m111803.htm

MINUTES FACULTY SENATE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-SUPERIOR November 18, 2003 RSC 112, 3:00 PM
PRESENT: To be added on 12-8-03.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Motion (T. Cummings/O. Clark) to approve the Faculty Senate minutes of October 21, 2003 and November 4, 2003 and receive the Executive Committee minutes of November 4, 2003.
REPORT OF THE CHANCELLOR: Julius Erlenbach. No report.
REPORT OF THE PROVOST: David Prior. Eight (8) faculty searches have been authorized. Provost Prior is meeting with the SPCC, PBRC, and department chairpersons to solicit input for the 10.8 FTE cuts from last spring. The process for making these cuts will be published. The summer budget has been reviewed with Jan Hanson and will be given to department chairpersons this week. Included in the plan will be approximately twelve (12) core general education courses which will be offered regardless of enrollment, courses students can count on year after year.
REPORTS
Chair--Joel Sipress. Faculty Chair Sipress reported on four items:
1.	Fire alarm system. Carol Lindberg was not able to attend today's meeting. This item will be scheduled for the December meeting.
2.	A personnel review portfolio has been proposed. It could provide more regularity and standardization. The Personnel Council would like a formal charge from the Faculty Senate. Motion (C. Schrenker/C. Reichert) to charge the Personnel Council to investigate workload issues and review a personnel review portfolio. Motion (M. Einerson/D. Carroll) to split the question passed. Motion to review the personnel review portfolio and give it a higher priority than workload issues passed. Motion to charge the Personnel Council to review workload issues including equity among departments, counting of credit hours, internships, independent study, and to report their findings to the Faculty Senate was made. Motion (O. Clark/C. Schrenker) to substitute "findings and recommendations" for "findings" passed. The main motion passed.
3.	The general faculty meeting on November 11 included about one-half the faculty. It is on tape and recorded. The Executive Committee will develop a summary to share with the Faculty Senate. There is an urgency in doing this. There are questions about both tenure and promotion.
4.	The SPCC report was distributed. It includes draft goals and will be distributed to all governance groups. Intent is to create some basic goals. PBRC will be review the document and develop recommendations for the Faculty Senate. Faculty Chair Sipress clarified the FTE cuts. He said that we must make five (5) cuts in instructional areas before we can finalize who can be hired this years. We are adding 2.5 FTE to coaches to resolve Title 9 problems identified by the Office of Civil Rights (OCR). Faculty Chair Sipress spoke specifically about how University Relations reported on the OCR report. The irony (inconsistency) is that University Relations reported that we were given a clean bill of health, but 2.5 FTE are being used to fix the problem. Provost Prior recommended that Senators read the OCR report. Chair Sipress suggested that we need to look at how we are investing in athletics versus academics. One way to achieve Title 9 recommendations is to reallocate within Athletics rather than add to their budget.
Secretary--Hal Bertilson. Secretary Bertilson reported on two elections:
1.	Chip Beal was elected to the Personnel Council.
2.	The PBRC election resulted in a tie. Maureen Salzer and Stewart Platner each received 19 votes. Bob Beam received 11 votes. Glenn Carlson received 7 votes. Faculty Chair Sipress will arrange a coin flip to decide the winner of the election among the two faculty who received 19 votes.
Faculty Representative--Nick Sloboda. Faculty Representative Report (October 31, 03). Senior Vice President Cora Marrett announced that the University of Wisconsin System is continuing to foster a working relationship with a number of universities in South Africa, especially in the areas of science, technology, and math. The State Employee Health Insurance Policy, especially the new tier structure, was discussed at great length. A variety of issues were addressed here, including the likelihood that premiums will be going up for all state employees. Some other options, such as the UW–System insuring ourselves were also mentioned. It was noted that while we, within the UW–System, are compared state wide for health care payments, we are not compared in terms of our lower salaries. The issue of the full time credit load for academic staff also was discussed at great length. It was determined that there is no unity in terms of amount of credit hours being taught: in some campuses academic staff teach 12 credit hours or equivalent while in others, they teach 15 credit hours. In fact, it was determined that this number varies even from department to department. Issues in terms of the ratio of academic staff to tenure or tenure-track faculty were discussed. Other considerations such as quality of education, service requirements, scholarship, and curriculum were discussed in relation to this issue. It was noted that a student panel within the UW–System has spoken out strongly in favor of full time tenure and tenure-track faculty over academic staff for their instruction. It was noted that the chancellor searches continue in Milwaukee and Stevens Point and that both searches are using an external hiring agency. There was some discussion of using such an agency. It appeared to be the consensus of the majority of the representatives that this, likely, is the route that will be used by campuses in the future. Finally, the issue of the credit transfer agreement was discussed. It was noted that the urgency of the issue, in the eyes of the legislatures, is forcing the System to move quickly on the issue. Many representatives noted the need for shared governance to be respected and for the need for faculty input from the individual campuses.
Planning, Budgeting, and Review Council--Peter Nordgren. See the report by Faculty Chair Sipress.
1.	Minutes of the 9-12-03 PBRC meeting.
Personnel Council--Randy Gabrys-Alexson. See the report by Faculty Chair Sipress.
Undergraduate Academic Affairs Council--Tim Cummings. No report.
Graduate Council--Terri Kronzer.
1.	Minutes of the 10-15-03 Graduate Council meeting.
2.	Minutes of the 10-29-03 Graduate Council meeting.
3.	Motion from the Graduate Council (M. Einerson/W. Kropid) to insert the following new wording into the Grading System: When a grade change is made after the semester following the assignment of the letter grade, the faculty member should submit a petition to change the letter grade in a graduate course to the Graduate Council. Motion (C. Schrenker/O. Clark) to approve this motion was made. Motion (O. Clark/C. Reichert) to table this motion passed.
4.	The Graduate Council is encouraged to develop its own grade appeal policy.
5.	The Graduate Council received good input on slash courses and develop criteria for graduate and slash courses. There was a discussion of what a graduate course is and what needs to be in a graduate course. The Graduate Council will be reviewing all graduate and slash courses.
Student Senate--Brad Amys. Student Senate Chair Amys reminded faculty to contact him to get students to serve on faculty and administrative committees. The Student Senate is working on developing a service learning component.
Academic Staff Senate--Mary Lee Vance. No report.
OLD BUSINESS
1.	Fire alarm system. No action taken.
NEW BUSINESS
1.	Proposal to eliminate concentrations and tracks within majors and minors: "A policy effective with the 2006-2008 catalog that there be no such thing as concentrations or tracks, except as approved by the Faculty Senate for outside certification reasons. Recommended sequences can be listed as notes under the major." Motion (T. Cummings/C. Schrenker) to refer the item to the Undergraduate Academic Affairs Council passed.
ADJOURNMENT
Faculty Senate Minutes prepared by Hal Bertilson, Faculty Senate Secretary, on December 5, 2003.