Margaret Raymond,
professor of law, is the 2003-04 Faculty Senate
president. She has been on the faculty
of the College of Law since 1995 and has served
on Faculty Senate since 1997. Last month, she discussed
with fyi the campus issues she expects
to address in the coming year.
What’s
on the senate and council agendas for this year?
We can see a couple of things coming. One is the
review of the intellectual property policies, currently
in draft. The other is the review of proposed revisions
to the promotion and tenure guidelines.
The challenge with the intellectual property policy
is to figure out how to balance institutional interests
with the desire to encourage and promote innovation
and adequately compensate the innovators. We need
to be parallel with our peer institutions in what
we do for our researchers, making sure that our folks
are getting the same benefits from their patents
here that they would get at comparable institutions.
It’s important to our whole research enterprise
to keep those folks happy and engaged in the work
they are doing.
The copyright issues, while they have less to do
with dollars and cents, have a lot to do with people’s
comfort in developing instructional materials, something
that’s very common. Not everyone in the University
can develop a patent, but many of us in many different
colleges are developing instructional materials,
web-based systems, creative works, and other materials.
The way that we regulate those copyright issues is
critically important.
With regard to promotion and tenure, we have operated
under the current guidelines for several years now,
and a highly capable committee, chaired by Betsy
Altmaier, has taken a look at how those procedures
are working. We’ll consider that committee’s
recommendations this year. It’s too soon to
say how the revision process will work, but it’s
an important issue.
We also have an ad hoc committee on student arrest
rates, headed by Judy Polumbaum in journalism, that
will report this year. We had preliminary reports
last year.
What role will the senate play in the search for
a new provost?
The Faculty Senate, no doubt, will be involved in
the search in the same way we were with the presidential
search. This is an exciting time, because we’re
seeing lots of leadership changes and potential changes
in the structure of the leadership. One of the things
that happens when a post is vacant is that we think
about whether the position is what it should be.
Defining what is going to be part of the provost’s
job is naturally in a bit of a flux. It’s important
for faculty and staff to take advantage of the opportunity
be involved in the selection process—meet the
candidates, ask questions, get a sense of their vision
of the role of the provost. It’s going to be
exciting.
Last year, Jeff Cox focused the senate on connecting
with the Iowa Legislature. Do you intend to continue
that focus?
Sure. Given the current budgetary circumstances
in the state, reminding people what it is we do for
the state and the community is a very important piece
of the puzzle. Jeff Cox had a sense that there ought
to be bridges between the faculty leadership, the
community, and the legislative delegation. Last year,
we met with the editorial board of the Iowa City
Press-Citizen, for example. We had a chance to talk
about our visions of the community and of the University’s
and the faculty’s roles in the community. And
a group of us from the governmental relations committee
went last spring to Des Moines and visited with some
of the legislators. Jeff arranged for the Faculty
Senate to cosponsor the legislative forum here in
Iowa City to talk about support for the University
as a legislative priority for our local delegation.
Of course, it’s not all about going to Des
Moines to say, “We’re here, we have needs.” We
have to go and say, “We’re here, here’s
how we can and do serve the community.” Those
bridges are very helpful.
We want to continue the work that was begun last
year and to make it a consistent part of the faculty
leadership agenda. The notion is that we shouldn’t
have to build these relationships every time there
are extraordinary circumstances. It should be part
of the job.
Iowa
is a very decentralized place, with strong colleges
and a lean central administration. It’s
a challenge to steer the whole University in any
given direction. What challenges does that decentralization
present to faculty governance?
In faculty leadership we see a tremendous diversity
of faculty interests, needs, and attention. This
faculty is an extraordinary conglomeration of highly
skilled and accomplished folks who do wildly different
things. You can see it on the faces of people at
senate meetings. For half the group, the issue under
discussion will be critical, while the others won’t
understand what’s so important. So one of the
interesting things about decentralization is figuring
out how to have conversations about institutional
needs in the face of that diversity. It’s a
wonderful thing to be part of, but it’s a challenge
to think about having “the faculty” discuss
an issue.
As a faculty, we have the opportunity as well as
the obligation to be involved in answering some fairly
complex and difficult questions. What kinds of priorities
do you set in a tight budget climate? How do you
think about salaries, growth, or programs when you
can’t be certain, at least in the short term,
that there is going to be funding? One of the things
I’ve appreciated here is that the faculty is
consulted about these issues. Not to say that there
will be unanimity in the faculty. But at least the
questions are asked and the conversations go on.
My only faculty experience is at Iowa, so I’m
not that aware of how faculty governance works or
doesn’t work at other institutions. But I do
hear from colleagues elsewhere, for example, who
are astonished about the existence of BICOA, a faculty
committee that plays an oversight role in UI athletics.
One thing that we have here that I sense is useful
and fairly extraordinary is the degree of access
and attention that central administration provides
for faculty governance.
For me, it’s an exciting time to be in faculty
governance because the questions are so interesting
and important. Which is not to say they’re
easy to answer.
by Charles S. Drum
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