UNIVERSITY of WISCONSIN
La Crosse
September 25, 2014
To:
Rob Dixon, Chair
Graduate Council
From: Bradley Seebach, Chair
Faculty Senate
This memo is intended to serve as the initial charge letter to the Graduate Council for the 2014-2015
academic year. Please see the revised standing committee page for reference to the committee bylaws
and previous charges and reports
(http://www.uwlax.edu/FacultySenate/FacultyCommittees/FacultyCommitteesIndex.htm).
Primary responsibilities of the chairperson include:
 organizing and conducting meetings.
 completing a year end report on the Graduate Council 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.
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 the committee's normal duties, I ask that the committee consider and report on the
following special charge:

The Graduate Council 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
boundaries. The Academic Planning Committee has received a similar, broad charge. The
Graduate Council should be better situated to view this charge with a focus on graduate
programming, and we do not wish to lose sight of the possibilities for graduate programming. I
Faculty Senate
323 Graff Main Hall
1725 State Street, La Crosse, WI 54601
Phone (608) 785-8018
An affirmative action/equal opportunity employer
will offer a brief rationale for this charge, and several informational items. You may have ideas
already in mind – if you do not, then there are two theoretical 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.
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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. Administrative structure and restricted finances have made it difficult to
develop new graduate-level programs, or even to expand or improve the quality of
existing programs in response to needs for training new scholars or professionals.
Outside of the university, there is a view that the university is not responsive to
perceived, societal need. Allowing curricular innovation that may arise from within our
faculty and staff to proceed - without the immediate constraints that we are faced with
today when they consider proposals - could be a way to strengthen the university for all
concerned.
Additional information for you to consider is as follows. Provost Macpherson is
organizing 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. Please consider these issues independently but work with members of the
Provost’s task force where you find it to be prudent and useful. Vice Chancellor Hetzel is
also involved in considering options within his administrative division.
A simple case is as follows. Faculty would like to offer a course related to management
of high-tech businesses to MBA students, as part of a UWS effort to improve the service
of various campuses to the regional business community. Partners in this course come
from departments housed in CBA and SAH. Is there a way to develop a course such as
this without straining the resources of each department, and is there a way to sustain
the course long-term, should department and college leadership change – a
circumstance in which verbal, personal commitments may vanish.
A more complex case is as follows. Faculty and staff are interested in creating a new
Master’s 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. Most departments that are
involved do not currently offer graduate-level degrees. 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?
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:
Graduate Council Members