The University Committee met on Tuesday, March 3, 2009 in Molinaro Hall room D135.

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 3:40 p.m. by the Chair, Dennis Rome.  Also attending were committee members Herb Colston, Peggy James and Farida Khan.  Chris Evans and Greg Mayer were excused.  Rob Barber, new committee member for 2009-2010, also attended.  Gary Wood was present as Secretary of the Faculty. 

 

Approval of Minutes

 

The minutes from February 24 were approved as distributed.

 

Announcements

Nominations are being solicited for the Community-Engaged Learning and Research Award.

 

Election of Chair for 2009-2010

Dennis Rome nominated Peggy James to serve as chair of the University Committee for 2009-2010.  The motion was seconded by Herb Colston.  The nomination was accepted.  There were no other nominations.  Peggy was elected by a unanimous voice vote.

Lisa Kornetsky was nominated by Farida Khan to serve as vice chair of the University Committee for 2009-2010.  Herb Colston seconded the nomination.  The nomination was accepted.  There were no other nominations.  Lisa was elected by a unanimous voice vote.

(Note:  Lisa Kornetsky was not in attendance.  She was consulted prior to the meeting and agreed to accept this nomination.)

 

Old Business

1.     Following up on the committee’s previous discussions regarding merit pay, Gary Wood reported that some years ago there was a transparent method for translating department-assigned merit scores into pay raises.  Scores were normalized across departments and the pool of merit dollars was distributed one half according to a fixed dollar amount and one half according to a percent of current salary amount.  We do not know if this practice is still being followed.

2.     The committee reviewed the revised guidelines for review of sabbatical proposals and agreed to include this item on the March 10 senate agenda.  The document will be forwarded to the provost and the deans prior to the senate meeting.

        It was noted that the UW-system administration does not give each institution specific directions regarding the number of sabbaticals that may be awarded.

 

New Business

1.     Acting on a request from the provost, the committee recommended the following faculty members be appointed to a reaccreditation team.

Rob Barber, representing the University Committee and the Committee on Academic Planning.

Dean Yohnk, representing the Committee on Academic Planning and the First Year Experience Committee.

Rizvana Zameeruddin representing the Academic Achievement Assessment Committee.

Anne Gurnack, representing the General Education Committee.

Mary Kay Schleiter, representing the Committee on Academic Planning.

 

2.     The committee considered proposed revisions to the Communication major for inclusion on the March 10 senate agenda.  Rob Barber reported that CAP had reviewed these changes.  Some of the new concentrations are heavily dependant on a single faculty member, but the new concentrations do seem to be a sensible way of organizing the program.  The committee agreed to include this item on the senate agenda.

3.     The committee considered the authorization to implement a new degree program in Sustainable Management for inclusion on the March 10 senate agenda.  Rob Barber reported that CAP had reviewed this new program.  There were questions about the UW-P “home” of this program.  Although it seems to be a business program it will not be housed in the Business department to avoid conflicts with AACSB.  The proposal states that the courses will be offered through the College of Arts and Sciences.  The relationship between this program and the Environmental Studies program was unclear.  Rob reported that the external reviewers had some concerns.  He also reported that the participating campuses had agreed to divide students equally.  The committee noted that the approval process for this program was a bit rushed, and agreed to include this item on the senate agenda.

4.     The March 10, 2009 Faculty Senate agenda was approved.

5.     The committee discussed the practice of administrators making changes to academic programs without consulting the faculty involved in those programs.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 5:05 p.m.

Submitted by,

Gary M. Wood

Secretary of the Faculty