September 16, 2005

Present: Rob Shakespeare (chair), Judith Anderson, Bob Becker, Sandra Dolby, Roger Levesque, Rosemary Lloyd, and Al Ruesink (recorder).

The meeting convened at 2:00.

Minutes of the Sept. 9 meeting were approved unanimously after minor corrections.

Because the CPC would like to be consulted in the final stages of choosing a new campus Chancellor, Rob has e-mailed both search chair Trevor Brown and President Adam Herbert about our potential involvement. No response has been received.

We discussed some preliminary observations as we begin to organize and evaluate the College Policy Documents that are posted on the College web site--www.indiana.edu/~college/faculty/policy/policies.shtml. Because policies relating to promotion, tenure, and pre-tenure retention often have legal implications, we have invited a representative of the University Council Office to meet with us on Sept. 23.

The absence of hardcopy schedules of classes continues to be a concern, and is being considered by us as well as the College CUE (Committee on Undergraduate Education). We may revisit this issue after Kevin Hunt (former CPC chair) asks Chancellor Gros Louis to comment on the situation at an upcoming Bloomington Faculty Council meeting.

Without taking final action, we discussed a document prepared by Bob Becker on policies regarding faculty leaves when the individuals involved are really considering leaving IU. The issue is trying to balance the well-being of individual faculty members and the well-being of the programs in which they are involved, programs that may suffer substantially while waiting for a faculty member to decide whether to resign completely or to return. The CPC is leaning toward a statement that bars two year leaves and discourages deans and chairs from automatically negotiating a one-year Leave Without Pay. Before taking final action, the CPC wishes to discuss the document with Dean Swamy.

Swamy joined us at 3:00 and noted that the Registrar has agreed to work closely with a College-based task force studying the room scheduling problems. The College budget for this year is not entirely clear yet, but student numbers seem to be about what was planned, so no major budget perturbations are anticipated. Budget planning for next year is still based on placing high priority on creating a 3% salary pool for faculty.

Though there are no College departments with what Swamy considers to be immediate crises, he did share with us some serious issues that he is monitoring in several College units.

The CPC discussed the Indiana Ventures Fund and Swamy noted that there are not enough new ventures to use all the available funding. A few IU faculty are taking advantage of it.

Swamy left our meeting at 3:45.

The CPC wrestled with a way to keep the task force on room scheduling small enough to be nimble and effective while being large enough to have representatives from interested parties. The goals of the task force are still in a state of some flux, mostly involving whether or not it should propose corrective measures after studying what has really caused recent problems. Presently we believe it should comprise three faculty from diverse departments, a CPC member, a representative from the College administration, and a representative from the Registrar. We would also like to see some linkage with the Dean of the Faculties office. Discussion about this will continue by e-mail.

The meeting adjourned at 3:58.

Questions or comments regarding the minutes and actions of the Policy Committee may be addressed to Rob Shakespeare, Dept. of Theater and Drama, Lee Norvelle 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.