A new member of Iowa State made his appearance at the Faculty Senate meeting Tuesday afternoon.

The new university registrar, Mark Simpson, made his first appearance to introduce himself to the Senators of the Faculty Senate after six months of working on campus. “This is an amazing, amazing campus and I’m excited to be a part of this,” Simpson said.

With nearly 25 years of experience working in higher education, Simpson is ready to work for the university. He plans to focus on the strategic enrollment process planning, transfer pathways for students transferring both to and from Iowa State and the upgrade to WorkDay.

President of Faculty Senate, Peter Martin, welcomed Simpson once again to Iowa State and quickly moved focus to the ever-present concern of faculty climate.

Martin recapped on what has already occurred regarding faculty climate and experience in the semester thus far. This includes the two forums held by the faculty climate workgroup back on Oct. 17 and Nov. 1. The forums focused on six key faculty experience items, including departmental initiatives, faculty work life initiatives, faculty awareness initiatives, teaching initiatives, university initiatives and community initiatives. Within these items, there were three areas that stood out from the forums: faculty salary and compensation, addressing hostility and behaviors, and addressing diversity.

The climate workgroup will have a meeting later this month to address these issues and plan to finalize three action items to present to Iowa State’s president, Wendy Wintersteen, by the end of the semester.

“Faculty climate is about inclusion. It is about sensitivity to diverse cultural perspectives. In the end, we must promote an environment that makes faculty and professional staff want to come to campus and to look forward to the day ahead,” Martin said.

Next on the agenda was Ann Marie VanDerZanden from the Senior Vice President and Provost Office. VanDerZanden touched on the upcoming board meeting in Cedar Falls, Iowa, next week. She spoke of the “final approval of splitting the College of Business’s SCIS department into separate departments, the department of supply chain management and the department of information systems and business analytics.” This is planned to be approved at the board meeting.

Also at the meeting, the various stages of building and construction on campus will be addressed. According to VanDerZanden, there will be four projects addresses. A $7 million project for building out the fifth floor of the Advanced Teaching and Research Building to accommodate the nanovaccine institute, $4.5 million is funded by private giving and $2.5 will be funded by Iowa State. A $5.7 million consolidations to the poultry farm and research facility funded by private giving. $3.2 million given for renovations on Helser Hall. And a $90 million sports performance center improvements to Jack Trice Stadium funded by private giving and athletics, VanDerZanden said.

Next, the proposed feed technology minor was approved by Faculty Senate. There was no opposition to the minor as there are no similar programs in the state of Iowa. This minor will allow for students to obtain a greater understanding of one of the largest and most influential industries in Iowa and the Midwest.

Finally, new business that will be discussed at the next Faculty Senate meeting, Dec. 11, including a name change to the Masters of Arts in graphic design with a specialization in environmental graphic design to a Master of Arts in experiential graphic design. It will also include a proposal for a masters program in event management, a discontinuation of the technology and social change undergraduate and graduate minor, and catalog changes to the summer option at Iowa State.