Minutes of the University Committee
for September 15, 2003

Call To Order:

The meeting was called to order by Prof Gary Wood, Chair. Present in addition were Profs Sylvia Beyer, Doug DeVinny, James Kinchen and Don Kummings, members; and Prof Walter Feldt, Secretary of the Faculty.

Business:

Departmental Workload Policies

Committee members were reminded to review the materials submitted by the departments in spring 2003 in response to a request from the UC. This request asked the departments to make sure that their policies addressed these three questions:

1. What level of activities is considered sufficient to meet the 1-3 credit reduction for scholarship and/or creative activity (specifically mentioned in the policy)?

2. What heavier than normal activities in teaching and/or services (or other situations) might lead to a reduction in load? (E.g., supervision of independent studies, internships, departmental responsibilities)

3. Under what circumstances would a faculty member go below 18 credits?

The UC had been divided into three subcommittees of two members each to review the submissions. This was not completed last year, thus reassignments were necessary. The old and new assignments are as follows:

2002-03 UC	2003-04 UC
Buenker James	DeVinny Beyer	HPEA, PSYCH, SOCA, TEDU, CRMJ, ECON, HIST, POLS, BUS
Mayer Wood	Evans Wood	BIOS, CHEM, GEOS, MATH, PHYS, GEOG, CSCI, ENGR
Kinchen Kummings	Kinchen Kummings	ART, THEA, MUS, COMM, ENGL, MODL, PHIL

In view of some complications became apparent after the meeting, this review will have to be delayed a week or two to make sure that subcommittees have the proper documents.Augmenting Executive Committees - Conflict of Interest

The current UWP Faculty Policies and Procedures provide for augmenting executive committees when the number of eligible faculty in a department is less than three. UWS Chapter 8 provides that immediate family members may not act on personnel issues involving another member of the family unit. In the computer science department, this year's executive committee consists of Profs Fossum, Haller (spouse of Fossum) and Hansen, with Profs Fossum and Haller being immediate family. This would leave only Prof Hansen to act on personnel matters concerning the Fossums and only Profs Fossum and Haller to act on matters concerning Prof Hansen. Another factor, is that Prof Hansen could not act on matters affecting his spouse, Ericka Eddy, a lecturer in CS. The Committee had extensive discussion on how to address this problem. Prof Feldt proposed that family units be counted as one member with respect to deciding upon whether augmentation is necessary. This would automatically require augmentation in the current situation. This suggestion would still give each member a vote, but would address both the scarcity of members available to act and the possibility that having related members gives the appearance of a conflict; in the above situation, a controlling block. Most of the discussion was on this latter point. Can we assume that members of a family unit will vote alike through common interest? Doubts were expressed that this would be the case, but there is also the issue of appearance of conflict. Prof Feldt reported, after a conference with UWS System Counsel, that it is clear that under UWS 8 and the spirit of our augmentation policy, we can augment the committee when it considers situations that drop the voting members to one. Some Committee members thought this was an awkward solution, i.e. having part-time augmented members. Another possible solution that would solve this rare problem is to increase the minimum size of an executive committee, but this could result in the need to augment many additional committees, given the small faculty, 126, relative to the number of departments, 24. The issue remains unresolved and will be discussed further after additional input from UW System Counsel.Vacancies on Elected Faculty Committees due to Repeated Absences At the suggestion of the General Education Committee, the Committee agreed to propose the following to the Faculty Senate:Create:
UWPF 4.04(8)(e) The chair of a faculty committee, or a majority of its voting members, may, after three consecutive unexcused absences of a member filling an elected seat, at a regularly scheduled meeting at which a quorum is present, request the University Committee to declare the seat vacant, and invoke the procedure provided in subparagraph (a). The University Committee shall confer with the affected member before taking action.(See http://uwp.edu/staff/gov/facpp/chap4.html for the provisions referenced.)Administrative Committees - Terms of Faculty Appointments Prof Feldt expressed concern that faculty appointments to administrative committees appeared not to have terms. See
http://uwp.edu/staff/gov/admin/admin.htm for a list of administrative committees and the memberships. This item was held over.Enrollment Management Team - Vacancy The Committee appointed a faculty member to fill a vacancy on the Enrollment Management Team - an administrative committee.Criminal Justice Executive Committee - Augmentation The Committee normally handles confirmation of the dean's choices for augmentation of executive committees via e-mail, unless a member raises a question. In this case, Committee deliberation was required. The choices of the dean were confirmed and the dean and the department were informed.Teacher Preparation Governance Structure Prof Wood, who is chair of the Teacher Preparation Programs Work Group, said that his group had developed a draft report for Faculty Senate consideration. The report suggests a structure for the Teacher Preparation Steering Committee. Two hearings were scheduled to allow the campus community to offer input before a final report is submitted to the Senate. A separate mailing
to the governance list indicates the times of these sessions.Spring Meeting Time Members were reminded to keep 2:00 - 3:30 PM on Tuesdays open for UC meetings in spring semester 2004.Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 1:15 PM.

Respectfully submitted,
Walter T Feldt
Secretary of the Faculty