Supporting Documentation: University Faculty Meeting
Thursday 29 April 2010
MTCC Auditorium, Downtown Room 305; Rice Room 146; ID webcast

Below are details associated with the matters of business that will come before the University Faculty at its Spring 2010 meeting.

1. Voting rights for category 2 faculty:
   Appendix A of the IIT Faculty Handbook states that the regular voting members of the Faculty are defined as
   The President, the Provost, active professors emeriti, ane tenured and tenure-track faculty. Appendix B then states that the regular voting members of the Faculty may extend the vote, on a fixed-term basis, to other members of the Faculty. The UniFC chair will propose that voting rights be extended to Category II faculty for Academic Year 2010-2011. Similar extensions have been approved at each of the last several spring University faculty meetings.
2. Materials Engineering Changes
   Changes to the requirements for the BS in Materials Engineering were approved by the Undergraduate Studies Committee this winter and then by the University Faculty Council at its April meeting. The changes are similar to those already approved by the faculty via the Appendix P procedure in the last few months. They are brought on by changes in arrangements for laboratory courses, and by changes in the content of a few lecture courses. The number of credit-hours required for the Materials Engineering BS would come down from 128 to 126. A flowchart of the nature of the changes is available on the Undergraduate Studies Committee website.
3. Handbook change: Rules regarding summer salary
   Paragraph B, Section VI, of the main body of the faculty handbook states:
   Faculty supported by external grants also may receive additional compensation for summer activities involving the grant. The first month of summer salary is charged to the grant. After the first month's grant-based summer salary, each subsequent day of grant-based summer salary requires one equivalent day of academic-year salary charge-off from that grant. Therefore, if five months of summer salary is budgeted within the grant, the faculty member receives three months of summer salary and two months is allocated to academic year charge-off. However, an academic unit head may reduce the academic year charge-off by one month for the purpose of providing an incentive to a junior faculty member.
   In the past, this provision has not always been enforced. In 2009 the University faculty passed a modification of this provision, changing the one-month restriction to a two-month restriction. President Anderson did not accept this change, obliging the University Faculty Council to reconsider this rule. After several lively discussions, the Faculty Council at its March 2010 meeting approved the following language that would replace the italicized segment quoted above:
   Faculty supported by external grants are entitled to receive additional compensation for summer activities as allowed by the grant budget, and subject to a policy set by the Provost in consultation with the University Faculty Council. This policy shall be uniformly applied across all academic units.
   The Council chair will present this modification for consideration at the Thursday meeting.

4. Handbook change: Affirmative Action in Tenure Decisions
   Paragraph VIII of Appendix C of the Faculty Handbook currently states:
   IIT is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. Candidates for promotion and/or tenure are evaluated by the established academic criteria, and in compliance with federal, state, and local requirements. IIT is firmly committed to its affirmative action goals as set forth in its affirmative action plan, which is available in the General Counsel's Office. Without sacrificing academic standards, IIT is mindful of those goals in tenure/promotion deliberations. A candidate's membership in a group that is under-represented on IIT's faculty is one of the factors that shall be considered in tenure/promotion decisions.
   At the April 2010 University Faculty Council meeting, the Council approved replacing the above paragraph with the following:
   Candidates for promotion and/or tenure are evaluated by the established academic criteria, and in full compliance with all federal, state, and local nondiscrimination requirements.
   The Council chair will present this modification for consideration at the Thursday meeting.

5. Handbook change: Creation of Emeritus Associate Professor title
   Section IV of the main body of the current Faculty Handbook defines Faculty Appointments and Faculty Ranks.
   In section 1, describing Category I faculty, it states that Professors emeriti are also Category I faculty,
   and in sub-paragraph (d) the category of Professor Emeritus is defined and the procedure for appointment to that status is also defined. The faculty handbook has no language defining Associate Professors Emeritus. At its April 2010 meeting, the Faculty Council approved the creation of the category of Associate Professor Emeritus, with similar procedures for appointment. The Council chair will present this modification for consideration at the Thursday meeting.
6. Handbook change: Affirming right of Emeritus Professors to be Co-advisors and co-PIs
   The Faculty Handbook in its current form has no language that specifically empowers Professors Emeritus to serve as advisors to graduate students or to act as Principal Investigators in externally-supported research or program proposals. As a result, several current Professors Emeritus have sought and obtained the status of Research Professor in order to provide this kind of empowerment. In order to eliminate this kind of multiple designation, the administration has proposed adding the following sentences to Paragraph IV, section1, sub-paragraph (d):
   Active Professors Emeriti can be principal investigators in research and sponsored program proposals and advise graduate student research as primary advisor but only with a Category I faculty as co-PI in the research proposal and as co-advisor of the student.
   The Council chair will present this modification for consideration at the Thursday meeting.
7. Recently-approved Changes to Undergraduate Programs
   Appendix P of the Faculty Handbook specifies a procedure for approval of changes to degree programs. Under this procedure, changes to degree programs that have been approved by the appropriate Studies Committee (Graduate or Undergraduate) and by the University Faculty Council are announced to the full faculty via email, and faculty are given an opportunity to register a desire to see those changes brought before the full faculty. If fewer than ten faculty members ask for such full consideration during a 30-day period following the announcement, then the approvals by the University Faculty Council are considered to have been verified by the full faculty, and the proposed changes are forwarded to the President and the Board of Trustees for final implementation. Several such approvals were announced by email to the full faculty in March 2010 after approvals had been obtained at the Studies Committee and Faculty Council levels. No requests for full-faculty consideration were registered during the 30-day period after this announcement. Therefore, the chair of the UniFC will announce these approvals as being forwarded to the President.