Here is the second installment of news that has occupied the Office of Academic Affairs in the last month.  I sincerely hope that you find these news items of interest and helpful to you as you too become engaged in the governance of the university through senate, college or department meetings.  I also would like to remind you that I welcome comments through my e-mail address, vcaa@iusb.edu.

NCA ACCREDITATION: The NCA Team will be on campus November 13, 14, and 15. The following times have been set aside to meet with the NCA team:

Faculty Monday, November 13, 3:00-4:00 p.m. Northside 245
Tuesday, November 14, 10:00-11:00 a.m. Northside 245

Staff Tuesday, November 14, 11:30-12:30 p.m. Northside 152

Students Tuesday, November 14, 1:00-2:00 p.m. Wiekamp 1001

The NCA team will also meet with our campus NCA Steering and Subcommittee members on Monday, Nov. 13 from 9:30-10:30 a.m. in Northside 245 and on Wednesday, November 15 at 11:00 a.m. in the Board Room. The Chancellor's staff and the Academic Cabinet members will also attend the Wednesday meeting.

The NCA Team will have lunch on Monday, the 13th with IUSB's Board of Advisors. They will also talk with President Myles Brand while on campus.

Please welcome the team while they are on campus. I hope that each of you will be available to meet the team.

DIRECT ADMITS: Larry Garber and his committee of faculty and staff are continuing their work on preparing how best the university might respond to the direct admits initiative.  Miriam Shillnigsburg reports that she and the chairs of the College of Arts and Sciences have also been working diligently on this very issue.  She and her colleagues welcome the opportunity to develop closer and sustained relationships with students at the beginning of their academic careers.  Dean Shillingsburg has discussed with the academic cabinet her college’s interest in advising the undecided majors.   She will also report to the Direct Admits Committee what her college envisages as a plan for advising direct admits.  In my remarks to the senate on November 17th I will address why I view direct admits as a critical issue for the campus.

Since advising will be a major factor in direct admits, I encourage you to review the website of the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) to learn more about faculty's role in advising.  The website is www.nacada.ksu.edu.

ACADEMIC CABINET RETREAT: In early October the Academic Cabinet met at the Elkhart Center for a day’s retreat. We had a productive meeting that resulted in 10 action items for the academic year.  These will be reviewed periodically for possible changes or deletions based on continuing interest and/or feasibility.
 

1. Reinstate international recruitment. Rationale: International recruitment has decreased and in the absence of a firm plan to recruit international students, the number of international students enrolled at IUSB is likely to decrease.
2. Institute a reciprocity agreement with Michigan.  Rationale: Indiana University Southeast has a reciprocity agreement with the State of Kentucky.  Not to have a similar agreement between Indiana and Michigan disadvantages Indiana and IUSB.
3. IUSB needs to revisit its current fee structure.  Rationale: It is unclear how fees are determined and how these fees are factored in support of the units that generate them.
4. Standardize the waiver of OIT fees for high school students.  Rationale: The current policy and practices are unclear. 
5. IUSB should standardize S&E support at $3500 per faculty member. Rationale: S&E support varies across the campus.  The inequality of support disadvantages academic units.
6. IUSB needs to develop a long range recruitment strategy for non-traditional students.  Rationale: IUSB's traditional base of attracting non-traditional students is eroding and the numbers of non-traditional continues to decline.
7. IUSB needs to consider Friday and Saturday classes.  Rationale: IUSB should provide broader access to courses through more flexibility of course offerings.
8. The current IUSB logo should be on all publications.  Rationale:  The current logo is widely recognized and sets the campus apart from the other regional campuses.
9. IUSB should establish a three year plan to have no more than one third of its courses in all colleges and schools taught by associate faculty.  Attention should be given to the schools with the highest dependency on associate faculty, the School of Education and the School of the Arts.  Rationale: In some academic units, there is an over dependency on associate faculty to teach courses.
10. IUSB should revive the merit system plan for professional and clerical staff.  Rationale: A merit system allows employees to be treated fairly and reward appropriately for extraordinary and good performance.

MINORITY CONFERENCE: Last week sixteen faculty, staff and administrators from IUSB attended the Enhancing Minority Achievement Conference at IU Kokomo.  This one and a half day conference, which is an annual event, was sponsored this year by Vice President Charlie Nelms. The emphasis on diversity and inclusion is a three year effort of Indiana University.  President Brand spoke to the conference partipants via satellite emphasizing the importance of diversity for the university.  Within the next several months I will be engaging the deans and others across the campus in discussions about how IUSB can be more reflected of our community in the hiring of faculty and recruitment of students and how we might broaden the integration of diversity within the curriculum.  Fostering diversity is already  a central theme in the discussions of the general education committee chaired by Jerry Hinnifeld

BUDGET: A tentative budget calendar for the preparation of the next biennial budget is up on the Academic Affairs web page.  Mary Ann Zemke, the deans and I are committed to working with the senate budget committee in shared decisions about allocation of resources.  In mid-October, Mary Ann and I attended a workshop in Chicago on linking budgeting to planning.  We’ll meet soon with the senate budget committee and the strategic directions committee to determine how we might implement what we learned.

FACULTY SEARCHES: In addition to the search for a new dean of the School of Business and Economics the following faculty positions are currently underway for AY 2000-01.

ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
   Dean, School of Business and Economics

ARTS
   Associate Professor and Area Coordinator of Communication Arts
   Assistant Professor of Theatre

BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
   Assistant Professor of Human Resources Management
   Assistant Professor of  Decision Sciences
   Assistant Professor of Decision Sciences (subject to budget approval)

LIBERAL ARTS & SCIENCES
   Assistant Professor of  Cell Biology
   Assistant Professor/Associate Professor of  Computer Science
   Visiting Lecturer in Computer Science (Spring 2001 semester)
   Assistant Professor of Spanish
   Lecturer in Spanish
   Assistant Professor of Experimental Psychology
   Assistant Professor of Social Psychology

LIBRARY
   Head of Library Information Technology

NURSING & HEALTH PROFESSIONS
   Lecturer in Dental Education
   Clinical Lecturer in Nursing

SOCIAL WORK
   Clinical Instructor (Coordinator of Field Placements)

S P E A
   Assistant Professor of Public & Environmental Affairs (Criminal Justice/Law Enforcement) 
   Assistant Professor of Public and Environmental Affairs (Economics-Health Care)

The following information provides a detailed explanation of the Mercer Study process and how the committee reached its decisions: The Mercer Study used data by faculty discipline and rank reported to the College and Personnel Association (CUPA).  Data were requested for 24 peer institutions identified by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS).  Of these 24 institutions, 20 provided data to CUPA.  A salary range was developed for each faculty discipline and rank, with the CUPA median salary projected to July 1, 1999, representing the range midpoint.  Pay ranges were built around each median market value for each discipline and rank combination.  The salary range widths (range maximum as a percent of the range minimum) increased with rank based on Mercer’s analysis of the national CUPA data. The range widths were: Assistant Professor, 40%, Associate Professor, 45%, and Full Professor, 55%.  Where compression problems occurred between ranks, the data were adjusted slightly by looking at rank relationships in similar disciplines.

The Pay Equity Task Force recommended that minimum target salaries be set for each faculty member in terms of range penetration percentages.  For example: 0% range penetration represents a target salary at the range minimum and 50% range penetration represents a target salary at the range midpoint.  Minimum range penetration targets were set based on a combination of years of tenure track experience in rank and performance.  Because there is no common way of measuring performance across academic divisions, a proxy merit variable was developed.  The proxy merit variable was determined by averaging the ratios of each faculty member’s percentage increase in pay relative to the pool percentages over the past five years.  These ratios were then bracketed into five categories of performance.  The brackets were developed based on an analysis of the distribution of the proxy merit ratios of all faculty and an analysis of the relationship between the ratios and actual performance ratings in the College of Business and Economics.  The College of Business and Economics data was used because that college developed and implemented a well-defined and consistently administered performance measurement system. 

Target salaries were computed for each faculty member based on the target range penetration percentages.  The deans were asked to review the salaries of all faculty members whose current salaries were $1000 or more below the target salaries and to then recommend adjustments.  Current salaries were computed by multiplying each faculty member’s base monthly salary by 10 so as to avoid the inclusion of any administrative supplements.  As recommended y the Pay Equity Task Force, the deans’ recommendations were reviewed by a committee appointed by the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.  The vice chancellor and the chancellor then reviewed the recommendations of the committee.

The following faculty members were not included in the Mercer Study: librarians, lecturers, visiting faculty, associate faculty, and faculty whose salaries reflected their administrative rather than faculty appointments, including those with grandfathered administrative salaries.  Librarians were not included in the Mercer Study because the CUPA faculty survey by discipline and rank does not include librarians and a librarian pay equity study had recently been completed and appropriate pay increases implemented.  The Pay Equity Task Force decided not to include non-tenure track faculty in the initial study.  The intent of this first study of faculty pay equity was to focus on tenure track, teaching faculty.   The committee reviewing the deans’ recommendations recommended that future faculty pay equity studies include non-tenure track faculty as well.

DISTRIBUTED EDUCATION PLAN: In early October, Associate Vice Chancellor Erv Boschmann visited the campus and met with the Academic Cabinet to discuss and receive feedback on the draft of Indiana University’s strategic plan for distributed education.  A copy of that plan can be viewed on the website: http://www.indiana.edu/~iude/frameset-publications.html

I’m encouraging the deans to discuss the plan with their faculties and to determine what role, if any, IUSB will have in the delivery of courses via distributed education.

NEW PROGRAMS: At the most recent Board of Trustees meeting, November 3-4, IUSB’s new programs were approved.  Funding for these programs will be included in IU’s appropriation request in the next biennial budget.  I can assure the campus that unless additional dollars are appropriated, we will not put an additional strain on our budget by including these programs in our campus offerings.

DATES TO REMEMBER:

November 9 - Legacy of Suicide, Research Award Lecture by John McIntosh
November 12-15 - NCA Visit
November 12 - 18 - Toradze Piano Festival
November 13 - President Brand’s visit to IUSB.
November 17 - Conversations on Race
November 17 - Dean's Seminar