The University Committee met on Tuesday, October 6, 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.  Other committee members attending were Rob Barber Herb Colston, Stu Hansen, Farida Khan and Lisa Kornetsky.  Gary Wood was present as Secretary of the Faculty.  Linda Crafton representing the Teacher Education Department and Interim Associate Provost Dennis Rome representing the Provost’s Office, were invited guests.  The new business item “discussion regarding the Teacher Preparation Steering Committee” was taken up first to accommodate the guests.

 
Approval of Minutes

 

The minutes from September 22, 2009 were approved with one spelling correction.

In reviewing the minutes, Rob noted the statement from Jose Noriega about installing a number of new flex computers.  He said that he has had problems logging in to some of the flex computers in classrooms.  Lisa added that there have been problems with smartboards.  Farida reported problems with a digital projection system.

Announcements

Collective Bargaining

 

Some UW campuses have held information sessions on collective bargaining and reported that the presenters provided good, objective information.  Herb said that during his meeting with representatives from the Board of Regents last week, the Regents advised us to do our homework with respect to collective bargaining.  The committee agreed that we should invite an expert to campus to lead an information session.  The possibility of making this the agenda item for the fall faculty meeting was explored, but strategic planning and college reorganization are already being considered as agenda items for that meeting.

Furlough

 

Some UW campuses have been discussing how to demonstrate the impact of furlough days on faculty productivity.  Some have suspended merit reviews and post tenure reviews.  Ideas discussed included posting signs on office doors when faculty are on furlough or adding statement to course syllabi indicating that faculty will be unavailable on certain days and the time for grading and returning course materials may be affected.  We might even encourage faculty to actually take the furlough days.  It was decided to seek broader input from faculty through a message posted to the Governance Core e-mail list and then to draft a Senate resolution which would encourage but not mandate that faculty take certain measures to demonstrate the impact of the furlough.

 

Program Suspension Policy

 

The UW-System administration has released a program suspension policy which enables the administrations of the various campuses to suspend majors and programs without actually eliminating them.  The campus faculty representatives were told that the campus administrators are going to be asked by system administrators which programs they are going to suspend.  This report made it seem as if there is an expectation at the system level that programs will be suspended.

 

Meeting with Regents

Stu and Herb reported on their meeting with representatives from the Board of Regents.  Topics discussed included collective bargaining, the effect of budget reductions on adjunct teaching staff, and the resulting effect of reducing the adjunct staff on faculty workload.

Old Business

Proposed Changes to the Charge of the Academic Achievement Assessment Committee

The Academic Achievement Assessment Committee (AAAC) has requested that the committee’s charge be changed so that it would no longer “coordinate” assessment efforts but “facilitate” them.  They have also requested the deletion of an entire paragraph in the charge related to recommendations regarding instruction in verbal and quantitative skills and general education.

The University Committee discussed this at some length.  Significant changes were made to the charge of the AAAC a year ago, leaving the committee with very little to do.  These newly proposed changes would weaken the role of the committee even more.  This seems unwise at a time when reaccreditation is on the horizon and the institution is going to be asked to step up its assessment efforts.  The changes to the charge would result in the committee having very little responsibility and all of the responsibility for assessment would be transferred to Department Chairs.

While not supportive of the proposed changes, the committee decided it could still be brought to the Faculty Senate. 

Additional Faculty Member to Attend Provost’s Cabinet Meetings

The committee endorsed Jim McKeever as the faculty member to attend the Provost’s cabinet meetings.  The University Committee Chair is the other faculty member who attends. 

New Business

Discussion Regarding the Teacher Preparation Steering Committee

 

Linda Crafton distributed a draft of a resolution that would dissolve the Teacher Preparation Steering Committee (TPSC).  Peggy suggested the whereas statements preceding the actual resolution should reiterate the things that TPSC was created to do.  Gary said that the resolution should rescind two previous resolutions, the one that created TPSC and the second one that created the administrative position to act as Chair of TPSC.  The resolution will be edited and resubmitted before the October 13 University Committee meeting.

Proposed Changes to the Membership of the First Year Experience Committee

The First Year Experience Committee has requested that its membership be revised.  The current member calls for three Academic Staff and recommends that they be from OMSA, the Advising Center and Learning Assistance.  The revised membership would specify the Directors of these three areas or their designees as ex officio members.  Stu pointed out that this remove the Academic Staff Committee from the process of recommending who the Academic Staff members of the committee should be.  Gary will consult with Luellen Breed, Chair of the Academic Staff Committee about this matter.

The committee also requested that one faculty member be added to the membership.  This is necessary to maintain a majority of faculty members on the committee.

Augmentation of the Communication Department Full Professor Subcommittee

Farida Khan and John Longeway were approved to augment the Communication Department Full Professor Subcommittee.

Augmentation of the History Department Executive Committee

Dennis Kaufman and Alex McNair were approved to augment the History Department Executive Committee.

Augmentation of the Theatre Department Full Professor Subcommittee

The Theatre Department has two candidates for full Professor this year.  For practical reasons, they would like to appoint two different subcommittees.  The committee saw some potential problems with this, especially if one candidate gets a positive recommendation and the other does not.  Gary will contact the two committees and ask that they communicate with each other to ensure that they follow similar procedures in putting together the materials for the candidates.

David Holmes, Norm Cloutier and Sue Norton were approved as one subcommittee; Jim McKeever, Ed Wallen and Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz were approved as the other. 

Emeritus Faculty on Peer Review Committees

 

Dean Cress has asked for advice about having emeritus faculty serve on the peer review committees involved in program reviews.  The University Committee thought that this set a bad precedent and that faculty should do faculty work, but trusted the judgment of the Dean in this one case.

Adjournment

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

Submitted by,

Gary M. Wood

Secretary of the Faculty