University of Iowa Faculty Senate

Minutes

Tuesday, September 21, 1999

Senate Chamber, Old Capitol 

Members Present: S. Aquilino, C. Berman, J. Bertolatus, D. Bills, F. Boos, J. Carlson, C. Colvin, C. Doebbeling Carney, R. Curto, J. Desmond, H. Dettmer, B. Doebbeling, G. El-Khoury, K. Ephgrave, G. Fischer, V. Grassian, J. Hoballah, R. Hohl, R. Hurtig, J. Jew, J. Kline, S. Larsen, S. Lawrence, B. Levy, E. Link, D. Manderscheid, T. Mangum, K. Marra, L. Marshall, A.M. McCarthy, J. Menninger, G. Milavetz, J. Moyers, P. Muhly, W. Nixon, I. Nygaard, G. Parkin, M. Pincus, P. Pomrehn, C. Ringen, J. Ringen, E. Rivera, M. Rizzo, D. Rosenthal, C. Roy, H. Seaba, R. Slayton, J. Soloski, C. Sponsler, C. Stanford, W. Stanford, B. Thompson, J. Tomkovicz, B. Wiley 

Members Absent: H. Adams, J. Berg, A. Bhattacharjee, P. Chang, M. Clark, J. Cox, M. David, L. Geist, L. Hunsicker, T. Judge, C. Lynch, M. Stone, L.Troyer, M. Vargas, S. Vincent 

Members Absent (excused): N.Bauman, R. Bork, D. Liddell, E. Wasserman, R. Zbick 

Guests: K. Sanders (PPLS); J. McCurtis (I.C. Press-Citizen);  L.A. Clark, J. Whitmore (Office of the Provost);

I.                    President Carlson called the meeting to order at 3:35 PM.

II.                 Approvals 

A.     A motion to approve the minutes of the Faculty Senate meeting of April 27, 1999 was made, seconded and passed. 

B.     Recommended Senate replacements

            The following motion was presented to the Faculty Senate and approved unanimously:

MOTION: The Faculty Senate approves the following appointments to the Senate, as recommended by the Committee on Elections and the Faculty Council: College of Engineering: Steve Collins to replace Jim Andrews for the term 1999-2001; College of Liberal Arts, Group II: Allen Steinberg (History) to replace Katherine Tachau for the term 1999-2001.

C.        Recommended Council replacements

The following motion was presented to the Faculty Senate and approved unanimously:

      Motion: The Faculty Senate approves the following appointments to the Faculty Council, as recommended by the Committee on Elections and the Faculty Council: College of Liberal Arts: David Mandersheid to replace Katherine Tachau for the term 1999-2001; College of Education: Debora Liddell to fill the College’s “regular” Council seat for the term Jan. 2000-2001; College of Public Health: Paul Pomrehn (Preventive Medicine) to serve 1999-2000; College of Medicine: Caroline Carney Doebbeling to replace Nancy Bauman for the term 1999-2002.

D.     Recommended Committee replacements

The following motion was presented to the Faculty Senate and approved unanimously:

Motion: The Faculty Senate approves the following committee appointments, as recommended by the Committee on Elections and the Faculty Council:

Council on Teaching: Kathy Heilenman, French and Italian, to replace Russell Valentino (fall 1999); Sue Lafky, Journalism and Mass Communications, to replace Russell Valentino  (spring 2000); Jack Barnette, Preventive Medicine, to replace Asghar Bhatti (spring 2000); Armando Duarte, Dance, to replace Susan Lawrence (spring 2000).

Hancher Advisory Committee: Penelope Hall, Speech Pathology and Audiology, to replace Helen Chadima (1999-2001)

Budget Planning: William Miller, Pharmacy, to replace Cheryl Contant (1999-2002)

Judicial Commission: Steve Stefanac, Dentistry-Clinical, for a 3-year term (1999-2002).

Board in Control of Athletics: Cheryl Baldwin, Sport, Health, and Leisure, to replace Henrietta Logan (1999-2001). 

III.               Provost Whitmore began his presentation with distribution of a brochure (“blue book”) containing an overview of the 1998-99 accomplishments and the 1999-2000 initiatives of the Office of the Provost, the University of Iowa Strategic Plan as presented by President Coleman to the Board of Regents on September 16, 1999, and the Office of the Provost Strategic Plan 2000-2005. Provost Whitmore listed additional accomplishments and initiatives regarding (1) faculty and staff salaries; (2) faculty training in digital and technology-based teaching; (3) classroom upgrades; (4) new building construction; (5) undergraduate education initiatives; (6) undergraduate, graduate and professional degree program development; (7) faculty semester developmental assignments; (8) numbers and levels of prestigious (student) scholarships; (9) development of a needs assessment for a major capital campaign;  (10) new promotion and tenure guidelines,  and the post-tenure effort allocation policy; (11) international and interdisciplinary programs for faculty and students;  (12) recurring budget pools;  (13) revitalization of the libraries; (14) completion of a comprehensive Strategic Plan. 

Provost Whitmore spoke about the University’s aspiration to become one of the ten best research universities in the United States and the five strategic goals in the University’s Strategic Plan (copies of this were distributed during the meeting). The Provost’s Strategic Plan is posted on the web. These strategic plans as well as those from the colleges will be used to make decisions about resource allocation and what resources to solicit from the legislature, and to assist in design of the University’s private fund-raising campaign. The collegiate deans have been asked to write strategic plans that align with the Provost’s and President’s strategic plans, i.e., that address how the collegiate plans help meet the goals set forth by the Provost’s and President’s plans. 

Provost Whitmore commented briefly on other initiatives in the “blue book” and invited faculty to e-mail him if they had questions or comments about these or other points of his presentation. In response to questions from senators, Provost Whitmore talked about (1) the use of proposed indicators for measuring progress in achieving strategic goals and for allocating funds; (2) how the recent national rankings of libraries was carried out; (3) reallocations as sources of support for initiatives; and (4) potential sources of funds for interdisciplinary programs.

IV.              Announcements and Reports 

A.     Faculty Convocation.    President Carlson encouraged senators to attend Faculty Convocation, which will be held October 5, 1999 at 7:30 PM in MacBride Hall. This is an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of our colleagues as well as gain a perspective on the diversity of the work done by our colleagues. 

B.     United Way Campaign. President Carlson expressed the need for greater participation in the Johnson County United Way Campaign. Anyone interested in more information or in sponsoring or hosting an event may contact him. 

C.     Status of reviews of Central Academic Officers

Professor Menninger reported that the review of the Office of the Vice President for Finance and University Services is well on its way to completion and indicated that the review committee is interested in hearing all comments from those who wish to provide input. The review of the Office of the Vice President for Student Services is just beginning. The next office scheduled for review is the Office of the Provost.           

D.     Funded Retirement and Insurance Committee Report.

Committee chair Professor Kurtz reported the results of two major committee recommendations to President Coleman this year: (1) That retiring faculty be permitted to withdraw all of their CREF benefits, not just one-third.  Due to the efforts of the Faculty Senate, that recommendation was approved by the Board of Regents and has been implemented. (Limitations still apply to TIAA accumulations). (2) That FLEX benefits be made available to same sex couples on the same basis as married couples. 

Professor Kurtz also announced that healthcare costs are increasing. Therefore, premiums for each of the healthcare plans will increase. One of the older and less used plans will be discontinued. 

E.   Report on Faculty Senate Research and Service Questionnaire results

President Carlson opened discussion on the Report, stating: (1) The results suggest that it is more meaningful to measure faculty productivity in things produced and things engaged in than to measure hours. (2) Some efforts to break down activities into the smallest units didn’t work. (3) The point of this survey was to gather data to start a process that would help us determine how to comply with requirements to provide reports on faculty work. The Provost’s Office is working with us in an effort to streamline some of this reporting. 

The discussion that followed conveyed questions about use of the data that had been generated in the Report and suggestions for more effective methods of obtaining the necessary information. It was suggested that faculty CVs might be the simplest way to abstract the needed information. President Carlson indicated that the Report would be forwarded to the Regents in response to their request that the University give them a report regarding faculty productivity. Concerns were raised about the need to convey to the regents, qualitative as well as quantitative information about faculty work; about the difficulty in using hours data as an indicator of faculty work; about the problems of obtaining and conveying data from individual units or faculty as opposed to aggregate data.  President Carlson stated the survey did not yield meaningful data regarding hours, and that several factors may have contributed to this, including flaws in the design of the survey.  Therefore, the hours data will not be included in the report to the regents. 

V.                 New Business

Faculty Senate members received from Faculty Council a proposed resolution regarding promotion and tenure standards to be applied when the standards were changed after the faculty member’s initial appointment or promotion to current rank. President Carlson outlined the background for this resolution, including the need for consistency between the standards as stated in the promotion and tenure policy and those in the faculty dispute procedures.

Discussion focused on the part of the resolution stating, “In the event that the initial standards are inapplicable, the standards to be applied will be those which are currently in effect for the department, or those which were in effect for the department at a time three years prior to the promotion decision, whichever the faculty member elects.” A number of senators questioned the appropriateness of three years as the time limit, instead of six or seven years, the normal time in rank for assistant and associate professors, respectively.

Professor Menninger moved and it was seconded that the resolution be amended so that “three” in the above sentence be changed to “four.” President Carlson invoked privilege to remove this motion in lieu of the following motion.

Professor W. Stanford moved, Professor C. Ringen seconded, and the motion carried that the resolution be sent back to Faculty Council for reconsideration and clarification. 

VI.              From the Floor

Professor Boos stated that she felt it would be appropriate for the Faculty Senate to address issues related to the current status of the International Writing Program (IWP). President Carlson informed the Senate that the Council has been engaged in discussions with central administrators about the IWP, and that he would keep the Senate informed of discussions between Faculty Council and administrators about this as well as other topics.

The motion was made (Professor Boos), seconded (Professor Hurtig), and approved that the status of the IWP be placed on the agenda for the next Faculty Senate meeting.

VII.            The meeting was adjourned at 5:10 PM.     

Respectfully submitted,                                                                                   

Jean Jew, Secretary