December 4th, 2006

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

The meeting was convened at 4:14 pm.

We discussed and approved, without amendments, the minutes from our November 27th meeting.

We deliberated how best to respond to comments we have received regarding our revised policy on the appointment and tenure of chairs and directors.

At 4:31 we were joined by Curt Simic (IU Foundation President) and David Ellies (Executive Director of the College’s Development and Alumni Programs Office). They visited us in response to our work describing the core values of the humanities and the need to increase their support and recognition. Although our discussion ranged broadly, we particularly focused on the IU Foundation and College's development efforts, the role that faculty and students can play in these efforts, and the College Policy Committee's potential contribution to them. We learned that development offices in the schools work symbiotically with the IU Foundation. Among its many roles, the Foundation trains development officers for the Foundation as well as the schools. The Foundation also serves as a vital link between prospective donors and the schools as it uncovers information and shapes opportunities.

We heard about several recent accomplishments. There have been many recent large gifts to the university, as evidenced by the new Simon Hall and the naming of our School of Music. It was also noted that the College has experienced a significant increase in private funding for the humanities, and specifically history, including faculty chairs and graduate fellowships. The new initiatives supporting undergraduate education also provided good examples of the development offices' work. These latter developments also highlight how efforts can reach many units across campus and support many departments.

Suggestions were made regarding the involvement of faculty and departments in efforts to increase private sector funding to the university. Most notably and not surprisingly, all faculty have a key role in offering as much individualized attention to students as possible, being effective teachers, providing students with opportunities to grow, and responding to students' concerns. Departments and Programs can help in this mission and enhance development efforts by regularly producing alumni newsletters and stewarding current donors. Although opportunities for funding come from a variety of sources, it is clear that those opportunities develop more readily when faculty and their departments can demonstrate they are good stewards of the funds they currently have and additional funding will be a good investment .

We thanked our guests for their energizing visit with us. They left at 5:43.

We returned to faculty comments regarding our policy statement on the appointment and tenure of chairs and directors. Much of our discussion centered on the part of the policy that notes an expectation that their tenure will be three to four years. We especially discussed repeated reappointment of the same chair. We considered whether reappointment should result from a less or more rigorous vetting of the candidate for chair. It was noted that rotation of chairs is generally desirable for many departments but that, especially in small departments, repeated reappointment might be the only, or the best, option. In other departments, reappointment might be the democratically expressed wish of the majority of faculty. Opinion was fairly mixed. After strengthening the phrasing of our policy, we found sufficient the requirement that the full faculty participate in the initial selection and in the possible reappointment of a chair. In the end, we were guided by the principle that matters of faculty governance relating to a Dean’s appointment of chairs or directors are collaborative matters between the department/program and Dean; our goal simply was to ensure that departments put in place realistic and helpful procedures for substantive faculty voice.

We returned to our revised policy on non tenure track (NTT) appointments and our new “Policy on Instructional Reporting”. We approved both drafts of the revised polices and sent them to Dean Zaret for a last round of comments. We expect to send them to faculty for comments soon.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:08.

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.