ELECTION OF CHAIR

Professor Duetsch called for nominations for the position of Chair for the current academic year. Professor James nominated Professor Feldt. There being no further nominations, Professor Feldt was elected by voice vote and assumed his role as Chair.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The Minutes of the Senate for April 19, 2001, were approved without objection.

REPORT OF THE UNIVERSITY COMMITTEE CHAIR

Professor James said she had just come from a conference call with President Lyall and other faculty representatives. She reported that the President seemed quite confident that a pay plan for both faculty and academic staff would be approved that would phase in salary increases of 3.2 percent this year and 4.2 percent next year. Faculty and academic staff increases will not be decoupled. These increases will be somewhat smaller than the Board of Regents had requested, however, and Professor
James was especially concerned that none of the increase for the first year will be supported by State funding. She views this as a troubling precedent.

REPORT OF THE CHANCELLOR

Chancellor Keating agreed that the level of State funding for the pay plan is troubling, particularly since students have already had to bear substantial tuition increases. Because the pay plan is smaller than the Board had requested, it will make it more difficult for the UW institutions to recruit competitively. He went on to deplore the diminished options state employees have for health insurance coverage in this portion of the state.

The Chancellor said he has been proud of the response of the campus community in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. He called for continued respect for the views of others as subsequent events occur.

The Chancellor announced that UW-Parkside has received a $338,000 planning grant from the Johnson Foundation for the development of innovative teacher certification programs that will address the needs of the region. He said that he intends to invite consultants to campus who can assist us in planning new teacher training programs. He noted that this grant will not be used to advance proposals for the charter school we have recently been authorized to create. Charter school proposals will be solicited
independently.

Chancellor Keating next responded to the written question on the agenda, saying that he has never been at an institution that has traditions of faculty governance that would lead faculty to expect to play a key role in interim academic affairs appointments. In hindsight, given what he has learned about expectations here, he would have solicited input from the appropriate governance group before making appointments.

Professor James asked the Chancellor to comment on the Economic Stimulus package that the State has adopted that will require UW-Parkside to reallocate $366,000 to high-tech programs. The Chancellor said that this portion of the budget bill resulted from the Economic Summit that the UW System sponsored last year. He said that the cost of all new hires in the specified areas during the coming year will count as reallocation for this purpose. He expects that the campus will easily meet its obligation in
this regard. He added that strong enrollment helps us meet our obligation, but cautioned that we must be prepared for possible givebacks in a weakened economy.

Professor Akindes, a member of the Teacher Education department, asked how the Johnson Foundation grant would affect his department. The Chancellor said that Akindes' department would continue to be involved in certification and that the overall effect was yet to be determined,

With the United Way campaigns underway, Professor Duetsch asked about the status of funding for the Boy Scouts in Kenosha and Racine. The Chancellor said that the Kenosha chapter of the Boy Scouts has clearly renounced the organization's national policy regarding gays and will be receiving funding from the local United Way. He emphasized that many fine agencies depend heavily on United Way funding and that the Kenosha United Way allows donors to designate agencies that their contributions
can/cannot go to. The Chancellor said he did not know what arrangements have been made for the Boy Scouts in Racine. [It was subsequently determined that donors may make similar designations for agencies in the Racine United Way.]

INFORMATIONAL ITEMS

The Annual Reports of the following Faculty Committees were accepted and filed: Academic Policies Committee; Academic Actions Committee; Athletic Board; Committee on Academic Planning; Committee on Advising; Committee on Teaching and Learning; Course and Curriculum Committee; Faculty Rights and Responsibilities Committee; General Education Committee; Graduate Studies Committee; Lecture and Fine Arts Committee; and Personnel Review Committee.

Referring to the Annual Report of the General Education Committee, Professor Duetsch drew the attention of Senators to 1) data concerning impact of the University Seminar program and 2) data concerning the objectives and methods of instructors of general education distribution courses. The first set of data indicate that students who successfully complete the Seminar in Fall obtain higher grade point averages and are much more likely to be retained as students one year later. Still, because a selection bias may be operating, the causal relationships involved remain somewhat unclear. The second set of data indicate that nearly all instructors of distribution courses seek to develop critical thinking skills in their students and about two-thirds do so in four/more
ways; more than half require writing and more than a third require two/more forms of writing; more than half require oral communication and about a third require two/more forms of oral communication; about a third require some form of teamwork.

REQUEST FOR AUTHORIZATION TO IMPLEMENT A NEW ACADEMIC PROGRAM

Departing somewhat from the printed agenda, the Graduate Studies Committee presented the following:

Be it RESOLVED, that the request for authorization to implement a Master of Science (MS) program in Secondary School Science is approved, as described in the revised version of agenda document 14 that was circulated to Senators via email earlier today.
Professor Thomson introduced the proposal on behalf of the Graduate Studies Committee. He said that the Committee had reviewed the proposal distributed to Senators as Agenda Document 14 and had made a number of suggestions that had been welcomed by the author(s). A revised proposal was circulated to Committee members several days ago and a subsequent
email poll of the Committee members turned up only one lingering concern on the part of one member who would have liked to see letters of support from local school districts. Because the Committee had earlier agreed that the revised proposal should be regarded as approved only if no lingering concerns were expressed, Professor Thomson felt compelled to remain equivocal about the Committee's recommendation. He said the Committee had not met again, but that other members of the Committee were
apparently satisfied with the evidence of interest in and support for the program that has been included in the proposal. The revised proposal was circulated to Senators via email this morning.

Professor James asked whether the letters of support from local school districts would be needed before the proposal could be sent to UW System for approval. Professor Boyer said the UW System review would ensure that all the supporting materials required by the Board of Regents were included before the Board would be asked to act on the proposal. Professor Duetsch said that he could not recall other new program proposals that were acted on by the Faculty Senate without the presentation of letters of community support. Professor Boyer pointed out that other indicators of support have been included in the proposal and
proceeded to distribute three additional letters from students who appear to be interested in beginning the program in the Summer of 2002.

Professor James said that Senate action should be deferred until all supporting materials are available and MOVED TO TABLE until the next meeting. MOTION FAILED for lack of a second.

Professor Duetsch asked for clarification of the other changes that were made in Agenda Document 14 at the suggestion of the Graduate Studies Committee. Professor Thomson said that the desired student learning outcomes had not been fully described; the state and national standards for such a program had not been included; information pertaining to distance education modalities had not been presented; the advisory committee had not included certain constituents; and the likely participation of underrepresented groups had not been described. All of these things have been dealt with in the revised version of the proposal that was circulated to Committee members last week and to Senators via email prior to this meeting.

Professor Ruffolo said that this was a sound proposal and questioned whether any clearer indication of Graduate Program Committee support was needed.

Professor Duetsch asked for an explanation of the change in title (Integrated Science and Technology, when the entitlement to plan was approved in March 2000) to Secondary School Science. Professor Boyer replied that the new title was clearer to the intended audience.

Professor Gellott asked about the purpose of the UW System review that would follow approval here and was told by Provost Watters and Chancellor Keating that the purpose was simply to ensure that all Regent mandates for new programs had been met.

There being no further discussion, the MOTION was APPROVED 16 - 0, with no abstentions.

COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE: DISCUSSION OF THE PROS AND CONS OF ENABLING LEGISLATION THAT WOULD GRANT FACULTY THE RIGHT TO ENGAGE IN COLLECTIVE BARGAINING.

By prior agreement, Professor Feldt called upon Professor James, Chair of the University Committee, to Chair the Committee of the Whole. She said that the University Committee wished to revisit this topic for the first time in about ten years and planned to schedule further discussion in the faculty meeting on October 25. After that, the Committee will poll all faculty members in regard to their support for such enabling legislation before bringing the matter back to the Senate for possible action.

Dean Cress asked whether collective bargaining is prohibited now and was told that it is.

Professor Mayer said that the balance of pros and cons is critically dependent on the determination of what can be bargained. Interim Associate Vice Chancellor Goodman added that it was also terribly important to know how the bargaining units would be determined. Professor Gellott asked if informational documents could be distributed before the faculty meeting and Professor James assured her that this would be done.

Professor Lenard asked whether collective bargaining might enable the faculty to get better health insurance. Chancellor Keating said that health care costs are particularly high in the southeastern portion of the State and, as a result, the health insurance options available to State employees are much less satisfactory here than they are in other portions of the State. He said that he and other State agency heads are very much aware of this and are seeking some resolution of this problem.

Professor Haller said she understood that the UW-Madison faculty opposes enabling legislation and asked if the other institutions have taken positions. Professor James said the UW-Milwaukee and nearly all of the others have called for enabling legislation.

Professor Mayer said that unionized faculties obtain 10-15 percent higher salaries, but that many of the working conditions that are subject to negotiation become more uniform across bargaining units.

With the time of adjournment at hand, the Committee of the Whole rose without report and the meeting adjourned at 5:00.