Minutes of the
NIU Board of Trustees
ACADEMIC AFFAIRS,
STUDENT AFFAIRS AND PERSONNEL COMMITTEE
June 2, 1999

Agenda Item 6.a.-Reorganization of the College of Education
The first programmatic issue that was raised by the new Board of Trustees after it was seated in 1996, Dr. Waldeland said, was the need for NIU’s College of Education to reclaim its role as a preeminent provider of teachers, school administrators and others who work in the K-12 school system. The perception of the Board was that NIU was no longer the recognized leader among colleges of education serving the area. This was due in part to a great increase in competition in the region that NIU had pretty much had to itself for decades. But there was also a perception, she said, that some of the programs that had been our strongest did not still carry that reputation throughout the region. The first administrative appointment this Board was asked to approve was the appointment of a new Dean of the College of Education, Alfonzo Thurman. When he was appointed, he was given the challenge of revitalizing the College of Education and helping to prepare educators and school personnel for the 21st Century.

The College of Education has been engaged in a major planning activity for the last three years. The College has explored the changing nature of teacher preparation in the context of the shortages that are predicted. It has looked at the need for partnerships with K-12 schools and given attention to diversity, technology and other pressing issues facing the preparation of education professionals. The Dean has, this spring, arrived at a new organizational structure for the College that will better help it to deliver its programs in ways that achieve these goals. Dr. Waldeland asked Dean Thurman to briefly describe the College of Education reorganization.

At the time of my appointment, Dean Thurman said, the Board expressed a concern about the college and the need for it to be more sensitive and proactive to the needs of our region, in particular, to our relationship with schools and their teachers, principals, superintendents and other school personnel. The Board also requested that we become more visible and active with the State Board of Education and the leaders in public education in Illinois. I believe that we are doing as requested, the Dean said, and moving beyond that as well. At the beginning of my term as acting Dean, I established four themes that we would pursue as a college. Those themes still guide our efforts. The themes are: partnerships, technology, diversity and development. I also have an overarching theme of teamwork, which is important to all that we do. Our efforts are geared around developing more and deeper school/university partnerships that eventually will lead to the establishment of professional development schools where our faculty and K-12 teachers collaborate on the development of a stronger curricula for our teacher education majors and their students while also developing strong professional development opportunities for school personnel.

Dean Thurman noted that the College has greatly increased the availability and use of technology. Our faculty all have computer technology in their offices; distance education classrooms are available through the Learning Center; there are a number of smart classrooms available, and several more will be available this fall. Among the new smart classrooms this fall will be between three and five that will utilize an integrated technology system that was a gift from the Dukane Corporation of St. Charles, Illinois. The Dukane Company is partnering with us to help upgrade future teachers’ use of technology in the teaching and learning process. The equipment provided by Dukane is worth over $150,000. We will also work with Dukane in researching how to best utilize the technology to improve student learning and the faculty’s teaching. This is an excellent blend of our desire to partner with not only schools, Dean Thurman said, but also with businesses to help maximize the learning of both our faculty and students in producing well-prepared beginning professional teachers for our schools.

Increasing the diversity of our faculty and student body continues to be of concern to the university and to the college, Dean Thurman said. Over the past four years, the College has increased its minority student majors by over 150 percent. We have not done quite as well with the new faculty, the Dean said, but in each of these years we have hired at least one Asian American, African American or Hispanic faculty member. This year, we have hired one African American and one Hispanic faculty member, and our faculty’s diversity is further enriched through the hiring of a faculty member who is deaf. In the coming year, we will be intensifying our effort to further diversify our faculty.

Fundraising has been a big concern within the university, Dean Thurman said, and it is no different for our college. This is an area on which I have spent more time than I had ever imagined. Others in the College have also invested a great deal of energy in the area of development. At the beginning of my term as Dean, he said, I met with the College’s Development Committee, which is comprised of alumni and friends of the college. The Development Committee established a five-year fundraising goal of $9 million. We are on target for the past three years with about $5.7 million raised. We are continuing our efforts, with an emphasis at this time on raising enough money to match an anonymous $400,000 challenge gift.

A reorganized college will, we believe, enhance our ability to further our achievements in all of these areas, Dean Thurman said, and it will be a structure through which we can react more swiftly to the changes in our region and also meet the competition of major private institutions that have set up camp in our backyard. The reorganization was important, not because it allows us to react but to be more proactive. It was done primarily around issues of curricular cohesion but also to help those inside and outside the university to better identify our programs. We have placed an emphasis on our teacher education programs, as these programs must be the strength of any college of education. We will not neglect, however, our graduate programs, because they have been a major strength within our college over the past fifteen to twenty years. Through the reorganization, we are emphasizing the need to change our elementary education program as a first step. In the coming year, a newly designed elementary education program should go through the college and university curricular process. I think you will find it innovative and much more capable of producing first-year professional teachers, ready for the improved schools they will enter.

As I have talked with superintendents and principals and other leaders in education and educational policy around the state and nation, they have been encouraging and have applauded our willingness to change. Indeed, the services of our college are much sought after. School districts including the Chicago Public Schools, Elgin, East Aurora, Hinckley-Big Rock, Genoa, Kaneland and Rochelle have requested that we partner with them in a variety of ways. Community colleges, likewise, have been interested in working with us on teacher education, and we have an ongoing relationship with Elgin Community College at this time. We are linking NIU’s College of Education, Elgin Community College, Elgin High School and several of the middle schools in a future teachers effort that will serve as a pipeline for our college. There are also health, social service and community agencies and businesses that would like to partner with our programs in the college. It will be impossible to do all that these parties would like us to do, Dean Thurman said. However, the new departments, as they seek to fulfill their mission, will be able to locate a variety of types of districts in which to work. We are excited about the number and variety of opportunities available to us as we meet the challenges for the future, including those posed by the Board. 

At the last Academic Affairs Committee Meeting in March, Chair Grans said, we reviewed in detail the strategic planning process that the colleges have gone through; and, in my opinion, this dovetails very well with that whole strategic plan. I would also like to note that fundraising is not the fun part. But, on the other hand, it can not only bring in dollars, she said; it can also bring awareness or new partnerships, so that the hard work does pay off in more than one way.

Agenda Item 6.c. - Transfer of Tenure and Tenure-Track Location for Faculty in the College of Education
Faculty hold tenure in their academic departments, Dr. Waldeland explained. Thus, the reorganization of the College of Education requires that the university request that the Board transfer the existing location of tenure or the tenure track affiliation of faculty in the College of Education from the former departments to the new departments created by the reorganization. She noted that these departmental names are provisional until the curricular process is completed. The departmental names go through a university curricular process, and these are agreed upon working titles. The university recommended that the Committee endorse the transfer of tenure and tenure track locations for the College of Education faculty presented with the agenda and ask the President to forward the recommendation to the Board. Trustee Siegel so moved, seconded by Student Trustee Sosnowski. The motion was approved.

Agenda Item 6.f. - Tenure Appointment
Dr. Waldeland said that at the last meeting of this Committee in March, this year’s tenure and promotion recommendations were approved. At that time, Provost Moody’s explained the very thorough process used to arrive at the decision to grant tenure. On very rare occasions, Dr. Waldeland said, the university hires a faculty member either at a senior level or in a specific administrative role and brings that faculty member in with tenure. The reason for doing this is that the individuals being recommended are senior, tenured, distinguished faculty where they are; and in order to attract them to a new position, we certainly must hold them at the same professional level. We have hired a new chair for the Department of Economics, Dr. Waldeland said, and there is a brief biographical statement in your materials.

Dr. Eliakim Katz comes to NIU from York University in Ontario, Canada. He has served as a consultant to the World Bank, the Bank of Israel and a number of private corporations. In this past year, he has been on leave from York University and working in Israel to establish a new business school where he has served as a sort of founding Dean. The thing that is most notable about Dr. Katz is the balance in his scholarly career. He has published over fifty-five articles in the standard scholarly journals in his field and another twenty or so in applied journals; and economics is a discipline that makes a significant distinction between theoretical and applied scholarship. In looking at our doctoral program in Economics, Dr. Waldeland said, we have arrived at the decision to turn its focus toward applied fields because that is what is so clearly in great demand in our region. Thus, it was very important that the department be able to attract someone with first-rate traditional credentials but also a very good track record on applied scholarship. The department, the college and the university are delighted with this hire, she said, and I ask you now to approve the granting of tenure to Dr. Katz. Chair Grans asked for a motion to approve the tenure appointment of Dr. Eliakim Katz. Trustee Siegel so moved, seconded by Student Trustee Sosnowski. The motion was approved.

As an economist, Dr. La Tourette said, I can appreciate the diversity of Dr. Katz's scholarly work. It is really remarkable to be able to both distinguish oneself in terms of publications in the theoretical area as well as in the applied area. We are very fortunate in that respect because a very strong applied program, in my experience, requires a strong theoretical background. But it is the focus of the research that makes the department applied, and I think this is the right direction for us to go for our doctoral program.

Agenda Item 6.h. - Pretax, Qualified Parking Permit for Employees
Steve Cunningham, Associate Vice President for Administration and Human Resources, said that this item was also presented as information at the Finance, Facilities and Operations Committee Meeting on June 1. In managing the employee benefit programs, we always try to maximize the pretax potential of our benefits, he said; and this is a framework policy that would allow us to implement the annual parking fees on an elective, pretax basis. Employees would sign up for a payroll deduction; and the amount of the parking fee would be deducted on a pretax basis – sometimes prorated over three months. Thus, and the employee would slightly benefit from the increase in disposable income. It would also help with the administration of university parking. Every year, employees have to reapply for parking permits. This would allow us to do it through the payroll system, Mr. Cunningham said, all in one, better organized, single administrative action. He acknowledged Ken Davidson's work to set up this fairly technical provision, which falls under Section 132 of the Internal Revenue Code.

President La Tourette asked Mr. Cunningham to elaborate a little for the Board’s sake as well as for the audience on how this would be implemented because of concern over the time element since the parking permits expire on June 30. Mr. Cunningham replied that every year in July employees are sent an annual notice of renewal of the parking permit. This year they will receive with that notice a signup form, which will register them for the pretax payroll deduction, sort of like direct deposit; and the deduction would begin with the next payroll cycle. This will be an election of the employees, unless they opt to write a check and send it to parking services, in which case they would lose the pretax benefit. Some programming had to be done to the payroll system to implement the change, and Mr. Cunningham assured the Board and those present that those changes would be complete in time for the July payroll calculation. Because those employees who do not take advantage of the payroll tax deduction would lose the pretax benefit, Trustee Siegel noted, we should get that message out to encourage the faculty and staff to take advantage of it. Chair Grans asked for a motion to approve the pretax, qualified parking permit for employees which would start on July 1, 1999. Student Trustee Sosnowski so moved, seconded by Trustee Siegel. The motion was approved.

Trustee Siegel explained that he had to leave the meeting to attend his son's graduation from high school.

I want to say that we had a wonderful opportunity at lunch to meet the acting chairs of the College of Education, Chair Grans said. I would like to ask Dr. Thurman to introduce the chairs. Dr. Thurman introduced Amy Rose, acting chair of Counseling, Adult and Health Education; Wilma Miranda, Acting Chair of the Department of Educational and Psychological Foundations; Gary McConeghy, Acting Chair of the Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment; Muriel Mackett, Acting Chair of the Department of Leadership in Educational and Sport Organizations; Norm Stahl, Acting Chair of the Department of Literacy, Intercultural and Language Education; and Connie Fulmer, Acting Chair of the Department of Teacher Education. Judy Bischoff, Chair of the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, was on vacation.

Agenda Item 6.d. - Fiscal Year 2000 Salary Increment Allocation Guidelines
Mr. Cunningham said that the annual increment guidelines were approved by the Finance, Facilities and Operations Committee on June 1 and would be considered by the full Board on June 17. The guidelines would provide for a 5 percent average increment for three employment categories: instructional faculty; exempt employees, which includes civil service exempt and supportive professional staff; and hourly civil service employees. Employees within those pools will be given the increments in accordance with the campus-based guidelines under this item. Worksheets are produced for employee and distributed to the departments and colleges, he said. Increments are recorded on those and returned to Human Resources where they are entered into the system. Confirmation is made that the correct amounts have been spent on the employment pools, and increment notices are sent out in July. For regular faculty, the increments are effective in August, which is when nine-month faculty appointments begin. We try to meet a number of competing priorities with our increment process, Mr. Cunningham said, starting each year with the budgetary cycle for the subsequent fiscal year. We try to have market competitiveness and to maintain an extensive merit program at the university. The colleges have very good systems of determining faculty merit, and we also have evaluation systems for our civil service and supportive professional staff employees. Last, he said, the cost-of-living factor in the area is another challenge that the we face with our increment program, so we try to do all of this each year with our budget request. This year we were able to obtain a five percent increase in average increment funds. This was largely because the university was able to reallocate a one percent match for retaining critical faculty and staff, Mr. Cunningham said, so we were able to receive an additional one percent in excess of the standard three percent cost-of-living increment from the legislature. We have salary studies we do on a continual basis, and this year we were able to obtain additional funding for retaining critical faculty and staff based on those surveys. This fulfils the faculty market priority that was considered by the Board last year, and is 2 percent over the base compensation increase appropriation of 3 percent. We are fairly pleased with the increment this year, he said, because it has been a while since we have had one of this magnitude.

Regarding faculty promotional rates, Mr. Cunningham said, the Board acted on this item in December, to increase the promotional rates from associate professor to full professor. Our rates were significantly in need of improvement, and the rates that will become effective in the year 2001 are going to be very competitive. 

Agenda Item 6.e. - 1999 Faculty Emeritus Recognition
Dr. Waldeland said that universities have a long tradition of conferring emeritus status on retired faculty. She noted that in preparing for this discussion, she had checked on the definition of emeritus in case anyone asked. The dictionary definition is pretty much exactly what we all think it means: "Retired from active service, but retaining one’s rank." There has never been a formal process for conferring this designation at Northern. In the past year, however, we have arrived at a regular process. Briefly, Dr. Waldeland said, the university has decided to formalize the process by collecting the names of all faculty who have announced retirements by May 15 of a given year. The Provost will review those names to certify that the faculty on that list are retiring in good standing. The names will then be announced to the Academic Affairs, Student Affairs and Personnel Committee of the Board of Trustees in June each year. The names of the 1999 faculty who are granted emeritus recognition are listed in the Board report. In a conversation with the President on this subject about a year ago, Board Chair Boey said, I was saying that there should be some official recognition for someone with a special ranking such as a presidential research or presidential teaching professor, so they would carry the title presidential research professor emeritus or presidential teaching professor emeritus, which is more appropriate. Dr. Waldeland noted that such designations were included.

Agenda Item 6.g. - 1998-99 Program Review Summary
Almost everyone in this room knows what kind of work goes into the Program Review process, Dr. Waldeland said. Every year the university reviews a portion of its programs according to a statewide schedule. In 1998-99 the programs under review were those in the social sciences. We are also asked to review our organized research and public service centers on a schedule that we are free to ascertain, she said, and it has made sense to us to connect centers to the disciplines with which they might have some affinities. So, during the past year we reviewed the Center for Governmental Studies and the Public Opinion Laboratory located at the Social Science Research Institute, as well as our Regional History Center. A write-up in the Board Report summarized the key findings of the program reviews.

It became very clear that in the social sciences, which are not professional preparation programs for the most part, with the exception of the Master of Public Administration, there is a changing job market. The social sciences have often been linked with the humanities as fields that are good to study, Dr. Waldeland said, but then there are fewer obvious jobs for graduates. What most of our social science disciplines have found is that there are more and more nonacademic jobs for doctoral graduates. That is very true of economics, and becoming more and more true of history. For psychology it has always been true – about 60 percent of psychology doctoral graduates go into some sort of clinical practice rather than into higher education. At the master's level, there are some very interesting new opportunities for graduates, and the baccalaureate graduates are finding themselves in reasonable demand as humanities graduates have been for some years because of their liberal arts skills. The revelation for most people this year was discovering how much the job market for master's and doctoral graduates is changing, Dr. Waldeland said, and what comes home to us is the need to keep making that point to the IBHE so that no one thinks that doctoral programs exist only to prepare people to teach in higher education settings. Those of you here from academic departments know that when your students earn doctorates, they are prepared to enter applied professional fields, Dr. Waldeland said.

We have gone through these processes with you over the years, Chair Grans said, and I know there is a lot of work involved, and sometimes it seems academic. But on the other hand, if you can pause and reflect on those sorts of things like you did with the social sciences, it does make a difference in the long run. So I applaud you and your group for the tenacity in getting those reviews through the complex process.

I also stated that in the NIU Constitution the process of searching for a president is very clearly defined. Ultimately that decision rests with the Board of Trustees. But, before that can be done, a search committee must be established. The Constitution clearly defines the makeup of that committee to properly represent all the constituencies of the campus. As Chair of the Board of Trustees, I fully intend to follow the requirements outlined in the Constitution. In addition, there will be two members of the Board of Trustees on the Committee, myself and Trustee Manny Sanchez. It is our aim to bring this process to a conclusion so that we will have at least three names to give to the Board of Trustees in November or December, so that we can have a new president, hopefully, in January or February of the year 2000. That is the aim, and I hope we can get that done. But we are not going to rush into it because John has left very big shoes to fill, and we want to do the best job possible to do it. Certainly of all the tasks and obligations of the Board of Trustees, picking the right president is, by far, the most important for the university. On the appropriate occasion, John, we will recognize all of your accomplishments, Board Chair Boey said, but for now, we wish you and Lili well. Congratulations to you both.

President La Tourette thanked Board Chair Boey for those comments. I would like to emphasize that I recommended to Chair Boey that the university use a search firm, Dr. La Tourette said, and also I assured him that the schedule he has laid out is a very ‘doable’ one and perhaps one that gives the university an advantage. Traditionally it had been the custom that presidential searches were launched in September and October, to be concluded by May or June of the following year. In recent years, many searches have been launched in June and July with the conclusion in January and February. In fact, that pattern was followed by two Illinois public universities this past year as well as by a couple of Mid-American Conference schools. So, in a sense, you can get ahead of the crowd, you might say, by getting your announcement out and moving on in September or October while the other schools are organizing their searches. I thought this was not only an advantage for me, to be able to leave early next year, but it is an advantage to the institution; and I want that kind of message to be carried across the campus. I am certainly not going to slack off during the interim period, and I have assured the Board that I will stay until such time as it feels that it is appropriate for me to leave. If they are able to make an appointment by January 1, I will get in my pickup truck, and turn the key. But in the interim, I would like to work as I have very well with our staff and faculty, and we want to continue to move the university forward so that we can take advantage of any opportunities that we are pursuing or that may come up in the interim. So, thank you very much Mr. Boey and members of the Board and all the staff and faculty that have worked with me for so long, because it has been a wonderful opportunity for me. I never thought when I was a youngster that I would go to college; and when I did go to college, I never had the idea that I would advance to the position I have now. So, I am just very pleased that I have been able to work with the university and accomplish some things that I think are very important for what I consider a great university. Thank you all.

It is a little odd for me to be making reports from a microphone at this table, Dr. Waldeland said; but it is a pleasure for me to have so many of my colleagues and friends here for my first meeting as interim provost and as liaison to this committee. There are a couple of other changes I would like to announce. First of all, I would like to publicly thank Carolyn Cradduck, who has been my secretary for the last five years, who was my secretary when this Board was appointed, and who has worked with me during this time to arrange the meetings of this Committee. I am taking that responsibility with me, so Carolyn is at the last meeting at which she has to worry about everything working out. I would also like to introduce the person who will be the new Assistant Provost for Academic Planning and Development, Virginia Cassidy, who will be responsible in future years for some of the reports that were just covered.

Chair Grans recognized UAC Representative Jim Lockard.

There being no other business, Chair Grans wished everyone a good summer and asked for a motion to adjourn. Student Trustee Sosnowski so moved, seconded by Board Chair Boey. The meeting was adjourned at 2:27 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Sharon M. Mimms
Recording Secretary