Minutes of the University Committee
for March 1, 2005

 

The meeting was called to order at 2:05 PM by Prof Gary Wood, Chair.
Present in addition were Profs Sylvia Beyer, Doug DeVinny, Susan Haller, James Kinchen, Paul Mohazzabi and Gary Wood, members, and, for a short time, Prof Andries Schutte, guest.

Business

Sabbatical Leave - Criteria and Process

For the first time in many years, the number of applications for sabbatical leave exceeded the number that could reasonably be given. As a result, the criteria and the selection process were questioned by some faculty. The Committee and the Provost had agreed to initiate a review of the criteria and the selection process in time to be implemented for
2006-07 awards. Under the current schedule, the campus would have to select recipients by October 2005.

Prof Wood said that, consistent with the Committee's suggestions, an ad hoc committee had been constructed and that he would be meeting with this group shortly to discuss their charge. It was further suggested that the ad hoc committee invite input from the faculty as it forms its recommendations. April 15 was suggested as a report date.

The ad hoc committee consists of Profs Cress, Kavenik, Shailor, Statham and Wolf. [The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 10 at 2:30 in Moln D135.]

Common Deadline for Awards

Prof Wood said that he met with representative of the various bodies responsible for selecting recipients of the faculty advising, research and creative activity service and teaching awards, the academic staff service award and the classified staff service award. The purpose was to see if the various groups could settle on a common deadline for nominations, and, possibly, consolidate some of the process and publicity.

He said that it would be difficult to use a common application form given the differences in the selection processes. Most likely, a common deadline date will be the outcome of this consultation.

Evaluation of Administrators

The Committee decided that it would like to continue a process of biennially surveying the faculty and teaching academic staff concerning their views of the performance of the senior academic administrators, i.e.
the chancellor, provost and deans. When this was last done two years ago, the provost was not evaluated since she had just arrived on campus. This year, Dean Wafa would not be evaluated since he is leaving.

A summary of the results would be prepared and shared with those rated.
The raters would be given an executive summary of the results for all administrators...

Prof Feldt agreed to send out the evaluation instruments last used so that committee members could review the forms and suggest changes.

Prof Wood agreed to ask the provost for a job description in order to construct an appropriate form.

Secretary of the Faculty Recruitment

Prof Feldt said that he had provided Prof Wood with a first draft of a call for applications for the position of Secretary of the Faculty. The Committee discussed several possible faculty members that they might invite to consider the position.

Faculty Senate Resolutions

Two resolutions involving domestic partnership benefits and a proposed definition of marriage were approved at the February 15 meeting of the Faculty Senate. It was agreed to submit these to Lenny Klaver, Assistant Vice Chancellor for University Relations, who, in turn will distribute them to the appropriate officials at the UW System and state government.

General Education Committee Vacancies

Prof Feldt reported that he was having difficulty finding individuals willing to accept appointment to the General Education Committee. Several additional potential appointees were suggested.

University Committee Election

Prof Feldt said that ballots for the University Committee election were due on March 2. Ballots will be counted on March 3 and the winners will be invited to attend next week's meeting at which time the 2005-06 committee will elect a chair.

First Friday Reincarnation

While discussed at the last meeting, the Committee reached no conclusion concerning the funding of a First Friday event. Further discussion resulted in an agreement to approach Deans Cress and Wafa for modest contributions to support a wine and cheese social for faculty and teaching academic staff.

It was agreed to schedule the event for Friday, April 1, from 2:30 to 5:30 PM. Possible locations included the Com Arts Gallery area and the new Teaching and Learning Center contained in the Library.

Prof Feldt agreed to talk with the Deans and to set up the event.

Circumstances Allowing Augmentation of Executive Committees

Prof Feldt conveyed a message from Dean Cress stating that the Department of Mathematics wished to augment its executive committee by adding extra-departmental members. Prof Feldt advised Dean Cress that this was not permissible under UWPF 3.04 and 3.08. Once a department had three or more tenured faculty members, these faculty members constitute the executive committee. UWPF 3.08, he continued, calls for augmentation when a department falls below three tenured faculty members. When an executive committee is augmented, there is no limit on the number of additional members and there have been several examples where the dean requested more additional members than need to raise the membership to three.

Furthermore, no compelling reason for an augmentation was presented. If one existed, there would, nevertheless, have to be an amendment to the Faculty Policies and Procedures. Last year, to resolve an ethics question, the Committee did authorize a part-time augmentation in Computer Science for merit review purposes only.

The Committee agreed to this resolution and invited Dean Cress to provide further information.

Use of Earlier Merit Ratings for Compensation Adjustments

Prof Wood said that he had been approached by a faculty member suggesting that since there had been minimal salary increases in the last two years, that merit ratings for 2002 and 2003 be combined in some fashion with those for 2004 when distributing any merit portion of the compensation package for 2005-07. The Committee asked Prof Wood to talk with Provost Martin concerning this issue and to ask the provost to communicate with the chair concerning the distribution of the upcoming compensation increase.

Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 3:40 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,

Walter T Feldt
SECRETARY OF THE FACULTY
University of Wisconsin - Parkside
Kenosha, WI 53141-2000
Voice 262.595.2483
Fax 262.595.2607