Meeting of the Faculty Senate
Executive Committee
327 Graff Main Hall
2 February 2015
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:
Bob Hoar, Assoc. Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs; Heidi
Macpherson, Provost
The meeting began at 2:32 PM.
1.
Discussion on Continuing Education: Chair Seebach has invited Penny Tiedt,
Director of Continuing Education and Extension, to provide Faculty Senate with more
information about consortial and/or collaborative programs on campus. Before she
addresses the Senate, Provost Macpherson and AVC Hoar wanted to have a
discussion about the issues that need to be addressed. These issues include budgetary
concerns, assessment, opportunities that people might not be aware of, and common
misconceptions.
2.
Title IX Compliance: Provost Macpherson requested that FS agenda item VI. from
the meeting on 1/29/15 (which was not addressed due to time constraints) be returned
to the next FS meeting agenda. This agenda item deals with a discussion of UW
System Policy and Title IX compliance. Specifically, the Provost would like feedback
from the Faculty Senate regarding the rewording of UWS 4, 7, and 11 to bring these
statutes in line with federal policy.
a. These documents can be viewed as supplemental information to the FS meeting
for 1/29/15.
b. SEC will draft a response at their meeting on 2/9/15 and bring it before the FS for
approval on 2/12/15.
3.
Anti-Bullying Policy: The SEC discussed some of the major issues that arose from
the FS discussion on this policy last semester and went over the latest version of the
policy document.
a. It was agreed by those present that Ombudspersons would be a suitable official
for reporting bullying complaints.
b. A discussion about possibly defining the role of Ombudsperson more clearly, as
well as providing Ombudspersons with a modicum of training, ensued. It was
mentioned that Ombudspersons could potentially serve as a subset of CGAAF, as
this would provide an employee with more ways to file a bullying complaint
without allowing them to pursue multiple venues for the same complaint.
4.
State Legislative Forum: Chair Seebach reminded the SEC about the State Legislative
Forum that will be held from 3:00-4:00 PM on 2/13/15 in the Ward Room of
Cartwright Center. SEC agreed to sponsor this forum.
5.
Faculty Senate Response to Impending State Budgetary Concerns: The SEC
discussed information that was recently forwarded to FS from Rep. Cravins regarding
other System schools' responses to the impending state budget. It was agreed upon by
the SEC that while the response from UW-Milwaukee was well stated, we would like
to wait until a clearer picture of the budget has been released before drafting a
statement of our own.
6.
Fixed Meeting Time for APR: Now that the Academic Program Review committee
has been increased by FS vote to 11 people, they are one of the largest FS committees
on campus (larger than UCC, GCC, and Gen Ed; all of which have fixed meeting
times due to their size). Since APR is planning to meet on Wednesdays at 3:20 this
semester, Chair Seebach will bring forward a recommendation to FS from SEC that
APR be given a permanent meeting time at 3:30 PM on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays
of the month (alternating with Gen Ed).
7.
Follow-up on Faculty Representation on Search & Screen Committees: The
discrepancy between faculty being the "majority" of representatives (as policy
dictates) versus being the "largest representation" (as several official HR documents
have erroneously stated) has been traced back to at least 8/15/08. SEC/FS will send a
reminder to administration so this policy is not overlooked in the future.
The meeting adjourned at 4:30 PM.
Submitted by J. Kirsch