Inside Iowa State
Dec. 12, 1997
Veishea getting a retooling, Hill tells Faculty Senate
by Diana Pounds
Early Veisheas were aimed at student recruitment, but the "old idea of recruitment doesn't fit as well as it once did," Tom Hill told faculty senators.
The vice president for student affairs and Veishea co-chair Ben Dohrmann briefed the Faculty Senate on Veishea '98 plans during a Dec. 9 senate meeting.
Veishea as a student recruiting activity doesn't work as well as it once did because many high school students already have made their college decisions by the time the spring festival takes place, Hill said. ISU is retooling and updating Veishea to focus on the "ISU family," he said.
Dohrmann said the target audience for next year's Veishea is ISU students, faculty, staff and alumni and the Ames community.
"If we feel we own it -- that it's just for Iowa State -- it will really change the perception," he said.
Hill also told senators he has named three task forces -- on residence life, Greek life and off-campus life -- to explore key issues influencing the health, safety, personal growth and academic success of ISU students. Although not created specifically to deal with Veishea, the task forces will provide strategies to diminish alcohol problems and ensure a safe Veishea, Hill added.
Promotion and tenure
In other business, the senate discussed the portion of the proposed promotion and tenure policy that calls for a comprehensive peer review of tenured faculty every five years.
Olivia Madison, chair of the senate committee that created the promotion and tenure document, said the proposed process would allow for a flexible system of faculty review that's based on each individual's responsibilities.
She stressed that the focus of the five-year reviews would be developmental. The committee saw this as a way of promoting faculty development within a process that has a peer-review component, Madison said.
A few senators said they were concerned the comprehensive peer reviews would be very time-consuming with few tangible results.
"How is the peer committee going to motivate the DEO to do anything with this report?" Joe Hraba asked. He added, "Let's get something that gets DEOS to take this seriously."
Some senators indicated they believe that if the faculty doesn't come up with its own plans for review, others will do it.
The Faculty Senate will continue to review the proposed promotion and tenure policy. The senate is expected to decide at the March meeting whether to accept the proposal. If it's accepted, the proposal would go to the general faculty for a vote in March or April. If the general faculty approves the proposal, it goes to the State Board of Regents for approval.
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