Faculty Senate
January 28, 2016 – 3:30 p.m.
Robert C. Voight Faculty Senate Chambers – 325 GMH
Vol. 50, No. 8
I. Roll Call.
A. Present: J. Anderson, B. Bennie, G. Cravins, T. Docan-Morgan , S. Foley, R. Fowler, A.
Galbraith, T. Gendreau, D. Hart, K., Hunt, H. Jones, S. Kelly, T. King-Heiden; J. Kirsch, K.
Kortenkamp, A. Loh, J. Longhurst, W. Maas, J. Nunley, M. Rott, B. Seebach, K. Terpstra.
B. Excused: M. Moeller;
II. Approval of minutes.
A. Minutes from the 12-3-15 meeting were approved.
III. Reports (Note: not presented in order of discussion)
A. Chancellor (Joe Gow):
1. Current enrollment update: international students still down; have hired 2 recruiters for
international education; transfer students numbers are slightly down, and are stepping up
efforts to address.
a) May impact GQA, but associated reserves should help maintain current faculty/staff.
2. Tenure Task Force: The chancellor stated he will maintain our current well established and
rigorous process of promotion and tenure. The Education Committee will be meeting next
week with the BOR to discuss proposed guidelines, and he hopes that there will be
clarification of verbiage with respect to “curtailment, and redirection” that is in State Statues,
but is currently addressed within proposed policies.
3. Assessment meeting: The chancellor praised faculty for interest and involvement with
assessment as evidenced by attendance at the assessment meeting during meetings week.
4. Funds available for building on campus: System is likely to reduce funding for buildings
from $500 to $150 million, and Ray Cross has commented that there should be no increase in
square footage in buildings.
a) This should not impact Cowley Phase I, and hopefully not Phase II.
b) We discussed how this would impact field house, residence halls, and any future
improvements needed to modernize buildings.
B. iProvost (Betsy Morgan):
1. Enrollment: Traditional first year students continue to be the largest group with respect to
new students at UWL. What are the costs/benefits of increased enrollment?
a) Current enrollment management council is considering concerns related to housing, class
structure, demand on certain majors, etc. if increased enrollment.
b) Hope to know by end Feb/March whether or not it will be necessary to reduce
instructional staff (GQA positions; non-tenure track) due to budgetary constraints.
c) Scholar day recruitment planned for Friday Jan 29th.
2. Will be attending a conference with several faculty members related to “re-imagine the first
year”, which focuses on mechanisms for retention of students.
3. HLC is coming; look for notification of open forums and potential drop in discussions.
4. Negotiating hiring practices for SOE/STEP faculty: DPI (Department of Public Instruction)
on campus to share views of compliance related to SOE. Continue to discuss with these
issues with DPI as develop UWL policies.
5. Update JPC: Files are strong, and committee almost finished with evaluations/decisions.
6. Pay raise?: Bob Hetzel reports there may be a small pay increase coming from State/System.
7. Happy story: Ran into UWL student in Montana and was able to talk with parent about great
experiences at UWL.
C. CFO (Bob Hetzel):
1. Not present
D. Faculty Representative (Georges Cravins)
a) General concerns related to loss of faculty rights and impact on accreditation.
b) Two faculty reps (Colleges, Whitewater) interested in collecting data independently from
UW System related to retention of faculty.
c) There is a current bill to reinstate faculty governance.
E. Student Senate Liaison (Rep Lauren Mason)
1. Introduction to Lauren, as she is replacing Molly Davies.
2. Currently discussing implementation of smoking ban on campus. Students would like to see
better enforced, and discussing possibility of a small fine.
3. Excited for upcoming opportunity to discuss student loan debt with State Representatives (on
campus).
F. Faculty Senate Chair (Brad Seebach)
1. See discussion related to tenure task force documents.
IV. Visit from Representative Jill Billings
A. Expressed concerns related to college affordability package.
1. Lack of time for student/citizen input as public hearing was two days after introduced.
2. She felt it was insufficient to make a real difference in student debt as many things were “off
the table”, including the ability to refinance student loans, ability to get better loan rates, and
focus on spending money to place students in unpaid internships.
3. She continues to focus efforts on this issue.
B. When asked, she agreed that the lack of openness in WI is concerning – ranging from decisions
being made at odd hours, lack of open meetings, discussions with Governor being “invite only”,
lack of notice for visits and meetings.
C. Will look into request of information related to idea of “re-basing” throughout the UW System;
Will UWL be expected to subsidize other universities?
D. She agreed to remind constituents within State Legislature that faculty/staff/employees within
universities and colleges are “jobs”; budget cuts result in the loss of jobs within the State, and that
losing these positions that are geared towards preparing workforce and generating new jobs can
have a confounding impact on overall job numbers within the State.
E. Finally, she notified us as the result from recent strategic planning listening sessions, she will be
serving on general issues interest group to meet Feb 11 and 18.
V. Ratify Tom Seddon’s appointment to faculty senate replacing Carol Angell
A. Discussed and approved
VI. BS in Health Information Management & Technology (Sandy Grunwald, AVC and Kuang Wei
Wen, IS)
A. Timeline: UWL has been part of the program, but has not been a degree-granting institution; want
this to change; asking for FS to review/approve pre-authorization and authorization
simultaneously as the program is already in place and hoping to have approval to enroll students
in Fall.
1. If any issues identified, will come back to FS.
B. Program: 60 credits, on-line only, designed for non-traditional students; has graduated 15
students.
1. Given the competition (33 similar on-line programs), UWL has the biggest name and more
forward-looking curriculum, so should be competitive and students should obtain a higher
level of literacy and skills.
2. The program has graduated 15 students, and 10 graduated with a job; plan to continue to
maintain and increase this success level.
C. Revenue from program is shared amongst participating institutions.
1. Do not anticipate concerns from other degree-granting institutions as it was requested that
UWL become a degree-granting institution.
2. Requested follow-up (Grunwald) with respect to tuition costs for residents vs non-residents
(currently the same).
D. Motion to approve both pre-authorization and authorization simultaneously passed.
VII.
Academic Freedom statement, 2nd reading
1. Academic freedom statement approved.
VIII. Discussion of Tenure Task Force documents
A. Chair Seebach asked whether able to submit feedback; noted those who had managed to resolve
them.
B. BOR members are ready to be finished with issue.
C. Will likely see attempt from UW-Madison faculty to address holes in policy, and other
institutions likely to follow. Opportunity to make an attempt to frame this appropriately for our
campus.
D. Who does post-tenure review? Initial review is still within department; the intent of 5-year review
is to be more intensive than merit reviews currently in place.
E. Language states “at least once every five years” could mean that potentially reviewed annually;
this is an example of where UWL would need to tailor this to meet our specific needs.
F. Request to UWL Fac Rep Cravins to convey concern/need for additional paperwork/time/effort
for review when BOR wants us to teach more… how shall this conflict be resolved?
G. Concern regarding lack of appeal: can we write an internal appeal process? Yes, but System
would need to approve.
H. What about effects of this policy on the quality of the System? The effects are likely to be
gradual, and not irreversible at this point
IX. Old business
X. New business
XI. Adjournment at 5:36 pm
Submitted by T. King-Heiden and J Kirsch