IU Northwest Faculty Org

“Every institution has two organizational structures.  The formal one is written on the charts, the other is in the everyday relationships of the men and women in the organization.” 

Former ITT President Harold S. Geneen

 

When asked to pay tribute to my late colleague Fred Chary at November’s virtual Faculty Organization meeting, I agreed with one caveat: that my appearance be near the top of the agenda.  Last time I spoke, to honor retiring Sociology professor Chuck Gallmeier, I was called to the podium with just two minutes until automatic adjournment and had to cut my remarks short. Another unspoken reason was that such gatherings can be deathly boring, with tedious committee reports and unimportant announcements by administrators and events planners. Whereas once the Faculty Org played an important role in university matters, its power has been diluted by, among other things, an all-university Faculty Council and the establishment of a Chancellor’s cabinet.

 

In Paul Kern and my history of IU Northwest, “Educating the Calumet Region,” we wrote that the first recorded faculty meeting took place in 1952, when the campus, known as the “IU Extension,” met in Seaman Hall in downtown Gary, and that a constitution was drawn up four years later. Here are memories of meetings that took place in the 1960s after IUN moved to its present Glen Park location:

  Angie Komenich: I liked watching the rhetorical give and take.  Bill Neil, George Thoma, and Jack Gruenenfelfer were very good.  Director Jack Buhner encouraged discussion. 

    Ken Stabler: Several people saw the meetings as an opportunity to get up and expound.  Leslie Singer and George Roberts enjoyed telling everyone what they thought in a colorful language.  They were an entertaining part of the décor.

    Mary Harris Russell: My first meeting was nothing like expected, coming from Berkeley, where Noam Chomsky and other luminaries debated pressing issues of the day.  Discussion went on interminably over whether Sophie could bring over coffee on a cart from the cafeteria.  I thought, “I have better things to be doing.”

 

While an untenured professor during the 1970s, I attended meetings out of obligation and in order to meet some of the important players that might be controlling my fate.  Old timers exuded a certain gravitas, and gadflies George Roberts. Les Singer, and Gary Moran could be counted on to rail against those they considered to be administrative toadies.  Moran got his comeuppance when he asked Regional Campus director and future IU President John Ryan a question and made the unforgivable faux pas of referring to the mother campus as the University of Indiana.  Business professor Bill Reilly’s forte was coming up with Latin phrases that half the time went over my head. Over the years I can recall a handful od exciting meetings.  I missed by one year the 1969 debate over establishing a Black Studies program but was part of efforts to gain approval for Chicano/Riqueno and Women’s Studies programs as well as a resolution to ban smoking on campus.  I was on the losing end of one to have student transcripts simply be a record of progress toward a degree, eliminating needless W’s, I’s, and F’s. 

 

One ongoing debate, I learned, has been whether to tape meetings and have them then made available to those unable to attend. Opponents pointed out that written minutes already serve that purpose while protecting individuals’ anonymity, whereas recording meetings might stifle debate.  Sureka Rao noted that if professors really cared about what went on, they could make more of an effort to attend.  Zoran Kilibarda drew laughs when questioning whether anyone would spend hours watching the proceedings.  The motion was tabled. My remarks appeared to be well received (I subsequently received warm, congratulatory emails from all history faculty. 

 

I stayed around to hear retiring Computer Information Systems professor Bill Dorin praised by Faculty Org chair Mark Baer. Once a lunchtime fixture at the cafeteria faculty table, Dorin spent many hours helping me make a DVD companion to Ron Cohen and my “Gary: A Pictorial History.” Each photo appeared on the screen for approximately 30 seconds, sometimes with Bill panning in on certain details, while I recited the captions. While not terribly exciting, the DVD was used in some Gary classrooms during units on local history. Ever the comic, Dorin said he was looking forward to having time to catch up on his reading and then held up a child’s coloring book as an example.