Senate president Rob Wallace shared the 2015-16 faculty numbers during his remarks at the Dec. 8 Faculty Senate meeting. The official headcount of 1,973 faculty -- taken this year at midnight on Oct. 30 -- includes tenured, tenure-eligible and non-tenure eligible positions.
"That is ... a net increase of 81 positions," Wallace said. "We have made progress over the last year in terms of faculty hires. In the current budget situation, we're not likely to do the same thing between 2015 and 2016."
More data and statistics are available in the faculty and staff section of the institutional research office's 2015-16 Fact Book.
Safety first
Interim chief Aaron Delashmutt gave senators an overview of safety presentations that ISU police provide the campus community, including:
- Security evaluations and recommendations for general, personal and emergent office safety plans
- Training to recognize and report disturbing behavior
- Violent incident response training (VIRT)
"If you have a specific need in your area that's different than what we offer, we'll tailor it to what you need," Delashmutt said.
Other business
Senators approved a pair of academic proposals, including:
- Discontinuing the botany graduate major, which has had no enrollment since 2003
- Establishing a minor in geographic information science, an interdisciplinary program administered by the community and regional planning department in the College of Design
Prior to the botany decision, Wallace shared its history at Iowa State. He said the botany program produced Iowa State's first master of science (1878), Ph.D. (1916) and female Ph.D. (Ada Hayden) graduates. Wallace also noted that George Washington Carver earned bachelor's and master's degrees in botany at ISU.
