The Faculty Senate will meet to discuss the graduation list, vote on amendment to the faculty handbook, discuss results from the NTE Task Force and to pay respects to departed colleagues.

The most hotly debated subject will be the results from the Task Force to Examine Limits on Non-tenure Eligible Faculty.

The task force is a committee of ISU faculty that are working with AAUP guidelines to regulate faculty positions and to determine whether their guidelines are compatible with the learning environment and standards here at Iowa State.

“These are coming forward not as policy, but as recommendations,” said Faculty Senate President Mike Owen. “The thing we are wanting to do is to make sure that the faculty recognizes that. While some people are rather cynical saying that there is nothing we can do as far as achieving the number for NTE, but we certainly recognize that the cultures of each department are different so they all have very different needs.”

Owen also recognized concerns for colleges like the College of Design and the Greenlee School of Journalism that employ many lecturers who have teaching responsibilities at Iowa State alongside independent professional careers. He stated these faculty members are very important because of the high standards of professionalism and skill of instruction maintained at Iowa State.

“I think it is ignoring the key differences that exist between colleges that basically makes up the fabric of our ability to provide high quality instruction for the students,” Owen said.

In other words, many colleges depend on classes taught by non-tenure eligible faculty because they need experienced professionals.

Owen said there won’t be major changes and people should not be too concerned. Instead, this is an exercise to examine each college and promote discussion between deans and faculty.

“What we are wanting to do is to engage the faculty with administration both at the department level and the college level as to what the university should look like,” Owen said.

The senate will be casting the final vote on the amendment to the faculty handbook to renaming academic units. The amendment did not meet much resistance when it was proposed at the last meeting. It is mainly meant to streamline the process of renaming units after it was moved by a previous amendment.

The senate will also be addressing a new amendment to the faculty handbook regarding “Abandonment of Post.” Owen summarized the policy saying, “Faculty can be dismissed from their post that they were working on explicitly defining the repercussions when faculty members do not fulfill their duties.”

The meeting will take place 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union