A Word from the President

The first semester of the CAS Congress has been eventful. Budget cuts and shifts in leadership signify increasing uncertainty at SIUE more broadly and certainly within CAS. Both informal discussion with faculty and formal data from the faculty survey reveal that many of us feel overworked, underpaid and desirous of meaningful information that helps us understand the current environment of uncertainty.

We faculty clearly want more transparency in leadership. Those of us who feel underpaid know that due to budget problems that situation is unlikely to change soon. However, we all still want to know: a) how leadership is making decisions;b) how different units in CAS and the university are being affected; c) how quality of teaching is being influenced by changes; and d) how we can promote a spirit of collaboration and cooperation in spite of these troubling times.

Due to the University structure, the CAS Leadership Council has very little formal power. However, the Council is working to provide faculty as much transparency as our position allows. To that end, the Council has developed a web-page that provides information about the work CAS committees are doing. We have surveyed faculty, asking about people’s experiences in CAS. Finally, we have begun conversations with the Dean and the Provost that focus on CAS faculty’s need and desire for more meaningful information.

From my experience so far, the CAS Leadership Council is composed of a

pretty dedicated set of leaders. Good leaders understand that transparency does not mean deluging faculty with lots of information and asking them to figure out what is important and what isn’t. Transparency involves authentically engaging the faculty in honest dialogues that allows individuals to make sense of what’s happening. The Leadership

Council is doing its best to make sure your concerns are considered and respected and we in the Council feel pretty hopeful that others around the University also have the same goals.

In the meantime, keep asking thoughtful and insightful questions and we’ll do our best to find answers to them.

Linda MarkowitzCAS Congress President

CAS LeadershipCouncil

Newsletter · Fall 2014

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In this issue

A Word from the President

ReportsPolicies Committee Curriculum Committee Elections Committee Promotion and Tenure Committee Sabbatical & Awards Committee Review Committee

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Report: Policies Committee

The CAS Policies Committee has created the first annual CAS Survey of the tenure line faculty. The survey was launched in August, 2014 and enjoyed a great response. Thanks to the nearly three quarters of you who responded to the survey. The purpose of the survey was to identify areas that faculty felt could be improved. Further discussions are intended to guide the CAS Congress in general and the Policies Committee more specifically toward improvements to those areas of concern. The results of the survey indicate that a majority of CAS faculty are generally happy with the direction CAS is headed, but, even so, many faculty members had ideas about how CAS could be improved.

Faculty members collectively shared about 5 areas where improvements could occur: 1) Workload can be improved to create greater meaning and control; 2) Create greater opportunities to build cross-departmental conversations and relationships; 3) Find ways to improve the transparency and communication, especially of information about the budget, from CAS leadership to CAS faculty; 4) Resolve concerns about the P&T process; 5) Find ways to improve salaries. The results of the survey will be discussed at the CAS Congress meeting on October 24, 2014. Discussion will be held for each improvement area to identify what actions the CAS Congress and its Policies Committee should take to improve upon these areas of concern. Some ideas will be presented and new ideas for action will be solicited. This discussion is intended to frame the agenda for the Congress in the 2014-15 Academic Year. If you cannot attend the meeting, or would like a more detailed description of the survey results, please review the CAS Congress website, where a PowerPoint presentation provides more information.

Trish Oberweis (Chair)Full CAS Policies Committee list available on CAS Congress website

Report: Curriculum Committee

The CAS Curriculum Committee has been busy reorganizing at the beginning of Fall semester 2014. We have changed from a structure of three subcommittees to one of four subcommittees. Since committee members now have fewer proposals to review at one time, they can pay more focused attention to each proposal and the proposal consideration time has been reduced. Yet the change has not been just in the numbers but has also been in the composition of subcommittees. Departments with related topics have been grouped together more closely, and thus the representatives of those departments can much easier understand what issues various proposals are meant to address, identify if there are conflicts of interests in regards to proposals, or comment on whether letters of collation are needed. When the subcommittee structure was finalized, each subcommittee chose its own chair. Shunfu Hu, Mark Poepsel, Heather Johnson, and Luci Kohn serve as chairs.

In addition to reorganizing, the CAS Curriculum Committee has worked on clarifying the review requirements as well as, of course, on reviewing proposals for new courses and programs and for changes in courses and programs. To clarify requirements, we have reviewed the handout that can be useful for departments and their representatives when preparing the proposals; the handout, which can be found on the CAS Congress website, contains references to the types of forms and the additional documents that need to accompany each of them, as well as syllabus requirements and possible committee determinations. As part of the ongoing review process, subcommittees have already evaluated Set 1 for Fall 2014, and have given 59 determinations; a second set of proposals is currently under review.

Sorin Nastasia (Chair)Full CAS Curriculum Committee list available on CAS Congress website

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Report: Elections Committee

The CAS Elections Committee has done 3 things this academic year. First, we have added the task of creating ad hoc committees to our list of responsibilities.We have requested and received access to the database of service-willing faculty created by Tom Foster of the Faculty Senate and will draw from that as needed. Second, we have initiated elections for faculty membership on the CAS Dean Search Advisory Committee. Third, we have determined that it is feasible and within policy to simply run a single, large election once each Spring for all regularly elected faculty positions with the College. We believe this offers several advantages over the current as-needed approach, not the least of which is that it will simply be easier for faculty to only vote once.

Duff Wrobbel (Chair)Sue WiedigerJulie Zimmermann Holt

Report: Promotion and Tenure Committee

The CAS Promotion and Tenure Committee has been reviewing twenty-three applications for promotion and/or tenure. In accordance with the new CAS Operating papers, we are now configured into two subcommittees, one focused on the Fine Arts and Humanities, one on the Social Sciences and Natural Sciences. There is now a representative from each department sitting on one of the subcommittees. When members from that department are up for consideration, that representative is recused from discussion and voting, and serves in an advisory capacity, answering questions about departmental operating papers.

Geoff Schmidt (Chair)Full CAS Promotion and Tenure Committee list available on CAS Congress website

Report: Sabbatical and Awards Committee

The CAS Sabbatical and Awards Committee has been evaluating 23 sabbatical applications to support scholarly research and creative activities in 2015-2016. It was interesting to note that fifteen of the applications came from the arts and humanities; eight came from departments more involved in the social sciences; there were no applications received from the sciences or math.

Johanna Schmitz (Chair)Full CAS Sabbatical and Awards Committee list available on CAS Congress website

Report: Review Committee

The Review Committee met late last spring to review our charge. We are responsible for an annual evaluation of the dean of the College and triennial reviews of associate deans. As the dean is retiring his position this year, we are not conducting that evaluation. The associate deans were last evaluated in 2012 so the next evaluation of associate deans will take place in the fall of 2015.

Steve Tamari (Chair)Charles BergerJohn Korak

Next issue:

Spring 2015

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