DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICAL AND COMPUTER SCIENCES

UW-WHITEWATER

Minutes of the General Departmental Faculty Meeting

September 26, 2006 11 AM C 1006

Present: Ahmadi, Arriola, Baica,Bryan, Chen, Drucker, Evangelista, Gunawardena, Harris, Kane, Lampe, Letellier, Ley, Ma, McFarland, Nam, Nguyen, Ongwella, Park,Rao, G. Samaranayake, S. Samaranayake, Sheth, Siemann, Stamm

The chair, Bennette Harris, called the meeting to order at 11:03 AM.

The minutes of the general departmental faculty meeting of 04/26/2006 was unanimously approved.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Ley announced information wrt the death of Ron Dettmers. A request was made for memorial donations to an existing scholarship. There will be inquiry as to whether the foundation will provide matching funds. Additional donations are requested for the sunshine funds. This past spring/summer, sunshine funds were used for flowers for Tanguay’s wife and Bryan. Also, money was sent to the family of the daughter of David Stoneman. Further information will be forthcoming.

Ley still has money that was collected to be put toward a scholarship fund in memory of Dieudonne’s son Leo. Ahmadi indicated that he would contact Dieudonne this upcoming week.

New faculty members were announced including GahyunPark and Jeffrey Phan.

Ahmadi announced that in May, the faculty senate approved the grade changes of A to A+, A-, etc. The Chancellorsigned off and it will take effect Fall 2007 semester for 100, 200, and 300 level courses. By Fall 2008, all courses will have this option. Being the chair of the MAA WI section meeting, Ahmadi announced that the 2007 MAA meeting will be held in Eau Claire, on April 20, 21, 2007. This will be the 75th meeting and the theme is on Euler and his legacy. Please encourage students to attend, and if possible present at the upcoming meeting.

Drucker announced that the annual barbeque of the SMA will be held at 4:30-6:30, October 3, behind Wells Hall. Drinks, grilled hot dogs, brauts, and veggie brauts, etc. will be provided by the SMA. Participants are urged to bring salads, deserts, or whatever they might like to share with the group. Flyers will be available to faculty so as to facilitate announcing to your classes. Faculty are encouraged to attend and meet the students.

Harris announced that travel money is available for faculty and staff. Specifically, fulltime faculty have $1000 available, while academic staff who present a talk at a meeting have $800 available for travel, meeting fees, etc.. For academicstaff attending w/o presenting, the available amount is $500.If the money is not used, it is possible that a reallocation will occur. Be sure to file the necessary paperwork before leaving campus, as it is possible that should you incur an accident, workman’s compensation may not be provided by the university.

If a faculty member has a computer/printer that is older than 3 years, they may request new equipment from the Dean’s office. New faculty also need to be aware that if startup funds are needed, they should contact the Dean’s office for such requests.

End of announcements

NEW BUSINESS:

Letellier, Nam, and Samaranayake, G. announced that they are applying for sabbaticals for Fall 2007, Spring 2008, and Fall 2007/Spring 2008 respectively and provided draft copies of their sabbatical proposals to the faculty. The bylaws state that the faculty development committee needs to review the proposals and report its findings back to the department at the upcoming October 10 meeting. The applicants need to submit their proposals to the Dean, by 4:30 PM, Thursday, October 5. The department, via the chair, will notify the dean of the department’s recommendations.

Questions arose on how proposals are supported. Since no money is generated from the college/university, the department needs to cover the shortfall either by course overloads, or increase in cap sizes. For one semester coverage, cap sizes would go from 35 to 38/39 while two semester coverage would require a 40/41 cap size. Harris noted that the department might not be able to support all 3 proposals. Ahmadi/Ongwela raised questions on how the money is funded from the university. Ley noted that extra loads incurred by academic staff are greater in the fall semester, since staff primarily teach 141 and 143 sections. Baica recommended only 1 sabbatical at a time. Kane noted that the department has not discussed creative collegiate coverage such as team teaching. Ongwela asked whether a faculty could accumulate/bank time for future use. Harris replied that the university would not recognize such methods and in fact could backfire. The university could take the stand that if a faculty were able to successfully teach overloads, then they could be requested to do so on a continuing basis, w/o additional compensation. Nam noted that since he has the least seniority of the sabbatical applicants, that the department and the faculty development committee take this into consideration.

Harris requested the department to consider creating an Associate Department Chair position. The main responsibility for this position is to ensure that critical deadlines are monitored and met. The creation of such a position would require an amendment to the departmental bylaws,

Specifically article IV. This would need to be addressed by the constitutional committee before coming to a general departmental vote. Harris talked with interim Dean Pinkerton about such a position. The Provost has also been contacted wrt these matters, however no response has been given. Drucker asked what compensation would be provided to the faculty member taking such a position. Harris replied the current ¾ release time for the chair would be reduced to ½ for the chair and ¼ for the associated chair. Ahmadi commented that in previous year Dieudonne Phanord informally provided such coverage. Ongwela requested that the university support this position w/o sharing FTEs. Harris will submit a proposal to the constitution committee. McFarland suggested that an Associate Chair might become a defacto chair elect.

Harris announced that a departmental committee will be appointed whose purpose will be to consider university initiatives, goal, and benchmarks for grant proposals, etc..

Kane proposed to resubmit the proposal for an actuarial minor to the Letters & Science Curriculum Committee. Concerns from the last submission stated that since there were no required mathematics courses, either the name of the minor should be changed, or specific course requirements be added. In response, Kane proposed to add the unique mathematics requirements be Math 255, 280, and 441. The motion was made by McFarland/Ongwela and passed unanimously.

Nam/Nguyen motioned to adjourn. The meeting was adjourned at 12:59 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Leon Arriola