The University Committee met on Tuesday, September 1, 2009 in Molinaro Hall room D135.

 

Call to Order

 

The meeting was called to order at 3:35 p.m. by the Chair, Peggy James.  Also in attendance were committee members Rob Barber, Herb Colston, Stu Hansen, Farida Khan and Lisa Kornetsky. Gary Wood was present as Secretary of the Faculty.  Greg Mayer was an invited guest.

Approval of Minutes

Minutes from May 19 and August 11, 2009 were approved with one correction of a spelling error.

  

Announcements

 

Old Business

  

New Business

First Year Experience (FYE) Committee Appointments

 

Damian Evans and Christine Tutlewski were reappointed to three year terms as Academic Staff members of the FYE committee.  Susan Hawkins-Wilding was appointed as the third Academic Staff member of the committee to complete the last year of Theron Snell’s term.  Suzanne Swiderski was appointed to the committee, ex officio, in her role as Faculty Director of the FYE.  Deann Possehl and Mary Louise Edwards remain members of the committee, ex officio.

 

Human Subjects Committee Appointments

 

Karen  Crooker was recommended for appointment to the Human Subjects Committee.  It was noted that there are several members of this committee whose terms expired in 2009 and need to be reappointed or replaced.

 

Criminal Justice Department Executive Committee Augmentation

 

The Committee recommended that Scott Thomson, Biological Sciences, be reappointed to the augmented Criminal Justice Departmental Executive Committee.

 

English Department Executive Committee Augmentation

 

The Committee recommended that Alan Goldsmith, Art, be appointed to the augmented English Departmental Executive Committee.

 

Stu Hansen noted that there are already three tenured faculty in the English Department and that augmentation of a three person committee is permitted but not required.  He suggested that UWPF might be amended to provide some guidance in this area.

 

Geosciences Department Executive Committee Augmentation

 

The Committee recommended that Paul Mohazzabi, Physics, be appointed to the augmented Geosciences Department Executive Committee.

 

Stu Hansen noted that there are already three tenured faculty in the English Department and that augmentation of a three person committee is permitted but not required.  He suggested that UWPF might be amended to provide some guidance in this area.

 

Faculty Representatives to Attend Provost’s Cabinet Meetings

 

Peggy James reported that she, in her role as Chair of the University Committee, is the only faculty member that regularly attends meetings of the Provost’s Cabinet.  Interim Provost Greenfield has said that he would welcome attendance by a second faculty member.  The Secretary of the Faculty will conduct an informal election among Department Chairs to select this person.

 

Community Based Scholarship Reporting on Annual Summary

 

Helen Rosenberg, Sociology Anthropology and Faculty Director of Community Based Learning and Research has requested that the Faculty Senate consider modifying the instrument used for creating annual summaries so that certain teaching and research activities can be more easily identified as community based learning or community based scholarship.  The committee discussed the need for such a reporting mechanism and recognized that it would be useful for identifying and keeping track of these activities.  The committee determined that this change to the reporting mechanism does not require formal action by the Faculty Senate and will add it to the agenda of the September 15 Faculty Senate meeting as an informational item.

 

UWPF Chapter 3 Revisions

 

Given the late hour, discussion of this item was postponed.

Faculty Hiring Policies and Procedures

 

The latest version of the UW-Parkside Administration’s procedures and policies for faculty search and screen and hiring was reviewed.  Several inconsistencies with UWS 3.02 were discussed, the most important of which are noted here.

 

              The policy was developed by the administration, not by faculty.

 

Experience and expertise should be the most important criteria for determining the membership of the Search and Screen Committee.

 

The Executive Committee should not be required to submit an unranked list of finalists to the Administration.  It should be allowed to give its positive recommendation for one or more candidates as it sees fit.

 

In general, the decision making process should be placed more in the hands of the Search and Screen and Executive Committees and less in the hands of the administration.

 

Beyond these policy issues, whatever procedures are in place need to be applied more consistently then they have been in recent years.

 

It was also noted that the initial setting of required qualifications for a positions is a very important step in development of the PAR and that the Executive Committee should have more authority in determining those qualifications.

 

Peggy James and Gary Wood will work on a revised draft for discussion at the next meeting.

Report on Provost’s Cabinet Meeting

 

Peggy James reported that additional faculty have been added to the strategic planning group and the timeline for the work of that group has been modified.  The planning consultant has proposed that a plan be brought to the Faculty Senate in the spring.  Five subcommittees have been charged with interviewing various stakeholder groups.

 

The Teacher Education Program has been given conditional approval by the Department of Public Instruction.

Adjournment

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

 

Submitted by,

Gary M. Wood

Secretary of the Faculty