The Schaumburg faculty forums are having ongoing open-door meetings for faculty to discuss the monumental changes being made at the Robin campus in the next three years.
Their work has been rooted in the Schaumburg Task Force reports and President Middleton’s direction for the futures of both the faculty and academic institutions housed there.
One of the important findings from the Task Force report was a need for a full-time, resident faculty at the campus in order for students to begin and end their programs at the Schaumburg campus.
“There needs to be connection to one campus or the other…but the idea of a faculty that is absolutely dedicated to the campus is a new idea,” said Toni Potenza, vice president and Dean of the Robin Campus: “We have faculty who are housed on the campus but they may be asked to teach downtown so they have their office here and their courses downtown. They may do that for a semester or for an entire year and we’re trying to move away from that.”
With a dedicated full-time faculty though, come new responsibilities and demands to ensure a successful transition. The new forum meetings have given the faculty an open arena to discuss the issues and concerns they face.
“One of the things that arose early on (from discussions) with faculty were issues of their promotion, their tenure, their governance as a faculty and how that would be connected to a campus or connected to the University,” Potenza said. “It was something that really needed to be talked about because faculty do wonder about change in general and what that might be in terms of their working lives.”
Quality of life also plays an important role in terms of recruiting new faculty to both the Schaumburg and Chicago campuses.
Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Administration Doug Knerr said,
“I think to keep moving forward on being an attractive institution for faculty internationally to come here to Chicago and to Roosevelt (is) a really important issue to address.”
Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences Dr. Steve M. Cohen, who has been a part of both the Task Force and the forum meetings, also realizes the importance of having an autonomous campus.
“At this point in our history, it is time for this second campus to stand more on its own,” Cohen said in an email. “At the same time, some faculty are concerned that if we try too much to distinguish the campuses from each other we may further split our energy and resources between the two.”
One of the biggest challenges that the Schaumburg Campus faces in the changes being implemented is maintaining resources.
“It has been thought out a step at a time, how you’re going to get the faculty that you need, how you’re going to make sure in some of the smaller programs that you have the program well represented, that the students out here are getting a good quality program and that the students in Chicago are getting a good quality program too,” Potenza said.
The broad discussions that the Schaumburg faculty is having have opened up a variety of topics and are changing as the meetings progress.
There has been a shift in focus from worrying about a changing future to excitement about building up the campus and its programs in new and innovative ways.
“One of the things about the forums that we got a tremendous kick out of last week was a whole set of discussions among the faculty about what a distinctive curriculum for the campus might be and what kind of experiences students might have,” Potenza said.
Both Potenza and Knerr are seeking more input from faculty not only from the Schaumburg campus, but throughout the university,
“I don’t know that we’ve necessarily heard from faculty who are in Chicago,” Potenza said: “But as we’re a whole of the University, it’s going to affect the Chicago faculty just as much as it’s going to affect the Schaumburg faculty. It would be foolish to think oh, this is only a Schaumburg issue and it doesn’t affect Chicago---of course it does.”
The Schaumburg Faculty Forums meet twice a week on Wednesday and Thursday. More information can be obtained by emailing either Toni Potenza (apotenza@roosevelt.edu) or Doug Knerr (dknerr@roosevelt.edu).
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