Minutes of the University Committee
for January 20, 2004

Call to Order:

The meeting was called to order at 2:05 PM by Prof Gary Wood, Chair. Present in addition were Sylvia Beyer, Doug DeVinny, Chris Evans, James Kinchen and Don Kummings, members; and Prof Walter Feldt, Secretary of the Faculty.

Business:

Report on Board of Regents Committee Meetings
Prof Wood reported briefly on the "Charting a New Course for the UW System" study of the Board of Regents. See http://www.uwsa.edu/srvpadm/study/index.cfm. Prof Wood and Chancellor Keating are members of the Research and Public Missions group, see http://www.uwsa.edu/srvpadm/study/members.cfm.

Prof Wood said that progress had been slowed by the fact that there has been a large turnover of Board members this year.

Accommodating 7500 Students at UWP by 2010
Discussions of how to accommodate 7500 students at UWP by 2010, with little initial need for staff, were ongoing at several levels, including at the University Planning Council, Prof Wood said.

Some concern was expressed that this would affect workload and also that 7500 might become a target against which UWP is judged, risking an adverse budgetary reaction from UW System.

Legislative Report
Prof Wood reported that a bill to mandate transfer of all credits from the the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) to UW System has been amended to accommodate the Regents policy that will create a specific list of transferrable courses.

He also said that a bill requiring all sabbaticals to be funded by grants and gifts seems to have been dropped, perhaps because of support for the existing sabbatical program from business leaders.

A bill that would have required many more meetings of UWS bodies to be widely announced, Prof Wood said, has been significantly narrowed in scope and will likely be directed strictly to meetings of the Board and its committees.

Faculty Survey of Student Engagement
Prof Wood said that UWP faculty would be asked to respond to a survey coordinated by the National Survey of Student Engagement. For further details, see http://fsse.org/.

Representative on Provost's Cabinet
The Provost's Cabinet meets every two weeks during the academic year. It is comprised of the chief members of the provost's staff, a representative of the department chairs, currently David Holmes, and the chair of the University Committee, or his/her representative.

Because of scheduling problems, Prof Evans has been representing the UC. Both Prof Wood and Prof Evans have conflicts with the cabinet's meeting time. Prof Feldt agreed to represent the UC for spring 2004.

Faculty Workload Policies - Review
Prof Feldt said that two departments have yet to submit their departmental workload policies and their responses to three questions raised by the UC. He said that he hoped that the missing documents would arrive this week. When all documents are compiled, the UC will review the policies to see if the questions raised were answered.

Grade Appeals Procedure
At the request of Dean Cress, the Committee was asked whether a departmental grade review committee could include teaching academic staff. Prof Feldt was asked to check out the current policy and to advise the Committee how a revision might be made.

Student Evaluation of Instruction - Retaining Written Comments
Again at the request of Dean Cress, the Committee was asked how long that student comments need to be retained in the files. [This issue is addressed again at the February 10 meeting.]

Meeting with Provost
The Committee agreed to invite Provost Martin to its next meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, February 3 at 2:00 PM. [After the meeting, the session with Provost Martin was set for February 24.]

Among topics to be discussed are the disposition of departmental workload policies and the proposal to allow enrollments to grow to 7500 students. [Subsequently, the provost asked to talk to the Committee about merit review and salaries.]

Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 3:20 PM.

Respectfully Submitted

Walter T Feldt
Secretary of the Faculty