April 7, 2008

Present: Dale McFadden (chair), Deb Cohn, Nick Cullather, Sandy Dolby, Hal Evans, and Jeff Hart (recorder).

The meeting began at 4:00pm. 

The committee continued to hear reports by individual committee members on budget meetings with chairs and directors of programs.  A member of the committee initiated a discussion of student disability services at IUB.  The committee decided to invite Martha Engstrom, Director of Disability Services for Students, and Mike Hamburger, Associate Dean of the Faculties, to attend a future meeting.

The Dean arrived at 5:00pm.   The committee asked the Dean to answer a series of questions that had arisen in discussions about policy issues connected with budget meeting: 1) the College’s budget, 2) projected student enrollments, 3) non-tenure-track (NTT) faculty, 4) definitions of centers, programs, and institutes, 5) transfers of centers from the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) to the College, and 6) the status of CTE centers and programs.

The Dean reported that the College’s budget for next year was just about ready to be sent to the Board of Trustees.  That budget would be balanced, but the method of doing so might result in future austerity measures.  It was not possible to say with certainty whether there would be a freeze on hiring next year, but if not failed searches from this year would be high on the list of priorities for next year.

Student Enrollment Services’ is projecting enrollments for freshmen next year to be 7300.  The Dean was concerned that this would create difficulties for the College.  This year, the College had to wait for an extended period of time for tuition revenues beyond the 6500 enrollment budgeted by the University for the College to be released.  As a consequence, the College had to meet teaching needs by hiring an unprecedented number of non-tenure-track (NTT) faculty.  This may occur again next year.  Given personnel and space constraints, the College cannot properly handle more than 7200 students.

The Dean was asked about the definition of programs, centers, and institutes in the College.  The Dean stated his view that centers and institutes were primarily for the support of faculty research while programs had mainly an academic mission that included the administration of degree programs. The committee suggested that there should be more specific definitions and guidelines for centers, programs, and institutes in the College.  The Dean said that since last summer the College has made available guidelines on centers and programs at: http://www.indiana.edu/~college/faculty/guidelines.shtml.

Discussion then turned to the question of the transfer of centers and indirect cost recovery (ICR) funds from the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) to the College.  The Dean reported that no such transfers had yet occurred.  This was a problem because even though the College was the main provider of researchers for a number of major grants, the College did not administer ICR funds for those grants and was not credited appropriately for grant-seeking activities as a result.

Finally, the Dean was asked about the status of new centers and programs established under the Provost’s Commitment to Excellence (CTE) plan since 2003.^[i]   The Dean stated that there were too many split appointments, especially where a new center or program was granted only .25 FTE of a particular member of the faculty.

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.

^[i] For background, see http://www.iub.edu/provost/campus/cte.shtml.