Faculty members are now being chosen for the fifth annual Faculty Conference to be held in Grinnell.

The conference is scheduled for Friday, Mar. 21, and the morning of Saturday, Mar. 22. The delegates of the conference will discuss the future of promotion and tenure at ISU.

Denise Vrchota, chair of the committee organizing the conference, said it is a good opportunity for faculty.

“Faculty will have a good chance to get together and express their ideas on the issue,” Vrchota said.

There are several goals that the conference members wish to achieve.

The first is to examine the relevance of an accountability system for professional growth and development. They also want to create intense awareness of possible revisions to the basic ISU promotion and tenure document.

They will try to discuss the potential impact on department and college promotion and tenure criteria and procedures, as well as the impact on the overall accountability by the institution, the department and the individual after tenure has been given.

On a broader scale, they would like to discuss issues that are related to tenure.

Members of the conference will provide ideas and guidance to the members of the Committee to Review ISU Promotion and Tenure Criteria and Procedures.

During the conference, members will be divided into seven small groups, each with a specific function. The issues discussed at the conference will hopefully become a vehicle for discussion within departments.

The conference members are chosen either by nominating themselves or having a department chair nominate them.

Jane Henning, of the Faculty Conference, said, “Participation for the conference has been growing over the past and we may have to limit the number of participants.”

Vrchota said it is important that various members of the faculty are chosen.

“We want representation from throughout the ranks, from assistant professors to full professors,” she said. “We would like to have someone from every academic department and to have a good gender mix and representation from the different cultural groups.”

Dr. Richard Chait, professor of higher education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has been chosen to be the speaker at the conference.

“Dr. Chait was chosen because of an article he wrote on promotion and tenure recently. He is a good speaker and an expert on the subject,” Vrchota said.

Nominations for conference delegates should be sent to Jane Henning, 204 Lab of Mechanics, by Friday, Feb. 7. Each nomination should include a brief statement on how the nominee would contribute to the conference discussions.