March 3, 2008

Present: Dale McFadden (chair), Tom Busey, Deb Cohn, Nick Cullather, Hal Evans, Jeff Hart (recorder), Brian Steensland, and Maxine Watson.

The meeting began at 4:00pm.  The Dean was unable to attend.

Two main items were discussed:  a draft proposal on General Education presented to the committee by Catherine Larson, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education, and a revised hiring policy for tenured faculty appointments.

Dean Larson is preparing a proposal on College requirements for General Education to be voted on by faculty of the College later in the semester.  By the summer of 2011, students in the College will have to fulfill both campus-wide general education requirements and additional College requirements.  Since the current College requirements are similar to the new campus-wide requirements, this will not result in major changes.  The committee chose not to vote or take a position on the draft proposal.  However, the committee identified three areas of potential controversy:

• The minimum grade required for fulfilling the Common Ground Foundations Writing and Mathematical Modeling requirements in the College will be C- (as currently required) while the grade required for fulfilling campus-wide requirements will be D-.
• Bachelor of Science students in the College will be required to fulfill a new two-course Culture Studies requirement which is separate from the Fundamental Skills Foreign Language requirement.  This may lengthen the time needed to complete the degree.
• The draft proposal states that College students can take no more than 6 credit hours (two courses) fulfilling the campus-wide General Education requirements from another school at IUB.

The committee voted unanimously to approve the following revised policy (the former name was Policy on the Establishment of an Advisory Committee for Tenured Faculty Appointments, see http://www.indiana.edu/~college/faculty/policy/collegepolicies/tenure06302006.shtml):

Hiring Policy for Tenured Faculty Appointments (1997; Revised 2006; REVISED and RENAMED, 2008)

When hiring faculty members who are to be granted tenure at the time of appointment, the Dean shall create an ad hoc committee drawn from the current Tenure and Promotion Committee.  This committee will examine a mini-dossier which includes a CV, evidence of teaching effectiveness, and external letters of support.  Six letters are required, of which three will be solicited by the department; twelve letters will be solicited if the faculty member is to be a named professor, of which six will be solicited by the department.  The department chair will submit an assessment of the faculty member’s research, teaching effectiveness, service, and positive impact on the college.  If the dossier raises concerns, the Dean will consult other members of the Tenure or Promotion Committee to reach a resolution.  In the case of candidates who do not already have tenure or who did not receive it at a comparable institution, the full Tenure Committee will review the case on the basis of a similar level of documentation to that expected for internal tenure reviews.

The committee invites comments from the faculty on the revised hiring policy. Comments should be sent before March 31.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:45pm.

Jeff Hart, Recorder

Questions or comments regarding the minutes and actions of the College Policy Committee may be addressed to its Chair, Dale McFadden. Past minutes and College Policy Statements can be found at the CPC web page.