Bloomington Faculty Council discuss new Shared Services Initiative

The Bloomington Faculty Council convened Tuesday and discussed the first phase of the long-term Shared Services Initiative, a plan that would restructure some parts of the University in an effort to cut costs and provide services more efficiently.

Associate Vice President of University Communications Mark Land, though not present at the meeting, said the initiative aims to cut costs by consolidating areas such as administrative and human resource services.

He compared the plan to the process of buying products in bulk.

“If I were to order 500 printers at once, I’m going to get a better deal than 10 groups ordering 50 printers,” he said, adding that many businesses have implemented similar initiatives throughout the years and that these initiatives typically result in savings.

Professor Padraic Kenney, chair of the council’s Education Policies Committee, said the initiative has the potential to affect students.

“It looks at the way student services are going to be centralized in ways that may or may not be great for students,” he said, adding that some services might become more easily available.

According to the initiative’s 42-page report, the plan could save the University $7.7 million.

But council members expressed concerns that consolidation of services could result in a loss of jobs for faculty and staff. According to the report, the initiative would cut 59 University staff positions.

In the only action policy on the agenda, the council reviewed the definition of what IU considers to be a “credit hour.”

Kenney presented a draft of the definition.

The document defined a credit hour as one hour of faculty instruction per week, with two or more hours per week of additional work or study during the course of a 15-week semester. The definition also stated that a proportional amount of instruction and work for the duration of a different amount of time is also acceptable.

The definition sparked debate among council members because of a single sentence in the document, which stated that, if a student attends class and completes the two hours of work per credit hour outside the classroom, he or she should be able to earn a passing grade.

IU Student Association President Justin Kingsolver said it was dangerous to make such a statement without acknowledging learning
differences among students.

The council largely agreed, and it voted unanimously to remove the statement from the definition. Neither the council nor the Educational Policies Committee will further review the definition.

Despite the debate, Kenney said the new definition will not affect students.

The meeting closed with an update about the IU eText Initiative from Brad Wheeler, the University‘s vice president for information technology.

Seven publishers have joined the IU eText Initiative since Wheeler met with the council last September. About 130 courses are using eTexts this semester, with 39 courses being taught on the Bloomington campus.

The council will convene again at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 6, in the Indiana Memorial Union Georgian Room. For more information, visit indiana.edu/~bfc.