Present: K. Kelly, S. Lyon, J. Rajgopal, S. Sereika, C. Trovato, I. Petkova, T. Silvestre, A. Blair, J. Baker, and J. Erlen (chair)

Topic Discussion/Action

Call to order The meeting was called to order at 12:05 pm by J. Erlen.

Welcome and introductions New and continuing members were introduced and welcomed..

Minutes of April 24, 2007 Minutes were approved.

Mission/Purposes of Committee J. Erlen reviewed the mission/purposes of the educational Policies Committee; information is available on the Faculty Senate website.

Review of work of last year's committee J. Erlen highlighted some of the work from last year (document was distributed via e-mail): issues regarding part-time faculty (L. Brush is chairing a subcommittee and will report at a later time); CIDDE workshops on Plagiarism and Cheating in the Classroom and Civility in the Classroom held last spring and to be scheduled for spring 2008; presentation on information literacy by A. Knapp. A, Scher, chair of the Library Committee discussed this with J. Erlen. The Library Committee has this on their agenda and the Educational Policies Committee will be invited to that meeting.

Liaison report from Provosts's office A. Blair reported on the November 2007 Teaching Fair, the RFP regarding innovative teaching, faculty forums, and the faculty book and selected article discussions.

Memo regarding financial benefit from faculty assigning their own books for use in their courses A. Blair apprised the committee that the policy is to be implemented in January 2008; Robert Pack is addressing this.

J. Baker opened the discussion regarding financial gain and benefits received by faculty if they assign their books to students in a course. He noted that there actually was not much opposition to the letter that had been circulated by Drs. Maher and Levine. The issues that were raised included:

1) how do faculty recoup their costs when writing a book if not through royalties; 2) students do not only buy textbooks from the bookstore as they may use amazon.com or Barnes and Noble for example; 3) a potential benefit to students is that they are exposed to the author; 4) is there a penalty if a faculty does not follow the policy; 5) students are wondering if they might rent textbooks rather than buy them; 6) would publishers be willing to discount the books so that the faculty would not receive royalties if Pitt students are using the book; 7) there may be a need to talk with a bookstore representative and a publisher to determine what options, if any, exist. The group decided to ask R. Pack to attend the next meeting and discuss these issues with the committee. Follow-up with R. Pack. An invitation was extended and he will attend the next meeting.

Next meeting Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at noon in Room 826 Cathedral of Learning.

Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 12:55 pm.

Judith A. Erlen,

Recorder