Inside Iowa State

August 26, 2005

Introducing

Dan Woodin, 2005-06 president, Professional and Scientific Council

Position at ISU: Team leader, IT Services, with oversight for internal systems, ISU Policy Library and education courses for clients and staff

Arrived at ISU: May 1, 1977

Previous service on the P&S Council: Council member 1989-96 (two terms as council president 1992-94, executive committee member 1990-96); council member 2001-present (executive committee member 2002-present)

Council's top goals this year: The council committees have 43 priority items they'll work on this year, as set at the council's June meeting. The top 5 on the list are:

• Follow up on recommendations for university-wide employee training and development initiatives in a May report by the council's compensation and benefits committee.
• Request a comprehensive, external study of P&S compensation at Iowa State. (A small subset of this is getting a count of P&S supervisors who earn less than the employees they supervise and the cost to correct it when appropriate.)
• Help develop a proposal for an ombuds office that serves all in the ISU community.
• Investigate options for an overdue survey of P&S staff, including combining it with other survey needs on campus.
• Investigate possibilities for eliminating or reducing mandatory student fees for P&S employees taking classes at Iowa State.

What issue has the potential to be the most important you'll deal with as a council this year?

"I helped write a Position Information Questionnaire for an ombudsperson in 1991-92, so that's been in the works for a long, long time. The iron is hot right now and that's exciting." As chairman of the P&S professional development committee, Woodin also is excited about the renewed interest -- and administrative commitment -- to training and development, with an eye on retaining employees.

Thoughts on the year ahead: "(Past council president) Kevin Kane brought the council to a level of thinking university-wide on many issues, not just, 'What's good for my department?' or 'What's good for my classification group?' It's important to keep that perspective and to be out in front on studying issues. It benefits everybody. The whole idea is to create a great place to work and learn."

Dan Woodin. Photo by Bob Elbert.

"I helped write a Position Information Questionnaire for an ombudsperson in 1991-92, so that's been in the works for a long, long time. The iron is hot right now and that's exciting."

Dan Woodin