Present: Julia Bondanella, Geoffrey Conrad, James Craig, Dan Dinnsen, Steven Girvin, Dale McFadden, Elinor Ostrom, Elizabeth Raff

Acting Dean Hanson arrived at 1:00 p.m.

1. We further discussed the problems surrounding NELC. The departmental faculty will be asked to discuss the establishment of an institute to strengthen the study of Near Eastern cultures. The Policy Committee will continue to discuss the issue.

Acting Dean Hanson left and Dean Subbaswamy arrived at 1:35 p.m.

2. We briefly touched on issues of general concern to the faculty, in particular the budgetary situation. Dean Subbaswamy indicated that his goal is to achieve budgetary stability in the short term, so that the College can focus on other matters of importance. In responding to our questions about the possibility of instituting RCM at the departmental level, he indicated that he had no prior commitments and would be studying various budgetary models. His immediate concern is to ask for nominations to fill vacancies among the associate deans.

Dean Subbaswamy left and President Brand and Professor Ruesink arrived at 1:50 p.m.

3. In a wide ranging conversation, we touched upon topics of concern to the College of Arts and Sciences. President Brand views collaborative efforts, such as the new initiative with Education, very favorably. He noted that the science building project is moving in a positive direction, and some improvement in the budgetary situation can be seen.

4. Our conversations included questions about the budgetary impact of the community college system on the Bloomington campus. President Brand noted that Bloomington suffered a loss of three million dollars this year as a result of this initiative; the loss next year will be larger. On the positive side, the formula used to award funding for technology has been readjusted so that Bloomington and Purdue are not disadvantaged.

5. President Brand gave high praise to Acting Dean Hanson's management of the College. We discussed future expectations for the College. These included more examples of collaboration with other schools (like the partnership with Education), reassertion of the College's leadership on campus, better external communication and fund-raising, and strong management with decisions made on the basis of criteria of quality.

6. We discussed briefly the current review of RCM. President Brand expressed his view that fixed costs should not be passed along to the units, but should be paid before the funding is allocated to the units. He noted that Bloomington might consider having a larger Chancellor's Discretionary Fund. He would like to see COAS avoid the budgetary situation of several years ago. Although he indicated that this desire for fiscal stability does not automatically mean pushing RCM down to the departmental level, he thought that the question merits further consideration.

7. In light of coming personnel changes at the campus level, we asked if there were any plans for restructuring the administration of the campus, and he indicated that he had given the matter a good deal of thought. His conclusion was that the current structure was working well and that he had no plans for changing it. A final point of this discussion revolved around the possibility of trying to gain some sense of the state of the campus in the next year, an effort that would involve defining what we value about our campus, the nature of our goals for the future, and what we might like to change.

8. President Brand noted that he has appointed a task force to prepare a RFP (request for proposals) to be presented to a consulting firm, which would assess IU's infrastructure, mainly on the Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses, in an attempt to determine if and how our large service units might conduct some of our business and services more efficiently and in a more cost effective manner. This project would mainly involve IUB and IUPUI. He noted that establishing a central telephone service for IUB and IUPUI has already yielded substantial savings without any sacrifice in quality. He also noted that Physical Plant has trimmed the size of its workforce, producing savings by envisioning new ways of doing things (such as setting up greenhouses that slashed the cost of plants).

Questions or comments regarding the minutes and actions of the Policy Committee may be addressed to Geoff Conrad, 855-5340, Mathers Museum, 601 East Eighth Street, conrad@indiana.edu.

Submitted,

Julia Conaway Bondanella