February 2, 2004

Present: Judith Anderson, Erik Bucy, Katy Fraser, Jeff Hart, Kevin Hunt (chair), Chuck Livingston (recorder), Al Ruesink, Rob Shakespeare

1. The meeting began at 2:00 PM with the approval of the minutes for January 26, as amended.

2. Kevin Hunt and Chuck Livingston reported on their recent meetings with faculty and administrators regarding the proposed transfer of the Department of Computer Science to the School of Informatics. Committee members expressed concerns regarding the move, but now find it difficult to separate many of these from more general concerns regarding the growth of the School of Informatics.

3. The School of Informatics is growing rapidly. With roughly 15 current positions, with approximately 35 new faculty positions planned for Bloomington, and with the absorption of Computer Science, Informatics is moving toward becoming a major school. The administrative path and reasoning behind this transformation from a "virtual" school is difficult to discern. The original proposals for a school of informatics were unambiguous and emphatic: it was not to contain or replace existing academic units; faculty and resources were to remain affiliated with their current units and were not to be drawn from other units; the school was planned to have a limited physical presence; students would not be drawn from other departments and all Informatics majors were to be required to major in and complete the requirements of an existing unit. Now that the School of Informatics has been established, its structure is markedly different: it is set to absorb the Department of Computer Science; it is in the process of hiring a large number of faculty, fully associated with the School; it has a rapidly growing staff, many previously in the College; physical facilities have grown and new space will be required; it recruits students who major solely in Informatics.

The CPC is now examining the costs and risks to the College of these unexpected developments. One concern is that hirings by Informatics of faculty trained in fields now associated with the College (e.g.. Anthropology, Biology, Chemistry, History and Philosophy of Science, Mathematics, and Physics) threaten to create a "parallel school," competing with the College for funding, faculty, staff, and students.

The Committee's concerns include potential duplication of effort, dispersal of faculty, loss of focus as well as the loss of synergy, time and resources devoted to competition between parallel fields in different schools for students, research funds and faculty. Some members noted that the reduced teaching loads and higher salaries offered by the School of Informatics will greatly complicate joint appointments, and rather than encouraging cooperation, may be divisive.

The Committee believes that great care must be taken to preserve the benefits of the general education that a university is expected to provide its undergraduates. In general, these developments raise the question of the commitment of the University to the College and its intellectual values.

The transfer of Computer Science and the growth of Informatics also raise serious budgetary concerns for the College. Dean Subbaswamy has presented the University with a summary of some of the significant budgetary effects the transfer of Computer Science would entail; the CPC will continue to examine these.

5. The meeting concluded at 3:45 PM.

Questions or comments regarding the minutes and actions of the Policy Committee may be addressed to Kevin Hunt 5-3857, Dept. of Anthropology, Student Building 248, khunt@indiana.edu. Past minutes and College Policy Statements can be found at the CPC web page: www.indiana.edu/~college/faculty/policy/policies.shtml.