Tuesday, November 18, 2025

3:30 – 5:15 pm
Executive Boardroom (2390), University Capitol Centre

1. Call to Order

   President Just called the meeting to order at 3:30 pm.

2. Approvals

   1. Meeting Agenda – President Just noted that one more committee appointment had been added to the agenda after it was sent to Councilors. Professor Vogel moved and Professor Whitaker seconded that the revised agenda be approved. The motion carried unanimously.
   2. Faculty Council Minutes (October 7, 2025) – Professor Ayati moved and Professor Vogel seconded that the minutes be approved. The motion carried unanimously.
   3. Draft Faculty Senate Agenda (December 9, 2025) – President Just noted that one more committee appointment had been added to the draft agenda after it was sent to Councilors. He indicated that changes may be made to the draft agenda prior to the Senate meeting. A final version will be approved at the meeting. Professor Welder moved and Professor Vogel seconded that the revised draft agenda be approved. The motion carried unanimously.
   4. Committee Appointments (Roxanna Curto, Chair, Committee on Committees) – Professor Koch moved and Professor Vogel seconded that the committee appointments be approved. The motion carried unanimously.
      • Matthew Arndt (Music) to fill the unexpired term of John Wadsworth (Rehabilitation & Counselor Education) on the Faculty Staff Parking Appeals Committee, Spring 2026
      • Erik Krohn (Computer Science) to fill the unexpired term of John Wadsworth (Rehabilitation & Counselor Education) on the Parking and Transportation Committee, Spring 2026

   E. Faculty Senate Elections 2026 Vacancy Tally (Craig Just) – President Just explained that Faculty Senate approval of the vacancy tally is necessary before we can move ahead with our election process in the spring semester. Professor Williams asked whether faculty members elected to seats designated for non-tenured (tenure-track) faculty members are allowed to finish their terms if they obtain tenure during their terms; it was clarified that, yes, they are allowed to finish their terms. Professor Johnson moved and Professor Vogel seconded that the vacancy tally be approved. The motion carried unanimously.

3. New Business

   • Center for Teaching Discussion (Anna Flaming, Director)

     Dr. Flaming explained that the Center for Teaching pursues its mission to elevate the campus culture of teaching and learning excellence by engaging with national and international conversations about teaching and learning to enhance Iowa practice and national reputation, supporting faculty and student success by adapting evidence-based practices for Iowa faculty and students, and advocating for structures and policies that allow teachers and learners to thrive. The Center’s six staff members possess a wealth of expertise in areas such as transparent assignment/assessment design, artificial intelligence (AI) in teaching and learning, and faculty mentorship. Last year, the Center hosted over 100 teaching workshops, most of which were tailored for a specific topic, college, or department. The Center supports all twelve colleges and is involved in sixteen tactics under the current UI strategic plan. The Center’s relatively new website had 28,951 views last fiscal year. Dr. Flaming emphasized the exponential impact of the Center’s work - supporting a faculty member’s teaching success also supports student success. She noted the example of two relatively small programs, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and Scholarly Teaching, which together served only 33 faculty members from nine colleges in 2024-25. These faculty members, however, had a total course enrollment of more than 8,000 students.

     Several teaching-related issues are of special concern to faculty members currently, Dr. Flaming noted, and the Center has resources and training available to address them. On the topic of the role of generative AI in teaching and learning, the Center has developed several initiatives. AI Socials bring together faculty and staff from across campus for informal conversations about the possibilities and challenges of generative AI use in the classroom. The Center is providing focused support to the ten inaugural Provost AI Fellows in their work to design courses toward a new undergraduate AI certificate, as well as providing broad support to instructors across campus who are at various points in their experience with AI in the classroom. 

     Workshops on teaching through “hot moments” have been developed by the Center in response to increasing instructor interest, Dr. Flaming continued. Generally, these workshops focus on considering common dynamics that arise when teaching sensitive topics; integrating transparency, course guidelines, and other strategies into course context to help students engage with sensitive topics; and identifying teaching strategies to address difficult moments or unexpected student reactions during sensitive discussions. However, workshops can be customized to the specific needs of a college or department, sometimes involving co-facilitation with other campus experts. For many years, the Center has been an advocate for transparent teaching, an evidence-based approach to improve student learning. Transparent teaching helps students understand how course topics are relevant to the field of study; the purpose of course readings, assignments, and other course components and how they align to the field of study; and how grading criteria is a reflection of students’ mastery of course content and skills. Among the Center’s resources is an asynchronous transparent course design workshop to be launched in the spring semester. A resource collection on transparent teaching can also be found on the Center’s website here.

     Dr. Flaming commented that the Center is continually evaluating the services offered to ensure that they are useful to faculty members. She thanked Councilors for their dedication to excellent teaching. The Center hosts numerous events throughout the year which are advertised to faulty members via digital flyers; Dr. Flaming urged Councilors to attend Center events themselves or to pass on information about the events to faculty colleagues and teaching assistants. Upcoming Center events include an online presentation on Neurodiversity in the Classroom by Dr. Sarah Silverman on January 15, as part of the Rocklin Teaching & Learning Speaker Series. An in-person guest speaker, Dr. James Lang, will visit campus on April 10, 2026. The Center produces a subscription-only newsletter that features numerous articles on various aspects of teaching. Dr. Flaming encouraged Councilors to reach out to her at annaflaming@uiowa.edu or to the Center at teaching@uiowa.edu with any teaching-related issues or challenges that they might have.

     At the conclusion of her presentation, Dr. Flaming posed the following questions to Councilors: If the Center for Teaching could help you achieve one big goal for your students or your teaching in the next year, what would that be? and Imagine our university’s teaching culture five years from now. What role should the Center for Teaching play in making that vision real? Past President Sheerin observed that faculty members are increasingly integrating AI into their teaching, but she wondered about methods of testing that avoid AI entirely, yet are not overly time-consuming for instructors. For example, she explained, she has begun incorporating oral presentations more frequently into her testing practices. Dr. Flaming commented that oral presentations are entirely appropriate for Past President Sheerin’s field of law. She added that having students focus on the process of their learning, not just on the final paper or other course product, can be very useful in minimizing student engagement with AI. Enhanced coordination with a course’s teaching assistants can increase an instructor’s efficiency and effectiveness. 

     Professor Whitaker asked for advice regarding students who are failing but do not reach out for guidance on grade improvement until near the end of the course, in spite of efforts to encourage such students to engage with the instructor earlier. Dr. Flaming commented that colleagues in the student success realm have told her that some students simply want to pass, not to excel in, a course, likely due to outside pressures such as jobs or other responsibilities. This may be seen as a rational approach, given the students’ circumstances. She suggested assigning mandatory office hour visits early on in the semester. Once this practice becomes normalized for students, they will be less hesitant to engage with the instructor when they are struggling. Dr. Flaming also noted that there are some technological tools, such as electronic “nudges,” that can be sent to students through ICON to check on their progress. Professor Williams commented that data analytics tools can be extremely helpful for instructors of large classes. Not only can these tools help identify students early on who are struggling, but they can also help determine the specific ways in which individual students are struggling. She hoped to see more automated notifications eventually built into the technology. She then asked whether the Center for Teaching was involved in efforts to enhance accessibility in the classroom. Dr. Flaming responded that her colleagues in academic technology and IT, rather than at the Center, were at the forefront of these efforts. She added that building accessibility directly into instructional design would be a welcome development.

   • Ethics in Research Policy (Craig Just)

     President Just referred Councilors to the supplementary document describing the rigorous shared governance process undertaken by the Faculty Senate’s Faculty Policies and Compensation Committee (FPCC) to review proposed revisions to Policy Manual II.27.6 Ethics in Research. The Research Council, one of the university’s charter committees, played an important role in reviewing the draft revised policy, as well. The supplementary document also described some substantive changes suggested by FPCC and accepted by Mike Andrews, Director of Research Integrity and Security, and Research Integrity and Research Security Officer, who has been leading the administrative efforts to revise the policy. President Just explained that the proposed revisions were comprised of two components, mandatory changes required by the federal government and discretionary changes suggested by the UI Research Integrity and Security Office (a unit of the Office of the Vice President for Research). The deadline for submission of the revised policy to the federal government is January 1. Procedures documents for several regulatory agencies have also been revised; FPCC will review them in the spring. President Just thanked Professor Marshall, chair of the FPCC, as well as the committee’s members, for their dedicated and careful work on this proposed policy revision. He asked Councilors if they had found any significant issues of concern in the proposed revision.

     In response to a question, President Just explained that the revision had been undertaken in order to comply with federal requirements for mandated updates to the university’s policy. The mandated language cannot be altered by the university. The entire policy had last been updated in 1999, so the Research Integrity and Security Office took this opportunity to revise the nonmandated language, as well. Vice President Curto suggested that an edit be made to the last sentence of the proposed revised policy, This policy shall be reviewed not less more than five years following its implementation.

     Professor McGonagill moved and Professor Farag seconded that the proposed revised Ethics in Research policy be approved with the suggested edit. The motion carried unanimously.

   • Office of the Provost Update (Kevin Kregel, Executive Vice President and Provost) 
     Provost Kregel observed that UI student enrollment numbers have been strong. Currently, new student applications are 6% higher than last year, which was itself a record year. The university successfully welcomed its second largest incoming class this fall, with about 5500 new first-year students. Provost Kregel then briefly touched on several topics of interest to faculty. He indicated that the university, via the Revenue and Efficiencies Strategic Plan Action and Resource Committee (reSPARC), is seeking innovative new revenue streams and efficiency strategies. Provost Kregel noted that the Center for Intellectual Freedom, which reports directly to the Iowa Board of Regents but will be located at UI, was established by House File 437. An interim director has been appointed and bylaws are being developed. The Board has also taken on a workforce alignment initiative, looking particularly at the alignment of majors with state workforce needs. Low enrollment thresholds were established for academic programs (25 students at the undergraduate level and 10 at the graduate level). Board staff have explained various factors impacting low enrollment, such as accreditation requirements for small class sizes and students’ decisions to pursue second majors, minors, and certificates. The Board will continue to study workforce alignment, and this winter will begin considering processes for its implementation. Provost Kregel acknowledged the significant amount of effort involved in reaching compliance with federal accessibility standards by April 2026. In response to faculty members’ requests for additional support with implementation, multiple resources are now available. He commented that compliance with the new accessibility standards is federally mandated, but it is also the right thing for the university to do. Concluding his brief remarks, Provost Kregel noted that central administrators remain in regular contact with the Senate officers, with whom they discuss multiple issues impacting the university.

   • Executive Session

     Professor Whitaker moved and Professor Ayati seconded that the Faculty Council move into executive session, inviting Executive Vice President and Provost Kevin Kregel to join them. The motion carried unanimously.

     Councilors discussed the Center for Intellectual Freedom, state budget projections, the Accessibility@Iowa Initiative, reSPARC, and other issues of academic importance with Provost Kregel.

     Professor Vogel moved and Professor Whitaker seconded that the Faculty Council move out of executive session. The motion carried unanimously.

   • President’s Report (Craig Just)

     President Just wished everyone an enjoyable fall break.

4. From the Floor

   There were no items from the floor.

5. Announcements
   • The next Faculty Senate meeting will be Tuesday, December 9, 3:30 – 5:15 pm, Senate Chamber, Old Capitol.
   • The next Faculty Council meeting will be Tuesday, January 27, 3:30-5:15 pm, Executive Boardroom (2390), University Capitol Centre.

6. Adjournment

   VI. Adjournment – Professor Ayati moved and Professor Johnson seconded that the meeting be adjourned. The motion carried unanimously. President Just adjourned the meeting at 5:10 pm.