty members should contact Kate Sojka (kate-sojka@uiowa.edu).
VI. New Business
A. Photo Identification Policy, Jay Christensen-Szalanski, Management and Organizations and Josephine Bathke, Assistant Counsel, General Counsel’s Office
On occasion, the unit which dispenses university identification cards receives requests from departments to download employees’ university ID photo. The committee considered whether this was an appropriate use of these photos. Their recommendation is that the sole purpose of the photo is for creating identification and badge cards, and should it should not be released to anyone, except for legitimate security reasons.
Discussion ensued. Christensen-Szalanski confirmed that faculty will continue to be able to access photos of their students. Under this proposed policy, the actual image is the property of the university and faculty members will not be allowed to release it for any other purpose. This does not affect photographs that departments/colleges choose to publish on their websites.
A motion was made by Professor Fumerton, seconded by Professor Collins, to amend the language of the proposal to read:
“The sole purpose of ID Card photos is for creating identification badges or cards. They should not be released unless required by law, except for public safety functions, or with the permission of the individual who was photographed.”
Arguments against the amendment included the potential administrative costs in tracking permissions and that the present language is simple, clear, and easily enforced.
In response to a question about the definition of public safety, Assistant Counsel Bathke said that the policy does not provide a specific definition, but it is not thought that public safety is limited to the Public Safety department. If in doubt, departments should consult with the General Counsel’s office.
Professor Balderston called the question, Professor Hope seconded, in order to vote on the amendment to the policy. The amendment failed a voice vote.
Professor O’Hara moved, seconded by Professor Susan Lutgendorf to approve the policy as proposed. Motion passed by voice vote.
B. Practice Related to Faculty/Staff Home Address and Telephone
Currently, employees’ home address and telephone numbers are publicly available. The employee is given the opportunity to opt out by restricting access. Jay Christensen-Szalanski, Management and Organizations and Josephine Bathke, Assistant Counsel, General Counsel’s Office, proposed that the default on directory information should be changed so that an employee’s home address and telephone is continuously restricted, unless and until the employee elects to remove the restriction on one or both through the self service web site.
This question came to their attention as the result of a new employee being stalked by access to her public directory information. They noted that over 50% of faculty members restrict home address, phone number or both. If the policy goes into effect, all employees will receive email notification that should they wish to allow unrestricted access to their information, they will need to indicate so on the self-serve website. They pointed out that employees’ office phone numbers and addresses will remain accessible, unless by special permission from Human Resources.
Professor Collins called the question, seconded by Professor Lutgendorf, to end the debate and vote on the address restriction motion. The motion carried by voice vote.
VII. From the floor
President Kurtz was asked to share what he knows about the proposed Strategic Plan Report to be overseen by the President and Vice President of the Board of Regents together with the presidents of the three regent universities. He responded that he does not know the topics or what is on the agenda. He does not know if there has been any press coverage. The Faculty Senate has not been asked to participate. He did not know if the Deans have been asked for their input.
VIII. Announcements
- Next Faculty Senate Meeting, October 17, Senate Chambers, Old Capitol
IX. Adjournment
A motion to adjourn was made by Professor Herman; seconded by Professor O’Hara. The motion passed, the meeting was adjourned at 4:55 pm.