MINUTES

FACULTY SENATE

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-SUPERIOR

May 10, 2005

RSC 112, 2:30 PM

PRESENT: David Beran, Hal Bertilson, David Carroll, Orv Clark, Timothy Cummings, Maria Cuzzo, Martha Einerson, James Holter, M. Johnson, Chris Kemnitz, David Kroll, Peter Nordgren, Chuck Reichert, Cecilia Schrenker, Nicholas Sloboda, Gloria Toivola, Julius Erlenbach, David Prior, Jan Hanson, Mary Lee Vance, Stewart Platner, Steve Gustafson, Tom Fennessey, Terri Kronzer, Mark Anderson, and Jim Albers.

EXCUSED: Matt Faerber.

ABSENT: Ted Cox, Susan Loonsk.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Motion (M. Einerson/G. Toivola) to approve the minutes of the April 19 Faculty Senate meeting and accept the minutes of the May 3 Executive Committee passed.

REPORT OF THE NCA COORDINATOR: Professor Sipress distributed paper copies of (a) the NCA Progress Report Process and (b) NCA Working Group Reports and Recommendations (5-9-05). The reports and recommendations were reviewed for the Faculty Senate. Six of the seven Phase I working groups have reported.

REPORT OF THE CHANCELLOR--Julius Erlenbach. A potential merger amendment to the budget may be introduced. I would have UW-Milwaukee absorb UW-Waukesha, UW-Stout absorb UW-Barron County, and UW-Superior merge with UMD. Efforts are being made to discourage the amendment.

UW-Superior presently has delegated authority for purchasing IT services. DOA is trying to centralize IT service administration and take it away from the Board of Regents. This could be quite expensive for UW-Superior.

Chancellor Erlenbach referred to his May 9 email on Student Life reorganization. A significant charge to the campus will be to find ways to improve the six-year graduation rate and the freshman to sophomore retention rate.

Chancellor Erlenbach also asked the Senate to consider next year the question "Are final exams still relevant?" Are there experiences more relevant than finals?

NEW BUSINESS DISCUSSION OF CLASSROOM DEMAND ANALYSIS REGARDING THE NEW ACADEMIC BUILDING: Chancellor Erlenbach introduced Jim Albers, UW System Campus Planner and Jan Hanson, Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance. Provost Prior was asked to speak first. He noted that there has been some incivility on campus over who has access to classrooms. "We are entering an era where we have to cooperate more regarding classroom scheduling. By 2006 we will have central scheduling of classrooms.

Review of Planning for the Capital Budget. Jim Albers reported the following: In 2001 every unit on campus was interviewed to learn “where they were going” and their space issues. Space tabulations were prepared and confirmed with units in 2003. They looked at every crook and cranny to see how much support there was for current activities. They identified 400 facility deficiency issues. They determined that there were few opportunities to provide improvements with the present infrastructure especially in McCaskill, Sundquist, and Old Main. The space priorities were organized into eight categories including general classrooms, special learning spaces, support spaces, and obsolete audio-visual-computer equipment. A list of six objectives was developed: (1) Quality academic teaching space and labs, flexible and appropriately sized classes and labs, (2) Access to University resources, (3) Relieve departmental space constraints for several decades, (4) Creating departmental adjacencies, and (5) Provide student study areas, conference rooms, and computer labs in every building, (6) and surge (growth space). A goal is to have flexibility to accommodate the teaching styles of faculty.

The review of gross square footage space demonstrated that many classrooms are functionally obsolete. Many are not the appropriate size. For good sight lines and communication classroom aspect ratio (length and width) needs to be close to square in shape. Structural bays need to be 30 to 34 feet to get decent aspect ratios. Our present buildings do not permit such structural bays. All Old Main classrooms need to be replaced because of their shape.

The classroom usage analysis revealed a 30 hour/week average classroom usage factor. The analysis showed that the campus needs 44 classrooms. The campus has 44 classrooms. However, there is an imbalance between small and large classrooms. Twenty-nine classrooms are “bad.” Main 308 and 310 are not used. When we have all good classrooms we, functionally, will have two more classrooms than we have now.

Review of Time Line. The Board of Regents has approved the building. The state Building Commission approved the building at last month’s meeting for planning funding in the 2005-07 biennium. That would permit, if all other approvals follow, beginning construction in July 2007. The recommendation for planning the construction of the new building is now working its way through Joint Finance. If recommended by Joint Finance it will go to the floor of the houses. The governor could sign in July 2005. After the governor hopefully signs, we could be ready to request authority to hire an architect by October in order to begin planning. An architect selection process will follow as will contract negotiations and signing. It will likely be March 2006 when the design process can begin. Bid documents could be approved for July or August 2007. The UW-Superior New Building Committee will need to provide its information to Madison by July 2005 in order to support requesting architectural services by October. Our work gets reviewed by Jim Albers at UW-System and by the state DOA. August 1 is our deadline to get information to them.

The Budget Has Been Cut. Jim Albers said “We never get the budget we ask for.” All state projects have been cut. Our cut was $1,600,000. The cut at several campuses was $10,000,000. Our projected has been “protected” against substantial cuts, according to Albers, because we had an unprecedented gift of $7,000,000. No other campus except Madison has had gifts of that size. “The gift is saving the building.” It will enable us to have the funds to tear down two old buildings and have 33,000 additional square feet after tearing down the two old buildings.

New Standard for Classroom usage. The classroom usage analysis described above was complete using a standard for general assignment classroom usage of 30 hours/week. A new standard has been implemented since then. Now classrooms must be used 35 hours/week. According to Jim Albers that happens to be the increased usage necessary to accommodate the $1,600,000 cut in our capital budget. That means we have to use classrooms more hours of the day. I expect that to increase competition for classrooms. That is my biggest concern at the present time.

REPORT OF THE PROVOST--David Prior. Provost Prior reported that Senator Kohl's staff, Representative Obey, and State Senator Jauch have asked UW-Superior to request an integrated health care/child care facility at a cost of $1,000,000. Chancellor Erlenbach will be in Washington, D.C. next week to discuss the request with Senator Kohl and Representative Obey.

The total cost of the new academic building will be $32,700,000. The calculations of classroom capacity was based upon expected class size plus one-third to provide some flexibility. These calculations included chair size specification increases.

Provost Prior thanked the Faculty Senate. The Senate took on a huge amount of work and faculty leadership did a great job.

REPORTS

Chair--David Carroll. Faculty Chair presented the slate of faculty members for next year's SPBC. The faculty members are Mary Balcer (3-year term), Orv Clark (2-year term), Beth Gilbert (1-year term), and David Carroll (Faculty Chair). Motion (G. Toivola/T. Cummings) to approve this slate passed.

Secretary--Hal Bertilson. No report.

Faculty Representative--Nicholoas Sloboda. Senator Sloboda gave the 4-26-05 Faculty Representative report.

Planning, Budgeting, and Review Council--Peter Nordgren. Senator P. Nordgren reported that program reviews for the Distance Learning Center, Teacher Education, and Logistics have been completed. The program review for Business and Economics is nearing completion. The program review for Legal Studies is in work.

1. Minutes of the 4-15-05 PBRC meeting.

Personnel Council--Chris Kemnitz. A paper copy of the 4-12-05 Personnel Council minutes was distributed. Senator Kemnitz reported that the Communicating Arts personnel policies have been sent to the Faculty Senate. The Council will meet in June regarding a grievance. Motion (O. Clark/M. Cuzzo) to accept the Communicating Arts personnel policies was approved.

Undergraduate Academic Affairs Council--Tim Cummings.

1. Consent agenda. Motion (T. Cummings/M. Cuzzo) to approve Consent Agenda items b and c passed. Motion (C. Schrenker/M. Johnson) to table Consent Agenda item a passed. Motion (O. Clark/T. Cummings) to refer Consent item a to the International Education Committee passed.

a. Approve the Faculty/Staff Guide to Designing Student Learning Abroad Programs.

b. Change the credit limit for students taking remedial courses from 12-14 credits to 12-15 credits.

c. Approve the articulation agreement between the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science and Lake Superior College.

2. Sub-Major Reviews. Motion (M. Einerson/N. Sloboda) to receive the Sub-Major Review report and to thank the Undergraduate Academic Affairs Council for doing the review and the departments for adapting and responding passed. There was one abstention (T. Cummings).

Graduate Council--Terri Kronzer. No report.

Student Senate--No report.

Academic Staff Senate--Mary Lee Vance. Dr. Vance reported that Steve Gustafson is taking over as chair of the Academic Staff Senate. Steve was introduced and welcomed.

OLD BUSINESS.

NEW BUSINESS.

1. Faculty Senate Secretary: Motion (M. Einerson/O. Clark) to approve the following resolution passed unanimously:

WHEREAS, Professor Hal Bertilson has provided important and considerable service to this body as Secretary for the last eight years; and,

WHEREAS, the position of Faculty Senate Secretary comes without great status, recognition, or compensation; and,

WHEREAS, we greatly appreciate his willingness to serve and his dedicated work during his terms in this office; and,

WHEREAS, Professor Bertilson stepped up to serve when no others were willing; and,

WHEREAS, he has performed this honorable service without complaint or whine; therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED that Faculty Senate at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, expresses extreme gratitude for Professor Bertilson's contributions and devoted work as Faculty Secretary.

ADJOURNMENT

CALL TO REORDER. Faculty Chair David Carroll called the meeting to reorder.

SEAT NEW MEMBERS. Motion (C. Kemnitz/M. Einerson) to seat new members was approved. The new members seated were Laura Jacobs, Chip Beal, and Victor Piotrowski.

PRESENT: David Beran, David Carroll, Orv Clark, Maria Cuzzo, Martha Einerson, Laura Jacobs, Marshall Johnson, Chris Kemnitz, David Kroll, Peter Nordgren, Chuck Reichert, Victor Piotrowski, Nicholas Sloboda, and Gloria Toivola.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS

Chair Pro Temp. C. Schrenker was nominated to serve as Chair Pro Temp. Motion (O. Clark/P. Nordgren) to close nominations passed. C. Schrenker was elected Chair Pro Temp.

Faculty Representative. Nick Sloboda was nominated to serve as Faculty Representative. Motion (O. Clark/C. Schrenker) to close nominations passed. Nick Sloboda was elected Faculty Representative.

Senate Secretary. Motion (H. Bertilson/N. Sloboda) to elect Martha Einerson Senate Secretary passed. Martha Einerson was elected Senate Secretary.

At Large Representative to Executive Committee. Motion (M. Einerson/O. Clark) to elect Gloria Toivola the At Large Representative to the Executive Committee passed. Gloria Toivola was elected At Large Representative to the Executive Committee. Motion (N. Sloboda/O. Clark) to elect Chuck Reichert to serve as a substitute on Executive Committee during the semester that Senator Toivola is on sabbatical passed.

OLD BUSINESS

NEW BUSINESS

ADJOURNMENT. The meeting was adjourned.

Prepared by the outgoing Faculty Senate Secretary, Hal Bertilson, June 12, 2005.