A heated discussion about recommended changes to a faculty leave program ensued at the Faculty Senate meeting Tuesday.

The program, the Faculty Professional Development Assignment Program, allows faculty to take a leave of absence in order to work on research.

Sedahlia Crase, chairwoman of the Faculty Development and Administrative Relations Council, presented the senate with recommended changes to the program.

The policy regarding leave for untenured, tenure-track and non-tenure-eligible faculty states “all members of the faculty employed half-time or more are eligible to apply for a faculty professional development assignment.”

The recommended changes would allow only tenured faculty who have been at Iowa State for at least two years to be eligible for the program.

“I think this proposal sends the wrong message to junior faculty,” said Margaret Mook, associate professor of foreign languages and literatures. As Iowa State has lost tenured faculty, junior faculty have had more responsibility, and they deserve the same rights as tenured faculty, Mook said.

Carla Fehr, assistant professor of philosophy, said she would not have been able to take her job had she not been given leave.

Associate Provost Susan Carlson said she knows of two tenured faculty members who left Iowa State because they did not receive leave. She said she thinks junior faculty members are treated well at Iowa State.

Carlson said the recommendations were meant to redesign the policy for tenured faculty.

Crase said she would like to see junior and tenured faculty put in two separate groups that would allow each to apply for a different type of program.

The motion to vote on the changes was postponed to the April 26 meeting to allow more time for discussion.

Also at the meeting, Jim Davis, chief information officer, spoke to the senate about upcoming technology changes and recommendations.

Davis said the campus needs one information technology system to alleviate having to guess where problems come from.

There was an information technology study done in December about what improvements could be made at Iowa State, Davis said. He said the goal is to consolidate the central information technology providers into one unit by July 1.