Institutional Development Committee

Minutes for September 14, 2004

Present:  B. Butler, D. Pierce, I. Rossell
Guests:   L. Cornett

The first item of discussion was the Global Issues concentration that Linda Cornett has proposed for the Interdisciplinary Studies (IST) Program. Dr. Rossell reviewed the status of her proposal. IDC met with Dr. Cornett twice during the last academic year.

Dr. Cornett first presented her proposal to IDC on December 2, 2003. The proposed curriculum relied primarily on courses already offered in a number of departments across campus. In addition, three new courses (prefix INTS) were proposed, each carrying 1-2 credits. Dr. Cornett said that responsibility for these courses would fall upon the Director of International Studies to teach herself or to find others to teach them. Because the proposed curriculum drew upon courses in many departments across campus, the committee asked Dr. Cornett to submit written statements from the chair of each department that would be impacted by the proposed major.

Dr. Cornett met with IDC again on April 22, 2004, and submitted letters of support from eight department chairs (Economics, Mass Communication, Philosophy, Foreign Languages, Political Science, Sociology, Management and Accountancy, and History). All of the chairs responded favorably to the proposed concentration, and indicated that their departments would be able to accommodate the projected increased enrollments in their courses. The Chair of Political Science noted concern about possible conflicts of interest if adjuncts were hired to teach Global Issues courses without departmental approval. IDC then asked Dr. Cornett to provide a detailed budget for the proposed concentration.

At today's meeting, Dr. Cornett discussed her 2003-2004 expenditures for International Studies (total $2500). She spent approximately $2500, primarily for travel costs, honoraria for speakers, and printing costs. She would like to request an additional $2000 each year to support curricular development in area studies for the proposed concentration. Dr. Cornett receives 3 hours of course release per year to support her role as Director of International Studies, and has no secretarial support.

Dr. Rossell thanked Dr. Cornett for her proposal. After she left the meeting, the IDC members discussed her proposal. Their consensus was that Dr. Cornett's proposal should be forwarded to APC. Her proposal has received demonstrated support from across campus, and is worthy of further review. However, IDC had the following concerns to bring to the attention of APC and the Faculty Senate:

• At today's meeting, Dr. Cornett mentioned that the three new 1-2 credit INTS courses described in her original proposal may be changed to 3-credit hour courses in the next draft proposal. This concerns IDC, as it seems likely that at least some faculty volunteering to teach 3-credit INTS courses would seek release from teaching obligations within their departments, perhaps necessitating their chairs to request adjunct instructors to cover departmental needs. The resource implications are that this could increase the university-wide demand for adjunct positions, which have been limited in recent years.
   
• Dr. Cornett presently receives no secretarial support. If the proposed concentration is approved, and becomes popular with students, her need for secretarial assistance will increase.
   
• Last spring, Dr. Padilla and IDC agreed that the Interdisciplinary Studies Program (IST) should be reviewed, with a task force looking at the role of this program at UNCA, particularly in light of the new ILS. This review was proposed to take place in Fall 2004, concurrent with IDC reviewing Dr. Cornett's proposal. IDC is concerned about adding another concentration to IST when several bodies at this university have agreed that the program needs to be reviewed.

Dr. Rossell informed the committee that Dr. Tracy Brown has resigned from the Senate for health reasons, and will no longer be serving on IDC or co-chairing the task force on enrollment growth. The Executive Committee has moved Dr. Bruce Larson from FWDC to IDC so the committee will have a member from the social sciences. The Senate alternate who replaces Dr. Brown will serve on FWDC.

The next agenda item was the Enrollment Growth task force. The first meeting of the task force will be held on September 23. The committee reviewed the proposed membership, which Dr. Rossell discussed with the Executive Committee last week. Dr. Rossell and Dr. Bruce Larson will co-chair the task force. The 16 members of the task force will be:

Irene Rossell - IDC, Environmental Studies
Bruce Larson - IDC, Economics
Brian Butler - IDC, Philosophy
Dan Pierce - IDC, History
Peg Downes - Literature and Language
Chris Bell - Economics
Keith Bramlett - Sociology
Dee Eggers - Environmental Studies
Mark Padilla - Provost
Archer Gravely - Institutional Research Director
Scot Schaeffer - Admissions Director
Dwight Mullen - Diversity/Multicultural Affairs representative
John Bucher - Student Affairs representative
Leanna Preston - CSAC representative
Porscha Yount - SGA representative
Chancellor's appointee - to be determined

The committee agreed that the location of IDC minutes should be changed. At the present time, minutes from IDC and UPC meetings are posted on the Institutional Research web page, because Dr. Archer Gravely used to keep and post minutes. He has continued to post IDC minutes as a courtesy. The committee thought that IDC minutes should be posted on the Senate web page, as IDC is a Senate committee. Dr. Rossell will ask Sandra Gravely to post this year's minutes, with a link to the Institutional Research web page for minutes from previous years.