The Bloomington Faculty Council discussed the implementation of a possible administrative review for chancellors at all the IU campuses at its meeting Tuesday. The review, which is currently in draft form, is designed to provide the president and trustees with information concerning the quality of leadership provided by chancellors.\n"I think we have a lot of goodwill surrounding this," said BFC president Bob Eno. "Everyone wants to see this succeed."\nThe proposal will be discussed at next week's University faculty council meeting, Eno added.\nThe review process will begin in the spring semester one year before the proposed review, where IU's president will notify the BFC of the formation of a review committee. \nNominees for the committee would be tenured faculty and will be appointed to broadly represent the campus.\nThe review committee chair will be appointed by the president, and at least one semester will be allowed for completion of the review process. The review, if implemented, will be carried out early in the chancellor's fifth year in office and in successive five year intervals after that. \nEno said that it was not an unusual procedure for the committee chair to be appointed by the president.\nIn addition, an academic administrator, who is not part of IU, will partake in the review as a peer reviewer. An outside adviser may also be employed if the review committee and president see the need for one. \nCriteria for assessment will include how the chancellor portrays the campus to the public, how effectively he or she implements university policies and how well he or she fares under pressure. A final report will be submitted to the president detailing the findings and recommendations. \n"We'll talk to some trustees, some chancellors and if it looks like we're close, we're going to work fast to complete this," said Eno.\nThe need for the review was questioned by several faculty members who didn't think they would be able to find someone who would be able to spend so much time on this process. \n"Is this something practical?," asked BFC member Richard Carr. \nThe president of the board of trustees, Fred Eichhorn, said an administrative review already exists.\n"There is one in place but there was some dissatisfaction with it," he said. "They're working to change that."\nEno added that the trustees had asked the BFC to deal with the issue.
Other issues\nThe site of the new IT building, proposed to be built at 11th and Walnut Grove streets, was also discussed. The building, to be called the Computation and Information building, is expected to cover approximately 160,000 square feet. \nBFC member Dennis Senchuk said he was concerned how the University would go about funding the building and also that it wasn't directly associated with academics. \n"It seems to be more of a physical plant," he said.\nVice President for IT, Michael McRobbie, stated that the building would house all UITS services and the pervasive technology labs, which he said are one of IU's primary areas of focus in information technology. \n"It will bring together pervasive technology professionals and IT staff," he said.\nHe added that the University would look to fundraising to finance the project.\n"Ideally, we would like to get our funds externally," he said.\nProposals for non-reappointment procedures after the third probationary year and recommendations to departments on AI grievances were also passed at Tuesday's meeting.
