Main Campus Faculty Council

Meeting of 12 September 2003: Minutes

The meeting began at 12:30pm in the Trustees' Dining Room of the Hermann Union Building with Michael Young presiding. These minutes are recorded in the order in which the discussions occurred, rather than in the order shown in the original agenda; accordingly, the item numbers derived from that agenda are slightly out of order. Items 8 and 9 were absent from the printed agenda, and item 10 was not given a number on the printed agenda. The meeting adjourned about 1:45pm.

Present:

Gady Agam (CS), Glenn Broadhead (Hum), Jeff Budiman (CAE), Kevin Cassel (MMAE), Brogan Dexter (student representative - BCPS), Joyce Hopkins (Psych), Andrew Howard (BCPS), William Newman (MSED--substituting for Judi Zawojewski), Ken Noll (CHEE), Christena Nippert-Eng (Social Sciences), Greg Prygrocki (ID), George Schipporeit (Arch), Jay Schieber (CHEE), Ken Schug (BCPS),  Xian-He Sun (CS), Philip Troyk (BME), Miles Wernick (ECE), Geoff Williamson (ECE), Michael Young (Psych).

Absent:

Jeffrey Duan (AM), Robert Krawczyk (Arch), Ganesh Raman (MMAE)

Agenda:

The only item on the distributed agenda that was postponed was item 7, a faculty regalia proposal from Jennifer Waters.

1. University reorganization:

Michael Young explained that the plan to reorganize the university's governance has been somewhat delayed by the need to revise the faculty handbook first. A University faculty meeting will need to vote on the revised handbook, and at this point that may not happen sooner than the spring University faculty meeting. Accordingly the campus-level governing bodies--in particular, the faculty councils and the committees on promotions and tenure--will need to remain in force until the handbook revisions are approved. Geoff Williamson is on the faculty handbook revision committee, and he reported that its work is nearly done. Michael Young is the chair-elect of the University faculty council, so for the moment he is chair at both the campus and the University level. This double duty has remained in force somewhat longer than had been anticipated, so as of this meeting he announced that he is resigning from the chairmanship at the campus level.

A discussion of the appropriateness of the proposed changes ensued, intermingled with a discussion of whether Main Campus Faculty Council should be meeting at all if its mandate is rapidly disappearing. William Newman acknowledged that duplicating effort is inappropriate, but that if there are differences between the perspectives of the University faculty and that of the main campus, those differences do need to be resolved. It was suggested that it would, accordingly, be unwise and perhaps illegal to halt the current meeting or dissolve MCFC. George Schipporeit suggested that the faculty handbook from before the campus splits could actually apply to the new situation; Geoff Williamson argued that the new handbook is close enough to completion that there is no need to revive the pre-split document, and that, in fact, the pre-split document was used as a guideline in developing the new one.

2. Election of chair:

Based on the above discussion the MCFC agreed that it should elect a new chair to serve until and unless the body is dissolved. Ken Schug nominated Phil Troyk to the chairmanship, and Christene Nippert-Eng seconded the nomination. No other nominations  were advanced, and Professor Troyk was elected unanimously.

4. Election of Secretary:

Andy Howard volunteered to serve as secretary and webmaster during this academic year. Christene Nippert-Eng seconded his nomination, and no other nominations were advanced. He was unanimously elected. Andy will plan to post the meeting minutes on the MCFC website, http://www.iit.edu/~mcfc/ , and the Council recommended that he seek help from Sheldon Mostovoy in posting minutes to the site.

5. Recommendation of new UCOPT member

Candace Wark (MMAE) is rotating off of the University Committee on Promotions and Tenure, and MCFC is empowered to produce a list of candidates to replace her. This list will be offered to Provost Myerson and President Collens, and they will choose a candidate from it. The candidates should be full professors, since they will be reviewing applications for full professor as well as other promotions. David Arditi (CAE) was nominated. The Council agreed that additional names from the engineering departments should be submitted to Phil Troyk by 10 October so that they can be endorsed by the MCFC at its October meeting.

8. University Faculty Council

The Main Campus Faculty Council is empowered to appoint seven members to the University Faculty Council, including its chair, chair-elect, and secretary. UFC meets monthly around lunch-time on a different Friday from the one on which MCFC meets. Because MCFC has the responsibility to make these appointments to UFC, the council agreed to elect a chair-elect and then proceed with elections of at-large UFC members.

3. Election of Chair-Elect

Michael Young explained that the chair elect should be a second-year member of MCFC; as such the eligible candidates are Gady Agam, Joyce Hopkins, Ken Schug, Ken Noll, Jay Schieber, Phil Troyk, and Judi Zawojewski. Phil Troyk nominated Ken Schug for the position, and Christene Nippert-Eng seconded the nomination. Jay Schieber nominated Judi Zawojewski, and Joyce Hopkins seconded the nomination. The Council held a vote by show of hands, and Ken Schug was elected by a 15-4 margin.

8 (continued) Election of Members on University Faculty Council:

Based on the above election results, Phil Troyk, Andy Howard, and Ken Schug are now three of MCFC's delegates to UFC. Since Mike Young has already agreed to serve as chair of UFC, the Council agreed that it would be appropriate for Mike to be elected as a fourth delegate. Ken Schug nominated him for that role, and Christene Nippert-Eng seconded the nomination. Mike was elected unanimously.

The floor  was then opened to nominations to fill the additional three members of MCFC. The following candidates were nominated: Glenn Broadhead, George Schipporeit, Xian-He Sun, Miles Wernick, and Judi Zawojewski. Paper ballots were distributed and counted by Christene Nippert-Eng and Andy Howard. George Schipporeit, Miles Wernick, and Judi Zawojewski were elected with 10, 12, and 14 votes each; Glenn Broadhead and Xian-He Sun received 8 and 5 votes respectively.

Note contributed after the meeting: Michael Young and Phil Troyk have now learned that MCFC is entitled to appoint nine, rather than seven, representatives to UFC. Accordingly an e-mail vote is currently underway to approve the addition of Profs. Broadhead and Sun to the delegation.

9. Faculty Survey:

Bruce Fisher and Judy Carr have developed a draft of the 2003-04 faculty survey and would like a subgroup from MCFC to review it and produce feedback. It was felt that soliciting volunteers might take too long, so MCFC  made an effort to provide that subgroup. Christene Nippert-Eng pointed out that Maritsa Poros in Social Sciences is a professional at developing surveys. Ken Schug, Mike Young, and Geoff Williamson agreed to join Maritsa in this task. A discussion of the weaknesses in previous years' surveys ensued. There has been a concern with how anonymous the tracking of the survey really is, and it was suggested that the low rate of return may have occurred because of this lack of confidence that the results would really remain confidential.

10. University Faculty Senate Chair:

Mike Young announced that the University Faculty Senate chair will be elected at a University faculty meeting. This is a position that has little significance in quiet times, but could be important in times of crisis or rapid change.

6. Main Campus Faculty Council Committees:

Mike Young explained that the chairs of these committees must be MCFC members, but the other members of the committees need not be MCFC members. The notes that follow summarize the discussion about the nature of these committees and the efforts to populate them.

6A. Computing:

A 2002 decision by the university Office of Technology Services to install wireless networking facilities across the campus is being gradually implemented. Xian-He Sun has been chair of this committee, and he proposed Gady Agam to replace him as chair. Xian-He agreed to remain on the committee as a member, and the two of them will report to the October meeting about efforts to recruit additional members.

6B. Student Affairs:

This committee concerns itself with academic and student life. Liam Coffey appeared to have been the only member during 2002-03. A discussion of whether this commitee or the academic grievance committee (below) is the appropriate site for dealing with issues of student honesty: there appears to be an inconsistency between the faculty handbook and the student handbook in this regard, and it is hoped that that inconsistency is being resolved in the faculty handbook revision. Phil Troyk agreed to draft appropriate language if necessary. Christene Nippert-Eng volunteered to join this committee.

6C. Academic Grievance:

Ken Noll agreed to chair this group and intends to retain the other two current members (Sheldon Mostovoy and Joyce Hopkins) on the committee.

6D. Sabbatical Leave:

This group is busy in the spring when applications are considered. Miles Wernick agreed to chair this committee, and Jeff Budiman and Jay Schieber agreed to serve on it.

6E. Library:

George Schipporeit, Phil Troyk, and Ken Schug served on this committee in 2002-03. George reported that a number of issues were considered, including library hours and sale of rare books. George argued that the committee needs to represent a broader cross-section of the faculty so that it can contribute substantially to a discussion of the library's needs. He mentioned the upcoming open house at Galvin Library on 24 September and encouraged MCFC members to participate. George and Phil emphasized that MCFC and this committee constitute the only faculty oversight group that Galvin Library has, and George suggested that the entire MCFC constitute itself as a library committee to show its commitment to the library's role in campus life. MCFC agreed, as an alternative to that idea, to commit itself to regular discussions of library issues at monthly meetings. George, Glenn Broadhead, Phil Troyk, and Ken Schug will serve on the library committee.