Faculty Senate Agenda
November 29, 2005
PSF 6/05-06

The Faculty Senate of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside will meet Tuesday, November 29, 2005 at 3:30 PM in Molinaro Hall D137.

The University Committee has approved the following agenda:

Call to Order by Prof Frances Kavenik, Chair

Approval of Minutes

Report of the University Committee Chair – Prof Doug DeVinny

Report of the Chancellor - John Keating

Questions – Written/Oral

Annual Reports – 2004-05 - Faculty Committees

General Information Committee

Agenda Document # 1

Committee Reports - Other

First Year Experience – Interim Report – Carmel Ruffolo and Damian Evans

Old Business - None

 New Business

►Academic Calendar Proposal – Academic Policies Committee

Resolved , that the Academic Calendar Formula, PSF 21/86-87, be modified for the 2006-07 and 2007-08 academic years (only), as follows ...

Academic Convocation and Phase II Orientation Day (no classes)	Tuesday 09/05/06	Tuesday 09/04/07
Fall Classes Begain	Wednesday 09/06/06	Wednesday 09/05/07

►Elimination of Department of Engineering – Committee on Academic Planning

Resolved , that the Department of Engineering be eliminated, effective immediately, and that the computer engineering concentration, within the computer science major, be eliminated once students currently enrolled have had a reasonable opportunity to complete their program.

Be it further resolved, that the certificate in digital control be eliminated.

Background information is provided in º Agenda Document # 2.

►Revision to Membership of Committee on Academic Planning – Committee on Academic Planning

 Resolved , that UWPF 8.03 be modified as shown below.

8.03 Committee on Academic Planning

Existing:

(1) Membership

The committee shall consist of:

(a) Five faculty members, elected at large

(b) The Vice Chancellor or designee

(c) One elected academic staff member

(d) One student member

New – Replace (a) above with this provision …

(a) Six faculty members, elected at-large for three year terms. No more than two members shall be from a single electoral division.

Rationale: This year, four of the five faculty members elected to this committee either completed their service, left the university, or are on sabbatical, leaving only one faculty member on the committee this fall who had served previously.

Given the functions of the committee, it is important to have a significant carry-over of membership. Increasing the terms to three years will help accomplish this. Increasing the faculty membership by one levels the expected annual turnover.

►Entitlement to Plan : BA in Liberal Arts for Teachers – Committee on Academic Planning

Resolved , that the Faculty Senate recommends that UW-Parkside seeks an entitlement to plan a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts for Teachers.

Background information is provided in º Agenda Document # 3

►General Education Requirements for Transfer Students Entering in 2005-06 – General Education Committee

Resolved , that new transfer students entering UW-Parkside during the 2005-06 academic year are subject to the 2003-05 general education requirements.

Rationale: Background to this motion is extensive, but it best reflects how these students are currently being evaluated. One of the main reasons for the motion is that our website and the transfer information system (TIS) were only recently updated (TIS is still not fully complete). Therefore, students evaluating UWP were basing their decision on the old requirements. In addition, students can always move forward so they can adopt the new guidelines if desired.

 Adjournment

 

Agenda Document # 1

 

Report of the General Education Committee – 2004-05

Membership :

Lori Allen (co-Chair), Erika Behling, Dennis Butzen (student, as of 11/19), Patrick Goldsmith, Gerald Greenfield, Susan Haller (Director of General Education), Frances Kavenik (co-chair), Farida Khan, Susan Norton, Manninder Parma (student), Carmel Ruffolo, Geoffrey Skoll, Evelyn Zepp. (Oliver Hayward, due to other commitments, relinquished his seat--which was filled by Jamie Cheatham.)

Meetings :

The committee met Sept. 10, 22, Oct. 15, 22, 29, Nov. 5, 19, Dec. 3, 2004; Jan. 19, 26, Feb. 2, 9, 16, 23, Mar. 2, 9, 23, 30, Apr. 13, 20 and May 4, 2005.

Actions of the Committee :

The major business of the year was the review of courses submitted for the new General Education Distribution list, along with their syllabi and assessment rubrics. Preliminary to and accompanying this process were meetings between departments/programs and members of the Committee. As of Fall 2005, those courses appeared on the web and on the new "lime-green sheet" to be used by entering Freshmen and some transfer students. Further additions of courses to the list would be effective as of Fall 2006.

To effect these operations, fourteen General Education course and assessment design projects were funded by the Director during summer 2004, and a day long conference on assessment was held July 8th, 2004, attended by 30 participants. Other assessment workshops were held in October and December of 2004, and a team (Allen, Kavenik, Behling) was sent to the AAC&U conference in February entitled "General Education and Assessment."

Based on another 2004 summer project ( E. Zepp), the committee approved a new General Education brochure, printed and distributed to new students during the Fall 2005 orientation. The brochure contained General Education and Liberal Arts education goals, and was intended to help students and advisers start the conversation about how General Education is a core of their course of study rather than an obstacle to overcome.

Other actions during the year included changing the General Education "diversity" goal to "social equality" to avoid confusion about the UW System-mandated diversity requirement, and offering departments/programs an extra General Education distribution course if that course fulfilled DV requirements and was offered regularly, including during non-traditional times. The Committee continued to work closely with special needs programs, such as Nursing and Teacher Education, to serve their students. The Committee also recognized, and encouraged participation by, Advising, Ethnic Studies, and the First-Year Experience (co-chair added as a permanent member).

For the coming year 2005-6, the Committee determined to focus on pilot assessment of one goal in each category, specifically Literacy, Critical Thinking, and Teamwork. Each sub-committee would begin work during the summer and continue through the academic year. Preliminary to the work beginning, the Committee stressed again to the university community that such assessment would not be comparative, nor focused on individual courses, instructors, or departments/programs, but an assessment of student capability and need across the curriculum. These groups received some summer funding from the Director.

Prepared by E. Zepp; submitted by co-Chairs L. Allen and F. Kavenik

Agenda Document #2

 

Elimination of the Department of Engineering – Background Information

Enrollments in most engineering (ENGR) courses have been low for many years. The Department of Engineering at this point has no faculty. One faculty member (Walter Feldt, Professor) retired in spring, one (Dennis Stevenson, Associate Professor) moved to Business last year, and one (George Perdikaris, Professor) moved to a 2/3 appointment in Physics, and 1/3 appointment in Computer Science this fall.

The department has no major, but does administer, jointly with the Department of Computer Science, the computer engineering concentration in the computer science major. There are four students in this concentration which is being phased out. They are being advised by George Perdikaris. Once these students have graduated, the computer engineering concentration will be eliminated.

The department also administers the pre-engineering, or consortial engineering, program. With the departure and reassignment of the faculty, the engineering courses that were part of this program will no longer be offered, with the exception of ENGR 250 (see below).

It is anticipated that some UWP students will still want to take pre-engineering courses, including mathematics, chemistry, physics, English, computer science and general education courses. Full-time students could profitably do this for about one year at UWP. Because of prerequisites, and the lack of engineering courses, attending UWP for a longer period would slow progress to a degree.

There is also a Digital Controls Certificate. Seven students have received this certificate since 2000, but none in the last two years. Since the required courses for this certificate are exclusively in engineering, it is proposed that the certificate be eliminated.

The only Engineering course that is currently offered, ENGR 250, is being converted into a Computer Science course, and will be administered by the Department of Computer Science. The course is currently required in the Computer Science program.

With the elimination of the Department, approximately 20 courses in Engineering will need to be deleted from future catalogs. Most of these courses have not been offered in years.

 

Agenda Document # 3

 Entitlement to Plan : Bachelor of Arts – Liberal Arts for Teachers

The University of Wisconsin-Parkside requests expedited approval for a B.A. degree in Liberal Arts for Teachers. This interdisciplinary degree will integrate courses in the Humanities, Social Sciences, Humanities, Sciences and Education, and will meet PI 34 certification standards for Early Childhood (PK-3) and Middle Childhood to Early Adolescence (grades 1-8). This program will accelerate time-to-degree for UW-Parkside students and articulate more closely with Gateway Technical College’s associate degree in Early Childhood Education.

Need

For the period 2002 and 2012, statewide forecasts suggest an 11 percent increase in occupations for elementary school teachers (not-including special education) and a 23 percent increase for kindergarten teachers. The ongoing rapid demographic growth in UW-Parkside’s service area suggests an even greater need for PK-8 teachers. In addition to meeting this general need, this proposal, which reflects input from Racine and Kenosha teachers and administrators, also speaks to the needs of our area school districts for teachers who are more broadly trained and equipped to interact with parents, and are skilled at assessment, and classroom management. UW-Parkside does not currently have a degree in education. Students seeking certification must complete a disciplinary major while also taking a substantial number of credits in education, thus lengthening time to degree. The proposed major, therefore, also speaks to the need to the need to provide students with the opportunity to complete degrees in a timely fashion. It merits mention as well that this interdisciplinary integrated approach speaks to a need identified by leading educators in the national reform movement in teacher education, and is in keeping with approaches suggested by the Carnegie Corporation of New York as well as the UW-System PK-16 Council which seek to enhance the links between the liberal arts and teacher education.

Mission

The University of Wisconsin-Parkside is committed to high quality educational programs, creative and scholarly activities, and services responsive to its diverse student population, and its local, national and global communities. As a regional comprehensive university we are especially sensitive to the needs of our service area, and as suggested above, this proposal definitely speaks to those needs. UW-Parkside also sees its mission in terms of diversity, access, academic excellence and engagement. This integrated liberal arts-based approach to teacher education will provide a more accessible degree than our current program, and it should prove more attractive to a diverse array of students. Furthermore, given the ongoing conversations with area 3educators noted above, it also is consistent with our engagement mission.

Other Programs

All UW-System institutions offer programs in teacher education, as do numerous private colleges and universities. The proposed degree program in Liberal Arts for teachers does not currently exist at any other UW university. This cutting approach does reflect national efforts to integrate teacher education and the content areas, and elements of this approach are found to varying degrees at many universities, including the University of Texas, Austin, Western State College of Colorado, , the Curry School of education at the University of Virginia, and Pepperdine University’s Seaver College of Education. Additionally, a national grant program from the Carnegie Corporation of New York has engaged multiple institutions of higher learning in conversations on integrating the liberal arts and teacher education.

Resources

Much of the new degree program will consist of currently-taught courses in the College of Arts and Sciences. Even with the need for some degree of revision, this will require some reallocation but no additional resources. As a result of several retirements and the conceptual reorganization inherent in this proposal, UW-Parkside is engaged in rebuilding its faculty in teacher education, emphasizing key skill areas. Last year we successfully recruited an Assistant Professor who specializes in early childhood education, and we currently are recruiting for an Assistant/Associate Professor in reading/literacy for AY 2006-07, and an Assistant Dean and Director of Teacher Preparation, with this latter having an anticipated start date of January 2006. We have also made faculty appointments in the content disciplines with direct links to teacher education. Given our commitment to build capacity in this critical area, we would reallocate internal resources for additional hires.

 

<fin>