I.  Roll Call.

Present:  Beck, Choy, Clow, Cravins, Dixon, Galbraith, Gendreau, Gongaware, Grunwald, Heim, Johnston-Rodriguez, Kernozek, Kraemer, S. Krajewski, Maher, Majak, Poulton, Ragan, B. Riley, D. Riley, Shanks, Shillinger, R. Sullivan.

II.  Approval of Minutes.

The minutes of the April 8, 22, 29 and May 6 meetings were approved as distributed.

The minutes of the organizational meeting of the 39^th Senate (May 6) were approved as distributed.

III.  Senate Executive Committee Recommendation Regarding the Vacant College of Business Administration Senate Seat.

M/S/P to approve the one-year appointment of Thomas Hench to fill the vacant CBA seat on the Faculty Senate.  (voice vote)

Senator Hench joined the Senate.

IV.  Reports.

Chair Riley anticipates relatively short reports during the senate meetings but plans to communicate with the general faculty at-large through email.  He distributed copies of the Articles of Faculty Organization calling particular attention to III. and IV. that specifically describe the responsibilities and duties of the faculty.  The faculty senate meeting originally scheduled for September 23 has been moved to September 30^th in 325 Graff Main Hall.  Enrollment figures for summer session are in – 753 students graduate/undergraduate compared to 805 last summer.  Fall semester tenth day numbers not yet avail, although the figures from last Friday are 7979 – the target is 8075.  Brief updates on administrative searches:  Institutional Research Position (regional research) down to two applicants – conducting telephone reference checks now.  Assistant Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management – 13 complete applications; deadline is September 22, with on campus interviews to take place mid-late October.  Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs – 39 applicants to date; deadline is September 22^nd. 

Lastly, the SEC is receiving nominations from faculty and instructional academic staff to serve on a task force to address instructional and non-instructional academic staff concerns regarding contracts and other employment/representational issues.  The SEC is seeking approval to appoint the members of the task force in lieu of waiting until the next faculty senate meeting on 30 September.

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

Provost/Vice Chancellor Hitch will be using a different format to report issues to the senate, addressing one key issue each meeting.  Upcoming topics include focus areas such as the strategic plan, general education, student undergraduate research, teacher education as a university wide initiative; international opportunities for students and faculty and of course the North Central Accreditation process.

Dr. Hitch reviewed UW-La Crosse’s three-fold recruiting efforts to achieve a diverse campus, increase the number of out-of-State students, as well as highly talented students.  With respect to enrollment management, there has been a reconfiguration of those particular units.  Among other things, we have hired three new admissions counselors – hired a diversity recruiter with monies from student initiatives.  In addition we continue to work with Noel Levitz to move toward a more personal touch or interaction prior to actual application stage.  Admissions continue to ask that people in programs respond to questions about particular program – timing is everything, please respond quickly.  P/VC Hitch asked senators to find one promising junior or senior that we know about and invite them to apply to UWL.

Student Association Representative, Larry Golba was introduced.

V.  Senate Executive Committee Nominations.

Joint Promotion Committee

3-year term

Anderson, Donna

Cooper, Scott

Rafique, Ahmed

Rusterholz,Barbara      

2-year continuing term

Morgan, Betsy (replacement for Chavalas)

Navar, Nancy

Porcari, John (replacement for Foster)

Riley, Dave                                                      

1-year continuing term                                                          

Haupert, Mike                                                             

Krajewski, Sandra                                           

Zollweg, William (replacement for Rodgers)

Senger, Steve

Consultative Lay-off Committee

3-year continuing term

Butterfield, Bradley (CLS) – Associate

Gibson, Mark (EESHR) – Assistant

Osterby, Bruce (SAH) – Professor

2-year continuing term

Anderson, Joseph (CLS) – Associate

Duquette, Dan (EESHR) – Professor

Nelson, Patricia (SAH) – Assistant                                                                              

1-year continuing term                                                                      

Krajewski, Sandra (CLS) – Professor                                     

Morrison, Dianne (CBA) – Lecturer

Rott, Marc (SAH) – Professor

Committee on Faculty Committees

Grunwald, Sandra

Heim, Joe

Riley, Bruce

Shanks, Joyce

Sullivan, Dick (Convener)

Senate Elections Committee

Maher, Peg

Gongaware, Timothy

Poulton, Leslee

Faculty Ombudspersons

Heim, Joe

Morgan, Betsy

Senger, Steve

Parking Appeals Board

Glass, Ron – member

Bigle, Alan – alternate

Enrollment Management Advisory Group for Setting Targets/Mix

Hoar, Robert

General Education Committee

Kraemer, Eric (CLS)

? (CBA)

Budget Review Committee

Clow, William

Gibson, Mark

Krajewski, Sandra (Vice-Chair of the Faculty Senate)

Senger, Steven (Convener)

Winter, Kenneth

With respect to the last three nominations: Chair Riley will ask former Senate Chair, Bob Hoar to be the liaison between the Academic Policies & Standards Committee (CAPS) and the newly formed Enrollment Management Advisory Group for setting targets/mix; Senator Kraemer has agreed to serve on the General Education Committee replacing Terry Beck who serves as a consultant to the group;  the SEC is still seeking a representative from the College of Business Administration to serve on General Education; the nominees for the Faculty Budget Review Committee are the faculty representatives on the Joint Planning and Budget Committee.

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

VI.  Senate Executive Committee Nomination of Faculty Members n the Search and Screen Committee for the Position of Dean of the College of Educaiton, Exercise Science, Health and Recreation.

EESHR Dean Search and Screen Committee

Foster, Carl (Exercise Sports Science)

Johnston-Rodriguez, Sarah (Education Studies)

Wadell, Keith (Recreation Management and Therapeutic Recreation)

Wycoff-Horn, Marcie (Health Education and Health Promotion)

Yu, Chia Chen (Exercise Sports Science)

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

VII.  Reports on Summer Activities.

Advising Center.  Doug Swanson, chair of the Academic Advising Center reported on activities of this new initiative.  Since his July 6 start date, things have moved along very quickly.  The center is located in Wilder Hall and includes services provided by the former Discovery Lab/Peer Advisors.  The for three additional advisors is going very well – out of 141 completed applications we are now down to a pool of 17.  At the same time, services to students since the beginning of the semester have resulted in 72 full blown advising appointments; some two dozen “undecided” students have sought help with face to face contact with another 1300 students.  Additionally, there is a blitzing of information for faculty, parents and students alike.  Problems have been resolved with particular focus on undecided students.  The center wants to support the work of faculty and college advisors and so far there has been good interaction.

Taskforce on Academic Initiatives in International Education.  Ruthann Benson, Chair of the Taskforce which was established by the P/VC during the summer, reviewed the proposed timeline to submit its findings to the campus community.  The Task Force is defining “international experiences” as being “intercultural experiences that contribute to an international/global perspective.”  Letters have been sent to department chairs describing the role of international experiences and inviting participation in upcoming brown bag forums/listening sessions.  

General Education Committee.  Emily Johnson, Director of the General Education Program, presented the revised report which was originally submitted to the faculty senate at its 5/6/04 meeting.  The revisions include a revised timeline for the 04-05 academic year as well the following recommendations:

Recommendations to Faculty Senate related to revisions to the GE program:

1. Student Credit Hour (SCH) Policy. GEC is recommending a policy that changes how SCH are “counted” at UW – La Crosse. This policy requests that unit “quotas” of SCH not be used; rather an institutional count of SCH be used.  This type of “SCH accounting” will help focus attention on a GE program based on student learning, and reduce competition and “turf battles” that often occur as various units vie for SCH.  This should also encourage more cooperation, collaboration, innovation and interdisciplinary work among colleges and departments or programs. (see attached)

2. GE as a learning outcome based program. GEC is asking Faculty Senate to continue to endorse GEC’s efforts toward a revised General Education Program that is based on the Sudent Learning Outcomes (SLO).  The learning outcomes presented to Faculty Senate in 2002 will provide the basis for the GEC work. However, these outcomes will continue to be seen as a “living document” subject to change as we get information from departments and conduct assessment of student learning.

3. Charge Departments with review of current GE courses.  GEC be allowed to charge departments to review their current GE courses using the learning outcomes.  This report would be due to GEC by mid-November.  GEC will use these reports to develop a matrix of courses and learning outcomes to identify how the outcomes are being addressed in the current program.

4. General Education Assessment Plan.  One of the ongoing roadblocks to effective assessment of the General Education program is the lack of an appropriate student sample.  GEC requests that Faculty Senate endorse the recommendation found in the GE assessment plan that asks

all units offering undergraduate courses be required to devote the equivalent of 1 class period, in an upper division and/or a lower division course, for the purposes of General Education assessment activities. This would occur on a rotating basis such that units would be asked to participate every 4-5 semesters. This method would allow a good sampling of both upper and lower division students and allow for pre- and post- general education assessment of student learning outcomes to be accomplished.

Chair Riley indicated that Recommendations 2 and 3 have been taken off the table by the Senate Executive Committee’s charge to the General Education Committee to have academic departments review their current general education courses using the proposed learning outcomes.

Discussion began on Recommendation #1.

The P/VC indicated that individuals in tenure-track positions would not lose their jobs because of changes in the general education program.

Q. to the P/VC – what about open positions after faculty retire?

A. Filling such open positions will be reviewed by departments and deans as they are now.

Q. Will we reexamine how SCH works?

Discussion followed:

• SCH provide a certain amount of security.
• SCH aren’t a guarantee for saving positions.  We need to do a very complete cost analysis – must be aware of cost before approving a revised/new general education program.
• Students dropping and repeating courses impose a real threat to resources.
• Faculty expressed concern about having adequate resources for any change in general education.

Chair Riley said that the discussion will continue at a later meeting.

VIII.  Adjournment.

The meeting adjourned at 5:15 p.m.

Submitted by

Eric R. Kraemer, Secretary