Instructional Support Committee

Attending: Cecilia Knight, Keri Kornelson, Kara Lycke, Dan Reynolds, Anatoly Vishevsky, Jon Chenette, Bill Francis

Minutes of 28 February approved with two changes of "language tables" to "language houses."

Fast track approval reported to committee

• Feng HUM/SST 295: Food, Identity, Culture, Power field trip for a meal at Chuong Garden
  for twenty-one students and two instructors (Andelson has been a collaborator) $ 253

Guidelines for EKI-related curricular development
We discussed the final form of the EKI-related course development stipend guidelines, approved by ISC via email on March 5. The question came up as to whether people on sabbatical next year might apply for one of the $3,000 summer stipends for a curricular development project. In other words, if someone does not have a fully funded year-long sabbatical but intends to be on leave for the full year, could that person apply for a $3,000 interdisciplinary curricular development stipend to support work during the sabbatical year that would lead to a course offered the year after the sabbatical? Jon will talk to Marci about this possibility.

We examined a multi-year interdisciplinary curricular development project being developed by a philosophy and a physics professor for a new course on the history and philosophy of science. In light of the new guidelines, and pending consultation with the EKI Advisory Board, we decided to provide up to $4,500 per person for summer travel related to interdisciplinary curricular development in a combination of summer stipends and expanded travel funds. A faculty member could apply, for instance, for a $3,000 stipend and $1,500 in travel funds or for $4,500 in travel funds. We decided that lodging and food (living expense) allowances should match CSFS summer travel guidelines: $490 per week for up to 12 weeks. Jon will send an email to the Committee with several examples of how these guidelines might work out for particular curricular development projects to see whether they look reasonable to the Committee.

Science collection move
Science departments have approved plans for which portions of the collection will move from Burling to Science or to off-site storage. Sixty-four runs of journals are going to off-site storage. One is being withdrawn from the collection. Two hundred forty-four will move to Science, consisting of 10,000 volumes from the third floor of Burling and 13,000 from the fourth floor. Sixty thousand books will also move.

Discussion
The question arose of how the College might fund course-related travel that goes beyond the usual ISC field trip guidelines, which are restricted to day trips. Ambitious course-related travel, such as an international trip over spring break, presents budgetary management issues because of the substantial one-time cost. With sufficient planning and coordination, it might be possible to alternate such travel with tours of music ensembles or faculty travel seminars to yield a relatively stable budget total from year to year.

Respectfully submitted,
Terri Phipps