1) Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by Dennis Rome, Chair, at 3:37 P.M.  Also attending were members Chris Evans, Stu Hansen, Fran Kavenik, and Greg Mayer.  Evelyn Zepp was present as Secretary of the Faculty.  Jerry Greenfield and Jim Robinson were guests. 

 

2) Minutes:

The Minutes of the Meeting of February 26, 2008 were approved 5-0-0.

 

Members voted 5-0-0 to suspend the agenda in order to accommodate Interim Provost Greenfield 

 

5) New Business:

 

a) Meeting with Jerry Greenfield, Interim Provost

     I.P. Greenfield discussed a confidential matter with the U.C. members.

 

     I.P. Greenfield also discussed the Early Warning Initiative: an intervention with first year students during the first semester to keep them from ending up on probation.  The first meeting of this group has taken place.  Discussion included having attendance taken regularly at all Academic Skills classes and having some type of graded exercise within the first three weeks of classes.  The group would also like to use a selection of 100-level classes with the highest enrollment of first-year students to have a similar intervention.  There will be a team approach—advisor, mentor, conversations with the faculty member.  The last element of the troika would be a real summer bridge program. The importance of lower class size in first year courses was also discussed.  We lose more money in the students who leave us, in part because of large classes, than we gain from the large classes.  We need advising that is engaged with the instructor.

 

     Concerns over the bookstore transition were also addressed.  The bookstore will be closed for five days, and will then reopen under the new management.

 

Interim Provost Greenfield left the meeting at 4:13 P.M. and the agenda was resumed.  

 

3) Announcements

There were no announcements.  The April and May First Fridays were briefly discussed. 

 

4) Unfinished Business:

 

a) Status of Administrator evaluations

Prof. Rome is working on making summaries from Prof. James’s analysis.  The administrators will then be invited to visit with the U.C.

 

b) U.C. report for incoming Chancellor

No action was taken on this item.

 

c) Chancellor Search and Screen Committee

Prof. Evans reported that there are 33 applicants now, although some of the applications are incomplete.  The interviews to determine the 12 finalists will be April 18th and 19th.  Everything is on track.

 

d) Proposed Gateway Technical College-UWP 1+ 3 Articulation Program

Prof. Kavenik reported on the General Education Committee’s discussion, which mirrored closely the memo from Laura Gellott, Chair of APC.  Both committees felt that information provided was insufficient—particularly concerning the lack of real syllabi.  This will be an agenda item at the next Faculty Representatives meeting, and Prof. Rome will use Prof. Gellott’s memo as a starting point for a response. 

 

5) New Business:

 

              b) Approval of all-faculty election ballot

              The members voted 5-0-0 to approve the ballot as prepared by the Secretary of the Faculty.  Members suggested speaking to Department Chairs in order to encourage more participation in governance.

             

              c) Resolution to support Budget Proposal: “Advantage Wisconsin: Growing the

    Research Infrastructure”

Vanaja Menon, Library Director, will speak at the next Senate on this proposal.

Members voted their support 5-0-0 of the proposal and directed the Secretary of the Faculty to prepare a resolution expressing this support for the next Senate meeting.

 

              d) Revision of the charge to CAP as mandated by the Faculty Senate 3-11-09.

              Since the next Senate meeting is not until April 22nd, the members decided to postpone this item until after discussion at the Faculty Meeting.

 

              e) Faculty Meeting Thursday, April 3rd.

                   The CAP charge will be placed on the agenda for this meeting.  It was also suggested that Maria Martinez be contacted to see if she would like to report on progress on the campus discussion of safety issues.

 

 

6) Miscellaneous Business

There was no additional business.

 

7) Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 P.M. 

 

Submitted by Evelyn Zepp, Secretary of the Faculty