Senate Agenda, October 21, 2016

Academic Senate Agenda (with links and annotations as these become available)

Friday, October 21, 2016, 10:00 am, DW 1001

1. Call to order
2. Approval of the minutes of the September 16, 2016 meeting
3. President’s remarks
   1. Centralization practices across IU
   2. Questions from the floor in the September meeting
4. Chancellor Allison’s remarks on centralization and the faculty
   1. Additional remarks on President McRobbie’s visit
5. Discussion of three initiatives presented in the September meeting****
   1. The Carnegie Engaged Campus initiative*
   2. General Education review**
   3. Reimagining the First Year initiative***
6. Committee updates
   1. Non-Tenure Track Faculty Committee: salary compression
      1. Response from EVCAA Joseph
   2. Budget Committee: the schedule for budget work this year
   3. Vender Review Board
7. Announcements
8. Adjournment

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Annotations (supplied by the various committees):

*The Carnegie group summarizes its work in this way: “The objective of the Carnegie Engaged Campus Initiative is to prepare an application for the Carnegie Engaged Campus Classification so that we can build on our current strengths in community engagement (in teaching, research and service) and create an infrastructure for supporting and expanding our community engagement.”

**The complex charge of the general education task force might be put briefly in this way: “The General Education Task Force is charged among other things with (a) reviewing and redefining our learning outcomes for General Education to ensure they meet the needs of today’s college students in a way that aligns with national trends and expectations, including those of accrediting bodies, and making sure these learning outcomes are thoroughly implemented and assessed, and (b) addressing the various challenges students and academic units currently face in integrating the General Education curriculum with their educational experience and/or programs. Item (b) is necessarily vague because it includes a large number of things such as transferability issues, high-credit-hour programs, the place of Gen Ed classes in particular units, complexity of offerings, balancing flexibility and regularity, and on and on.” See also the fuller charge and timeline.

***The charge of the “Reimagining” initiative might be summarized as follows: “We will encourage and coordinate faculty and staff efforts to expand our student-centered infrastructure and culture to increase first-year student persistence.”

****This handout for the meeting includes a description of the three initiatives and some respected value and goal sets for higher education. Copies will be available in the meeting.