Instructional Support Committee

Attending: Anatoly Vishevsky, Jon Chenette, Cecilia Knight, Chris Johnston (SGA), Richard Fyffe, John Kalkbrenner, Bill Francis, John Whittaker, Dan Reynolds, Keri Kornelson, Terri Phipps

Minutes of 4 October approved.

Fast Track approvals:
JPN 195 field trip: "Flags of Our Fathers" movie ($185)
JPN 101, 221, 331, 397 field trip: Iowa City restaurant and grocery ($700)

ARH/Carnegie classroom furniture: Wide support from faculty in the Humanities and Social Studies divisions to update furniture in these classrooms.

Questions/Comments:

• Is it possible to include a few non-tablet chairs in tablet-chair rooms?
• How durable are the chairs? (Will they stand up to fidgety users, etc.)?
• It is important to keep variety of several types of rooms to accommodate different pedagogies.

Software Applications Specialist: 21 applications received so far. Keri and Cecilia will participate in interviews. ITS hopes to bring a candidate to campus within a week.

Copyright Taskforce update: A subcommittee has been formed to draft the copyright policy. Members are Dan Reynolds, Sam Rebelsky, Richard Fyffe, and Jon Chenette. Their task is to develop a draft copyright policy for refinement by the Copyright Taskforce and then discussion at a faculty meeting. The goal is to complete this policy by the end of this academic year.

S&B article: There is fear among the students that their out-of-pocket expenses would increase dramatically with a new copyright policy. The College will work to keep costs down as much as possible. The copyright subcommittee will research and address issues of fair use, exceptions, local authors, and infrastructure (including Academic Support and the e-reserve system).

Burling Reference Area reconfiguration: The current configuration no longer meets the needs of the campus. Based on a plan developed by the Libraries two years ago, reconfiguration might include:

• Moving computers to the northeast alcove by exit doors
• Reducing the size of reference desk to allow seated conversations. Move the desk near computer alcove.
  • Moving the computers and reference desk would make use of natural light, give users a view of green space, allow more activity to be seen from outside.
  • This move could create a visual link with the CCL through lighting and furniture design.
• Installing "soft seating" area in current reference desk location, including comfortable chairs and an email/quick reference station.
• Adding tables and chairs to current computer space to allow more study space as well as space for evening events (readings, etc).
• The current reference collection may be too large. Some volumes will move to the Science Library in the spring. The remainder will be reviewed for transfer to the general collections.
• Additional lighting marking off the reference area and signage directing users to specific areas would be needed.
• Looking into feasibility of switching Entrance and Exit doors.
• Current staff offices would remain in current location, though doors may be moved.
• Computer spaces on 2nd and 3rd floors will remain.

Comments and feedback are welcome.

Suggestions from ISC:

• More space for displaying new acquisitions, possibly in soft-seating area.
• Teaching and student spaces need to be maintained. These are especially beneficial for Tutorials.
• Have one or more librarians meet with SGA to discuss goals of the library.
  
  There is currently no clear timeline for building a new library, but the project seems likely to take place no sooner than ten years from now. In the meantime, there are difficult decisions to be made, including substitution of electronic for print media and transfer of some printed material to off-site storage.

The next step in planning the reference area reconfiguration is to meet with a designer for a cost estimate. This estimate will be forwarded to President Osgood for consideration.

Teaching Colloquia: The colloquia are typically one-time meetings for one hour with one member from each division on a panel. It is questionable how much benefit would be derived from reviving them. It could be useful especially for new faculty. There are now discussion groups in Science (STaLG), languages (CFFLS), and an Early Career Faculty Group that fill the need previously met by the colloquia. There is also much more cross-discipline discussion and collaboration than there used to be.

ISC will advertise the availability of funding for colloquia and will support specific colloquia when ideas emerge but advises the Dean's office not to seek to offer colloquia on a regular basis.

Creative Computing Lab:

• Three Faculty Friday Happy Hours are currently planned. Topics include GIS, Digital Images, and Digital Video.
• Current hours for the Lab are 10 am. to 6 p.m. These hours are not ideal for students. The Lab is open on Sunday evenings. Jon and Bill continue to seek funding to hire staff to keep the CCL open more in evenings.

ISC has received proposals for exhibitions and presentations that may be appropriate for the Lab. While the exhibits may not directly benefit a specific class, they could potentially have wide-spread appeal. ISC supports the proposals to use the space, and will discuss partial funding at the next meeting.

Respectfully submitted,
Terri Phipps