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