49th Faculty Senate
March 26, 2015 – 3:30 PM
Robert C. Voight Faculty Senate Chambers – 325 Graff Main Hall
Vol. 49, No. 13
I.
Roll Call
a. Present: M. Allen, J. Anderson, C. Angell, K. Beyer, L. Caya, M. Current, T. DocanMorgan, N. Eschenbaum, R. Fowler, T. Gendreau, P. Haried, D. Hart, K. Hunt, S. Kelly,
J. Kirsch, W. Maas, M. Rott, B. Seebach, J. Shanks, B. Shrestha
b. Excused: G. Cravins, T. King-Heiden, R. McKelley, K. Terpstra
II.
Minutes of February 26 and March 12 approved
III.
Reports:
a. Chancellor (Joe Gow):
i. Chancellor Gow submitted names of UW-L faculty, staff, and students to serve
on the tenure and shared governance task forces that were recently created by
UW-System. Faculty Senate Chair Brad Seebach was appointed to the tenure task
force, and Student Association President Kaylee Otterbacher and Vice
Chancellor for Student Affairs Paula Knudson were appointed to the shared
governance task force.
ii. Chancellor Gow updated the Senate on the status of UW-L's pending building
projects after meeting with the Building Commission at the last Regents meeting.
The REC addition and Wittich Hall renovation were approved to move forward,
but the new residence hall and Fieldhouse projects were rejected.
iii. Chancellor Gow reported that the Budget Council is ready to bring their
recommendations to the Joint Planning and Budget Committee.
iv. Questions:
1. Are there any updates regarding statutory protections of tenure and
shared governance? Chancellor Gow noted that more information
regarding these issues would likely become more available as the two
task forces meet.
2. If the Fieldhouse project does not move forward, what happens to the
funds that were earmarked for it? CFO Hetzel indicated that the funds
would be retained for a future fieldhouse project.
3. Will other UW-System campuses follow with the early retirement buyout
plan that has been proposed at UWEC? It was noted that plans like this
do not work for every campus.
b. Provost (Heidi Macpherson):
i. Provost Macpherson reminded the Senate of the Celebration of Undergraduate
Research and Creativity that will be held on Friday, 4/3/15, and encouraged all to
attend.
ii. The OCW Spring Symposium will be held on 4/2/15. It will feature a
presentation by Associate Professor Jodi Vandenberg-Daves on her book
"Modern Motherhood: An American History."
1
iii. Dr. Julia Johnson has been named the new Dean of the College of Liberal Studies,
and will start in that position on July 1.
iv. Gail Beausoleil has been named the new Director of Academic Advising Center
and Career Services.
v. The Office of Institutional Research (OIR) will become Institute Research
Assessment and Planning (IRAP). As a part of this change, Assessment
Coordinator Patrick Barlow will move to the Provost's Office.
vi. JPB has updated the Mission, Vision, and Values statements of UW-L.
vii. Questions:
1. What is the current status of Admissions? Provost Macpherson indicated
that UW-L's admissions are currently above where they were at this time
last year.
2. Has UW-Madison been approved to increase out-of-state enrollments by
30%? If so, what affect does this have on in-state enrollments? The cap
on out-of-state enrollments has not been elevated to this level. Provost
Macpherson noted that the last time UW-Madison requested an increase
in the cap, they were approved to increase it to 27.5%, but were required
to increase their in-state levels, as well. If the cap is increased, Provost
Macpherson will let people know about it.
c. CFO (Bob Hetzel):
i. CFO Hetzel stated that the Budget Council has maintained a 1% pay plan in the
budget plan. Salary compression and inversion are issues that still need to be
addressed on campus. The Joint Planning and Budget Committee will be meeting
over the next two weeks to review the Budget Council’s plan.
ii. Update on Capital Projects: The new Student Center and the addition to the
parking ramp are ahead of schedule. The Cowley Phase I project is still moving
forward, and the new chiller plant is on schedule.
iii. Questions:
1. What is the status of the CFA Elevator and Lobby project? The elevator
project is still moving forward (compliance with ADA).
2. What is the future of the current Cowley Hall? CFO Hetzel stated that
they are currently expecting 8-10 years before construction of Cowley
Hall Phase II.
d. CIO (Mohamed Elhindi):
i. Voice over IP (VOIP) is coming to campus: CIO Elhindi informed the Faculty
Senate that ITS will be updating the phone system on campus. His office will be
sending out notification emails next week, equipment installation will begin on
May 1, and their goal is to have the new system up and running by July 1.
ii. Questions:
1. Have any other System campuses moved to VOIP? UW-L is one of the
last System campuses to upgrade to VOIP.
2. What is UW-L’s data retention policy for the new system? CIO Elhindi
stated that data would only be retained by the user’s choice, and that
2
voicemail would not be information that is subject to an open records
request.
e. Student Senate Liaison (Rep. Amy Keel):
i. Rep. Keel reported that six UW-L students went to a recent Budget Listening
Session in Milwaukee. They were allowed 18 minutes as a group, which they
used effectively.
ii. A student senator is interested in getting feedback from the faculty about
including student representatives on faculty hiring committees. Rep. Keel was
encouraged to ask that student to bring a formal proposal before Faculty Senate
with examples, an outline of potential gains to students, and an identification of
the difficulties such a policy would face.
f.
Faculty Senate Chair (Brad Seebach):
i. Chair Seebach acknowledged that he has been appointed to the state Tenure Task
Force.
ii. He also noted that the Faculty Senate would be reviewing the Salary
Compensation Plan from the PTS Committee at the meeting on 4/2/15.
IV.
Academic Program Review - Political Science/Public Administration (Linda Dickmeyer
(APR) and Jo Arney (POL):
a. The APR felt that the department needed to address some assessment items, and
recommended that they submit a short update/progress report in three years.
b. The report was accepted, M/S/P (unanimous).
V.
Requested changes to General Education Committee By-laws (Meredith Thompson, General
Education Committee Chair):
a. The Gen Ed Committee was charged at the beginning of this academic year to examine if
they should become the home of the Associate degree. They currently have de facto
oversight of the degree and are willing to continue in this manner, but encourage the
Faculty Senate to find some governing body to be in charge of the degree if they think it
should be removed from Gen Ed’s purview.
b. The Gen Ed Committee requests that the University Assessment coordinator be made an
official consultant, along with the director of the Academic Advising Center (particularly
if the Associate degree remains in Gen Ed’s demesne).
c. The Gen Ed Committee proposes that, to improve communication between the General
Education (GEC) and the General Education Assessment (GEAC) Committees, a
representative from GEC is formally made a non-voting member of GEAC.
d. Questions:
i. Does the Chair of GEAC go to GEC meetings? The GEAC chair does attend
GEC meetings from time to time, but it's not mandated.
ii. How many students per year take an Associate degree? In the past, the number
has typically hovered around ten or fewer, but there were 21 Associate degrees
conferred last year. The program appears to be growing.
e. The motion to approve the request for bylaw changes (first reading) was approved,
M/S/P (unanimous).
3
VI.
Old Business:
VII. New Business:
VIII. Adjournment at 4:45 PM
Respectfully submitted,
Janet Kirsch
4