May 25, 2006

Present: Judith Anderson (chair), Erik Bucy, Sandra Dolby, Hal Evans (new member), Roger Levesque, Rosemary Lloyd, Patrick McNaughton (new member), and Al Ruesink (recorder).

This meeting was the last scheduled CPC meeting of the 2005-06 school year and is the last meeting for the CPC members of that year. The new CPC, still to be chaired by Judith, will take office on June 1.

The meeting convened at 4:15.

Minutes of the May 11 meeting were approved unanimously after slight amending. It was agreed that the minutes of May 25 could be vetted and approved by e-mail because there will not be another face-to-face meeting of CPC members until fall.

The continuing members of the CPC asked that the following statement be included in the minutes: The Policy Committee wishes wholeheartedly to thank three retiring members: Erik Bucy, Rob Shakespeare, and Al Ruesink. All have worked very hard on the business of the committee, on the interests of faculty, and on the preservation and strengthening of the core values of the College. Most recently, Erik has admirably conducted recruitment and election of new members to the Committee; Rob served for a year and a half as Chair of the CPC, initiating both policy revision and, to our pleasure and greater camaraderie, annual end -of-year receptions; Al has served as Recorder par excellence for an incredible and taxing two years. The quality of his notes has set a high standard to follow. His experience and his wisdom are irreplaceable; we have learned much from him. We are immensely grateful to all three retiring members of the Committee.

As Dean Swamy prepares to leave Bloomington, he has been thanked personally by CPC members for his guidance of the College and for his collaborative relations with the CPC. In addition, we wish publicly to express our gratitude for his open, forthright, and enthusiastic interactions with us on a regular basis. He worked hard to promote the core values of the College and to ensure the well-being of the school. Clearly he believed in and facilitated shared governance. CPC members have very warm thoughts for Swamy as he finishes his work here. He has provided an excellent role model for the next Dean of the College regarding interactions with the CPC.

Members of the CPC met with each of the three candidates for College Dean when they visited Bloomington on May 8-15. We asked each the same basic questions, ranging from the administration structure envisioned for the College to what to do when/if there are zero new monies for new programs (How's that for A to Z?) and including questions about shared governance with the faculty, the relation of the College to the rest of the campus, and balancing research, teaching, and service. Thereafter the CPC wrote a strong letter regarding the perceived strengths and weaknesses of each candidate and sent copies to Search Committee Chair Lauren Robel and Interim Provost McRobbie.

Returning to the content of our meeting of the 25th, the CPC considered minor changes suggested for two CPC policies--1) Policy on Course Prerequisites Designed to Prepare Students for Program Admission (1992) and 2) Policy on Grade Minima Designed to Restrict Admissions (1992). Because the changes were minor and designed to provide clarity rather than to alter content, we agreed that the revised policies need not be circulated with our minutes but could simply be posted on the CPC website in their new form.

The CPC considered and tentatively approved a significantly altered version of the Policy for the Establishment of an Advisory Committee for Tenured Faculty Appointments (1997). This is being circulated to the College faculty (probably with the May 11 minutes) before being ready for final posting.

Pursuant to a recent conversation with Interim Dean Zaret, the CPC decided to add a sentence discouraging the use of LWOP's for faculty taking "trial appointments" at other institutions to the previously adopted policy on Leaves Without Pay and to send it to Zaret for his consideration.

We looked again at the Report on Teaching Evaluation (1989). Following some revision, it now looks much better, but it will require additional work by the CPC next fall, as will the 1998 policy on teaching evaluatioin for T&P, which, we have noticed, contains some conflicts with the more liberal report of 1989. Because the 1989 document is not yet revised, we agreed to remove the link to it from the revised version of the College Salary Policy (1990, revised 2006). The meeting adjourned at 5:25.

Albert Ruesink, recorder

Questions or comments regarding the minutes and actions of the College Policy Committee may be addressed to co-chairs Judith Anderson (anders@indiana.edu --855-3845) and Bob Becker (becker@indiana.edu --855-3014). Past minutes and College Policy Statements can be found at the CPC web page: www.indiana.edu/~college/faculty/policy/policies.shtml.