Instructional Support Committee

Attending: David Romano, Erin Hurley, Cecilia Knight, Bill Francis, Jon Chenette, Roger Vetter, Monty Roper, Richard Fyffe, Shuchi Kapila, Ian Athanasakis (STAC), John Kalkbrenner, Terri Phipps

Minutes of 27 February approved.

Fast track approvals:

• SIGCSE Symposium on Computer Science Education workshop fee $180
• ART: Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago field trip (March 1) $895
• ART: field trip to Iowa City “Throwing Open House” (April 2) $130

CTS Search Update: Kurtis Scaletta has verbally accepted the position. Projected start date is May 5.

Scaletta is a generalist but is most qualified to help with needs of Social Studies faculty. This raises concerns about how to serve the needs of the Art department, whose members have become heavily reliant on digital images, image editing software, and video for teaching. Discussions are underway to address these concerns, including plans to train students and an Academic Support Assistant in the Bucksbaum office, increase Blue Team training, and update classroom interfaces where needed. There are still plans to seek approval in coming budget cycles to hire a fourth CTS.

Curricular Development proposal (PHI/PHY): Plan to teach in spring 2010. Our guidelines state a maximum of $3000 per project per person for a course to be taught in the next academic year. Faculty involved in this project have requested more than this amount and do not plan to teach the course next year. Suggest that the faculty members explore funding from other sources.

Concerns:

• Materials gathered cannot or will not become part of library holdings.
• Who pays for purchases and maintenance of equipment? How much will this add to the budget?
• How will simulations be created?
• Do the anticipated frequency of offering the course and the course’s innovative character justify the investment?

ISC has already invested a great deal in this course and would like to meet with the faculty members in conjunction with approval of additional funding. Faculty members should be prepared to discuss the outcome of what has been done already as well as what remains to be done. ISC would like to know the scope of the project. Faculty members will be invited to an April meeting.

Funding approved up to $3000 each for this request.

Guideline revision: ISC supports $3000 per person per academic year for expenses involved with preparing an EKI-related course that won’t be taught in the next academic year. This change does not affect the summer stipend, which does require the course to be offered the next academic year. Projects that span more than one year will require a progress report and plan at each phase of the project before funding will be approved.

Open Office: discussion tabled due to lack of time.

Macy HouseSeminar room (103): A request has been made to schedule a class in this seminar room next semester. The Centers have requested a one-year waiting period before opening this space for regularly scheduled classes in order to gauge traffic and usage patterns. This room facilitates formal and informal conversation among the Centers and between building occupants and students.

ISC supports the Centers’ request to disallow regular scheduling of classes in MACY 103 for one year. No classes will be held in this room with the exception of those offered by visiting faculty members associated with the Centers.

Respectfully submitted,
Terri Phipps