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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN – EAU CLAIRE
UNIVERSITY SENATE MEETING
VOL. 44, NO. 5

November 27, 2007

Members Present:

Rose Battalio, Ned Beach, Judy Blackstone, Janice Bogstad, Jacqueline Bonneville, January Boten, Jennifer Brockpahler, Michael Carney, Barbara Davis, Patrick Day, Gary Don, Michael Dorsher, Jeff Erger, Leslie Foster, Mitchell Freymiller, Andrea Gapko, Susan Harrison, Ann Hoffman, Robert Hollon, Robert Hooper, Rosemary Jadack, Debra Jansen, Dale Johnson, Lia Johnson, Harry Jol, Fred Kolb, Amanda Krier, Lisa La Salle, Kate Lang, Brian Levin-Stankevich, Bruce Lo, David Lonzarich, Barbara Lozar, Brian Mahoney, Karl Markgraf, Sean McAleer, Sue Moore, Mike Morrison, Jill Prushiek, Donna Raleigh, Rick Richmond, Scott Robertson, Earl Shoemaker, Jeanne Skoug, Nick Smiar, Linda Spaeth, Laurie St. Aubin-Whelihan, Jan Stirm, Steven Tallant, Charles Tomkovick, Scott Whitfield, Marty Wood, Deborah Wright

Members Absent:

Robin Baker, Margaret Devine, Larry Honl, Jeff Janot, Heather Kretz, Tarique Niazi, Jill Pastrana, Geoffrey Peterson, Sherrie Serros, Mehdi Sheikholeslami, Troy Terhark, Charles Vue, Sharon Westphal, Rebecca Wurzer

Guests:

Margaret Cassidy, Donald Christian, Mickey Crothers, Chip Eckardt, Deborah Gough, Karen Havholm, Stephanie Jamelske, Scott Oates, Andrew Phillips, Bob Sutton, Aaron Wingad

 

The regular meeting of University Senate was called to order by Chair Wood at 3:05 p.m. on Tuesday, November 27, 2007 in the Tamarack Room of Davies Center.

  1. Minutes of November 13, 2007 University Senate meeting approved as distributed                                                                    
  1. Chancellor’s Remarks – Chancellor Levin-Stankevich
  • Sent out information on proposed pay plan forwarded from Office of State Employee Relations (OSER) to Joint Committee on Employee Relations (JCOER)
    • Understand JCOER to meet today
    • Will find out more in conversations with system
    • Proposal forwarded quickly from OSER with less consultation than system used to in past
    • Proposal put forward was 2% retroactive to July 1, 2007, 2% on July 1, 2008, and 1% on April 1, 2009
      • Newspaper printed this as 5% raise; doesn’t quite add up, only 5% over biennium beginning to end
    • UW-System has made additional arguments to governor’s office
      • System and President Reilly continue to work diligently to address stated goal of catching up with surrounding states, let alone national average
    • Negotiations ongoing with various state unions, deviations from OSER’s plan would call into question those negotiations
    • Governor tends to include recruitment and retention fund (star fund) as part of compensation package; puts focus on Madison
    • Will pass along information as received; conversation between governor and system probably not public
  • Just attended two-day AASCU conference; most well attended session was on Presidents’ Climate Commitment
    • Signed in August; in November filed two-month report after interim report asking for extension
    • Formulated Climate Committee Advisory Group
      • Jim Boulter, Kristina Beuning, Jill Ferguson, Jennie Jacobson,  and Doug Faulkner
      • First meeting two weeks ago; to meet again before break
  • Focus is on two main issues
    • Determining baseline greenhouse-gas emissions
      • Hope to have students and faculty involved in process to gain educational benefit
      • May put together 499 course this summer and recruit students from variety of disciplines
        • Would help support students and faculty over summer to conduct study
      • Goal is to have baseline study done by year from time of signing
    • Then can look at palliative measures to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions
    • All kinds of other environmental improvement activities occurring on campus
      • Clean Commute Initiatives
      • Recycling Initiatives
      • Administrative initiatives such as purchasing hybrid vehicles for fleet
    •  Identifying structure that can work through environmental issues
      • No desire to control all things that happen here; want to support initiatives
      • Umbrella group needs some sense of what’s happening on campus
      • Need to create more opportunities and central support for formal involvement by broadly engaged  people
      • Also need to connect with city, county, and utilities
        • Can do on our own, but easier with regional support
  • If have other ideas, send them forward
  • Now searching for campus planner with experience in master planning for campuses
    • Will also work on green construction for new buildings
    • Critical person to be liaison for campus climate commitment to national group and on-campus activities
    • Replacement position in physical plant area
  • Don’t have master plan; consequently suffer when try to acquire property, expand facilities, or make case for buildings and facilities at state level
    • Plan important to set campus boundaries and aspirations
    • Stevens Point, Stout and Milwaukee just completed master plans
  • University Planning Committee continues work on draft of strategic plan
    • Met with chancellor’s staff on Monday; had good conversation about values and ideas embodied in feedback gathered over last fall
    • In meantime, need to link budget to strategic direction
      • First, need to understand budget
        • Vice Chancellor Soll put together presentation on current process – how money comes in, how it gets spent, what restrictions we have on what we can do with resources, how it all works
          • Will be presented at December 11, 2007 meeting of University Senate
        • Can’t have meaningful conversations about budget and budget process unless have sense of how it works
      • Initiated strategic budgeting process task force to look at models and make recommendations on aligning budget processes with strategic planning and strategic direction
        • Fred Kolb is chair; faculty members include Scott Whitfield, Marilyn Skrivseth, and Bob Sutton; academic staff are George Kroeninger and Kathy Sahlhoff, classified staff is Jackie Kriesel, and student is Tom Holtan, Finance Director of Student Senate
  • Arts Events coming up
    • Thirty-third annual Christmas Concert on December 9, 2007
    • Madrigal Dinner on November 30 and December 1, 2007
    • Beginning December 6, 2007, Prometheus Bound in Riverside Theatre
  • Football team had good end to great season – just ran out of quarterbacks in playoffs
  1. Unfinished Business
  • None
  1. New Business

First Reading – Motion from Academic Policies Committee
Report on Revision of the University Baccalaureate Goals – Senator Hollon

  • Effort to revise goals of baccalaureate  began in fall 2005 – motion is result of two years of work and three rounds of goal development
  • At UW-Eau Claire goals do not define us – their implementation in our curriculum defines uniqueness of institution

Motion 44-AP-02
MOVED and seconded by Academic Policies Committee (9 for, 0 against) that the existing University Baccalaureate Goals be replaced by the following five learning goals:

The Goals of a University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire Liberal Arts Education include:

  • Knowledge of Human Culture and the Natural World
  • Creative and Critical Thinking
  • Effective Communication
  • Individual and Social Responsibility
  • Respect for Diversity among People

Debate

  • Seems human culture and natural world could be two separate goals; music falls under culture, but would not be part of natural world
  • As science and understanding of human culture progresses, find more and more often that concepts are linked
    • With music as example, learn how understanding science is understanding music, patterns, rhythms, timing
  • Would seem to make sense to have knowledge of humanities and sciences separate
    • With new way of laying out goals, every syllabus could have same goals; right now different goals for different courses
      • For history of philosophy have historical consciousness as goal – not in all courses
      • Liked meeting different goals with different courses
      • Would no longer need to list on syllabus, would just fall in background of essence
  • Had same response; might want to separate them because of assessment
    • Would be challenging to find assessment devices for two together
  • Caution senate against redrafting goals which have been through committees and aired throughout entire university
    • Goals parallel to AASCU goals for liberal education
    • Encourage to accept work that colleagues have put in
  • While respectful of other people’s work, think duty of this body is to contemplate results of that work; if see something that may create problems, incumbent on us to speak on those issues
    • Like goals as are; don’t like way they are stated
    • From current catalogue – shall develop understanding of …, appreciation of …, ability to …
      • Don’t see that language here; if these goals dropped into catalogue, would not make sense with other language
      • Suggestion would be instead state:  students would gain creative and critical thinking skills, an understanding of the natural world, ability to effectively communicate, etc.
  • These learning goals would replace the other goals
  • Academic Policies Committee felt should be cautious about changing language derived through such an extensive process
  • Committee to Facilitate Discussion of University Learning Goals solicited comments from campus, departments, and senate and looked at all of feedback starting with 1994 goals
    • More than one group suggested that go to type of language you see here
  • Senator Hooper yielded speaking term to Scott Oates, Director of University Assessment
    • What you see at level of institutional goals is like looking down from 30,000 feet
    • Once goals are ratified, then establish university learning outcomes which brings down to 15,000 feet
      • That is where skills, efficiencies, competencies come into play to articulate what those goals look like
    • Once institutional outcomes established, come down to level of programs and departments – what competencies look like in context of work we are actually doing with students
    • Want to build a system that allows us to aggregate institutional reports from the ground up to tell us what students know how to do based on your judgment
    • Then can synthesize those findings into a work which asks questions about where do you want to go, whether we need to improve, and also provides for public accountability
  • No strong feeling about wording
    • See assessment as problem; could be that how worded would make assessment clearer
    • Easier to assess knowledge than understanding
  • Issue of how assessment would work came up at APC
    • Heard Assessment Committee already working on how this might look as it moves forward
      • Will look different across disciplines and across programs
    • Committee did not feel it wanted to adjust anything at this time
  • On last trip chancellor took, read Howard Gardner’s Five Minds for the Future; talks about five ways of  intelligence necessary in future
    • Turns out five minds – disciplined mind grounded in one discipline to give perspective, synthesizing mind (critical thinking and crossover between disciplines), creative mind, ethical mind, and respectful mind – mesh closely with proposed learning goals
  • Have problem with phrasing, not areas
    • Makes more sense to say The Liberal Arts Education at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire is built upon and then list
    • Don’t think they are goals as much as foundation of liberal arts education
  • To guide process, committee used principles that came up repeatedly from curriculum committees, from programs, and from units and departments
    • One was we had too many goals and needed to limit number
    • Other was goals were too specific and too discipline oriented; learning goals of university should be umbrella goals
    • Were developed not trying to be everything to everybody; other goals would fall into a subset of these
  • In respect for diversity among people, is goal talking about individuals, or is it implicit in that statement that also talking about respecting diversity of ideas and presentation of those ideas?
    • In terms of assessment, that is different kind of issue
  • Committee did discuss that as part of process and felt was implicit
  • Really only one goal: Graduates of UW-Eau Claire will demonstrate these five characteristics
    • Part of key to understanding is in introductory sentence
  • Number of things are addressed in addendum to motion report, including outcomes with more verbs
    • Gives good background
    • Should take back to departments to discuss

Second reading of motion will take place in two weeks.

  1. University Senate Chair’s/Faculty Representative’s Report – Chair Wood
  • Will have additional report at next meeting as faculty representatives meet on November 30, 2007
  • Follow up on issue of sick leave conversion benefit
    • Was my understanding that campuses would be given discretion on whether to cap benefits of those failing to comply with sick leave reporting policy
    • Associate Vice President for Human Resources Crist of System indicated, upon inquiry, that campuses do not have discretion
      • When policy enacted, we will implement it
      • Can decide on campus how egregious violation of reporting requirement must be before we impose penalty of capping benefits
    • Will need to all file accurate reports on sick leave
    • Faculty representatives expressed hope that reporting mechanism become easier before penalties apply
    • Discussion
      • Plan is for uniformity across campuses
      • Would be reminders if miss a month and would have opportunity until August to make corrections
      • Designed to see that people turn in forms
      • System also looking into online system that would allow faculty and staff to check status
      • New form clearer and will show day of week
    • Congratulations to two campus personnel committees
      • Language in sick leave proposal committees forwarded to senate, which was ultimately forwarded to system, used extensively in final response faculty and academic staff representatives put together for regents
    • In most recent proposal, sick leave will accrue during sabbatical; proposal not yet acted upon
    • Colleague coverage is gone as offset for sick leave; still, colleague coverage expected as part of duties to provide coverage for all classes

 

  1. Academic Staff Representative’s Report – Senator Brockpahler
  • No additional report to minutes previously distributed

 

  1. Reportable Items from Committees
  • Compensation Committee – Vice Chair Gapko
    • Meeting on November 30, 2007
    • Anyone with recommendations on how to respond to new pay plan proposal, contact any member of committee
    •  Eau Claire Leader-Telegram article indicated faculty and staff would be receiving 5% raises over 18 months; failed to note that legislators would be receiving 6.83% effective January 2009 
  1. Special Reports
    • None
  1. Miscellaneous Business

 

MOTION by Vice Chair Gapko to present the Thanks of the University Senate to University Services Program Associate Schulner PASSED by Acclamation as follows:
 We, the faculty and academic staff members of the University Senate, extend our sincere appreciate to Wanda Schulner for her valuable contributions and many years of service to the University Senate at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire.

  1. Announcements
  • None

 

Without objection, meeting adjourned at 3:58  p.m.

Submitted by,

Wanda Schulner
Secretary to the University Senate

Excellence. Our Measure. Our Motto. Our Goal.