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Attendance
Proposed revision of the Foreign Language Incentive Program
Review of year's activities
Election of officers for 2002-03

Minutes of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Faculty Assembly

Attending: Abbas, Adrain, Amert, Anderson, Arthur, Beckman, Blum, Bonacina, Broffitt, Buss, Darling, Ehrstine, Fielding, Freeman, Gibson, Gross, Hatasa, Heard, Helms, Hendrix, Hesli, Kleiber, Klein, Lafky, Lang, Lara-Braud, Larsen, Latham, Lovaglia, Lutgendorf, Mendéz, J. Nelson, Niño-Murcia, Norbeck, Oden, Peters, Pietrzyk, Plapp, Polumbaum, Squire, Trachsel, Woodard, Young

Excused absence: Franklin, Guentner, Hanley, Hochstrasser, Honey, Jones, Leddy, Marvin, Schwalm, Snider

Absent: Arnone, Boggess, Borreca, Creekmur, Dominguez, Farrell, Fethke, Fitch, Gidal, Heilenman, Klemm, Lewis, Maynard, Miller, Mills, Nelson, Randell, Redlawsk, Rigal, Robertson, Schnell, Silliman, Slatton, Spiess, Thompson, Tomasini, Ton-That, Troyer, Vlastos, Whitmore, Wilcox

Visitors: Fred Antczak, Associate Dean; Dan Balderston, Spanish & Portuguese; JoAnn Castagna, CLAS Administration; Raúl Curto, Executive Associate Dean; Alice Fulton, Biochemistry, Educational Policy Committee; Steven Hoch, Associate Provost and Dean of International Programs; Judith Liskin-Gasparro, Spanish & Portuguese, Educational Policy Committee; Jim Pusack, German, Foreign Language Acquisition Research & Education; Roland Racevskis, French & Italian; Gerhard Strohmer, Mathematics; Downing Thomas, French & Italian

1. The minutes of the Faculty Assembly meeting of March 13, 2002 were approved with no changes.

2. Proposed revision of the Foreign Language Incentive Program. The Educational Policy Committee had put forward a motion at the Assembly's March meeting to revise FLIP, and the motion was tabled at that meeting for further discussion. Member Philip Lutgendorf (Asian Languages & Literature), who is also a member of the EPC, opened the current discussion by noting that the revision of FLIP had been discussed for a number of years. He explained that one of the purposes of the current proposal was to reduce the number of FLIP credits that could be earned and to make students work harder for the credits they do earn. He introduced two other members of the EPC, Alice Fulton (Biochemistry) and Judith Liskin-Gasparro (Spanish & Portuguese).

Fulton reminded the Assembly that in order to graduate all students had to have foreign language proficiency, usually demonstrated by completing four semesters (or four years in high school) of a foreign language. To be admitted to the College, students had to have the equivalent of two years of foreign language study in high school. FLIP had been conceived to encourage students to complete more foreign language study than was required for both admission and graduation. Fulton said that FLIP credit recognized the foreign language study that students had completed in high school beyond the admission requirement, which was the equivalent of college-level work. She pointed out that FLIP credit was ungraded and considered credit by examination. She went on to describe an unexpected consequence of the original FLIP program: a narrowed range of language choices for many Iowa high school students, whose schools were able to offer four years of study in only one language, which almost invariably was Spanish. Fulton said that the proposed revision would offer incentives to study languages other than Spanish.

Lutgendorf noted that a placement examination took place at the outset, before the student could enroll in any language course for FLIP credit. Some members expressed concern that students who performed poorly on the placement exam could still earn FLIP credit. Member Dan Anderson (Mathematics) compared the FLIP program to the Math Incentive Program, which he said gave credit for a regular college course, unlike the FLIP program, which seemed to give away free credits. Liskin-Gasparro explained that FLIP credit was given for college-level work successfully completed in high school. However, successful completion of college-level work was not determined by a score on the placement exam, but rather by the successful completion of a higher-level UI language course. She said that completing a college-level course was a higher standard than performing well on a placement exam, since the exam did not test composition or speaking skills.

Member Judy Polumbaum (Journalism & Mass Communication) praised the proposed revisions, maintaining that it created a strong incentive program for studying less commonly taught languages. Dan Balderston, DEO of Spanish & Portuguese, stated that his department absolutely supported the revisions, even though it would likely lose some credit hours to other languages. Jim Pusack (German and FLARE) said that the proposed revision really tightened FLIP up and removed the current disincentive to explore a new language after studying one in high school for four years.

Fulton noted that earning FLIP credit would probably not shorten most students' time at the University. When students earned credit by examination, they usually took courses at a higher level rather than graduate early.

Member Ed Norbeck (Physics & Astronomy) said that, while he thought the proposed revision was a major improvement to FLIP, he did not see how it would help to get high schools to offer more languages. Liskin-Gasparro pointed out that there were many openings for high school foreign language teachers in Iowa that were going unfilled. She said the new program would be a step in the right direction because it would encourage more students to study more foreign languages, which could increase the supply of foreign language teachers and make it easier for high schools to offer a variety of language programs at some point in the future. Another member noted that there was a shortage of science teachers at the high school level and asked whether a science incentive program was called for. Fulton said that the EPC would gladly consider such a proposal if the science units wanted to design one, but it was not something the EPC would propose on its own initiative.

Asked when the proposed revisions would take effect, JoAnn Castagna (CLAS Administration) replied that they would be implemented this summer for entering students.

Chair Vicki Hesli called for a voice vote, and the proposed revisions were approved unanimously.

3. Review of the 2001-02 Faculty Assembly's activities. Chair Hesli distributed a summary of the Assembly's activities over the past academic year. She pointed out that the Assembly had resolved to play a more aggressive role in College governance, to increase communication between the Assembly and other governance bodies, and to rethink its role in the College. She said that the past year had proved that the Assembly was not merely a rubber stamp, as it had rejected some proposals and amended others before approving them. She said she considered the Assembly's discussions very valuable.

Hesli presented two questions to the Assembly: whether it should consider lowering its quorum (currently was a simple majority), and whether the charge of the Assembly's Diversity Committee should be altered or refined.

Regarding the quorum question, Hesli said she was concerned that a quorum call could be misused and that a single individual could stop the governance process by that means. She said that the Graduate Council had changed its quorum so that it could conduct its business more expeditiously. Lutgendorf said that calling for a quorum was a legitimate action, especially if a motion under consideration was controversial. He said that under such circumstances, members should show up to debate the issues and vote on them. Another member said the existing system was reasonable and the Assembly should focus on making it work rather than changing it. It was noted that there had been a quorum at every meeting this year except January's.

Dean Antczak said an alternative to focusing on the quorum might be to examine whether the Assembly was meeting an appropriate number of times for the amount of business it had to conduct. Hesli said that she thought the number of meetings fit well with the amount of business the Assembly had on its agenda.

Turning to the question of the Diversity Committee, Hesli noted that it had not produced a report that year, and she offered to work with the incoming chair of the Assembly to reform the committee. Member Rob Latham (English) said that one of the committee's priorities should be to communicate more aggressively to the deans the importance of faculty retention as well as suggestions for improving the College's retention of underrepresented faculty. Member Loyce Arthur (Theatre Arts) said that the committee needed to be more diverse in its membership and that more non-minority faculty needed to be invited to serve. Member John Nelson (Political Science) said that the committee should also focus on demonstrating to central administration the need for more funds to both hire and retain a diverse faculty.

4. Election of Assembly officers for 2002-03. Chair Hesli reported that the Nomination Committee had put together the following slate of candidates for next year's officers: Doug Jones (Computer Science), chair; Peverill Squire (Political Science), vice chair; Fred Woodard (African American World Studies), secretary. There were no nominations from the floor and no questions for the candidates. The nominees were elected by acclamation.

5. Adjournment. Having completed all business on the agenda, the Assembly adjourned early.

Respectfully submitted,
Donald Pietrzyk
Secretary, 2001-02