Standard V. Administration and Finance
V.2 The school's faculty, staff, and students have the same opportunity for representation on the institution's advisory or policy-making bodies as do those of comparable units throughout the institution. The school's administrative relationships with other academic units enhance the intellectual environment and support interdisciplinary interaction; further, these administrative relationships encourage participation in the life of the parent institution.
Representation on Institutional Bodies
The School’s faculty, staff and students have numerous opportunities to participate in the governance of the University of Pittsburgh. All faculty members may participate in the University Senate, the stated purpose of which is “to create and maintain adequate communication channels among students, staff, faculty, administrative officers, and the Board of Trustees for discussion and consultation on all matters affecting the welfare of the University.” The Senate holds at least one general meeting during the academic year. The University also invites participation through the Senate Council, the Senate Standing Committees (addressing the libraries, space and utilization across campus, and athletics), and the Faculty Assembly (an elected body of representatives). For example, Richard Cox has served on the Senate’s Plant and Utilization Planning Committee (1992-1995). Daqing He is currently serving on the Senate’s Election Committee.
The Faculty Assembly is a forum of elected representatives of the eligible faculty to assist in the governance of the University of Pittsburgh. The Assembly discusses University matters of concern to the faculty and offers a venue for faculty participation in the Assembly, where discussion of any matters of faculty concern can lead to expression of a faculty position. It is the principal avenue for broad faculty participation in University governance. Roger Flynn, Associate Professor at the iSchool, is currently serving on the Assembly; Paul Munro serves on the Assembly’s standing committee on Plant Utilization and Planning.
The Dean of the School serves on the Council of Deans at the University, which advises and counsels the Provost on academic matters and University issues. The Council meets regularly and is chaired by the Provost. Dean Larsen serves on the Council’s Diversity Taskforce as well as the University’s International Coordination Council, and the Information Technology Steering Committee. He has completed a multi-year term chairing the Parameters Subcommittee of the University’s Planning and Budgeting Committee.
The School has a Board of Visitors, a separate advisory body which reports and advocates on behalf of the School with the Provost and other University administrators. The Board of Visitors meets annually to review the School’s progress toward strategic goals, to provide recommendations for future programmatic and strategic efforts, and to report to the Provost. The Chair of the BOV also serves as a University Trustee, ensuring representation of the School and its interests at the highest level of University administration.
The University hosts the Staff Association Council, a membership group representing the 6500 staff members at the University. This group provides a venue for communication between the staff and the University administration. At this time, no iSchool staff member has volunteered to serve on the Council, although a former staff member did so for many years (until her retirement in 2011.
The School has crafted strong ties with other academic and administrative units across the University. The iSchool was fortunate to develop a joint faculty appointment with the History of Art & Architecture Department, which features Alison Langmead serving a joint appointment as a lecturer in the iSchool’s LIS Program. As of Fall 2012, six outside faculty hold joint appointments with the iSchool (see Appendix FAC 9). There are eight iSchool faculty members who hold joint appointments with other University units or institutions (see Appendix FAC 9). The School’s Master of Science in Information Science Program offers a joint degree program with Pitt’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, while the BSIS program has a satellite program at the University of Pittsburgh Greensburg. The School has numerous articulation agreements with institutions outside of the University as well, which permits students to easily and efficiently transfer from these schools into the BSIS program. The LIS program has several specializations that incorporate courses from other iSchool programs (the Graduate Information Science and Technology Program) as well as other University units, including the School of Education and the University’s Schools of Health Sciences.
As an example, the SLCP specialization’s Intern Option requires that students take EDUC 2000 Psychology of Learning and Development for Education, among other courses. The Digital Libraries specialization requires MLIS students to take an Information Science and Technology course addressing Information Storage and Retrieval as well as providing the option to take electives in Human Information Processing, Data Structures, Interactive System Design and Database Management.