UNIVERSITY of WISCONSIN
La Crosse
September 16, 2014
To:
Melissa Bingham, Chair
Academic Planning Committee
From: Bradley Seebach, Chair
Faculty Senate
This memo is intended to serve as the initial charge letter to the Academic Planning Committee for the
2014-2015 academic year. Please see the faculty standing committee page for reference to the
committee bylaws and previous charges and reports
(http://www.uwlax.edu/FacultySenate/FacultyCommittees/FacultyCommitteesIndex.htm).
As you know, primary responsibilities of the chairperson include:
 promptly informing the Senate office (5-8018) the results of the election of officers and any
changes in committee membership.*
 organizing and conducting meetings.
 completing a year-end report on the Academic Planning Committee activities to be
submitted to the Senate Office no later than May 31, 2015.
*The committee chairperson should carefully review Faculty Senate Bylaw II, “Faculty Standing
Committees” for information on committee attendance and the role of alternates.
Primary responsibilities of the secretary include:
 recording minutes of each meeting.
 promptly sending approved meeting minutes to Sibbie Weathers (sweathers@uwlax.edu) so
that the minutes can be posted on the faculty senate website.
In the event the committee chooses to rotate secretarial duties, please designate one person to be
responsible for e-mailing the meeting minutes to Sibbie Weathers.
We will continue to use Google calendar for both meeting announcements and reporting of meeting
minutes. Committee chairs are responsible for including the Google address (senate@uwlax.edu) on
meeting announcements. This will satisfy the Open Meetings requirements. Committee secretaries are
responsible for sending minutes to both Sibbie and the Google site.

In addition to charges that are stipulated by Committee By-Laws (see
http://www.uwlax.edu/facultysenate/ABP/bylaws.html Section II), the Academic Planning
Committee is charged to consider the existing obstacles to the creation of interdisciplinary
courses or programs, and also to consider how the university might restructure in order to
better support courses and programs that do not easily fit our traditional, disciplinary
Faculty Senate
323 Graff Main Hall
1725 State Street, La Crosse, WI 54601
Phone (608) 785-8018
An affirmative action/equal opportunity employer
boundaries. I will offer a brief rationale and several informational items. You may have ideas
already in mind – if you do not, then there are two short cases that may serve as examples at
the end of this section. Please address questions to the Faculty Senate Chair, Brad Seebach for
further clarification. As your research and consideration may be important to the progress of
other groups working on this general subject area, please file a preliminary report on this
subject by February 1, 2015 – earlier if possible.
o
The rationale for this charge is as follows. UW-L has interesting challenges and
opportunities that present themselves. We have a large group of young, creative faculty
and staff. Many of them are interested in subjects that cross our traditional, disciplinary
boundaries. We have a greatly skewed distribution of students towards a small number
of the major fields of study offered at the university, and other fields of study are under
pressure to make changes that may increase enrollments associated with their
departments. Outside of the university, there is a view that the university is not
responsive to perceived, societal need. Allowing interdisciplinary innovation that may
arise from within our faculty and staff to proceed - without the immediate constraints
that administrators are faced with today when they consider proposals - could be a way
to strengthen the university for all concerned.
o
Additional information for you to consider is as follows. The Graduate Council will also
be charged with considering these issues during the current academic year, specifically
with respect to graduate-level programming. Provost Macpherson is planning to appoint
a university-level task force to explore interdisciplinary curriculum innovations. This task
force is to be led by Julia Johnson, who led a somewhat similar task force for CLS last
year. (The other colleges did not have a comparable group.) We want the issue to be led
by faculty and staff interest, ideas, and experience where possible, and so the APC will
be asked to consider these issues independently but to work with members of the
Provost’s task force where you find it to be prudent and useful. Other chief
administrators of the university also are supportive of our exploration of
interdisciplinary innovation.
o
A simple case is as follows. The College of Business Administration would like to offer a
new course in “Business Communications” and make use of the expertise in the
Department of Communication Studies. The Department of Communication Studies is
interested in taking part in the endeavor, but does not have resources available to take
on the responsibilities for teaching four sections of such a course, or to be part of a
team-taught course design, partnering with faculty or staff from the CBA.
A more complex case is as follows. Faculty and staff are interested in creating a new
Minor degree program in Renewable Energy. Initial interest in the program includes
faculty with expertise in physics, geography, chemistry, sociology, economics, and
political science. Several new courses would be considered. At least two courses would
be taught collaboratively. Collaborating faculty are likely to be from different colleges of
the university. How can the program be governed, supported financially, and evaluated?
o
If you have questions or concerns please contact me at any time during the year. Finally, if the Senate
Executive Committee or I can assist your committee in any way during the year, please do not hesitate
to ask.
saw
cc:
Academic Planning Committee Members