2003-2004   No. 30

 

ACADEMIC CABINET

Monday, October 6, 2003

 

 

Present:

Alfred Guillaume, Academic Affairs

Sarah Cooke, Off-Campus Programs

David Frantz, Purdue

David Freitas, Education

Linda Fritschner, Academic Affairs

Leda Hall, Public and Environmental Affairs

Suzanne Miller, Continuing Education

Tom Miller, Arts

Paul Newcomb, Social Work

Larry Philips for Bill Schwartz, Business and Economics

Nancy Plennert, Academic Affairs

Mary Jo Regan-Kubinski, Nursing and Health Professions

Michele Russo, Library

Roy Schreiber, Academic Senate

Miriam Shillingsburg, Liberal Arts and Sciences

                                                              

Absent:

Paul Joray, General Studies

Paul Mishler, Labor Studies

 

Guests:

Mae Reck, Chancellor

Ben Withers, Arts

Marsha Heck, Education

 

Announcements (Chancellor Mae Reck):

            Chancellor Reck informed the Academic Cabinet Members of a number of developments:

1)  IU President Adam Herbert is meeting with each campus Chancellor.  He is examining the administrative structure of IU; he has named a task force to study Continuing Studies and one to study Graduate Studies at IU; he stresses accountability.  He plans to meet annually with each Chancellor to review their goals and accomplishments.

2)  Both the plans for a “bridge” and residential housing at IU South Bend are moving forward.  In the case of the “bridge”, the Project Cooperative Agreement (PCA) still needs approval from IU.  This agreement states that non federal project sponsors, in this case IU, would be responsible for any cost overruns.  Once there is agreement then the proposal still needs review by the Army Corps of Engineers at the Cincinnati Office and then Washington D.C.  As for residential housing, the October 17 meeting with Bob Meadows was cancelled and will be rescheduled in November.

3)  The renderings for the Administration Building renovation will be ready in November.  Once the drawings are complete, Vice Chancellor Ilene Sheffer and the Chancellor will be able to approach people about project funding.

4)  Although the whole campus is responsible for enrollment management, a consultant, James F. Gyure, will be on campus on October 28 to discuss enrollment management.  Enrollment management includes not only enrollment projections but also treatment of students who inquire about campus and those who come to campus, retention of students, timely graduation, and cultivation of alums.

5)  The Chancellor was very pleased by the Patriot Act Forum sponsored by the Library.

6)  The search for a Director of Institutional Research (IR) is underway.  The advertisements are out.  Chancellor Reck will appoint a search committee soon and there is hope that the IR Director will be on campus in January.

7)  The Chancellor is waiting to see whether or not there will be a recall of the one and one-half percent money that IU received from the legislature.  If the money is not recalled, it will become a part of our base budget.  The Chancellor plans to be fiscally conservative.  Some of the monies may be used for the position Director of Graduate Study and Grants and Research and for the Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs position.

8)  PeopleSoft presents another budget worry.  To support PeopleSoft, there are implementation costs and there will be continuing costs.

9)  The first candidate for the position of Vice Chancellor for Information Technology will be on campus today, October 6, and October 7.  Interviews are also being scheduled for the Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administrative Affairs.  There will be an interview on October 9 for one of the Director of Marketing candidates.

 

Merit Pay (Roy Schreiber):

            Roy described a proposal from the Executive Committee of the Academic Senate regarding merit pay and its distribution.  He has discussed the proposal with Chancellor Reck and Vice Chancellor Guillaume.  The Executive Committee proposes that the campus handle the designated “merit” portion of the allocation from the Board of Trustees in the same manner that we handle the Trustee Teaching Awards.  The faculty would apply for the merit money by submitting their dossier to a faculty committee who would make a recommendation regarding the merit increase.  Roy stated that the advantages of the Executive Committee proposal were twofold:  1)  there would be group support for administrative decisions and 2)  the faculty would have ownership of the process.

 

            Cabinet members worried about the time frame for making the decision regarding merit increase.  They were concerned that some deserving faculty would not submit a dossier and discussed the fact that some people, perhaps because of cultural considerations, would not promote themselves by submitting a dossier.  There was discussion about standards that would be used, categories to be considered (teaching, scholarship/creative work, service), etc.  Some suggested that annual reports and evaluations might be a better mechanism than a separate dossier for review for possible merit increases.  There was concern that “consensual goals” would differ from the dean’s goals and the fact that the deans would be relinquishing their leadership.  This philosophical difference would need discussion.  There was also concern about the fact that there may be no merit money to allocate.

General Education Implementation (Ben Withers):

            Ben Withers spoke about the work of the General Education Implementation Task Force. He distributed the following material:  1)  a letter to all faculty which describes the work of the committee, the subcommittee structure, and invites faculty to participate on one of the subcommittees, 2)  the preliminary implementation calendar, 3)  the preliminary goals and deadlines for the curriculum based subcommittees, and 4)  a draft of the position description for a Director of General Education.  Ben asked for suggestions on how to communicate with faculty and hoped that members of the General Education Implementation Task Force would be invited to college and school meetings to discuss the work of the committee.  Currently, the team is spending time on the general education curriculum:  the fundamental literacies and the common core curriculum.  There was also some discussion of the possibility of rotating themes to bind the curriculum together.

 

Landmark Forum (Marsha Heck):

            Marsha discussed the Landmark Forum and conflict resolution.  A group will be on campus on October 9 to provide an overview and some training for those that are interested.  Marsha invited Academic Cabinet members to attend.

 

Other Announcements (Alfred Guillaume):

            Alfred made the following announcements:

·                                             He told Academic Cabinet members that all IRB approvals must now be routed to            IU Bloomington.  On October 23 from 10:30 a.m. until noon in the UCET             Classroom in Northside Hall there will be training on the approval process by           representatives from Bloomington.

·                                             Send items to Alfred for the November issue of the VCAA News.

·                                             Also, send your Economic Development proposals and your annual reports directly to Alfred.  Some members on campus are preparing federal earmarks         proposals.

·                                             Although it is a rare occurrence, there is a process for hiring a faculty member with tenure

 

Respectfully submitted

Linda Marie Fritschner

Monday, October 6, 2003

cc:  Chancellor Mae Reck