December 6, 2002

Present: Tom Gieryn (chair), Alex Dzierba, Jim Franklin, Roy Gardner, Susan Gubar, Kevin Hunt, Charles Livingston, Deidre Lynch, Ellen Dwyer (recorder)

1. The meeting began with the approval of the minutes of November 22, 2002. The Committee will not meet December 13. In the spring, it will meet on Fridays from 2:30 PM-4:00 PM.

2. There was a brief discussion of several nominations for the 2003-2004 Committee. Additional nominations are still being solicited.

3. Deidre Lynch reported on the December 3 meeting of the Bloomington Faculty Council, including its vote on GradPact and the presentation of a report from the IUB Human Subjects Committee. Several Policy Committee members reiterated their concern about the one-size-fits-all nature of the current informed consent document, which especially disadvantages ethnographers and those who do cross-cultural work.

4. The Committee discussed issues on which it may focus in the spring, including revisions in the current LWOP policy. It also discussed the possible formalizing of the current College of Arts and Sciences' administrative policy of giving untenured faculty members a two-course reduction during their probationary period.

5. At 11:30, Dean Subbaswamy joined the meeting. He updated the Committee on the campus-wide strategic planning process. In response to a question, he agreed that it might be advisable for the Policy Committee to develop guidelines that would clarify the implications of course releases and the frequency with which leaves-without-pay are granted. He also encouraged the Committee to discuss a modification of the current salary policy that would establish guidelines for annual discussions between the Policy Committee and the dean as to the maximum percentage of salary monies to be set aside for retention efforts.

6. The meeting concluded at 11:45 AM.