Faculty Senate
Vol. 37, No. 9
January 30, 2003

I.  Roll Call.

Present:  Barmore, Barnd, Beck, Bigel, Brooks, Cravins, Gendreau, Gibson, Hoar, Hollenback, Kernozek, Krajewski, Majak, Nelson, Poulton, Ragan, Senger, Taylor, Vandenberg-Daves, Wilson, Wingate, Zellmer.

Excused:  Dixon, Tyser.

II.  Approval of Minutes.
The minutes of the December 12, 2002, meeting, were approved as distributed.

III.  Reports.

Chair Senger welcomed back Senators Bigel and Wilson.  He announced that the SEC continues to be in contact with the administration regarding budget reductions.  Indeed, he will join a small group of faculty (Sandra Krajewski, Lise Graham, Mark Gibson) next Tuesday at the Provost Council to discuss reductions.  At this point no decisions have been made, however discussions regarding reduction scenarios are taking place.

Following the last meeting, the SEC formed a small group of Senators (Barmore, Brooks, Gendreau, Vandenberg-Daves) to discuss appropriate methods of distributing grades across campus.  Their recommendations will be placed on the 2-13-03 agenda.

Chancellor Hastad encouraged Senators to watch the State of the State address tonight.  He doesn’t expect anything positive or exact until the Governor releases his budget in mid-February.  Next week the Board of Regents will meet with four new members appointed by Governor Doyle, with an expected five new appointments later in the year.

Provost/Vice-Chancellor Hitch is watching the University of Michigan Affirmative Action case very closely, stating what they do will affect us all in the long run.  She has also been meeting with folks in Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Teacher Education as well as Science and Allied Health to gather feedback regarding a possible reorganization of the colleges.  PVC Hitch announced that for the first time at UWL, web-based registration will occur in November for Spring 2004 courses, and she invited Senators to attend the final presentation of the Martin Luther King celebration held tonight at 6:30 p.m. in Valhalla.

Ron Lostetter, Vice-Chancellor for Administration and Finance, discussed the 5% lapse ($290,000) imposed for the remainder of the current academic year, and distributed the UW-La Crosse FY03 GPR Lapse Allocation Scenario.  Senators urged the Chancellor and Provost to encourage deans to talk more to colleges about what the plans are.  Where are we going to be in five years?  We need to be more open – discussions should be dialogue rather than open and shut cases.   PVC has had conversations with deans re procedures they are using and has encouraged open dialogue.  Lostetter stated that once the Governor announces his budget plan, the response time would be short.  He stressed that there will be openness and gathering of opinions and invited faculty to participate. 

An electronic copy of the agenda for tomorrow’s Faculty Representative meeting has been distributed to Senators. While there is not expected to be much discussion of the budget, there are several interesting items related to tenure.  Budget discussions will no doubt take place at the 2-28-03 meeting.  Faculty Representative, Georges Cravins continues to participate in the DPI initiatives, and most recently attended an education meeting regarding new standards.

IV.  Outside Activities Statement.
Chair Senger reviewed action on this issue since the November.  He has studied Chapter UWS and UWL 8, engaged in discussions with Provost Hitch and Gwyneth Straker, Chair of the Ethics Advisory Committee.  The SEC is concerned about the proposed bureaucratic process, which seems to be at odds with UWS 8.  The SEC believes the current policy is adequate with the following suggestions for improvement:

The Faculty Senate recognizes that

  1. UWS 8 and UWL 8 articulate a policy that members of the unclassified staff retain their rights as citizens to interests of a personal or economic nature and prohibits a member of the unclassified staff from engaging only in those activities that conflict with his or her public responsibilities.
  2. The required annual reporting form satisfies the requirements of section UWS 8.025 and requires members of the unclassified staff to disclose specific activities or relationships.
  3. Members of the unclassified staff are required to immediately report significant changes to his or her outside activities and under certain circumstances take action to avoid possible conflicts of interest.
  4. Section UWL 8.025 articulates a standard of when campus absence to engage in outside activities becomes a conflict of interest between a members personal and public responsibilities.
  5. Any person may file a written complaint charging a violation of this chapter for investigation by the Chancellor.
  6. The programs and activities of academic departments are the first to suffer from the abuse of these policies. 

Under the principle that it is the responsibility of the faculty to ensure governance within their ranks, the Faculty Senate resolves that

  1. Orientation sessions for new faculty and department chairs include information on UWS 8 and UWL 8.
  2. The distribution of the Annual Activities Report will be accompanied by a cover letter from the Faculty Senate Chair outlining the purpose of the reporting form, the additional reporting obligations incumbent upon faculty, the role of the Ethics Advisory Committee and the principle that faculty must govern themselves in this matter.
  3. The Provost will be asked to investigate and if feasible implement a mechanism for disseminating summary information derived from the Annual Activities Report for the purpose of informing faculty on the nature and extent of activities reported by their peers.
  4. This action of the Faculty Senate will be communicated to all academic departments.

M/S/P to approve. (unanimous show of hands)

V.  Pay plan guidelines for next biennium.
Bruce Osterby, Chair of the Promotion, Tenure & Salary Committee, presented the recommendation to adopt a pay distribution plan for 2003-04, which distributes the pool based on two-thirds for solid performance and one-third for merit/market awards.

Osterby reminded Senators that this recommendation constitutes a change from the last three pay plans, which have used the Chancellor’s discretionary portion and part of the faculty portion to address compression.  The PTS Committee believes the faculty compression issue has

largely been corrected.  In an attempt to address future compression issues, it is understood that a base for promotion adjustments has been established.  Thus for the 2003-04 pay plan the following promotion adjustments would be made: 

M/S/P to approve. (voice vote)

VI.  General Education Committee.
Emily Johnson addressed the General Education Program 2002-2003 Work in Progress Tentative Outcome Areas document, which the General Education Committee has been working on this current academic year.  The draft definitions of seven areas were chosen, in part, based on: feedback the committee received from the campus community last spring; current goals; and finally, information from national sources about General Education programs.   The definitions attempt to reflect what we want students to look like when they graduate from UWL, what kinds of skills do they possess.  It is the belief of the General Education Committee that with clearly articulated outcomes assessment will be easy to do. 

The document generated many questions and areas of discussion – how and what do we want to assess – what sort of action are we looking at – what is the process – how do we assess courses relative to the outcomes – not all the outcomes apply to each course – shouldn’t we be asking pragmatic questions like what courses do we want students to take, and when?

The committee is looking to get feedback and strongly encourages input from departments.

VII.  Old Business.

VIII. New Business.

IX.  Adjournment.
The meeting adjourned at 5:10 p.m.                                                                                                                     

Submitted by
Robert Hoar, Secretary