The September 11, 2007 meeting of the University Committee was called to order in Moln D135 by Dennis Rome, Chair. Also attending were members Chris Evans, Stu Hansen, Peggy James, Frances Kavenik, and Greg Mayer. E. Zepp was present as Secretary of the Faculty. Guests were Doug DeVinny and Gary Wood.

1) Call to Order:
The meeting was called to order at 3:35 P.M.

2) Minutes:
The minutes of the meeting of May 11, 2007 were approved as amended.

3) Announcements:
a) Members should be sure to keep Tuesdays at 3:30 P.M. clear for U.C.
meetings in the spring.
b) The Chair announced that an outside consultant has been hired to look at
Computing Services.
c) The Chair asked is someone could attend the first Faculty Reps meeting in
Madison on Friday, September 28th, as he will be out of town.

4) Unfinished Business:

a) Honors Program—Prof. Gary Wood, guest, reported that 24 persons are enrolled in the Honors Seminar. Prof. Kavenik noted that Prof. Wood had attended every Orientation during the summer in order to sign up students. The paired course—Honors Seminar model was discussed. Prof. DeVinny, guest, noted that Dean Schnaubelt is very interested in establishing a civic honors program. A good speaker’s Forum would be valuable. Prof. James noted that she has maintained an Honors Journal when she directed the program. Prof. Kavenik noted the establishment of an Adult Student Honor Society.
Prof. Wood left the meeting.

Members voted 6-0-0 to suspend the agenda in order to hear from Prof. DeVinny re: New Business a):

Prof. DeVinny reported on the effort to draft a document on a Spousal & Domestic Partner Hiring Policy. An opportunity arose during the summer to fill a position, which had already been approved, in a beneficial way for the spouse, the department and university. Members expressed concerns about diversity and conflicts of interest when spouses are part of the same department. Prof. James noted the problem of doing something and then writing a policy to justify what was done.
Prof. DeVinny next reported on the Director of General Education/Co-Director of the First-Year Experience position. Prof. Allen will leave the position at the end of this semester. The new description creates a 12-month position. It was noted that this person needs equal access to the First-Year Experience funds, and needs more staff support (Tara Schmidt’s position needs to be expanded).
Prof. DeVinny reported on the Advising Center Task Force, which was created after the review of the Advising Center and the report of the outside consultant. He noted that the first meeting of the Task Force had not been very productive and spoke about the way in which Whitewater has organized its advising process. We need better communication between Admissions, Advising, the Registrar’s Office, Financial aid, and the Career Center. The process needs to be completed in six weeks.
Prof. DeVinny left the meeting.
Members noted that they would like all three of these items to be placed on the Senate Agenda as discussion items.

The agenda was resumed.

4) Unfinished Business:

b) Steve McLaughlin committee on student code of conduct—no news

c) Tenured part-time faculty and family leave issues—no further action.

d) Conflicts between UWP Administrative Policy # 54 (and # 36 and # 51) and UWPF Chapter 7 and/or UWS. A number of these issues are being addressed.

e) Committee appointments: approval of late appointments:
Karen Crooker: Graduate Studies
Mark Eichner: CAP
Linda Crafton: CoTL
Vera Kolb-Gregory: Academic Achievement Assessment Committee
These appointments were approved.

f) Administrator evaluations—the Scantron sheets need to be preprinted with
an identifier so they can be sorted according to the person being evaluated.

g) “Hiring Committee”—Prof. Mayer noted that members are sending their
comments on the draft of the report of the committee to the Chancellor, so
there are no final results as yet.
Committee members again expressed concerns about complaints about
faculty and the lack of time limits on such investigations.


5) New Business:

b) Dean Ebeid: Request to approve augmentation of the E.C. for the
Department of Computer Science: Laura Gellott (History) and Paul
Mohazzabi (Physics). This request was approved 4 for, 0 against, and 2 abstentions.

c) Fall First Fridays: Oct. 5, Nov. 2, and Dec. 7.
Dean Ebeid has kindly agreed to fund the first First Friday October 5th.

d) Fall Calendar: Senate Oct. 23; Faculty meeting Oct. 25: conflict??
Members saw no reason these two meetings could not occur in the same
week.

e) Sabbatical Review Committee
Given the Sept. 19 deadline for sabbatical proposals, a Fall workshop did not
appear feasible. A reminder to the next Sabbatical Review Committee to
hold a spring workshop should come from the governance office. Likewise, PRC needs to be reminded to hold a Spring workshop for Chairs and potential tenure candidates.

f) Approval of Senate agenda—The Agenda was approved with the deletion
of several suggested “old business” items.

g) Appointment of the Notestein Committee—given several developments,
the Committee voted to seek legal counsel before proceeding.

6) Miscellaneous Business:
There was no further business.

7) The meeting was adjourned at 5:45 P.M.

Submitted by Evelyn Zepp, Secretary of the Faculty