Governance





Minutes of the Faculty Senate
for April 1, 1997
PSF 17-96/97

  The faculty senate met at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 1, 1997, in Molinaro Hall D-137. Members present were Beach, Buenker, Canary, Feldt, Fossum (chair), James, Kinchen, Lorenz, Lyter-Mickelberg, McArthur, Meyer, Murphy. New, Nice (Academic Staff), Norton, Ostheimer, Pernacciaro, Richards, Rovelstad, Schmidt, Schutte, Shailor, Smith, Stathatos, Warren, and Wood. Others present included Dean Duetsch, Professor Gellott, Assistant Chancellor Grace, Dean Hudson, Registrar Johnson, Assistant Registrar Luke, and Associate Vice Chancellor Singer.

Approval of Minutes

There being no objection, the minutes were approved as distributed.

Committee of the Whole Discussion of Planning Strategies

The University Committee had recommended that the Senate move into a committee of the whole to discuss revised strategies proposed by the University Planning Committee. MOTION PASSED on a voice vote.

Professor James (Political Science) MOVED, SECONDED by Professor Beach (Psychology) that the committee of the whole be chaired by Professor Meyer (History). MOTION PASSED on a voice vote.

Background. Associate Vice Chancellor Singer discussed some of the changes in the revised strategies section:

  • #3--consolidatiion of departments was now to be a review, with no definite plan called for.
  • #4--workload policy effectiveness was now merged into program review process
  • #2a--no longer suggested new structures and now included academic staff
  • #7a--development of such accelerated programs was now encouraged "where appropriate" and wording on standards and policies had been strengthened
  • #7b--more faculty involvement in the review of current non-traditional programs
  • dates had generally been made more realistic, though they were all still tentative
Process. Professor Rovelstad (Business) said that he hoped we weren't voting on the strategies since he would hate to lock in even the revised dates. Associate VC Singer said that other groups had not voted on the strategies.

Professor McArthur (Business) asked what would happen to 7a if APC or the senate decided we didn't want any accelarated programs. Associate VC Singer said we would then have established standards, even if we found no programs to meet them.

Professor Pernacciaro (Political Science) asked what the effect of our vote would be. Professor James said it was unclear what we were getting ourselves into. Vice Chancellor Ostheimer said that it was useful to get faculty input. Professor Fossum (Computer Science and Engineering) said that faculty views had been incorporated already and that no vote was necessary. Professor Wood (Chemistry) said that everything would come back to the senate or its committees. The secretary of the faculty said that in some cases a senate vote would be an instruction to committees reporting to the senate. Dean Hudson said that the real question was whether we trusted the University Council to carry out this program meaningfully. Professor Beach asked if we could stop talking process and discuss substance.

Questions on 7b. Professor New (Teacher Education) asked about the inclusion of the education program EC3 in the review contemplated in this strategy. The vice chancellor said there were no particular changes in mind. Dean Deutsch said that the strategy simply included all of our non-traditional programs.

The Arts. Professor Murphy (Art) asked whether the implication of 8c was that the art programs should aim for popularity. The vice chancellor said there were facility questions involved and a general desire for more community input.

Deadlines. Professor James noted that the deadlines set for University Relations in 5 and 3a seemed much further off than most. Professor Wood said they had been reset at the request of University Relations. Professor James said that perhaps others might have been consulted about how realistic the dates assigned them were. Professor Feldt (Computer Science and Engineering) said that the Committee on Academic Planning had already jettisoned the dates assigned it. Associate VC Singer said that realistic dates would evolve and that we needed to set priorities as well. Professor Rovelstad said that recruitment needs meant that we needed a marketing plan earlier than suggested.

Reviewing Programs. Professor Fossum disliked all but the first of the criteria listed for the comprehensive review of programs called for in 1a. Associate VC Singer said that the Committee on Academic Planning was already developing its own criteria. Professor Beach asked if the intent was only to do this comprehensive review once. Professor Gellott (History) asked about the relation between that plan and program reviews. Associate VC Singer said that program reviews would serve to update the plan, but that a major comprehensive review would only be done at periodic intervals. Professors Wood and Feldt said that it would take some time to phase all of this in.

Pre-College Programs. Professor Kinchen (Music) was troubled by strategy 7e. He said that the current pre-college program was successful, and that he could hardly walk down the hall without encountering a current student whom he had first encountered in the pre-college program. The program was crucial for our relationship with the local minority community and important to the institution, especially given regiional demographics. He worried about the fate of the program if it were to be moved. Chancellor Smith said that the intent was not to move the program but to coordinate it with other such efforts. The vice chancellor said that each program needed the energy of its own people, but that better coordination was desirable. Professor New suggested that if there were "misunderstandings" and distrust over this issue that it might be because it had been handled in an indefensible way. Associate VC Singer said that the strategy called for a plan but didn't say what it should be; space was one of the issues which had to be addressed. Professor Kinchen said he would be happy to meet with the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor on this question. The chancellor said a more general meeting would be better. Professor Meyer said that some such forum might be better than the senate.

MOVED by Professor Beach, SECONDED by Professor Wood, that the senate rise from the committee of the whole without report. MOTION PASSED on a voice vote.

The chair noted that motions in regard to issues raised in the committee of the whole discussion would be in order. None were offered.

Certificate in Digital Control Systems

The Committee on Academic Planning had recommended the following:
RESOLVED, that the Faculty Senate approves a certificate program in Digital Control Systems to be offered by the Computer Science and Engineering department, as described in the agenda documents for this meeting.
Professor James asked what would happen if the senate did not approve this program. She had helped at the Kenosha Expo and the program had been advertised with no reference to its tentative status. Associate VC Singer said that there was a similar problem in recruiting for the Criminal Justice major though it was going to the Regents just this month. The secretary of the faculty said that he had not realized that Criminal Justice was going to the Regents already and called attention to some additional procedural problems in the handling of that proprosal. Professor Gellott asked about the Academic Policies Committee role in handling proposals of this sort. MOTION PASSED on a voice vote.

Certificate in UNIX System Administration

The Committee on Academic Planning had recommended the following:
RESOLVED, that the Faculty Senate approves a certificate program in UNIX System Administration to be offered by the Computer Science and Engineering department, as described in the agenda documents for this meeting.
MOTION PASSED on a voice vote.

Certificate in World Wide Web Publishing

The Committee on Academic Planning had recommended the following:
RESOLVED, that the Faculty Senate approves a certificate program in World Wide Web Publishing to be offered by the Computer Science and Engineering department and Art department, as described in the agenda documents for this meeting.
MOTION PASSED on a voice vote.

Chancellor's Report

The Chancellor thanked the senate for its willingness to make changes to meet the challenges confronting the campus. Our spring enrollment had been down, though not as far as we had feared. We were working on several fronts to meet enrollment targets, though it was worth noting that our marketing efforts were outspent tenfold by our local competition. UW-System had recently allowed us to recruit 100 students from Illinois outside of our existing TAP program. We were working to fill the new dorms, including housing scholarships for honors students.

Professor Wood commented that our efforts to sell the place should not concentrate just on our new programs but also on existing programs that were successful and attractive to students.

Adjournment

The time having reached 5 PM, the chair declared the meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Robert H. Canary
Secretary of the Faculty