Minutes of the University Committee
for February 26, 2002

The Committee met at 2:05 in D135 MOLN. Members present were Susan Haller, Peggy James, James Kinchen, Don Kummings and Greg Mayer. Also present were John Buenker, Larry Duetsch and Gary Wood.

Committee members discussed Professor Kinchen's proposal that they conduct a periodic survey of faculty perceptions of the performance of key administrators. (Such a survey was last completed in November 2000.) Several members said this should be done routinely at 2- to 3-year intervals, not at times when particular concerns have prompted calls for such a survey. There was agreement that such a survey should be conducted again in February 2003. The Secretary of the Faculty was instructed to bring this matter up for action by the University Committee in the Fall of this year.

The members of the 2002-03 Committee (Buenker, James, Kinchen, Kummings, Mayer and Wood) elected their Chair for 2002-03. Professor James said she was not seeking to continue as Chair and offered to yield to any other candidate. Professor Kinchen cited the leadership and creative thought she has shown during her current term as Chair and urged her to continue. After other Committee members indicated their agreement with this assessment, Professor James was elected Chair for 2002-03 without opposition. The 2002-03 Committee then elected Professor Buenker to be Vice Chair for 2002-03. Professors Buenker and Wood left the meeting at
this point.

The Committee resumed its discussion of Dean Cress' draft proposal to create a College Council. There was agreement that language used in the proposal should be modified to avoid any suggestion that the Council would be a governance body or in any way assume duties and powers that are within the domain of the College faculty under UWPF 2.03. A revised proposal was agreed to and the Secretary of the Faculty was directed to relay it to Dean Cress along with its rationale.

Professor James reported on the progress of the Working Group the Committee created to examine the implementation of PSF 11/95-96. She noted that they are taking their charge very seriously and may develop guidelines to achieve more equitable implementation of the policy. In any event, this initiative is already causing the departments to more carefully examine individual workloads.

The meeting adjourned at 3:00.