Meeting of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee 327 Graff Main Hall 23 September 2014 2014-2015 Members: Bradley Seebach, Chair Martin Allen, Vice-Chair Janet Kirsch, Secretary Natalie Eschenbaum, At-Large Biology Computer Science Chemistry & Biochemistry English Members Present: Allen, Eschenbaum, Kirsch, Seebach Guests/Consultants: Georges Cravins, Faculty Representative; Nicole Gullekson, Chair of the International Education Committee; Bob Hoar, Assoc. Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs; Heidi Macpherson, Provost; Fred Pierce, Assoc. Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management The meeting began at 2:34 PM. 1. Provost's report: a. Gates Grant Conference Call with System: Representatives from UW-L participated in a conference call with System earlier today (9/23) to discuss ways to improve remediation. Ultimately, the goal is to obtain funding from a Gates Grant to develop a "Moving Up" strategy on campus and to obtain additional funding from System to expand and integrate UW-L's successful pilot project to other System schools. b. Provost Macpherson met with the ESS faculty on Friday (9/19) to discuss general plans and timelines for the proposed Mitchell Field House. c. The Undergraduate Research Committee will be working on helping faculty with embedding undergraduate research projects this year. d. Reminder: Nizam Arain (AA Director) will be leading a Bias Training session in 150 Murphy Library (the ICE space) from 4:00-5:00 PM on Friday, 9/26, for members of JPC and faculty/staff serving on S&S or Promotion/Retention committees. e. Provost Macpherson asked members of the SEC to start considering issues regarding sabbaticals. Currently, sabbaticals are funded by the colleges where they are housed. There are advantages and disadvantages to this system, and moving these funds to a central pool is a possibility. i. An exploration of this topic was added to the charge for the Faculty Development Committee. 2. Faculty compensation for International Education Programs: a. In the past, OIE has paid faculty $1200/credit hour to lead study abroad programs. Under the new FS pay schedule (i.e. the summer school model), a one-credit hour program wouldn't result in any faculty compensation for enrollments less than 18 students. Chair Gullekson and AVC Pierce want to make sure that there is an incentive for faculty development/leadership of study abroad programs, and the remuneration needs to be predictable and consistent. b. Chair Gullekson and AVC Pierce requested that SEC discuss a temporary solution for this year's proposals as a more permanent solution is worked out with OIE. This discussion will be continued at next week's meeting (9/30) with the goal of bringing an agenda item to FS on 10/2. c. This issue was added as a charge to IEC. 3. General discussion items: a. It was noted that some faculty have not yet been remunerated for summer session study abroad programs. The administration is aware of this problem and is working towards rectifying it. b. There have been some concerns from STEP faculty members regarding reporting structures. These concerns center on STEP faculty getting directions from the Director of SOE instead of from the departmental STEP Liaisons. There have also been concerns about the percentages of time STEP faculty are being asked to allocate to different units (i.e. their home department vs. SOE). c. There was a clarification on the charge to ABL regarding the number of members on the APR committee. d. It was noted that the CAPS charge regarding consideration of the A, AB, B, ... grade scale versus the more common A, A-, B+, B, ... scale is not a charge to change the scale, but just to weigh the pros and cons of both. 4. Discussion/Review of 2014-2015 Committee charges 5. Approval of Minutes: The minutes from last week's SEC meeting (9/16/14) were approved. The meeting adjourned at 4:35 PM. Submitted by J. Kirsch