Inside Iowa State

August 26, 2005

Introducing

Claudia Baldwin, 2005-06 president, Faculty Senate

Position at ISU: Associate professor of veterinary clinical sciences, specialty: small animal internal medicine

Arrived at ISU: December 1990

Previous service on the senate: senator (1998-2004), Executive Board member (1998-2004), and president-elect (2004-05). Also a member of the following senate groups: Veterinary Medicine caucus chair (1998-2004), Academic Affairs Council (1998-99) Judiciary and Appeals Council (2001-03), Judiciary and Appeals Council Appeals Committee (2001-2004), Greenlee School Task Force (2004), Transition for Non-Tenure Track Positions committee (2002-03), chair of the Task Force to Monitor Industrial Education and Technology and Agricultural Biosystems Engineering Reorganization (2002-03), chair of the task force on the Proposed Combination of the Colleges of Education and Family and Consumer Sciences (2004-05). Baldwin also was a member of the Provost Task Force on Part-Time Tenure Track for Faculty (2003-05).

Senate's top goals this year:

• Create an ombuds office. The senate approved a proposal three years ago to create an ombuds position for faculty only, but the idea has been expanded to include other groups. President Gregory Geoffroy has a committee working on a new proposal, which will need senate approval. "It will be exciting for faculty to have a place to go so issues are resolved before they are blown out of proportion and become insurmountable. My hope is to have an ombuds office in place this academic year."
• Family Leave Policy. "It's so very important. We have been fortunate to receive greater state support for this academic year, but we will need more state support to offer this. We need to be ready to put the proposal forward when the time is right, and so we will be reviewing the proposal to see if anything needs to be revised."
• Task force report identifying the principles of the promotion and tenure process that are used across campus. The report, expected by the end of the academic year, will be the first step toward developing a "best practices" guide to help ensure uniform assessment of faculty.
• Review of the Office of Business and Finance, to be completed by early fall, and a review of the Office of the President to be initiated and completed by the end of the academic year. The senate regularly reviews administrative offices and officers.

Thoughts on the year ahead: "The senate will be discussing campus climate issues as part of the new university strategic plan. One area that will be discussed widely will be hiring part-time, tenure-track faculty. This is an area where we can be flexible so we can recruit and hire the best faculty. With a part-time position, extension of the tenure clock would be necessary. This policy would help in recruitment and retention of excellent faculty. I want Iowa State to be on the leading edge of this."

Claudia Baldwin. Photo by Bob Elbert.

"One area that will be discussed widely will be hiring part-time, tenure-track faculty. This is an area where we can be flexible so we can recruit and hire the best faculty."

Claudia Baldwin