Indianapolis Faculty Council (IFC)

Minutes

December 2, 2008 ~ Campus Center, Room 409 ~ 3:00 – 5:00 p.m.

 

 

Faculty and Guests Present:  Hasan Akay, Deborah Allen, Rachel Applegate, Simon Atkinson, Carol Baird, Sarah Baker, Trudy Banta, Charles Bantz, Martin Bard, Robert Barrows, Margaret Bauer, Terry Baumer, Anne Belcher, Teresa Bennett, Ed Berbari, Robert Bigsby, Marc Bilodeau, Jacqueline Blackwell, Bonnie Blazer-Yost, William Blomquist, Polly Boruff-Jones, Ben Boukai, Janice Buelow, Amanda Cecil, Todd Daniels-Howell, Andre De Tienne, Nancy Eckerman, Marsha Ellett, Garland Elmore, Scott Evenbeck, Anthony Faiola, John Finnell, Mary L. Fisher, Philip Goff, Carlos Gonzalez-Cabezas, Linda Adele Goodine, John Hassell, Sara Horton-Deutsch, Jay Howard, Allison Howland, G. Gregory Hull, Marilyn Irwin, Kathy Johnson, Areef Salim Kassam, P. Nicholas Kellum, Debomoy Lahiri, Chris Long, Carmen Luca-Sugawara, Joyce MacKinnon, Kathy Marrs, Brenna McDonald, David McSwane, Mahesh Merchant, Henry Merrill, Mary Beth Myers, Bart Ng, C. Subah Packer, Rebecca Porter, Stephen Randall, Mary Beth Riner, Lisa Riolo, Pat Rogan, Romil Saxena, L.R. Scherer III, Bill Schneider, Jodi Smith, Uday Sukhatme, G. Marie Swanson, Richard Ward, Stuart Warden, Jeff Watt, Kim White-Mills, Jack Windsor, Andrew Winship, Frank Witzmann, Marianne Wokeck, Frank Yang, and Oner Yurtseven

 

Agenda Item I:  Welcome and Call to Order

IUPUI Faculty Council Vice President, Jeff Watt, called the meeting to order at 3:03 p.m. 

 

Agenda Item II:  Adoption of the Agenda as the Order of Business for the Day

The Agenda was adopted as the Order for the Business of the Day. 

 

Agenda Item III:  [Action Item] Approval of IFC November 11, 2008, Minutes

Hearing no objections, the IFC November 11, 2008, minutes stood as written and were entered into record.  (http://www.iupui.edu/~fcouncil/minutes/Minutes_IFC_11-11-08.htm)   

 

Agenda Item IV:  Updates/Remarks from the Chancellor

Chancellor Bantz gave the following report:

·         40th Anniversary of IUPUI:  The campus will be supporting and sponsoring speakers for the campus’s 40th Anniversary.  There will be an application process for matching funds to bring in a special speaker to the campus.  A kick off breakfast will be held on January 28, 2009, at the Campus Center.  All will be invited.  There will be an event on January 31 to celebrate and recognize persons that have contributed to the campus (5:40 p.m. reception; 6:40 p.m. dinner).  The Chancellor would like the breakfast to become an annual event.  (Handout:  http://www.iupui.edu/~fcouncil/documents/40th Anniversary0001.pdf )  

·         There will be master planning presentations on December 11 and 12 (see agenda for the details).  They will also meet with the community on December 12 from 12-1:30 in the Conference Center.  Please give the planners feedback – both positive and negative.  The final session will be December 12 from 2:00-3:30.  This session will speak about infrastructure. 

·         He thanked the faculty for their work at the end of the semester. 

·         He noted this is the twelfth month of the use of the Campus Center. 

·         Schneider thanked the Chancellor regarding the fund for speakers for the 40th Anniversary.  The first deadline was yesterday and it is the first opportunity he has seen the information and wondered if the deadline could be extended.  Bennett said the information was not sent as widely as she wanted and she has no problem extending the deadline for one week. 

 

Agenda Item V:  Updates/Remarks from the IFC President

IUPUI Faculty President Simon Atkinson gave the following report:

·         Encouraged everyone to attend the master planning academic open houses mentioned above.   

·         The Honors College proposal is being discussed in Academic Affairs and Faculty Affairs Committees of the IFC. 

·         The IT Strategic Plan is in the final stages of drafting.  The proposal is to go to the Trustees at their January meeting. 

·         Chancellor Bantz’s administrative review committee has met for the first time.  The faculty should expect to receive a survey during the spring semester.  The committee will also conduct one-on-one interviews.  Their work is to be complete by the end of the spring semester.  Faculty, staff, students, and community representatives serve on the committee.

·         The President’s Office will appoint a search committee for a Vice President for Research.  The IFC-EC has discussed this action with John Applegate who is working on behalf of the President.  IUPUI and IUB committees have recommended that the Graduate School remain a separate entity.  The President has accepted the consensus of the campuses.  The search will begin early next semester.  The IFC-EC has forwarded a list of potential faculty to serve on the committee.

·         Textbook Costs:  Dean Sukhatme’s office has sent an email to the faculty with information on the rising costs of textbooks for the students.  The handouts within the email address measures to help contain the costs.

·         Rising Cost of Serials for the University Library:  Serial costs have risen, which impacts the budget of the University Library.  The IFC-EC has asked the Library Affairs Committee to look at this issue to see what can be done on this campus in regard to repositories for scholarly articles.

·         The UFC met last week and the agenda included the IT Strategic Plan as well as the operations of the University Bookstore.  Availability of textbooks is an issue.  Other options were to give students information they need for students to find their textbooks more easily and cheaply.

·         De Tienne asked if the Honors College proposal will be sent to the faculty before the town hall meetings.  The proposal will be sent ahead of time via email.

 

Agenda Item VI:  [Discussion Item]:  Campus Housing

Karen Whitney, Vice Chancellor for Student Life, reported on the following:

·         We are at capacity in campus housing and it appears we will again be at capacity in the next academic year.  Over 400 students were turned away this past summer.

·         Master Planners are looking to add 2,350 to campus housing on our own property.  The next phase is to focus on housing of greatest interest to freshmen and sophomores – common space and community space – different than an apartment setting.

·         More space is planned for 2011.

·         Dining options are being reviewed for on-site in campus housing. 

·         They are working with the architects and treasurer’s office to begin a business plan.  The plans need to be reviewed at a Board of Trustees meeting to move to the design phase. 

·         Interim basis housing:  Candlewood Suites and other surrounding apartments (Riverpoint) are locations that are in discussion to raise beds to 250. 

·         Hassell asked if 3,500 is the cap on the beds.  Whitney said Trustees policy limits housing to 10 percent of our enrollment. 

·         Packer asked if anyone has looked at purchasing the property that used to be Riverpointe.  Whitney said there is a big difference to students when they are connected to campus versus being across the river off the property.  Bantz said the property was sold three years ago.  The buildings were not in good shape at that time, but they have been renovated since then.  The master planners have said we have plenty of property on the peninsula and we have not ever looked at moving the campus across the river.  The campus is very cautious about the appearance we are moving west as there is still unrest from the neighbors living across the river that were displaced when the campus expanded to the river.  Bantz said the 10 percent rule is actually from the Commission on Higher Education, but he believes that rule will be gone soon as other campuses have built housing that is above their 10 percent.  The policy may be addressed before we need to address it ourselves.

·         Cecil asked about international students.  Whitney said there are priority deadlines and spaces held for international students.  The rates for the next academic year will be determined at the next Board of Trustees meeting.  After that, a marketing plan will begin.  We want to match and support the enrollment shaping efforts on campus.

·         Schneider asked about the new housing location as well as the cost of the units.  What do you envision the cost to be?  Whitney said housing will be along Vermont Street back toward the current location of the apartments.  The apartment rates should be the high point in the structure and can we deliver the product at a lower rate?  She and Rhodes are meeting to find a more managed financial plan while meeting the standards of the architects.

·         Belcher asked about current bed spacing.  Whitney said there are 360 spaces and some administrative spaces may be vacated and renovated to become housing. 

·         Ng asked how many beds are available in Bloomington.  Whitney believes they number 12,000, but that is not firm.  The IUB campus requires freshmen to live on campus and would not want to mandate that here.  Ng said the apartments were built to last 75 years and wondered if the new standards would be higher.  Whitney said she believes it will rise to 100 years, however, as the standard is raised, so is the price.  Whitney said that students who live in campus housing are making better grades and graduating at a higher rate.

·         De Tienne asked about out of state and visiting faculty.  Are the master planners considering housing for these individuals?  Bantz said he would like to see this happen, especially for Fulbright Scholars.  The hotel is used for visitors, but for long-term stay, it is cost prohibitive.  Legal counsel has said we cannot use general fund money to house out of state visitors.  He would consider asking a donor to fund a bed for this specific purpose. 

·         Wokeck said that other universities have an active housing exchange – faculty or graduate students – in the community.  Do we have this kind of feature at IUPUI?  Whitney said there will be more marketing coming out about this as well as an information clearinghouse, which would provide electronic and in-person assistance.  This will be done through Off Campus Housing Services. 

 

Agenda Item VII:  [Discussion Item]:  Undergraduate Student Assembly

Areef Salim Kassam, Vice President, Undergraduate Student Assembly, akassam@iupui.edu

Ronald Roberts, Undergraduate Student Senator

 

Kassam and Roberts and the USG advocate for a Fall Break and Reading Days as shown from the PowerPoint handout (available upon request from Karen Eckert at keeckert@iupui.edu).  Questions and comments were:    

·         Kassam said Purdue had a 15-week semester.  Many schools have a “minutes” requirement for class meetings instead of weeks in the semesters.  Watt said the Academic Affairs Committee has looked at this proposal.  Bloomington meets for 150 minutes less than our campus does.  President McRobbie has said the differences in the academic calendar creates a barrier for transfer students. 

·         Boukai asked if we have sufficient space to approval to this proposal.  Mary Beth Myers said we must have 15 weeks of instruction and one week of final exams according to IFC policy.  To implement a reading day, we would need to shrink the final exam period to accommodate the space and timing.  Watt pointed out that and IFC there is ruling on the number of exams a student can take a day.

·         Fisher asked if the academic calendar has already been established, can we move to this proposal.  Porter said it would not be practical to begin the fall semester two days earlier in 2009, but it could happen in 2010. 

·         Berbari said that IUB final exams are scheduled at different times than the regularly scheduled class times.  Myers said there are some departmental final exams, but not used overall.

·         Baird asked about a dead week.  How would a dead week help?  Does a reading day have no class session that day?  Kassam said campuses approach a dead week differently.  A reading day would be used to catch up on school work and to prepare for exams.  Faculty can use the day to grade, etc.  Roberts said there is a policy now is that there is no tests, etc, on a final exam week, however if it is stated on the syllabus ahead of time, it is okay to do this.

·         Ng said there was a lengthy discussion that Bloomington had trouble moving the starting date in the fall semester due to one school having a firm date on when their semester begins due to a touring schedule (School of Music).

·         Schneider asked what would need to be done to put the proposal in motion.  Atkinson said this is under the purview of the Academic Affairs Committee.  He asked Marrs to begin writing a proposal to move the start of the semester (to do a fall break) and a reading day.  This would need to be two separate motions to be heard in the spring semester.

·         A question was asked about having the fall break mid-October instead of at the time of the Labor Day holiday – i.e., excluding the Labor Day holiday.  Kassam said this was discussed and he feels they would be willing to do away with the Labor Day holiday to have an extra day of break.  Eckerman pointed out that this would be taking away a campus holiday from staff members.  Baumer said there was a movement to do this twenty years ago and there was much unrest and classes were not held on that day as a result.  Winship said at another university he has taught, classes were held on Labor Day, however, staff were on holiday and it made it difficult for the faculty who teach.

·         Marrs said the fall break timing would need to be considered for staff as well.  Would they be allowed to take it as a floating holiday?  Wokeck said there are other floating holidays and Labor Day could be treated the same way.

·         Bantz thanked the students for their review and attention to this matter.  Atkinson thanked the Academic Affairs Committee for their work with the students as well.

 

Agenda Item VIII:  Call for any IFC or UFC Standing Committee Reports

There were no reports.

 

Agenda Item IX:  Question and Answer Period

·         Bennett spoke to the 40th Anniversary Celebration.  There is a 40th Anniversary logo you may use to co-brand events your schools and units are doing in conjunction with the celebration.

·         Schneider asked if the anniversary year is academic year or calendar.  Response is calendar year.

·         Belcher asked if there were thoughts to include retired persons and other notable persons to the campus for the celebrations.  Bantz responded yes.  Senator Lugar and others who played a role to help establish the university will be invited back to the campus.  Bennett said the anniversary website will include a spot to upload pictures and stories about the university.  They are also planning a “homecoming” event to invite persons back to the campus to tour the campus to see how it has changed.  Eckerman said the history committee is working on this as well.

·         Berbari asked if we have famous alumni to consider inviting.  He also asked about who is creating the plaques that are appearing around campus.  Some of the plaques are harsh sounding.  Bantz said Whitney has worked with Paul Mullins to work on these plaques.  He agreed some of the plaques are harsh.  The campus is historical.

·         Boukai asked about a campus policy on working the week between Christmas and New Years.  He referred the question to Ellen Poffenberger.  Poffenberger had left the meeting by this time.

 

Agenda Item X:  Unfinished Business

No business.

 

Agenda Item XI:  New Business

No business.

 

Agenda Item XII:  Adjournment

A motion to adjourn was made and seconded.  The motion carried.  Vice President Watt adjourned the meeting.

 

 

Karen Eckert, Faculty Council Coordinator, keeckert@iupui.edu