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Attendance
Chair's remarks
Approval of minutes
Presidential search
Chautauqua on public higher education
Proposed certificate in American Sign Language and Deaf Studies
Proposed major in International Studies

Minutes of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Faculty Assembly

Attending: Adrain, Balderston, Birrell, Boggess, Borreca, Brown, Buss, Cowles, Creekmur, Darling, Ehrstine, Fethke, Fielding, Franklin, Geng, Gibson, Gross, Guentner, Hatasa, Hesli, Honey, Jones, Joselson, Kleiber, Lara-Braud, Larsen, Leddy, Lewis, Lovaglia, Marra, Michaels, F. Nelson, G. Nelson, J. Nelson, Niño-Murcia, Pavlik, Payne, Plumert, Racevskis, Redlawsk, Ringen, Schope, Silliman, Slabakova, Slatton, Strohmer, Thompson, Vélez, Whitmore, Woodard, Zebrowski

Excused absence: Amert, Frankel, Latham, Plapp, Squire, Troyer

Absent: Altman, Aprile, Arthur, Christen, Dominguez, Finnegan, Fitch, Freeman, Gölz, Hendrix, Kim, Lutgendorf, Miller, Parratt, Pienta, Randell, Robertson, Schwalm, Snider, Stroyan, Tomasini, Trachsel, Trevor, Vlastos, Wilcox

Visitors: Fred Antczak, Associate Dean; Joel Barkan, Political Science; Jonathan Carlson, College of Law; JoAnn Castagna, CLAS Administration; Steven Hoch, Associate Provost and Dean of International Programs; Richard Hurtig, Speech Pathology & Audiology; Judy Liskin-Gasparro, Spanish & Portuguese; Teresa Mangum, English; Judy Polumbaum, Journalism & Mass Communication; Christopher Roy, Associate Dean of International Programs

1. Chair's remarks. Chair Doug Jones (Computer Science) called the meeting to order and welcomed members and guests. He noted that the minutes of the April meeting raised the question of reconstituting the Assembly's standing Diversity Committee, which was not active last year. He said that diversity was under attack, particularly in this time of budget cuts, and the Faculty Assembly should find constructive ways to support diversity on campus without drawing fire from anti-diversity forces. He said he would take up the topic at next month's meeting.

2. The minutes of the Faculty Assembly meeting of April 17, 2002 were approved without correction.

3. Presidential search. Jonathan Carlson (College of Law), chair of the University Presidential Search and Screen Advisory Committee, gave an overview of the search committee's mission and the search process. He encouraged all faculty to check the presidential search website for information and to give feedback to the committee, and he also invited members to talk directly with individual search committee members. CLAS faculty serving on the committee include Philip Kutzko (Mathematics), Dee Morris (English), and Salome Raheim (Social Work); CLAS student members include undergraduates Gina Patnaik (honors English) and Daniel Rossi (Political Science) and doctoral candidate Marcia Hay-McCutcheon (Speech Pathology & Audiology).

Carlson noted that the search committee was a creature of the Board of Regents and was charged with developing criteria to be used in selecting a president, building a candidate pool, screening the candidates, and recommending at least four candidates to the Regents with a written evaluation. The Regents ultimately would choose whom to hire, but Carlson emphasized that the campus community, through the search committee, would have significant input throughout the entire search process.

Carlson said that the committee had formulated the search criteria and that the Regents would accept or modify those criteria at their meeting on September 19. He stressed that the criteria were general and not weighted in terms of importance, so the committee was still looking for feedback and suggestions regarding how the criteria should be applied.

Carlson said that a search firm had been engaged to assist in identifying and screening candidates and conducting background checks. He encouraged nominations from the faculty and assured the Assembly that such unsolicited nominations would be added to the candidate pool. He emphasized that this was a confidential search, so candidate names would not be revealed until the very last phase of the search. He said that the candidate pool currently included several potentially strong candidates.

Dean Fred Antczak pointed out that CLAS was underrepresented on the search committee, since CLAS constituted 38% of the University's faculty but filled only three of the 15 faculty seats on the committee. He asked whether the committee could keep this underrepresentation in mind in its deliberations. Carlson responded that he could not speak for other members of the committee, but that he himself would certainly bear it in mind.

Member Vicki Hesli (Political Science) asked whether the committee considered it a high priority to identify candidates who would be able to advocate for the University effectively with the state government. Carlson said that it definitely was included in the criteria they had submitted to the Regents, and that the committee considered it a required qualification. He explained that there were three categories of criteria, and two of the categories were considered required and the third desired.

Member Bonnie Slatton (Health & Sport Studies) asked whether the search firm would come up with a list of candidates independently of the committee. Carlson responded that there would be a single candidate pool that included names identified by the committee members, the search firm, and unsolicited nominations. He assured the Assembly that the search firm would not dictate the outcome of the search.

Another member asked what the search firm would do that the committee itself could not do. Carlson said that the committee could probably do everything the search firm would do, but that the search firm would be much more efficient and effective in attending to administrative details, such as maintaining files and correspondence. He said that the search firm had many useful connections that would save the committee time and effort in both identifying candidates and investigating their records. He said he also found that, especially in the early stages of the search, many potential candidates were more willing to talk with a representative of a search firm than to a member of the search committee. He said he had been dubious at first about the search firm's worth, but that now he was quite confident that the firm would prove very valuable.

4. Chautauqua on public higher education. Teresa Mangum (English) and member Kim Marra (Theatre Arts), both members of Faculty Council, addressed the Assembly about plans for an on-campus chautauqua next spring to examine the history, current conditions, and future possibilities for public higher education.

They reported that rebuilding support for public higher education was a major topic for a Faculty Council retreat last year, and out of those discussions came a great concern for the public character of education at the University of Iowa. They said that as state support declined, and the University relied more heavily on tuition, external funding, and private donations, the University's character and mission as a public institution became less defined. They noted that it was hard for the retreat participants to come to a consensus on what public higher education is or ought to be. They said the case needed to be made close to home, to faculty and students, and that it was appropriate for CLAS to be the engine for discussion.

They asked for volunteers to help plan a plenary discussion and coordinated events for spring semester. The planning committee would be meeting at 3:30 on those Wednesday afternoons when Faculty Assembly did not meet. They said the planning committee's work would be essentially complete by Thanksgiving.

Chair Jones encouraged members to step forward to help and asked that members email him if they were interested in serving on the planning committee.

5. Proposed certificate in American Sign Language and Deaf Studies. Richard Hurtig, DEO of Speech Pathology & Audiology, presented a proposal for a certificate in American Sign Language and Deaf Studies, which had been submitted to the Assembly for approval by the Educational Policy Committee. He said that his department currently offered five sections of ASL and that there was a long waiting list to take those courses. He noted that there was very little attrition, and that second year ASL (ASL III and IV) had the same number of sections as the first year (ASL I and II). Many of those students were interested in pursuing deaf education or deaf studies at other institutions, and they were at a disadvantage because they could not earn any formal recognition for completing a course of study in ASL and deaf studies at Iowa. Hurtig presented an overview of the proposed program, which included a selection of courses from six different departments.

There was a brief discussion of the difference between a minor and a certificate (there is no minor available in ASL/Deaf Studies) and the number of certificates available to students in the College.

Chair Jones called for a vote on the proposal, which was approved with no opposition.

6. Proposed major in International Studies. Judy Polumbaum (Journalism & Mass Communication) presented the EPC's proposal for a major in International Studies. She emphasized that the proposal came before the EPC several times and has the strong support of both the EPC and the International Programs faculty. She said the new major would provide a coherent program and cohesive oversight for a wide range of topics in international studies, as well as a two-pronged advising system (the Academic Advising Center and a faculty member in the student's chosen area of emphasis) to assure that students had adequate guidance as they chose from the many options available. She pointed out that the many courses encompassed by the major were already on the books, so that it would not involve the creation of a new curriculum.

The new major in International Studies would supersede the current Global Studies major, and Polumbaum compared the two on several points. Global Studies required 42 hours, while International Studies would require 36 hours. International Studies was closer to the CLAS average for majors, and Polumbaum maintained that the higher number of hours for Global Studies acted as a deterrant for some students. She observed that Global Studies required a regional and a thematic emphasis, while the International Studies major required one or the other and also incorporated more emphases of each kind. She maintained that the advising system for International Studies would make it easier to manage the larger number of students that the major was expected to draw. She pointed out that unlike the Global Studies major, the International Studies major would require foreign language study beyond what was required for general education credit. She also mentioned that International Programs would provide a $1,000 scholarship to International Studies majors who chose to study abroad.

Member Rex Honey (Geography), the current director of the Global Studies Program, observed that the International Studies major incorporates the humanities in a way that Global Studies does not. He said that the Global Studies faculty were pleased with the International Studies proposal and supported it fully.

Associate Provost and Dean for International Programs Steven Hoch said that the new major would attract students earlier in their career because there would be more introductory classes associated with the program.

Member Daniel Gross (Rhetoric) remarked that the number of courses included in European studies was impressive but could prove overwhelming. Hoch responded that the advising system was crucial. He said that good quality advising was always a challenge for interdisciplinary programs, and that was why the proposal paid such close attention to advising.

A member asked whether the $1,000 scholarship for study abroad required any demonstration of need or excellence, as most other scholarships did. Polumbaum responded that there was an assumption of need because it cost students more to study abroad. Hoch said that it was not an unusual use of scholarship monies and that it covered only part of the increased cost of studying abroad, which averaged $2,500 per student. He pointed out that resources for the scholarships would come from the International Programs endowment, and he said that because 16 percent of tuition monies are designated for financial aid, it was one area of the University that was not short of funds. He also noted that the University had a goal of doubling the number of students studying abroad, so incorporating a small incentive into the International Studies major was an appropriate use of funds.

Joel Barkan (Political Science) said that the UI lagged behind peer institutions in the number of international studies majors because the current programs were so fragmented, and he praised the proposed major for creating a more coherent structure with flexible options. He also said that targeting scholarships for study abroad was in line with state and national goals.

Chair Jones called for a vote on the proposal, which was approved with no opposition.

7. Adjournment. Having concluded the business on the agenda, and there being no new business from the floor, the meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,
Fredrick Woodard
Secretary, 2002-03