Minutes of the University Committee
for Tuesday, December 17, 2002

The Committee met at 3:00 in D135 MOLN. Members present were John Buenker, Peggy James, James Kinchen, Don Kummings, Greg Mayer, and Gary Wood. Also present were Larry Duetsch, Gene Goodman, and Rebecca Martin.

Provost Martin addressed the Committee, saying that she wanted to notify them that the decision has been made (despite the current budgetary situation) to begin the installation of a new student information system during the Spring semester. Three reasons were given: support for our current system will (soon) no longer be available and we must do something; the UW System is (still) willing to lend funds to us for adoption of the PeopleSoft system; and most of the UW System has already adopted the new PeopleSoft system. After a short discussion, the Provost and the Interim Associate Vice Chancellor thanked the Committee for
hearing them and left the meeting.

The Committee discussed the apparent inconsistency between the official course drop policy (which is restricted to extraordinary non-academic circumstances after eight weeks) and current practice (which does not seem to be particularly restrictive). It was agreed that the current practice should be reviewed at a future meeting with the members of the Academic Actions Committee, the Academic Actions Officer, the Director of Advising, and the associate deans of the college and school. Several members felt
that the AAC should be asked to develop succinct guidelines that could be printed on the back of the drop form, describing the nature of extraordinary non-academic circumstances for everyone involved.

The Chair reported that the Chancellor had no objection to the survey instrument that will be used to solicit faculty/staff perceptions of administrative performance. It was tentatively agreed that results of the survey should be compiled separately for faculty and instructional academic staff members, and for tenured and untenured faculty members. The survey will be administered early in the Spring semester.

The Committee agreed that its regular meeting time during the Spring 2003 semester would be at 2:00 on Tuesdays, beginning January 21.

The Committee voted unanimously to go into closed session under Wis. Stat. 19.85(1)(f) to consider the appointment of the Secretary of the Faculty.

The meeting adjourned at 4:30.