Instructional Support Committee

Minutes of 16 February approved.

Curricular Development proposal subcommittee (Bob and Jon) informed the Committee of their approval of a proposal for $445 for one faculty member to attend a pedagogical conference in Madison, WI on "Teaching Qualitative Research Methods With N6 Software." This is the first proposal approved using the new subcommittee process developed by Mark and adopted by ISC for the rest of this year.

The Committee noted the distribution of the summer workshop advertisement, and Jon mentioned that there will be a separate advertisement for technology-related workshops offered by the CTSs and librarians.

New business:

• The Committee agreed to meet jointly on April 6 with the library planning consultants who will be bringing three options for the Library plan to campus to share with various constituencies. We will talk in greater detail about library-related issues at our next meeting.
• Bill shared the ITS plan for responding to Network security issues by instituting a new scheme for passwords. As of April 7, a) the minimum password length will be eight characters b) passwords will need to contain at least one number and one letter c) and passwords will expire in 190 days rather than a year. There will be a new Web-enabled Password Reset system accessible from anywhere, and once users register on Password Reset (https://passwordreset.grinnell.edu), they will be able to receive an email reminder of their password by answering a series of security questions. A series of messages to the campus community will communicate these changes over the coming weeks. ISC unanimously voted to endorse these new password security measures.
• Bill told the Committee about the new spam filtering software that is now running. To see any effect, users will need to enable the filter's features. Bill will send ISC members a notification email concerning the use of the spam filter. Katya, Shuchi, and Christopher volunteered to serve as test users of the new spam filter before it is widely publicized to the community. Avram mentioned that Student Academic Computing Committee members have been using the filtering software and have found it effective.
• Bob led a discussion of FOC's concerns and questions about the structure and duties of ISC.
  • a. inconsistency from one year to another on ISC - the sense of ISC is that 3-year terms for ISC members are unfeasible and undesirable. Rather, we should focus on developing consistent policies that are written down and passed on from year to year to serve as institutional memory for the Committee.
  • b. ISC's prioritization of its duties in terms of time and significance. It is important that policy issues affecting the instructional program come before the Committee. To some extent, the Committee responds to needs that have been identified by faculty. However, we also need to anticipate needs, such as making sure we can support media technology needs and creatively trying to shape and initiate major decisions. We need to be both proactive and reactive. If FOC wants to change the wording of ISC's charge, they should heighten ISC's planning role.
  • c. ISC ability and willingness to deal with computing issues relevant to instruction. Bob pointed out that the Library planning process and proposed proximity of ITS and Library functions requires us to keep computing issues within the purview of ISC. The sense of the Committee is that we do have time to attend to computing issues.
• When should faculty receive stipends for participating in workshops? At a future meeting, we will discuss this issue in greater detail. Current practice is that faculty participating in week-long summer workshops receive $650 stipends, facilitators receive $1,150, and co-facilitators receive $800 each. These payments are incentives for faculty to devote time during the summer to things that are priorities for the College, such as advising, writing and oral communication instruction, GIS, etc., when they might be attending to research and normal course preparation activities. At a future meeting ISC will discuss guidelines for whether stipends are appropriate for shorter workshops, technology workshops, workshops during academic year breaks, etc.

The meeting adjourned at 1:03 p.m.

Jon Chenette, filling in for Terri Phipps as notetaker