Call to Order

The University Committee met on Tuesday, January 20, 2009 in MOLN D135.  The meeting was called to order at 3:35 p.m. by Dennis Rome, Chair.  Also in attendance were members Herb Colston, Chris Evans and Peggy James.  Gary Wood was present as Secretary of the Faculty.  Committee members Farida Khan and Greg Mayer were excused.

Approval of Minutes

 

It was moved (James) and seconded (Rome) that the minutes from December 9, 2008 be approved as distributed.  The motion passed 4-0-0.

Announcements

Faculty Meeting.  Interim Chancellor Earns has called a special meeting of the faculty on Thursday, February 12, 2009 at 3:30 to discuss budget, strategic planning and the chancellor search and screen process.  The committee decided that the new UW-System guidelines regarding sabbaticals and UW-Parkside procedures for reviewing sabbatical applications should be discussed at the same meeting.

Preference Survey.  The faculty committee preference survey has been distributed.

Meetings with the Chancellor.  Dennis discussed some of his recent meetings with Interim Chancellor Earns.  He noted that Dr. Earns meets with faculty, academic staff, classified staff and student leaders as a group every other week.  Dennis also has one-on-one meetings with the chancellor every other week.

Old Business

Chancellor’s Survey. The discussion regarding data from the recent chancellor’s survey was continued.  There is some concern that the report generated from the survey did not accurately reflect all of the comments that were submitted.  Dennis will inform Prof. Mary Kay Schleiter that the committee would like to see all of the raw data from the survey.

Sabbaticals.  As noted above, we have received new UW-System guidelines regarding sabbaticals.  These need to be reviewed to ensure consistency with our own policies and procedures.  The sabbatical policies and procedures should be added to the agenda of the February 12 faculty meeting. The University Committee needs to organize a sabbatical proposal workshop in March.

Faculty Advocacy.   Members of the committee expressed concern that when faculty are confronted with issues such as complaints against students, other faculty or themselves, it is often unclear who, if anyone, is in a position to serve as an advocate for the faculty member.  It was noted that drawn-out grievance or complaint procedures might be avoided if there were someone to act on behalf of faculty when dealing with, for example, the Dean of Students, the Assistant to the Chancellor for Equity and Diversity or departmental executive committees.  UWPF 1.11 gives some of this responsibility to the Secretary of the Faculty but there was general agreement that UWPF 1.11 does not go far enough.  It was also mentioned that the existing mentoring program for new faculty is vaguely defined and haphazardly implemented at best.  Various models were discussed including an expanded position description for the Secretary, a new position operating from the University Governance office, and a new committee charged with this responsibility.  Whatever the eventual structure, the faculty advocate needs to be someone very knowledgeable in university policies and procedures and able to operate as a neutral ombudsman.  Dennis and Peggy agreed to investigate how other institutions provide this assistance to faculty.  The rest of the committee members were encouraged to do the same.

 New Business

Service Award.  Lori Allen and James Kinchen will be asked to serve on the Faculty Distinguished Service Award review committee as the two most recent recipients.  Dennis and Chris will serve as the representatives from the University Committee.  The dates for submission of nominations and of supporting materials will be moved earlier than in recent years to facilitate the review process.

U.C. Nominations.  A call for University Committee nominations will be sent to faculty this week.  Terms for Dennis and Greg will expire this year.  Stu Hansen will return next year and has one more year on his term.  Chris has been serving in place of Stu.  Herb will need to be replaced for the spring, 2010 semester.

Executive Committees and Department Chairs.  Don Cress has developed recommendations for better defining the roles and responsibilities of department chairs and executive committees and would like to present them at the next senate meeting.  The committee agreed to include an informational presentation on the agenda.  A special invitation to attend will be sent to department chairs.

Strategic Planning Committee.  Dennis will inform the Chancellor that the committee nominates Lori Allen, Norm Cloutier, Laura Gellott, Gail Gonzalez and Bob Sasso to serve on the Strategic Planning Committee.  Faculty from the School of Business and Technology have already been selected by a process that did not involve the University Committee.

Budget Reduction Task Force.   Dennis will inform the Chancellor that the committee nominates Sylvia Beyer, Suresh Chalasani, Norm Cloutier, Mark Eichner, Peggy James and Alex  McNair to serve on the Budget Reduction Task Force.

LGBTQ Advisory Committee.  The committee approved the inclusion of Joe Bergeron, Mary Kay Schleiter and Dean Yohnk on the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee for LGBTQ issues.  Dennis will also recommend that the Chancellor consider Sylvia Beyer based on her research on gender issues, Mary Lenard based on her position as Director of Women’s and Gender Studies and Ed Conrad based on his training in clinical psychology and experience dealing with people with gender identity issues.

Faculty Searches.  There is no new news regarding ongoing faculty searches.  The state budget is likely to be uncertain until mid February when details of the federal stimulus package become available.

Chancellor Search and Screen.  Members of the Chancellor Search and Screen Committee gave a brief report on the progress of that committee.

Next Meeting

The committee will meet again on Tuesday, January 27.  Jerry Greenfield will be invited to discuss reaccreditation and the senate agenda will be approved.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m.