Council discusses rankings, faculty titles

Interim Provost Michael McRobbie told the Bloomington Faculty Council on Tuesday evening that a new survey has ranked IU among some of the nation's elite universities.\nBoth McRobbie and Ted Miller, president of the Bloomington Faculty Council, presided over the discussion. \nIn his opening remarks, McRobbie commended the committee on an announcement earlier this week that, according to a new survey, IU has 14 programs that rank among the top 10 nationally. The rankings are from the Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, which examines faculty research and other scholarly activity at more than 350 universities.\nThe top marks landed IU 10th among public institutions and 23rd among all universities nationwide.\nScoring particularly well were the University's world-language departments. IU's French department ranked first overall, while five other language departments also ranked among the top 10.\n"I think this is a really wonderful achievement," McRobbie said.\nHe contrasted IU's scores with Purdue University's -- only 10 Purdue programs placed within the top 10.\nCommenting on a speech made last week to the Bloomington Rotary Club, McRobbie said that even though more than half of all tenured faculty members will be eligible to retire in the next 10 years, he was confident in the next generation of the University's faculty.\nDuring this academic year alone, McRobbie said, IU has hired 100 new tenured and tenured-track faculty members. \n"The picture is very strong -- very, very positive," he said.\nBut on the issue of hiring new faculty members, the meeting met its strongest point of contention. \nMembers of the council seemed hung up after Miller brought up a qualm he had with the titles of much of the current faculty. This included placing the word "clinical" in the title of some non-tenure-track faculty members within the professional schools.\nMiller said when "clinical" was first added to a title in the late 1980s, the term referred to faculty members who were involved with patient care or laboratory work, often within the IU School of Medicine.\nOver the past 20 years, several of the professional schools, including the Kelley School of Business and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, have hired faculty whose duties do not fall within the original stipulations but whose titles contain the word "clinical," Miller said.\nSome members questioned what the titles would be for faculty members who ranked higher than lecturers but did not conduct the necessary research to be considered tenure-track professors.\nMiller said an example of someone who could fall into this category would be if the Kelley School of Business recruited a former corporate executive who students could significantly benefit from.\nOne suggestion was to call these types of nonclinical and non-tenure-track faculty members "professors of practice." And even though no definitive answer was reached on the issue, members of the Bloomington Faculty Council said the matter would be discussed at greater length later. \nDuring a Q-and-A session between members of the council and Miller and McRobbie, Miller said he would have more information about the University's presidential search at the council meeting, slated to begin next Tuesday.\nMiller, a member of the Presidential Search Committee, said the search is progressing normally and there is "a strong pool of candidates"