Inside Iowa State

Oct. 10, 2008

Senators tackle policies

by Erin Rosacker

Policies were the order of the day at the Oct. 7 Faculty Senate meeting.

ISU administrators updated senators on the report requested by the state Board of Regents on ISU's sexual assault response policy.

"We believe we have a good policy here at Iowa State," said Susan Carlson, associate provost. "However, sexual assault is a very serious issue and it's always appropriate to review the policy and make sure we have the right policy for this moment."

University counsel Paul Tanaka said the regents' December deadline is short and will make it tougher to gather campus input. This month, ISU representatives will meet with the regents' state Department of Justice consultant to develop an early draft of guiding principles.

"This process is being driven by the regents and political leadership of the state who made it clear that they want quick action taken on this matter," Tanaka said. "We will be involving constituent groups as we can through this process, but it is rather compressed."

He said the consultant likely will advise against one policy governing all three regent universities.

"Our policies need to reflect our culture and the way we operate here," he said. "We do not expect there is going to be a uniform policy imposed on all campuses, but there will be these guiding principles which we will need to show that we have done."

New policies considered

A pair of policy drafts sailed through the senate as part of the consent agenda. Both the Authority to Hire Employees policy and the Smoke-Free Campus policy were approved with unanimous consent. Those draft policies are in the ISU Policy Library.

Senators had their first look at the Employment Verification and Background Checks draft policy and will vote on it at their Nov. 4 meeting. The senate's governance council recommended removing postdocs from the list of hires requiring background checks.

New degree program approved

Senators unanimously approved a graduate program in wildlife ecology that consolidates the wildlife biology and animal ecology programs. The move reflects departmental mergers into one natural resource ecology and management department. Master of science and doctoral degrees will be offered. No new courses will be created and no current courses will be dropped.

Committee resurrection

President-elect Arnold van der Valk announced the reinstatement of the faculty welfare and benefits committee, newly named the faculty compensation committee. He said the group will look into faculty compen-sation (especially non-tenure eligible faculty) and policies and procedures that determine compensation.

He also said that sustainability and "the greening of ISU" will be the topic of the spring faculty conference. Recommendations for topics and speakers are being sought.

"We do not expect there is going to be a uniform policy imposed on all campuses, but there will be these guiding principles which we will need to show that we have done."

Paul Tanaka