February 23, 2004

Present: Judith Anderson, Ellen Dwyer, 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 February 16, as amended.

2. The Committee turned to the composition of its letter to Chancellor Gros Louis describing its concerns regarding the long range planning of the School of Informatics. The CPC letter to the Chancellor supports Informatics but recommends that to realize the full potential of the School for the University, it would be best to return to the format that was presented to the faculty and provisionally approved by the Bloomington Faculty Council as a school consisting primarily of faculty holding joint appointments with other units.

The CPC has reviewed documents related to the School of Informatics. These include early Task Force reports, now called the Shiffrin and Gannon reports, University documents submitted to the Indiana Commission on Higher Education supporting the creation of the School, Bloomington Faculty Council Reports and BFC transcripts related to Informatics Dean Dunn's presentations to the BFC. The CPC takes special note that the only formal approval given by the BFC for a School of Informatics concludes: "These considerations lead us to endorse in principle the idea of a School of Informatics and the degrees described in the proposal. However, our endorsement does not extend to the implementation strategy and organizational structure outlined in the proposal. Until the Bloomington Faculty Council approves such a strategy and structure, we request that no additional campus resources be allocated for the new school."

All of these historical documents are consistent with the description of Informatics as a school with all but a small number of faculty jointly appointed with other units. Furthermore, they support the expectation of the College that funds directed toward the School of Informatics by the Legislature be applied to hiring faculty in all units of the University, jointly appointed to Informatics.

Among the recommendations being made to the Chancellor are that: the hiring of faculty solely in Informatics be put on hold while the campus engages in a discussion of the changed format of the School; funds provided for hiring in Informatics be used to hire in host departments whenever possible; attention be directed toward maintaining the primacy of a liberal arts education for as many undergraduates as possible; an oversight committee, widely representative of the faculty at IUB, be appointed with the task of working out procedures necessary for making joint appointments, including issues of salary, teaching load, and RCM impacts; that the oversight committee continue over time to facilitate joint hirings.

3. Dean Subbaswamy joined the meeting at 2:55 PM.

The Dean informed the Committee that the revised proposal for a Program in Eighteenth Century Studies is in preparation and will be presented to the CPC for its recommendation when complete.

The Task Force on the Graduate School, chaired by Dean Brown of Journalism, has been charged by President Herbert to address the general issue: What is the proper administrative organization of graduate education at Indiana University? The Task Force is seeking input from the CPC and the College. As its initial consideration of the topic, the CPC asked the Dean for his thoughts on the issue. He outlined some of the issues regarding graduate education that need to be resolved. This conversation will continue as the Committee consults with College faculty and formulates its response to the Task Force.

The Chancellor has requested that each School and the College identify programs with "the capacity to sustain or attain recognition as a national and/or international leader in their field" and for which CTE funding will most likely be effective. The Dean presented to the CPC a draft of a strategic analysis of the needs and opportunities of the College for the Campus Strategic Planning Committee. In this draft the Dean has outlined the broad strengths of the College and identified some of those areas of strength that most crucially need additional support to maintain the stature of the College and University. In addition, the Dean has identified several areas of overarching needs, including graduate support, undergraduate advising, improving the senior year experience, and quality classroom space. The Dean asked the Committee to review this initial draft.

4. The Dean left the meeting at 3:30 PM.

5. The Committee concluded its conversation about its letter to the Chancellor regarding Informatics, discussing briefly the issue of the budgetary impact of the transfer of Computer Science and issues related to the quality of undergraduate education.

6. 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.