Senators to vote on proposed term faculty changes in Faculty Handbook

The Faculty Senate will vote at its April 28 meeting on two proposed changes in the Faculty Handbook to term faculty advancement standards and the review process.

Advancement content

The section on review for advancement would add guidance for term faculty advancing from associate to full professor. There is no specific timetable, but the term faculty member must prove sustained excellence beyond the efforts that advanced them from assistant to associate professor. In addition, the section on documentation for advancement review adds standards based on a position responsibility statement (PRS) and the term track. The proposed changes are similar to the section on tenure-track faculty promotion and tenure. Proposed details on how faculty would be evaluated for advancement in different tracks would include teaching, research, extension, outreach and more.

Several senators voiced concerns about how term faculty could document some of the evaluation criteria, proposed examples to be included in the handbook and wording of the proposed changes. Senators were asked to propose amendments for a vote at the next meeting.

Unsatisfactory reviews

Another proposed change for term faculty in the handbook would add detail to expectations when a term faculty member receives an unsatisfactory review. A single unsatisfactory review triggers an action plan, aligning it with tenured and tenure-track faculty. A second unsatisfactory annual review automatically triggers a peer review, which involves  discipline experts who consider performance quality in areas outlined in the faculty member's PRS. 

Term faculty at the associate or professor rank must have a peer review at least every seven years. Results of the review must be reported to the department chair.

President Cook at the senate

As he had done with the Professional and Scientific Council, student government and others, President David Cook brought his Listen. Learn. Lead. initiative to the senate meeting.

Assisted by a live polling app, Cook presented questions to senators that focused on university aspirations and internal barriers to those goals. Answers came back in real time on a room screen, and Cook also invited senators to elaborate on an idea or answer. Senators' answers focused on the desire for more tenure-track faculty, allowing time for research and more effectively sharing messages about ISU's impact at the state and national levels.

Workday Student help

Geoff Janes, office of student information director, spoke to the senate about opportunities that help faculty navigate Workday Student, the cloud-based information system that replaced legacy platforms to manage the entire student lifecycle.

An online form is available for faculty and staff to submit support requests. Janes said several changes have been made to streamline the request process.

"When Workday Student went live, we knew we didn’t do a great job of responding to requests in a timely manner," Janes said. "The form collects information that speeds up its routing to the right department so it's handled in a timely fashion."

Since March 2023, 22,480 support requests have been resolved and 12,650 improvement projects completed.

Faculty can access all Workday Student training specific to them in one place. Training is listed by role -- for example, advisors, graduate student support, faculty, administrators, etc. -- and also by training topics and graduate student-specific training.

The student information office communicates with faculty and staff through several channels including the WorkCyte Digest email and department chairs newsletter. A new faculty newsletter under development is set to begin by fall semester.

Election

Megan Myers (world languages and cultures) and Michael Bootsma (accounting) were re-elected as senate representatives to the athletics council for three-year terms.

Other business

The senate will vote at the next meeting on:

• Proposed wording changes to clarify the kind of faculty work that leads to the University Professor recognition. Over the past five years, the Distinguished and Morrill Professor awards have averaged nine-12 nominations per year while the University Professor award has averaged four. There would be no change to the criteria of the award. The changes include stating that a faculty member's service to ISU "resulted in a significant and lasting impact that has made the university a better place for students, faculty, and/or staff."
• A proposed change to the course catalog that would allow a student to earn another degree of the same type from the same college when their desired major is not offered as an additional major. The student must complete at least 30 extra credits beyond the requirement for their other degree. Currently, 24 degrees are impacted. For example, a student pursuing a B.S. in kinesiology is not allowed to pursue a bachelor in elementary education because it's from the same college and is of the same type. Elementary education is not available as an additional major.
• A proposed interdisciplinary undergraduate 21-credit certificate in quantitative finance, providing students skills to use mathematical models in financial fields. Students would focus on training in finance, mathematical modeling and statistics.
• A proposed discontinuation of the interdisciplinary graduate studies master of science and arts in the Graduate College because of low enrollment. It is one of 10 programs identified for closure through ISU's Program Vitality Review. Only three degrees have been conferred since 2021.

Senators approved:

• An undergraduate minor in vehicle systems engineering -- a field that needs more experts across the nation -- in the agricultural and biosystems engineering department. The 15-credit minor educates students on the off-highway and on-road vehicle industries, ranging from agricultural tractors to autonomous passenger vehicles.
• A 12-credit graduate certificate in art for students not interested or ready to pursue a fine arts master's degree but who want a studio art offering. It provides students (who must have an undergraduate degree in any field) a chance to practice and build skills and enhance their portfolio if they decide to pursue a master's degree.
• Graduate specializations (3) of entrepreneurial leadership in dietetics, medical nutrition therapy and general dietetics within the online master of professional practice in dietetics degree. Iowa State's program is one of the first to have a focus area in entrepreneurial leadership, and medical nutrition therapy is the largest practice area in dietetics.