VCAA Newletter

At the invitation of President Herbert, the Indiana University campuses are engaged in an exciting conversation about future direction and purpose. The process, defined as Mission Differentiation, is an opportunity for Indiana University South Bend to look beyond its current and historical mission and to re-imagine the university’s future. Several weeks ago, the campus was given a list of six questions to stimulate thinking in that direction. The chancellor’s cabinet has been diligently working on appropriate response. We certainly view this as an opportunity solidify our strengths as a public, comprehensive university but, more importantly, to position us for expansion in mission and academic growth. The deans and the Academic Cabinet have also provided valuable feedback. We are now on draft 6. The final version will be posted on the appropriate websites. The campus is also engaged in writing an expanded and more precise mission and mission statement that will be presented next month to the Academic Senate for approval.

Last week the university-wide directors of the Mission Differentiation project, Vice President Charlie Nelms and Chancellor Emeritus F.C. Richardson, led two groups of our campus community in spirited discussions about IU South Bend’s future. We were fortunate to have wide representation of faculty, staff, students, alumni, community supporters and public officials. Thanks to all who participated. Both Vice President Nelms and Chancellor Richardson spoke admirably of the energy and passion of those who expressed comments. It became readily apparent how critically important IU South Bend is to this community, to the region and to the state. I am confident that with continued strategic thinking that this campus will emerge from the Mission Differentiation process with broader capabilities to meet the educational and workforce development needs of our state. We are a strong and vibrant university, and with an expanded mission, our public stewardship will grow.

At the request of the chancellor, a committee of faculty and administrators has been reviewing summer school. For the last several months, Michael Carroll, Linda Fritschner, Leda Hall, Marta Makielski, Gwynn Mettetal, Tom Miller, Jon Novak, Bill O’Donnell, Asghar Sabbaghi, Lynn Williams and I have been examining strategies to expand and improve our summer offerings. The report addresses many exciting ideas and opportunities for growth, including development of creative courses in non-traditional time-frames, consolidation and expansion of budget, and addition of selected number of courses offered outside of base allocations. You can review the report on the Academic Affairs homepage.

It hardly seems that we are already at mid-point of the semester. I trust that your classes are going well. Thank you for your continuous dedication to our students. I do hope that you take time for drives in the countryside to appreciate the wonderful autumn colors.

IRB Update - After a year of oversight by Indiana University, IUSB has regained responsibility for the IUSB Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects. During the past year, the research office and the review board members have worked diligently to implement policies and procedures which will ensure that IUSB is in compliance with Title 45 Code of Federal Regulations Part 46 when research using human subjects is conducted by researchers associated with IUSB. All research conducted under the auspices of IUSB or on the IUSB campus will be subject to review.

Beginning in November 2004, the IUSB Institutional Review Board will be able to process more efficiently those research protocols which are exempt or expedited, thus allowing researchers to undertake their research in a more timely manner. Those protocols requiring full review will be processed at the IRB’s monthly meeting.

IUSB administrators and faculty thank IU for their help over the past year, and congratulate the members of the IUSB research office and IRB for accomplishing this task.

You can find more information, including a revised review schedule, at the IRB website (http://www.iusb.edu/~sbirb).

Summer School Task Force - In the Spring of 2003, Chancellor Reck requested that the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs convene a faculty committee to review the structure and function of summer sessions at Indiana University South Bend. The chancellor was particularly interested in knowing the effectiveness of class scheduling, course assignments, and financial allocations. You can find their report here (http://www.iusb.edu/~acadaff/vcaa/summerschool.pdf) .

The Board of Trustees at the September 2004 meeting approved our Certificate in Computer Applications.

Update on the ADP/SB publication on American democracy - ADP/SB is the campus's daily web publication addressing the 2004 election, the quality of American democracy, and the challenges of active citizenship, where students, faculty, staff, and members of the community are invited to participate as readers and writers. ADP/SB went online in late July, and since that time the site's three main pages have had just under 18,000 visits. Add your visit to the growing total here: www.iusb.edu/~sbadp

Features continue to be added to the site, including a space for open discussion of the political debates, a listing of campus events, an informal poll on the presidential election, op-ed and blog-style pieces on state and national issues, international news feeds from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and major newspapers, a letters page, and a searchable archive of earlier pieces. Our unofficial foreign correspondant, former IUSB professor Steve Shore, writes often from Italy with perspectives on democracy, and a team of Schurz Library reference librarians have created one of the most popular features, a series of web and print resources on issues of the day.

On ADP/SB, we aim to use frequent web publication as a new means of connecting the good work of IUSB faculty to students and to the wider community. The range of voices represented on ADP/SB is growing, too, as we experiment with web publication as a means of increasing and improving our community's democratic exchange of ideas and information. In that spirit, contact Ken Smith, the editor, to talk about ways you, your students, and other members of the community can help strengthen the conversation about democratic values and practices on ADP/SB.

ADP/SB has also teamed up with the regional NPR affiliate station WVPE (88.1 FM) for a new series of broadcasts on the American Democracy Project (ADP) and the election. The series launched on Tuesday, September 7 with a discussion of the ADP between Professor Elizabeth Bennion, Campus Director of ADP, and WVPE’s News Director, Beth Graham. Each week the station broadcasts another commentary from the ADP/SB site, including pieces by Paul Herr, Kate Egerton, and Eileen Bender. The series has also included contributions by IUSB students Emily Miller and Jaime Anderson, as well as a piece by Joe Sipocz of the St. Joseph County Public Library. ADP pieces are broadcast on Tuesdays at 7:30 a.m. and 12:30 and 4:45 p.m. Listen to past pieces at the station's special election web page: click on Campaign 2004 at http://www.wvpe.org/

FACET, the Faculty Colloquium on Excellence in Teaching is seeking nominations for the 2005 Class. FACET is an Indiana University-wide association of faculty from all IU campuses who are recognized for teaching excellence. To be eligible for nomination to FACET, a faculty member must be full-time and have at least four years of full-time service to the University. Faculty who are interested in being nominated need to have two colleagues who are willing to serve as nominators. Self-nomination is not an option. Please check the FACET website at www.facet.iupui.edu or via the IUSB website under "resources for faculty" for more detailed information.

Please forward the names of faculty you might be interested in nominating to Linda Chen at
lchen @ iusb.edu. She will then contact the each individual to see if she/he would like to assemble a dossier.

The deadline for nominations is October 15th. The deadline for receipt of dossiers is December 3rd.

Applications are now being accepted for Assessment Grants. These grants are available to any faculty member who would like to undertake an assessment project for their program. In the past the Assessment Committee has sponsored attendance at assessment conferences, assessment workshops, assessment software and equipment purchases, survey development and analysis as well as a number of other innovative projects. The maximum amount of these grants has been increased to $3000. Guidelines and application forms are available on the assessment website: http://www.iusb.edu/~sbassess/ or from Rhonda Culbertson: rculbert @ iusb.edu , x5598. Applications will be accepted until November 1, 2004.