Inside Iowa State
September 8, 2000
Budget is senate's No. 1 priority in coming year
by Linda Charles
Dave Hopper says the Faculty
Senate's No. 1 priority
during the coming year is the same as one of interim President
Richard Seagrave's top priorities: prevent another budget shortfall.
"The Faculty Senate is going to cooperate fully with the admini-stration and
the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, to try to address the budget issues,"
said Hopper, who became senate president last May.
"The most important thing is to communicate," he said, "to make sure that our legislators, the board of regents and people of Iowa are aware of what Iowa State does for them, the real bargain this institution is, and the continuing need to support it."
He noted that along with a general $8 million budget shortfall, salaries were under-funded this year, which meant that some of the funds had to come from the tuition revenue increase and internal reallocations. "This is something that we just cannot let go on from year to year," he said.
Hopper has set an "aggressive" agenda of 14 "to-do" items for the senate this coming year. "I'm optimistic that we will get a start on all 14, and hopeful that we can get the majority completed this year," he said.
Among issues the senate will address are:
- Faculty benefits. "Health care costs are a national issue," Hopper said, noting faculty and staff are looking at insurance premium increases in double digits. With the university contribution to benefits increasing by 4 percent (the same amount as the salary increase), "you don't have to be a mathematical genius to figure out the long-term consequences," Hopper said. "Soon faculty and staff will not be able to afford quality health care." He said he worries that benefits will have to be cut to keep costs in line. The senate will work with the administration to better manage benefits and see what can be done about increasing the universitys contribution for benefits this year.
- Scholarly communication and the library. Hopper said he is concerned about the dramatic increase in scholarly publication costs and subsequent reduction of journals. "This is the information age," he said, "and we're an institution of science and technology. Library resources have been diminishing for the last two decades. We have to seriously look at library funding issues and what we can do to reverse the trend." (See related story.) At the provost's request, Hopper will ask the senate to endorse principles suggested by the Association of American Universities to establish a framework to develop and evaluate new forms of scholarly publishing.
- Academic information technology. One of the recommendations of last year's faculty conference on information technology was a study of the structure and organization of the information units on campus, such as telecommunications, Academic Information Technologies and Administrative Data Processing, to see if they meet faculty and university needs. That study is under way, and Hopper said his goal is to ensure the senate has a "strong voice" in the process.
- Faculty appointment tracks. The university administration has begun studying the possibility of creating renewable, non-tenure track faculty appointments and a senate task force is being appointed to study the issue. "The Faculty Senate is very concerned about this issue and how it may impact tenure and tenure track appointments at the institution," Hopper said. "My reaction is this is an extremely complex issue that merits a good deal of study."
- Spousal accommodation policy. Dual career spouses are becoming more frequent, and the university needs to establish a policy that helps find employment for new-hires' spouses without circumventing the facultys right to select its colleagues, Hopper said.
- Online course evaluations. The Government of the Student Body president has proposed an online system of student course evalua-tions. "This is a complex issue," Hopper said. "We need to come up with a system that is effective, fair and of benefit to students and faculty. I believe we can come up with a system. I support having one, but my major concern is the time and effort needed to come up with one of high quality that will benefit teaching and learning."
Other items on the agenda include improving the faculty honors and awards system, next spring's faculty conference, the presidential search, a revised faculty conduct policy, the senate's own strategic plan, review of an administrative office and establishing an ombudsman office.
A final goal for Hopper during the coming year is to encourage faculty to participate in the senate.
"The senate has done many important things for the faculty. It is respected and listened to by the administration and regents," he said. "I hope faculty will take the opportunity to participate in shared governance."
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