BFC discusses parking, construction, tenure

Library Faculty Council

Library council members are working on solutions for parking during construction of the School of Global and International Studies. Provost and Executive Vice President Lauren Robel said this is a factor they are considering in their planning, and they hope to have a solid plan by the next meeting.

Parking Privatization

Goldman-Sachs will be on campus Thursday to discuss the privatization of parking on campus. Any questions can be directed to President Carolyn Calloway-Thomas at calloway@indiana.edu.

Presiding officers report

Robel gave some background information for the new online course evaluations and for the potential creation of the School of Media, Communication and Journalism. Background on the course evaluations can be found at http://www.indiana.edu/~provost/academic-initiatives/teaching-excellence.shtml and concerns about the possible creation of the new school can be expressed as comments on the website  indiana.edu/~provost/academic-initiatives/index.shtml.

Robel addressed some questions raised about controversies surrounding the proposal of the new school, including whether it would fall under the College of Arts and Sciences or be its own entity and the role of media production within the proposal. The answers to these questions are undefined at this time as solutions are still being considered.

Policies regarding non-tenure-track instructional appointments

Professor Emeritus Herbert Terry proposed changes for non-tenure-track faculty. The proposed changes include a more defined set of circumstances for when clinical staff can be hired as such. A second change would be extending the Bloomington policy of promoting or firing IU lecturers after six years to the realm of clinical appointments. The last major change involves no longer requiring schools to have a certain ratio of non-tenure-track faculty to tenure-track faculty members, although schools would still have to track credit hours contributed by faculty, in addition to other things. Many faculty have said they hope that the policy changes would also help to clarify the difference between lecture and clinical positions.

— Hannah Smith