Five questions with the senate's administrator

Patrick Determan is at every Faculty Senate meeting, greeting senators, making sure everyone has their nameplate and running PowerPoints for presenters. But that's a small piece of the support he provides the senate. He sat down with Inside to explain all that goes into his job, which he began in August.

What are your main responsibilities?

As the Faculty Senate office administrator, I support the business operations and administration of the senate. Faculty Senate includes an executive board and five councils, and under the councils are 18 committees. The committees are responsible for a wide range of things as proposals come up from the departments and work their way through the system. I support all of them through scheduling, recordkeeping, liaising between these groups and the rest of campus and making sure the administrative functions of the senate operate as smoothly as possible.

Why did this position appeal to you?

Previously, I was a graduate student services specialist in the School of Education for just shy of four years. I worked to support graduate students and faculty through recruitment, admission and program-specific things. For the three years before that I was an academic advisor in the software engineering program and helped coordinate the first-year learning community.

This position allows me to work more closely with faculty, so it's an opportunity to see another slice of the pie that makes up the university. I really enjoy processes and knowing how things work. I want to know how ideas move through all the mechanisms at the university, for example, to have a new major or a change in policy. This position was an exciting opportunity to be part of those processes and support shared governance at ISU.

You succeed the retired Sherri Angstrom, who held the position for more than 30 years. How has the transition gone?

It's been drinking from a fire hose, but I knew that coming in. I am fortunate to have stepped into this position after Sherri. She left me a very solid foundation to jump off of and start to put my own spin on things.

There are governance documents that structure how things are done and there's a process for everything, but we know that there are lots of things that aren’t written down. There is a constitution supplemented by the bylaws, then a procedures manual, for how we carry out processes. So in my role, I am taking a holistic look at the documents and procedures and learning how the senate works.

Do you think there's a misconception about the Faculty Senate?

Someone seeing a Faculty Senate meeting for the first time might think it's stuffy because they see a docket item, discussion, a motion, a vote and on down the list. What you are not seeing is all the committees, departments, meetings and the back-and-forth leading up to the vote. It's all being done in the best interest of Iowa State, and I think it's cool that you have faculty from different disciplines working together and everyone gets to have a say. When something reaches the full senate, it's the result of a lot of collaboration and hard work.

What do you enjoy when you're not dealing with senate business?

I am a big theater person and am involved in community theater in Ames. I also am a big sci-fi person and am currently working through my quest to consume all Star Trek (series and movies). It's a multiyear process and I have a large spreadsheet. I am somewhere in the mid- to late-90s at this point.