ISC Committees
28 January 2004
Noon - Faculty House
Attending: Martha Voyles, David Ellison, Vince Eckhart, Ralph Savarese, Susan Ireland, Bob Cadmus, Bill Francis, Christopher McKee, John Kalkbrenner, Helen Scott, Terri Phipps
Minutes of December 10 were approved.
Proposal from English Department
The English Department has requested funding for refreshments for meetings to review their curriculum.
After a lengthy discussion, the majority of the committee recommended against funding this proposal on the basis that the proposal was department-specific and should therefore fall under the departmental budget. The decision was not unanimous. The ISC applauds the English Department's efforts and willingness to make substantial changes to their curriculum, and will welcome individual proposals for course revisions, etc., resulting from this review.
A proposal idea similar to the English Department's was sent from Anthropology to the Associate Deans' Office, though a formal proposal was not submitted to ISC. If it is submitted, it will not be funded, for the above reasons.
At a future meeting the ISC will re-visit the issues of (1) what sorts of curricular-development projects it has funded in the past and (2) of what sorts of projects it ought to fund.
Project Reports
Packets of reports received from projects funded last academic year were distributed and will be discussed at a future meeting.
Bookstore
John Kalkbrenner reported that the Director of Kenyon College Bookstore will visit campus to compare Kenyon and Grinnell bookstore operations. Kenyon Bookstore is located downtown, though its location is right next to campus. The Director is a faculty member at Kenyon College.
John also reported that the possibility remains of moving the Grinnell bookstore downtown, perhaps to the True Value building, though nothing has been decided at this time. One trustee has recommended that Bookstore operations be outsourced. There is concern that this will change the Bookstore's mission. He recommends that the ISC reaffirm the mission of the Bookstore to support academics. He will distribute the Bookstore's mission statement to ISC.
The suggestion to purchase True Value for library storage and decide on the Bookstore location later was readdressed. Downtown Grinnell needs more retail businesses to restore its vibrancy. A storage facility will not fill that need. Addressing library storage is becoming more urgent as Burling will be completely out of room by spring 2005.
Proposed Agenda Item
Bob Cadmus mentioned that faculty and academic staff are increasingly being required to use the web to get minutes, budget information, student/advising information, etc. Should ITS staff be increased to improve support (training and troubleshooting)? There is also concern that using the web more forces faculty to be more active than passive; they need to remember to access reports, etc., rather than receiving them in hard copy and being prompted to take action. Will faculty remember to do everything on a timely basis? Is the benefit to administrative offices worth the costs to faculty and academic staff time?
Online Communities Draft
Bill Francis has drafted a policy for online communities which will be available Monday or Tuesday for comments. Bill will compile comments and send to ISC for review.
The ACUP has been revised as per ISC's recommendations. Bill has adopted most of GOCAC's suggestions as well. Bill will meet with Sam Rebelsky and John Stone to discuss the impact on teaching.
Next meeting: February 11
