Faculty Policies Committee Minutes, September 22, 2003

Present: Michelle Benedict, Tom Crute, Gordon Eisenman, Cliff Gardiner, Marc Miller, Jeff Heck (secretary), Bill Reese (chair), Katherine Sweeney, Wendy Turner, Donna Wear, Janice Whiting, Sabina Widner

Guest: Cathy Barner, ITS

Minutes from August 8, 2003 were approved as revised;
Minutes from August 15, 2003 were approved as written

OLD BUSINESS

1. Faculty Governance - Open records of all committees – Cathy Barner, Assistant Director for Support Services in Information Technology Services, joined the committee to present information on the logistics of posting minutes and annual reports for committees on campus. ITS will post any set of minutes or annual reports to the Web in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format, provided they are given the document in digital form.

In later discussion, the committee considered the scope of existing committee publication obligations, then chose to propose an amendment to the existing Faculty Manual pages. Marc Miller and Wendy Turner will draft a revision and distribute it prior to the next FPC meeting.

Donna Wear mentioned that the Pamplin Student Travel and Research Committee should be included in the list of committees on the ASU web site, given the nature of the commitment in working with that committee. Cliff Gardiner, as a member of the Committee on Committees, will look into adding it to the list.

2. Book Vendors – Michelle Benedict and Cliff Gardiner met with the new bookstore manager, Karl Munschy, to discuss the current policy. Benedict reported that the money given to the bookstore from faculty textbook sales was a small part of the reason for the current arrangement. The current arrangement, in which one vendor only is used on campus for the resale of faculty materials, upgrades our status with the distributor, which allows us to buy more used textbooks for the same level of funding. Michelle prepared a list of concerns for that meeting which she gave to the FPC members and which will be discussed at the committee’s next meeting.

3. Geopolitics of Free Speech – Bill Reese distributed a copy of the Peaceful Assembly Guidelines that have been published in the Jaguar Handbook. The FPC still needs to consider the document.

4. New Faculty – Bill Reese distributed information about the contents of the packet provided to new faculty. Further discussion is warranted, as its contents did not include information on benefits.

NEW BUSINESS

1. Spam - Cathy Barner discussed current methods for reducing spam on campus. ITS may not impose software campus-wide to remove spam before it reaches the recipient because the software would remove individual choice; spam to one person may not be spam to another person. ITS will soon configure the network to reject email messages with invalid IP addresses, which should help. Barner recommended a proactive approach at the individual level, consisting of caution in use of your email address in arenas such as newsgroups and by careful reading of all online agreements and licenses. She also warned that we are now at the point of needing to do Windows updates and virus checks daily, and that ITS was likely to automate both these types of updates soon, campus-wide. Barner recommended SpyBot to locate and remove “spyware” or “stealth” software.

2. Possible New Project – Bill Reese reported that the FPC may be asked to discuss and develop methods for reducing book prices for students.

3. Other New Business – All other agenda items were deferred.

Next Meeting: September 29, 2003, 4 p.m.,

Allgood Hall, Dean’s Office Conference room, within the N210 suite