The University Committee met on Tuesday, September 8, 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.  Chancellor Ford and Interim Associate Provost Dennis Rome were invited guests.

Approval of Minutes

 

The minutes from the meeting of September 1, 2009 were approved with two corrections.

Announcements

Old Business

Faculty Hiring Policies and Procedures

Chancellor Ford was invited to the meeting to discuss the University Committee’s suggested revisions to faculty hiring policies and procedures.

Peggy James related the history of the controversy surrounding faculty hiring policies and procedures, noting in particular the 2007 Faculty Senate resolution that explicitly criticized and did not endorse the document that became administrative policy 80. 

Chancellor Ford stated her desire to move ahead on this issue, preferably quickly.  She then distributed a faculty hiring policies and procedures document given to her two weeks earlier at the UW-System Chancellors and Administrators retreat.  She was told at the time that this was the document that the UW-System administration has prepared for us.  The Chancellor noted that she wants to give the Human Resources Office a greater role in faculty hiring.  They should be more consultative in the process and carry out some of the equity and diversity compliance work.

Stu Hansen suggested that the committee would need time to review the new document. 

It was suggested that the multiple references to the Office of Equity and Diversity (OED) be changed to “OED and Human Resources” (HR), and that there should be a timeline not only for the search and screen committee’s tasks, but for the various OED/HR approvals.  Peggy James noted that it is typically not the department or the search committee that needs prodding, rather the various administrative units that are supposed to give approvals at various stages.  She also noted that the document contains too much management of the decision making process; for example, it requires candidates to be placed in three tiers and the submission of an unranked list of finalists.  Farida Khan suggested the unranked list may be a legal measure to avoid situations where a committee’s ranking is changed by a member of the administration and the candidate who was demoted from the top later discovers what happened.  The Chancellor said she realizes that this is still an issue and that she would consult with the UW-System legal office for advice regarding finalists lists.  Rob Barber explained that in some faculty searches the Department Executive Committee puts forward one candidate at a time as a way of circumventing the unranked list.

Stu Hansen noted that there is also a problem with the hiring of academic staff, for which there are no written policies and procedures and practice has varied widely.

Peggy James added that the process for hiring one-semester Associate Lecturers (adjuncts) should not be made too complex.

Rob Barber said the new document involves the OED at multiple levels, far beyond approving the initial pool of candidates. This is in direct conflict with the 2007 Faculty Senate resolution on faculty hiring policies and procedures and with the revised policies and procedures currently under review by the University Committee.  Dennis Rome said that the new document also involves the HR office.

The rest of the discussion focused on the proper role for OED in faculty searches and the fact that OED has not treated searches uniformly.  Assertive search and screen committees that know the laws and rules of Wis. Stat., UWS and UWPF are usually less controlled by OED.   It was generally agreed that OED should guide and assist the search process, but not control it and certainly not impede it.

The University Committee will review the latest document, suggest revisions and then meet again to discuss it with the Chancellor.

The Chancellor suggested that the HR Director, Sylvia Coronado, could attend a University Committee or Faculty Senate meeting to explain the role of her office in the search and screen process.

New Business

Teacher Preparation Steering Committee (TPSC)

 

Dennis Rome told the committee that the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has indicated that the TPSC is not a proper administrative structure for teacher education, and that the Teacher Education Department would like to dissolve that structure and replace it with an advisory committee.  The Secretary of the Faculty will work with the Department and with Dennis to craft proper resolutions rescinding those that created the TPSC.

The Committee agreed to extend the meeting until no later than 5:15 p.m.

 

Approval of Faculty Senate Agenda

Agenda items for the September 15 meeting of the Faculty Senate were approved.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 5:10 p.m.

Submitted by,

Gary M. Wood

Secretary of the Faculty