Minutes of the University Committee
for September 22, 2003

Call to Order:
The meeting was called to order at 12:06 PM 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. Prof Chris Evans was excused.

Business:

Evaluation of Administrators - Follow-Up
Prof Wood said that he had prepared a summary of the evaluation by the faculty and teaching academic staff of Chancellor, Dean Wafa and Dean Cress. The survey instrument was sent out and returned in the spring of 2003 and the results were first discussed by the Committee late in the spring semester. The provost was not reviewed due to her short tenure on campus.

He said that the summaries were difficult to prepare, in some cases, because of the low rate of return. After some discussion, minor changes were suggested for the summaries. Prof Wood will discuss the survey results with each of the rated administrators and the chancellor in upcoming weeks.

A summary of the results will also be sent to the faculty and staff.

Appointments of Faculty Members to the University Planning Council
In response to a request from the chancellor's office, the Committee prepared a list of nominees for the faculty seats on the
University Planning Council designated for UC appointment. Additional faculty appointments are made by the deans and the UC chair and Senate chair serve ex officio.

In preparing its slate, the Committee took into account the length of previous service on the UPC. The Committee agreed that it was desirable to limit service for its appointees to four consecutive years.

In a related matter, the Committee asked the Secretary of the Faculty to continue his probe into lengths of terms and overall service time for faculty members on a myriad of other administrative committees. This will be discussed further at an upcoming meeting.

Augmenting Executive Committees - Ethics Considerations
The Committee continued a discussion of the necessity or desirability of augmenting departmental executive committees when a
conflict of interest does or may exist to to two or more members being a part of an immediate family, as defined in UWS 8. See the minutes of the September 15 meeting.

The matter was kept on the table pending further review from UWS System Counsel.

In a related matter, the Committee thought it best to add any augmented executive committee members from related disciplines. This would be best achieved by using the electoral divisions.

Faculty Workload - Departmental Workload Policies
The Committee began discussions of the departmental workload policies submitted last spring. See also the minutes of the September 8 meeting which give the questions that were to be addressed by each department.

It was noted that releases for department chairs were inconsistent and typically phrased as releases from an 18 hour load, not 21.

While some progress was made in the review, it was noted that some members had the wrong information in their file. Prof Feldt said that this would be corrected shortly. At that point, the review will resume.

Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 1:10 PM

Respectfully Submitted,
Walter T Feldt