November 27th, 2006

Present: Judith Anderson (Chair), Simon Brassell, Sandra Dolby, Hal Evans, Roger Levesque (Recorder), Rosemary Lloyd, and Patrick McNaughton.

The meeting was convened at 4:16 pm.

We discussed and approved, without amendments, the minutes from our November 13th meeting.

We discussed the impending visits by Curt Simic (IU Foundation President) and David Ellies (Executive Director of the College’s Development and Alumni Programs Office). Both are joining us for a discussion initiated by our work describing the core values of the humanities and the need to increase their support and recognition.

Dean Zaret joined us at 4:32 pm. He opened our discussion by noting that he had received the three revised policies that we had sent him for his review. Since he had already responded to two of them and our recent revision of those policies had been essentially stylistic, he reported that he had no additional comments to make on them. He noted that he did have substantive comments on our revised policy dealing with full-time, non tenure track (NTT) appointments. Before providing comments on that policy, he opened up the discussion so that we could bring up other matters.

Pursuant to a faculty member’s request for clarifying the required minimum number of students enrolled per course for a GA position to be granted to that course, we sought clarification on the allocation of GA and AI positions to departments. We found such determinations more nuanced than we had expected. GA positions (typically known as grader positions) are different from AI positions (typically understood as filled by instructors of record for their own discussion sections for a given course). GA positions are less problematic to allocate and usually are granted with courses ranging from 60 to 80 students. AI allocations are more tricky to determine. A department’s number of positions typically needs to be determined by the academic year before their actual appointment. The total number of AI allocations is determined by the expected course enrollment and demand for discussion sections. Departments work with a base allocation to devise a teaching schedule and the College works with them to address their needs.

The remainder of our discussion returned to our policy relating to NTTs. David provided comments that led us to the conclusion that we must, again, considerably revise our proposed policy. We agreed with him that we should more clearly address at least two points. First, we should clarify the roles of temporary (e.g., visiting) NTT appointments and actually consider not including them in our policy given that much of the policy deals with NTTs who have been appointed for longer terms. Second, we agreed that we should consider devising a separate policy to address reporting requirements. Recall that the BFC requires units to report on their number of NTTs as well as the number of all other FTEs; also note that the College currently requires that the fraction of faculty appointed to Lecturer and Senior Lecturer positions should not exceed 15% of the total College FTEs. We hope to address these concerns within the next few weeks.

David ended by noting that this was his last official meeting with us. Judith responded that we were much appreciative of his contributions to the College. Other members expressed similar sentiments and noted that we benefitted greatly from his candid assessments and guidance. As our minutes from the past several months reveal, his knowledge of faculty governance and his concern for all associated with the College – students, staff, and faculty – run very deep. We were pleased to hear that he will remain part of the ongoing administrative transition.

David left the meeting at 5:17 pm.

We returned to our discussion of our policy dealing with NTTs and charted ways to begin revising.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:01.

Roger Levesque, Recorder

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