MINUTES Unapproved
2014/2015 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Faculty Senate
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
2:15 p.m.
University Center 275A
http://www.uww.edu/facsenate
1. Call to Order Chair Munro called the meeting to order at 2:18 PM. Microphones have been provided to make it easier to hear speakers.
2. Roll Call
1. Senators present: Ahmadi, Ambrose, Barger, Brady, Bren Ciganek, Compas Dugan, Gapinski, Ghavamshahidi, Gulig, Hartwick, Holmes, Hsu, Ivry, Kumpaty, Kopf, Levy-Navarro, Mandell, Mukherjee, Munro, Portman, Schneider, Schultz, Tillet, Toms, Veldkamp, Weston, Winchell, Zhang, Zhou
2. Senators absent: (*informed Secretary) Chen, Madan, Zhao
3. Approval of Minutes:
1. Minutes of the Faculty Senate Meeting, Sept 9, 2014: (Action Item: -Attached) Approved with corrections submitted by the Provost on a Gulig/Kumpaty motion.
4. Reports of Committees:
1. Audit & Review Report: (Action Item-Attached) Mandell/Schneider moved consideration of the report. Questions were raised about the meaning of “minor concerns”. AVC Cook responded briefly as to his understanding of the Committee’s meaning. Senator Mandell withdrew her motion. Ghavamshahidi/Ivry moved to consider so discussion could continue. The report was received by a majority vote.
2. University Curriculum Committee: Transmittal of actions of the University Curriculum Committee, September 19th, 2014 (action item) Available at http://www.uww.edu/Documents/acadaff/UCC/2013-14/UCCTransmittalSept192014.docx Approved on a Gulig/Kumpaty motion.
3. Admissions and Academic Standards Committee A handout about the purpose of the Committee was distributed. Those members of the Committee answered questions about activities. They mostly deal with academic standards and student appeals for re-instatement. They review academic forgiveness policies and work with students and Colleges to comply with changes in GPA requirements.
5. Senate Executive Committee:
1. Fall Faculty meeting: Oct 21, 2014 3:30 - UC 275A Senator Mandell requested that the Senate postpone the meeting due to a short notice on the date and the agenda. Given that the agenda concerns a change in the faculty constitution, several other senators spoke in support of Senator Mandell. As the Fall Faculty meeting is technically called by the Chancellor, it is his decision to postpone or not. Chancellor Telfer said that he would defer to the sense of the Senate. A straw vote was taken with a majority in favor of postponement. The Chancellor’s Office will notify the faculty of the new date and location.
2. Scheduling of faculty committees to provide reports to Senate Chair Munro distributed a schedule of when committees would be reporting on their activities. It was suggested that if senators were on a given committee they should remind the chair of the committee to attend the appropriate session.
6. Old Business:
1. Election of a Faculty Representative to the UW-Whitewater Foundation Board of Directors. (Action item)
Kim Hixson, Communication
7. New Business:
1. Election of a Faculty Representative to the LGBT Task Force. (Action item)
Brooke Winchell, Special Education
2. Election of Faculty Representatives to the Faculty Appeals, Grievance, and Disciplinary Hearing Committee. (Action item)
Alvaro Taveira, Occupational, Environmental Safety, & Health
3. Election of a Faculty Representative to UC Board. (Action item)
Christina Outlay, IT and Supply Chain Management
4. Resolution on the status of the faculty personnel rules by Ahmadi along with a proposed substitution resolution by David Munro (Action item – 2 attachments)
Ghavamshahidi/Ahmadi moved to return the faculty personnel rules to their May 2015 status and indicate that the Senate Executive Committee handling of the issue over the summer was not appropriate. Discussion followed, including an explanation of the reasons for the Executive Committee’s summer actions. The Chancellor will not approve the May draft rules without the change he had requested on appeal panels ( which is actually a return to the pre-May rules on that issue). It was agreed that handling the matter by email was probably inappropriate. Ahmadi called the question, approved; main motion carried.
Portman/Ambrose moved consideration of Chair Munro’s resolution on the status of the faculty personnel rules. Discussion followed. Compas moved to strike paragraph four; accepted as a friendly amendment. Mandell offered a new paragraph five; accepted as a friendly amendment. Motion approved as amended.
Motion as amended follows:
RESOLUTION ON THE STATUS OF THE FACULTY PERSONNEL RULES
WHEREAS the Faculty Senate approved extensive revisions of the Faculty Personnel Rules at its meeting on May 5, 2014; and,
WHEREAS the Chancellor indicated that he would not approval the revised rules without a minor revision,
WHEREAS the Executive Committee took action to further revise these approved Faculty
Personnel Rules via an email –vote August 14-15, 2014; and,
WHEREAS because revision of the Faculty Personnel Rules via an email-vote due to an error on the part of the faculty senate chair was not listed as an action item on a published agenda of the Executive Committee in advance of the vote, the requirements of the State Open Meeting Law have been violated and the action of the Executive Committee is considered by some as null and void;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Faculty Senate considers the changes that were approved by the faculty executive committee via e-mail August 14-15, 2014 are hereby approved by the faculty senate as a whole and considered to be have been effect as of August 19, 2014, and
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Faculty Personnel Rules Committee bring a revision of the contested rule change to the Senate for the November or December meeting.
5. Faculty Governance & Shared Governance – Identifying areas where the lines of authority and responsibility may not be clear. (Informational)
Postponed to November meeting on a Weston/Compas motion.
6. Department of Curriculum and Instruction Tenure and Promotion Standards: Action item (Attached) After a discussion of differences in requirements for promotion to different ranks, the standards were approved on a Hartwick/Kumpaty motion.
7. Emeritus Resolution for Prof. Christine Clements : Action item (Attached)
Approved on Kumpaty/Gulig motion.
8. Emeritus Resolution for Professor Alison Townsend: Action item (Attached)
Approved on a Gulig/Gapinski motion.
9. Tobacco task force committee resolution: Action Item (Attached) The resolution and report of the Task Force were distributed to the Senate in advance. The resolution was moved for consideration by Veldkamp/Compas. Senator Veldkamp, who was a member of the task force, spoke to the motion, discussion followed. The task force wants to bring UWW in-line with other colleges on the issue. Compliance would be voluntary. Senator Gulig asked if the campus Native American community had been consulted, given the use of tobacco in their religious ceremonies. It was noted that the student government voted down the proposal last week. Kumpaty/Kopf moved to postpone further discussion to the December faculty Senate meeting; motion passed.
8. Announcements and Information (no action unless noted otherwise)
1. Report of the Chancellor: Chancellor Telfer thanked the Tobacco task force for their hard word on the report and noted that all governance bodies will be considering it. He distributed several handouts from Institutional Research. The Fall profile shows 12,148 students, most ever, and 80.5% retention, highest ever. A salary sheet showed $384,000 in faculty salary base readjustments and $1.5 million in one-time compensation payments.
A System-wide report on faculty leaving indicated that UWW only lost 3.8% of faculty. There was a report on Inclusive Excellence to the Board of Regents. The Board is opening a dialogue with the Native American community.
The DoE Office of Civil Rights is here and will be talking to specific individuals.
His office is aware of the recent off-campus incidents, but has no details. UWW values diversity and frowns on physical violence.
The Hawk Card Office will issue IDs compliant with voter regulations upon request.
2. Report of the Provost: Dr. Kopper noted that the Board wants to decrease the number of students needing developmental courses. The Gates Foundation has given System grant money for a conference on this issue in November; a number of faculty and staff will be attending.
She has three administrative fellows this year. Jonathan Ivry will be working on HLC issues, Jodie Parys, on academic innovation, and Dale Splinter on LEAP.
AVC Cook gave an update on Courseleaf implementation. There was a two-week test in September that identified some issues that need cleaning-up. There will be on-campus training November 12-13 which will need a representative from each department.
3. Report of the Senate Chair: Munro reminded the Senate that the System report on reserved funds had been issued and well received by most of the press..
9. Senate Meeting Dates and Times
2014-2015 Senate Meeting Dates and Times
1. Faculty Senate: Meetings begin at 2:15 p.m. Faculty Senate meetings continue until business is finished, potentially 5 PM or later. The location(s) of the Senate meetings for remaining Fall-2014 meetings is UC 275A. Remaining 2014-2015 Faculty Senate meeting dates: Oct 14, 2014; Nov 11, 2014; Dec 9, 2014; Feb 10, 2015; Mar 10, 2015; Apr 14, 2015; May 5, 2015
2 .Faculty Senate Executive Committee: Meetings of the Executive Committee are typically at 2:15 on Tuesdays two weeks before Senate meetings and as needed. The location(s) of the Senate Executive Committee meetings for 2014-2015 have not yet been determined. Remaining 2014-2015 Faculty Senate Executive meeting dates: Oct. 28, 2014; Nov. 25, 2014; Jan. 27, 2015; Feb. 24, 2015; Mar. 31, 2015; Apr. 21, 2015
10. Adjournment Meeting adjourned at 4:24 PM on a Gulig/Brady motion.