Senior vice president of operations and finance Sean Reeder talked to senators about removing silos within the division he oversees during the Nov. 12 Faculty Senate meeting. The operations and finance division includes a range of units that serve students, faculty and staff, organized in several clusters:
- Finance
- Financial planning and analysis
- Facilities planning and management (FPM)
- Auxiliary units such as the ISU Book Store, Reiman Gardens, university museums, printing services, transportation services and Veenker golf course
- Real estate and capital planning
"I would like work to occur more collaboratively within my division, but also across the divisions that we support," he said. "I want to send a clear message that will provide consistency as we go forward with a customer-centric focus."
Reeder said FPM completed its first phase of a reorganization to create cross-functional teams that provide services to clients. It is a model he hopes to use across all operations and finance units.
Senators asked for more transparency about the increase in allocated costs across the university. They also urged Reeder to encourage communication between his units and those they serve whenever issues arise. Senators said it keeps small problems from becoming larger ones.
Other business
On other agenda items, senators:
- Approved a certificate program in risk management and insurance (PDF) for students from numerous majors and provide a deeper understanding of personal and corporate risk management and the insurance industry.
- Returned the certificate in real estate (PDF) proposal to the finance department in the Ivy College of Business for more discussion on its name. Some senators felt it was too broad.
Senators will vote at the December meeting on:
- Renaming the graduate specialization "Intelligent Infrastructure Engineering" to "Transdisciplinary Infrastructure Engineering" (PDF) in the civil, construction and environmental engineering department. The program will continue to offer specialization flexibility and cover four broad research areas; the new name offers new marketing and recruitment opportunities.
- Removing paraphrased language in the Faculty Handbook regarding consenting relationships and replacing it with a link to the consenting relationships policy in the policy library.
- Removing all but one section on intellectual property of educational materials from the Faculty Handbook and providing a link to the new institutional policy in the policy library. The remaining section in the handbook covers sending required reading and textbook information to the ISU Book Store, which is not covered in the new policy.
