Instructional Support Committee

Minutes of last meeting approved.

Update on Bookstore position search: Mindy Kaisand has been hired.

Update on Burling Planning: Architects will be on campus May 10-11 and will hold a public presentation at noon, Tuesday May 10, in South Lounge.

Update on Library Director search: A position proposal is currently under review in Executive Council. The search committee will involve members from ISC, librarians, and administrators. The final candidate for director will be evaluated for possible faculty appointment as well. This position would garner the best applicant pool if it is advertised in early September

Some librarians are concerned that if the library director does not have faculty rank, it could affect faculty rank of other positions in the library as well.

ISC members strongly recommend that the director hold faculty rank. At least one member believes that the director should have scholarly interests outside of librarianship. Jon will convey this recommendation to President Osgood. <Addendum on the note Jon sent: "Russell and Jim, I reported to ISC today on the process you intend to follow with respect to the search for the new librarian and library director. The committee discussed this in some detail and asked me to report to you the unanimous opinion of the voting members that the library director should be a member of the faculty - someone with a research record who can command the respect of faculty colleagues. They look forward to having ISC involvement on the search committee for a new library director.">

Discussion of Support for Curricular Development Guidelines draft:
ISC agrees that the committee should no longer pay stipends for curricular development projects, but instead should fund expenses necessary to make the project a success, with the exception of items funded through academic equipment requests, ITS funded software and hardware, and Library budget items. Proposals may be weighed according to the proposed result or impact on teaching.

ISC will take this recommendation to Executive Council for endorsement. Council may elect to take the proposal before the faculty.

ISC proposes, beginning in 2005-06, to eliminate the long-standing practice of paying stipends to faculty for individual curricular development projects. Instead, ISC would provide more substantial funding for expenses that fall outside of departmental, ITS, or Library budgetary responsibility but are necessary to carry out curricular development projects. Such funds could pay for student assistants, materials (excluding books, AV equipment, software, or hardware), travel, courses for retooling or development of new skills such as foreign language or technological competencies, or attendance at symposia or workshops relevant to expanding or new fields of knowledge critical to courses under development.

If this proposal goes forward, the Associate Dean's office will develop guidelines over the summer to implement this new policy. The Associate Dean will present the guidelines to ISC at the first meeting in the fall for consideration.

ISC would continue to support faculty stipends for participation in summer workshops at least three days long in areas that fit with the strategic priorities of the College, as judged by ISC when it approves the list of summer workshops each spring. Faculty participants in such workshops would receive stipends after submitting a report to the Associate Dean's office concerning the impact of the workshop on the faculty member's teaching, including specific examples of syllabi, assignments, projects, or other materials arising from the workshop, where relevant.

<Addendum: Executive Council addressed this recommendation at their May 4 meeting and agreed to the new policy on a one-year experimental basis while the Expanding Knowledge Initiative committee and Executive Council consider establishing priorities for curricular development that might warrant reintroducing stipends for specific purposes. Executive Council also asked that ISC consider the possibility of funding book purchases under well-defined limitations. Next year's ISC will need to resolve that.>

Should ISC pass this policy on to other areas that have funding for curricular development, such as Prairie Studies, International Studies, Wilson Program, etc., to see if they want to follow a similar structure? The Centers and Programs will be made aware of the changes.

Stipends for Faculty-Faculty tutorials were questioned. Since both parties benefit, and expenses are normally not incurred, the stipend structure will remain unchanged.

Discussion of course material delivery: Library policy dictates that up to a certain percentage of course readings are allowed on reserve, and the same readings can't be used year after year. PioneerWeb allows faculty to circumvent these guidelines. There is currently no one to police or enforce compliance. ISC believes the College should develop a policy concerning the posting of digital materials on Blackboard course sites. For now, we should at least link to the Library's policy as a policy governing Blackboard postings as well. Issues of instructors posting documents inside Blackboard and distributing photocopies also need to be addressed by next year's committee.

<Addendum: ISC will not meet jointly with new members. Mark Schneider was elected via email as chair of the committee for 2005-06.>