The Faculty Senate heard the readings of various bills when it met in the Memorial Union Tuesday. Senior Vice President and Provost Jason Keith, Senate President Rahul Parsa and other members of the executive team also gave reports.
Old business
The Senate unanimously passed the second reading of a department name change. According to the bill, the Department of Community and Regional Planning would be renamed to the Department of Urban Planning and Development.
According to previous reporting from the Daily, the Board of Regents proposed the name change, citing that “our department was last named during the 1970s and the current name reflects the nomenclature of planning from that time.”
The Faculty Senate also unanimously passed the first reading of a bill intended to change the Senate’s Faculty Compensation Committee (FCC) bylaws.
“It has become apparent that the current composition of FCC […] is not consistent with the Faculty Senate by-laws,” according to the bill. “In addition, the major increase in the number of Term Faculty over the past decade, which have substantially different compensation policies and issues than tenure-track and tenured faculty, requires this important group to have a voice on the FCC.”
The Senate also unanimously approved a change to Senate bylaws to remove a section on diversity, equity and inclusion in compliance with state law. The Senate passed bills that describe Iowa State’s administrative structure and made changes to the faculty handbook to comply with Senate File 2435.
The Senate also heard a reading of a bill that would alter wording of salary policies and procedures. Eventually, a motion was made to send the bill back to committee over concerns about the verbiage of the bill regarding “retention.” Some of the bill’s changes are listed below:
- New section 4.1.3: Other Salary Increases describes the other types of salary increases beyond performance-based, meritorious adjustments, for example market, parity, retention, etc.
- New section 4.1.4: Salary Assessment documents a new process by which faculty can request a review of their salary.
- New section 4.1.5: Definitions provides standard institutional definitions of terminology used in the discussion of faculty salaries.
New business
The Faculty Senate heard the first reading of multiple bills that would bring new undergraduate minors to the university.
The first two, an art minor and an art history minor, are needed due to student interest, according to Sen. Jennifer Schieltz, natural resource ecology and management.
“These are both coming from the College of Design, from the Department of Art and Visual Culture,” Sen. Schieltz said. “They’re in response to student interest, especially from students who want to explore these topics without taking the full measure.”
The Senate also heard the first reading of a new paleontology minor.
“This addresses a cap in our offerings,” Schieltz said. “We currently have no programs in paleontology, despite strong student interest in the topic.”
A new photography minor may also come to campus under a proposal.
“This program will be a collaboration between the Department of Art and Visual Culture and the Greenlee School of Journalism,” Schieltz said.
A name change of specialization for a Master’s of Education may also occur.
“The current specialization named curriculum and instructional technology is dated, and so this will change it to education technology, which better captures what the program does,” Schieltz said.
The Senate also heard the first reading of a potential bachelor’s in fine arts and illustration. According to Schieltz, the program has been two years in the making and was flagged by the recruitment team as an area of growing interest.
“Illustration can also provide entertainment that inspires empathy and engages our imaginations through vivid imagery of both the possible and the impossible,” according to the proposal. “Whether working in collaborative groups or self-employed, illustrators are unique visionaries, working for clients to conceptualize and express ideas captured in imagery and visual representation.”
The Senate also heard a bill that would make a “minor” change to the designated repeat policy.
“This comes from the registrar as part of Workday implementation,” Schieltz said. “It clarifies that for designated repeat courses, when a student is retaking a course to replace the grade, if the course number or number of credits has changed since the first time a student took [the course], it must be approved by the department of the proposed replacement course.”
The Senate also took up a bill on the incomplete policy. Currently, when a student has an incomplete at the end of a semester and then eventually gets a grade, there’s an asterisk on their transcript that notes that.
“And so this change would state that resolving an incomplete will no longer leave a notation on a student’s transcript that this was originally an incomplete,” Schieltz said. “Once a grade is assigned, only the grade will appear.”
The Senate also took up discussion on the change to the process of concurrent degrees. After discussion, the Senate unanimously voted to advance the bill.
“This proposal would eliminate the requirement for Faculty Senate approval of concurrent degrees,” Schieltz said. “The Academic Affairs Council and the Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee feels that this extra approval step is an unnecessary administrative burden for the Faculty Senate to review every possible combination of bachelor’s and master’s degrees.”
The Senate also heard the first reading and waived the second reading of a proposal to change the Department of Kinesiology to the Department of Kinesiology and Health. The rationale, according to Schieltz, is because “kinesiology and exercise science related programs in many of ISU’s peer universities have incorporated health into their department or program names.”
Senior Vice President and Provost Jason Keith, Senate President Rahul Parsa and other members of the executive team also gave reports, detailing the actions at the Iowa State House and past month’s actions.
