Minutes of the University Committee
for September 8, 2003

Call to Order: The meeting of the committee year was called to order at 3:15 PM by Prof Gary Wood, Chair. Present in addition were Doug DeVinny, Christine Evans, James Kinchen and Don Kummings, members; and Prof Walter Feldt, Secretary of the Faculty. Prof Sylvia Beyer was excused. Also present, for portions of the meeting, were Provost Rebecca Martin and Prof Greg Mayer.

Business: Faculty Workload

Last year, the department chairs were asked to submit their departmental workload policies to the University Committee. These policies serve to implement PSF 11/95-96, the campus workload policy. In particular, the chairs were asked to address three points ...

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 service (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?
In Spring 2003, the UC formed subcommittees to review these departmental submissions. The work is ongoing with new subcommittees formed to replace members whose terms on the committee expired in August. The committee agreed to consider subcommittee reports on this matter at its September 22nd meeting. Prof Greg Mayer, a member of the 2002-03 UC, and Prof Wood reported on some calculations they had performed concerning credit hour teaching load. They used data compiled at the end of the second week of classes each semester. This is the official data used by UW System. To avoid biasing their data, they omitted consideration of Art, Music and Theatre. These departments use "non-standard" measures of faculty activity. They calculated a mean teaching laod of 18.01 credits for 2002-03. Members were curious how this number compared to previous years. Profs Wood and Mayer agreed to work on earlier years for which data is readily available and report back to the committee.Conference with Provost Rebecca Martin

Provost Rebecca Martin met with the committee to discuss several issues....First of all, she expressed a desire to be invited regularly to share information and keep communication lines open.

She talked about the work of the Committee on Academic Planning (CAP) in the 2002-03 committee year. She said that she met early in the year with the faculties of academic departments being reviewed.

One major action she is taking, based on CAP's review, and after consultation with the department faculty, is to suspend most offerings in the Department of Engineering (discipline code ENGR). Exceptions will be those courses which serve the computer engineering concentration in the computer science program. Most ENGR courses, in recent years, have been running single-digit enrollments and, while some fall courses were up in enrollment, the overall picture remains bleak. Affected faculty members are being reassigned to teaching courses in the Department of Business.

Provost Martin is not recommending the dissolution of the department at this time and she said that she is hopeful that a
cooperative program with UW-Milwaukee will, eventually, result in UWM's mechanical engineering program being offered at UW-Parkside. A similar arrangement in nursing has been quite successful. Other possible initiatives include establishing an Associate degree program in engineering science and resurrecting a proposal for a B S in engineering management.

In response to a question, the provost said that the cost savings would not be that great and would consist of money saved by displacing adjunct instructors. She went on to say that cost savings was not the main reason for taking this action, per se.

Another question was raised about what breadth of offerings UW-Parkside must maintain in order to be considered a university.
The provost said that this is a concern.

The 2002-03 CAP held a day-long retreat in June, ending with a frank discussion with the provost. Some programs were considered "at risk," primarily those with low enrollments. These programs were targeted for a thorough review in 2003-04. There was also discussion about capping enrollments and resources for some programs lest other programs be left with less than minimal support.

Provost Martin said that the Program Appraisal Framework would continue this year, with modifications based on CAP recommendations. She has a draft of a new framework ready for CAP consideration. This year, department chairs will be provided with data generated by the administration and offered the opportunity to react to it.

The provost mentioned that would like to meet further with the UC to discuss the Hallmarks Project and the American Democracy Project (ADP). She suggested that Associate Provost Jerry Greenfield be invited to join the Hallmarks discussion and that Prof Anne Statham join in the discussion of the ADP.

Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 1:05 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
Walter T. Feldt
Secretary of the Faculty