Membership Handbook

Welcome to the IU Indianapolis Faculty Council!

Welcome! Congratulations on your election or appointment to the IU Indianapolis Faculty Council (IFC). This web page serves as a handbook for members of the IFC. To review your role and others on the council, view the membership roster here.

The IFC is the shared faculty governance council for the IU Indianapolis campus (including representatives for IU Fort Wayne and IU Columbus). Members serve in voting, non-voting, officer, and ex officio roles to vote and discuss matters pertaining to faculty at IU Indianapolis and within Indiana University overall. Minutes detailing IFC actions from past meetings are archived on this page.

The IFC is governed by their Constitution and Bylaws, university policies, and the Constitution and Bylaws of the University Faculty Council.

Monthly Meetings

The IFC meets the first Tuesday of every month from September to May for the academic year (in most cases). Members are expected to attend and participate in monthly meetings. A meeting schedule can be found here, and a calendar invitation is sent to members' calendars via Microsoft Outlook.

Agendas

Agenda items often include voting on changes to policies and procedures as well as on council elections. Other agenda items include reports about campus units, strategic initiatives, and IFC committees. At each meeting, there are also reports from the chancellor, executive vice chancellor, and the IFC president.

Agendas for the monthly meetings are approved by the Executive Committee. A few days before the meeting, the agendas are saved to the Meetings webpage and sent out to members and all IU Indianapolis faculty by email reminder. 

Members are not encouraged to print the agenda shared in the meeting reminder. There are often updates that are reflected in a printed version shared at the meeting. Members are, however, responsible for printing or downloading linked circulars in the shared agenda before the meeting.

Meeting Location & Attendance

Meetings are most often held in the theater in the IU Indianapolis Campus Center. Upon arrival, all attendees (members and non-members) are asked to sign in for attendance at the registration table. If you are a member and unable to attend a meeting, we ask that you identify an alternate and notify us by email (ude[dot]ui[at]licnuocf) prior to the meeting. The alternate will then need to sign in at the meeting. In addition to signing in, the registration table holds the updated agenda and other handouts that may relate to the meeting or announce campus initiatives of interest to the faculty.

Alternates

A member of the council who must be absent from any meeting may be represented at that meeting by an alternate who is not a member of the council. The alternate will be permitted voice and vote during the meeting provided the alternate member is a member of the voting faculty. The voting faculty are considered full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty. Non-tenure-track faculty are considered voting faculty if they hold the following ranks: clinical, lecturer, professor of practice, and research scientist/scholar appointments.

Membership and Responsibilities

The IFC elected members are president, vice president, unit representatives, at-large representatives, and the Executive Committee. Membership also includes non-voting roles of parliamentarian, academic unit heads, University Faculty Council representatives, faculty governance leaders from the schools, and representatives from the Senior Academy, Staff Council, Undergraduate Student Government, Graduate Student Organization, University College, and the IU Indianapolis Honors College. The full composition of the IFC is listed here. Below are the responsibilities of the membership positions:

An at-large representative attends monthly meetings of the IFC and votes on policy and resolutions representing all faculty at IU Indianapolis. An at-large representative serves a two-year term and can be re-elected for another two-year term. Their term begins with the first council meeting of the fall semester.

Unit representatives are voting members of the IFC and serve a term of two years (renewable), commencing with the first council meeting of the fall semester. Per the IFC Constitution and Bylaws, unit representatives are members of the voting faculty. Schools elect representatives in accordance with their Constitution and Bylaws.

The IFC Executive Committee consists of ten members of the voting faculty. The president of the IFC serves as chair with the chancellor or his designee and the vice president of the IFC serving as ex-officio. The members serve a two-year term and can be re-elected for another term. The committee charge is as follows:

This committee shall (1) determine the agenda for its own meetings and for regular meetings of the Council; (2) solicit, with the help of the Faculty Council Coordinator, the interest of faculty in serving on IU Indianapolis Faculty Council Standing Committees by the middle of March; (3) serve as the Committee on Committees for the Council; (4) oversee the election of the at-large IU Indianapolis representatives and the UFC representatives.

The University Faculty Council (UFC) is a separate governance body led by the presidents of the IU Indianapolis and IUB Faculty Councils as well as a representative from the other campuses of Indiana University, and comprised of members from across the university system. The IU Indianapolis representatives' service is to attend the UFC meetings when called (two meetings per semester) as a voting member. Representatives vote on policy for the university faculty body (not just those faculty in their school/unit). The UFC representatives serve on the IFC as non-voting members but are voting members of the UFC.

Annual Reports

Each year, the council office prepares an annual report. You can find those reports here.

Committees

The IFC also operates through committees that address campus and university matters relating to faculty affairs, student affairs, and other academic matters. A list of committees, their charges, and rosters can be found on this page.

Members come from the council membership as well as from the faculty campuswide. Members may serve three consecutive two-year terms. You do not need to be a member of the council to join a committee.

Committees are tasked with assignments by the IFC-EC at chair orientation in early fall and added throughout the year as initiatives are brought to the council. An annual report is provided by the committee before the close of the academic year.

Questions?

If you have any questions about IFC membership, please contact the Office of the Faculty Council by email at ude[dot]ui[at]licnuocf.