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Minutes of August 31, 2005
Noon
Faculty House
Attending: Katya
Gibel Azoulay, Kara Lycke, Mark Schneider, Jen Green, Margarita Pillado,
Anatoly Vishevsky, John Kalkbrenner, Christopher McKee, Bill Francis,
Jon Chenette, Justin Abramson (SGA), Terri Phipps
The Committee will
meet at noon Wednesdays every other week beginning September 7.
Committee members
introduced themselves to start the meeting, after which Mark outlined
the background, makeup, and purpose of the committee. Initially, responsibilities
of the Academic Computing Committee, the Library and Bookstore Committee,
and faculty development were folded under the Instructional Support
Committee duties. Over time, lines between these areas and areas outside
of these responsibilities have become blurred, leading each year's committee
with the difficult task of deciding what was in their purview, how they
should allocate their funds, where they should focus their discussion,
and how to balance their responsibilities.
Given this difficulty,
Mark has proposed to draft a handbook for future committee members.
The hope is that having a written protocol will help guide the decision-making
process without tying the hands of the committee.
Mark reviewed the
Fast Track process, by which he and Jon meet outside of ISC time to
discuss proposals under $1000. If the proposals raise no concerns, Jon
and Mark approve them and inform the committee at its next meeting.
Two proposals (STaLG $792, and the Political Economy Reading Group $500)
have been approved.
Other proposals:
CFFLS: Requested $1450. Approved
Junior Faculty Brown Bag: Requested $1080. Approved
Current curricular development guidelines state that up to $6 per person
is allowed for teaching and learning discussion groups. As a comparison,
Dining Service box lunches vary from $7-$9.00 each. Using this cost
structure as a guideline, the Committee approved raising the cost per
person for T&L Groups to the average box lunch cost, $8.00 per person
for the 2005-2006 year. This does not tie the groups to using college
catering services.
Jon/Terri will
send a note to the discussion groups informing them of the updated guidelines.
Discussion of
future agenda items:
Library Director search: Deadline is October 10. Margarita and
Bill are on the search committee. ISC will play a role in on-campus
interviews.
Burling Planning: Bill, Christopher, and Mark are on the planning
committee and will keep ISC informed of plans and progress. Current
focus is on renovating Burling first floor, specifically the reference
area, the addition of two group study rooms, and additional technology
resources.
Expanding Knowledge Initiative/Strategic Planning: Mark discussed
this with Marci Sortor. ISC will be involved in faculty development
decisions, especially interdisciplinary projects, so that funding is
consistent with ISC guidelines.
Copyright: The College's copyright statement posted on the Library
website is ten years old. Jon formed a group to update the copyright
policy. Drafts of the document will come to ISC for comment and will
go to faculty once complete. Bill Francis is the College's agent for
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. As an agent, Bill does
not search for copyright noncompliance, but if it is brought to his
attention there are mandated steps he must follow to correct this situation.
Having someone in this position indemnifies the college in certain legal
situations.
Technology Discover Center (TDC): The purpose of the TDC is to
support instruction-related projects. Although there has been a low
level of use since its inception, it was still a very useful experiment,
raising issues that will inform Burling renovation plans.
AV/Library merger: Administrative functions of the AV Center,
such as cataloging, tracking, item availability, etc, will gradually
be moved to Burling. Burling staff have the specialized knowledge and
technology to perform these functions, and it will be more efficient
to have the listings centralized. The AV Center will not close down.
Curricular Development
Guidelines
The Executive Council has agreed to a one-year trial period of funding
expenses rather than stipends for curricular development. If the stipend
structure is reinstated, they should be directed toward initiatives
set by the Executive Council.
Changes to guidelines:
Add "digital media" to computer hardware and software guidelines.
Increase meal cost per person to $8 for discussion groups.
Increase book cost to $60 per person for reading groups and weekend
seminars.
ISC endorses these
updated guidelines.
Respectfully submitted,
Terri Phipps
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