September 6, 2004

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

Dean Subbaswamy joined us for the first part of our meeting, a candid discussion of such issues as

1. the present understanding of fall enrollment at IUB. Some significant facts are that IUB is down while many state universities both inside and outside Indiana are up. Although the details are not yet clear, total enrollment on the Bloomington campus appears to be down about 700 students. Non-residents appear to constitute about 32.3% of IUB enrollment, the highest percentage ever. Consultants are now interviewing a large sample of the "no-shows" to determine why overall enrollment dropped. Based on apparent student credit hours, the campus will be short about $5-7M in income, with about $3-4M of that being a shortfall for the College.

2. the problems in making room assignments. Two pieces of the puzzle are a) that the new software is not yet functioning as well as the old did, and b) faculty more and more are asking to teach their classes between 9 and 3 on MW and TR, leaving rooms unused Friday through Sunday and in early mornings and late afternoons.

3. the problems with financial aid and billing glitches this fall. We don't yet have real data to know how extensive these problems were and what impact they may have had on enrollment. (A subsequent newspaper account reported that at least 3000 financial aid notices were incorrect.)

4. the Chair's retreat with Dean Swamy on August 25th. Swamy shared with us a few leftover copies of the spiral-bound information booklet he prepared for chairs to use at that retreat. Information contained therein can help the College Policy Committee (CPC) with its deliberations on various topics throughout the rest of the semester. Some useful information from his presentation to chairs: a) The College produces about 61% of the IUB credit hours on about 47% of the General Fund budget. b) The College fraction of IUB credit hours has recently been about constant from year to year. c) The indirect cost recovery to the College is now about $12M annually and has been rising steadily and substantially since Swamy became dean. d) The portion of the budget covered by the state allocation is now about 31% and that is down from the 37% when Swamy became dean four years ago. e) Interestingly, only about $0.6M of the total $278M annual College budget comes from gift income.

5. the salary policy in the College. After briefing us on what some of the options are/ have been and noting that it would not be desirable to have another year of only 1% faculty raises in the College, Swamy noted that he will be seeking Policy Committee advice as we proceed into this year and the next state biennium. If the income stream is not enhanced, there are few options to allowing salaries generally to stagnate: e.g. freezing hiring; responding less aggressively to outside offers.

6. After Swamy left our meeting at 3:25, we considered what some of the current hot issues for the CPC may be and briefly how we might deal with some of them:

a. development of questions for the formal 5-year review of Dean Subbaswamy that is now underway, chaired by Janet Near of the School of Business. A subcommittee of the CPC chaired by Jeff and including Erik, Katy, and Chuck will check previous surveys and generate suggested questions to come from the CPC. (Katy and Chuck helped with question formation for Swamy's 3-year review and provide some continuity here.)

b. concerns about non-tenure-track appointments and about what role they should play in faculty governance

c. financial management of grants and contracts. We will invite Assoc. Dean Ted Widlanski to help us with these issues.

d. departmental infrastructure for supporting research. There seem to be considerable differences between departments, and there may be some policy issues involved.

e. the admissions situation, particularly as it affects the number and quality of students in the College

f. the unavailability of paper copies of the schedule of classes

g. policies on class times and their distribution (i.e. who gets the best rooms at the best times?) Who does and who should make the decisions about this?

h. policies on hiring senior faculty. How much and what courses should they be expected to teach?

i. policies on outside letters for tenure and promotion decisions. How do they get requested, from whom are they requested, and how much weight they should be accorded at a time when they are not very confidential?

Before adjourning shortly after 4, we agreed that we would add to this list of future topics (items 6a- 6i), prioritize the issues, and establish our tentative agenda for fall at the beginning of our next meeting, Monday, Sept. 13.

Questions or comments regarding the minutes and actions of the Policy Committee may be addressed to Rob Shakespeare, Dept. of Theater and Drama, Theater and Drama Ctr. A300H, 5-4367, shakespe@indiana.edu. Past minutes and College Policy Statements can be found at the CPC web page: www.indiana.edu/~college/faculty/policy/policies.shtml.