Members present: Jeff Budiman (CAE), Howard Chapman (Kent), Warren Edelstein (AMat), Bill Grimshaw (SocSci), Joyce Hopkins (Psyc), Andy Howard (BCPS), Robert Krawczyk (ARCH), Vijay Kumar (ID), Art Lubin (AMat), William Newman (MSED), Victor Pérez-Luna (ChEE), David Peterson (Psyc), Jay Schieber (ChEE), Jack Snapper (HUM), Phil Troyk (BME), Miles Wernick (ECE), Chris White (BCPS), Geoff Williamson (ECE)
Student representatives present: Alejandro Taboada, Govind Wakhlu.
Absent: Joel Goldhar (SGSB). Sanjiv Kapoor (CS), Kevin Kassel (MMAE), Bogdan Korel (CS), Ganesh Raman (MMAE), David Rudstein (Kent), David Sharpe (Arch)
Guests: Pat Fagan-Jackson (Perspectives, Inc.), Mindi Mysliweic (Kent), Beverly Perret (HR), Mary Anne Smith (Counsel).
Opening: The meeting began at 11:50 in the ballroom of the McCormick-Tribune Campus Center.
Employee Assistance Plan: Pat Fagan-Jackson of Perspectives, Inc., and Beverly Perret of the Human Resources Department offered a presentation on the Employee Assistance Plan (EAP) that IIT is instituting with Perspectives. Perspectives already provides an EAP at Northwestern, University of Chicago, Loyola, and dePaul, so they are well-situated to offer these services at IIT. The services include help with daily living issues for employees, including faculty, and their families, as well as the more typical substance-abuse and psychological counseling services that other EAPs provide. The program will be completely confidential, other than under very special circumstances; it is also completely free of cost. The counselors in the Perspectives program are mostly LCPs and LCSWs. There will be a single-source 800 number for the program, and even the phone operators will in general be clinical social workers, so every call should be carefully handled. Perspectives will offer information back to IIT about demographics, but nothing about individuals. The form of counseling offered will include immediate phone help, outsourced providers for eldercare, childcare, and even legal and financial advice.
The program will be explained first to supervisors and then to the employee base. The cost to the university will be partly offset via feeds into the Blue Cross - Blue Shield medical coverage, so the net cost to the University will be very low -- on the order of $50,000 per year.
Following the presentation there was an extended discussion of the appropriateness and structure of this offering. Joyce Hopkins and others voiced concern about the qualifications of the providers, and there were questions about whether IIT faculty, particularly those in the psychology faculty, were involved in the planning for this offering.
Mechanisms for Conducting Business
The Faculty Council discussed mechanisms for conducting business between live meeting dates. Among the questions considered were the appropriateness of e-mail votes in the Faculty Council, particularly for important issues, and the question of whether there really are reasons to have to make decisions on that short a time span. After some discussion Phil concluded that the consensus was that certain issues could be voted on by e-mail in between meetings, but the decisions to do so would be made on a case-by-case basis, bearing in mind guidelines of urgency, content, and need. He is willing to make those decisions, with the understanding that there will always be a mechanism to postpone a decision until the next face-to-face meeting.
LLM in Family Law
Mindi Mysliwiec of the Kent faculty presented a proposal for an LLM in Family Law. This had been discussed briefly in the spring, but we now have an opportunity to consider this program in greater detail. It is unique in this area, and the ABA has already expressed its acquiescence with this program. After some discussion the proposal to approve this program was moved (Howard), seconded (Krawczyk), and passed 14-0 with two absentions. As usual, this program will need to be approved by the full faculty before being submitted to the Trustees.
Sabbatical Leave
We have been reminded that we need to appoint a chair for a Sabbatical Leave Committee for this academic year. After some discussion, Miles Wernick agreed to take on this responsibility.
Library
Andy Howard, who was nominally chair of the Library Committee in 2004-05, said he would serve in that capacity this year. Bob Krawczyk said he would also participate.
Conflict of Interest
Mary Anne Smith presented a reworded version of the faculty Conflict of Interest statement, which each faculty member engaged in externally funded research needs to sign. She observed that faculty are not prohibited from being involved in outside business or consulting ventures, but the University needs to know about them.
Misconduct
The research misconduct language in the Faculty Handbook needs to be revised to bring our wording into compliance with new Federal guidelines. The changes are minor, and mostly involve including definitions in the text. After some discussion the proposal to make these changes to the Faculty Handbook was moved (Hopkins), seconded (Howard), and passed 17-0.
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be held on Monday 12 December 2005 at 12:40pm, probably in the ballroom of the MTCC. Food will be provided.
NCA Finance Committees
Susan Wallace has asked that the faculty council appoint two faculty members to serve on finance committees that will operate as parts of the North Central Accreditation process. Phil proposes sending an e-mail to all faculty asking for volunteers for these committees. One committee will attempt an assessment of University finances, and the other will inquire into how well we have met the planning goals that were set out in the past. The e-mail will go out to all Category I faculty.
NCA Diversity Statement
The University administration wants faculty input into a revision of the University's diversity statement. This statement will be under review by the NCA panel as well, and an endorsement from the Faculty Council of the revised statement would be useful. The Council looked at the current wording, and Phil asked that Council members offer suggestions to Andy via e-mail before the December meeting.
Committees for IPro and EnPro Programs
There continues to be a need for a task force to consider the structure of the IPro and EnPro programs and the question of whether or not the current six-semester-hour requirement should be retained. Jack Snapper agreeed to chair the task force, and said he would recruit other people from within the Faculty Council and from outside. Ken Schug's name was recommended as a potential participant. Bill Grimshaw asked whether co-chairs, one who is in favor of a reduction in the requirement and one who is opposed, might provide a useful pathway; this approach was not pursued.
Special Faculty Meeting
Mary Anne, Phil, and others have concluded that it would be impractical to attempt to call a single-purpose faculty meeting to consider some of the overarching issues before us--like reducing the faculty-meeting quorum, and the degree programs currently on the table. We will, however, pursue this option for early in spring semester. The plan would be to hold the meeting mid-day and have no President's presentations on the agenda; the only business would be substantive issues for which faculty votes are needed. It was suggested that the chairs of academic units and the AU Faculty Council representatives could play a role in encouraging or cadjoling faculty members to attend this and subsequent meetings.
Student Course Evaluations
Joyce Hopkins has been looking into how the university might improve the participation in and the quality of data derived from the student evaluations that are conducted near the end of each semester. Noreen Kozak has made it clear that it will not be practical to convert back to paper surveys, after a few years of the use of web forms. The e-mail message that students receive, encouraging them to participate, may be too bland to have much effect, so the plan is to compose a more strongly-worded message. A second or third reminder is also envisioned. Joyce is also considering rewriting the survey so that it has fewer questions; the hope is that a shorter survey will receive a higher level of compliance, and in practice most academic units pay little attention to many of the questions. The Council, including its student representatives, discussed the surveys at some length. Joyce will continue work on this topic and report back at a later meeting.
Financial Report
Howard Chapman submitted an update to the financial report that he had sent out earlier in the month. The Council received it and agreed that it served a useful purpose, and thanked Howard for his efforts. A motion to approve the report and distribute it to the Faculty was moved (Hopkins), seconded (Williamson), and passed 15-0.
Domestic Partner Proposal
Phil asked Jay Schieber if any changes had occurred regarding his proposal to extend domestic partner rights for health insurance and other fringe benefits to opposite-sex partners. The President's office has estimated that it would cost $200,000 per year to extend the benefits to opposite-sex partners, and has declined to follow the Council's recommendation. Jay has discussed with a lawyer a way to challenge this decision. It was noted that the University of Chicago does allow fringe benefits to cover opposite-sex domestic partners; other universities in this area limit coverage to same-sex partners, presumably on the basis that opposite-sex partners could marry if they wanted to enjoy those benefits. Andy recommended that we invite President Collens to attend the December Faculty Council meeting to explain his decision; after some discussion this recommendation was moved (Howard), seconded (Schieber) and passed 15-0.
Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 1:15 pm.