The University Committee met on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 in Molinaro Hall room D135.

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 3:35 p.m. by Dennis Rome, Chair.  Also attending were committee members Herb Colston, Peggy James, Farida Khan and Greg Mayer.  Chris Evans was excused.  Gary Wood was present as Secretary of the Faculty. 

Approval of Minutes

 

Minutes from April 7, 2009 were approved as distributed. 

Announcements

Dennis thanked Peggy, Greg, Herb, and Gary for their work on the chancellor search and screen committee, with special thanks to Greg for serving as chair.

Dennis, Peggy and Gary reported on their meeting with the UW-System consultants who visited the campus to introduce the Inclusive Excellence initiative.  The consultants were interested in finding out about how faculty perceived the new program and whether they were likely to support it. 

Old Business

1.  Charge and membership of the Academic Achievement Assessment Committee.

 

The Academic Achievement Assessment Committee (AAAC) has proposed changes to its membership and charge.  Notable among the changes to the membership are the elimination of specific references to faculty or staff from English and Mathematics and to people with expertise in program evaluation.  The proposed revisions would also change the function of the committee from one that does assessment to one that promotes and facilitates assessment.  There was a strong sentiment among some UC members that the role of the AAAC should be to minimize the assessment work that departments have to do.  After much discussion, it was determined that the University Committee needs to talk about the proposed revisions with members of the AAAC.

 

2.  UWPF Chapter 3 revisions.

Based on the discussions of the proposed revisions to UWPF 3 at the most recent Faculty and Faculty Senate meetings, any changes to the procedures of the Personnel Review Committee (whether or not a PRC member votes on a tenure candidate from his or her own department) should be raised as a separate matter and not linked to the proposed changes to the descriptions of the roles and responsibilities of department chairs and departmental executive committees.  Gary will advise Don Cress to revise the revisions so that PRC procedures are not affected, and then reintroduce the revisions to UWPF 3 next fall.

There was some discussion about how the revised UWPF 3 might affect the nature of a chair’s work.  It makes chairs accountable for a number of specific things, including program assessment.

Peggy asked why the roles and responsibilities of Directors of Centers and programs were not addressed.  Dennis and Gary reported that the ad hoc committee that worked on the revisions to UWPF 3 did discuss the matter of Directors, but the work of the various Center and program directors seems to be so varied that they can’t all be described by a single set of responsibilities.  A group of Center and program Directors should be convened to address this issue separately.

3.  Faculty ombudsman and mediators.

The committee decided to set this item aside for now and then reintroduce it to the new Chancellor. 

New Business

1.  Questions for meetings with the candidates for chancellor.

Questions for the UC meetings with the chancellor candidates were discussed.  Greg will explain how shared governance works in the UW system. 

2.  University Committee report to the new Chancellor.

Each committee member will be asked to contribute a report on one issue.  Specific issues mentioned included admissions/retention/graduation, advising policies and procedures, the disconnection between faculty and student affairs, and the lack of consistency in faculty hiring policies and procedures. (Note:  A different set of issues came up at the April 7 UC meeting.  That list included hiring a new provost, strategic planning, fundraising, new program planning (especially graduate programs), addressing structural concerns in some administrative units and establishing an identity for the institution.)

Gary will ask the chairs of faculty committees if they have any specific issues they would like the new chancellor to address.

3.  Conditional admission policy – First Year Experience Committee.

A draft of a conditional admission policy was presented as an informational item.  The First Year Experience Committee will work with the Academic Policies Committee to formally adopt a policy next fall.

4.  UW-System textbook guidelines.

 

There was no time to discuss this item.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 5:15 p.m.

 

Submitted by,

Gary M. Wood

Secretary of the Faculty