Chair’s Report for
December 12, 2000
Senate update
1. Important links to
agendas, minutes, Chair's Reports and other sites of interest are available
on the Senate web site: http://www.uwec.edu/Usenate
2. During debates, Senators
may speak only twice to any motion or amendment. Each speaking term is limited to 10
minutes. The Chair will add names of those wishing to speak to a speaker's list upon
recognition.
Open Forum Items from
Senate Executive Committee Meeting minutes
1. Question
raised as to where faculty and staff with disabilities go for accommodation or advocacy
·
System
now have, with Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator, works great majority of time
·
When
history of animosity, difficult to determine where to turn
·
Would
like to see committee or other entity responsible for faculty/staff members with
disability
·
Would
like to see comparable structure such as one that currently helps students
1. Discussion
of available assistance for disabled faculty/staff
·
Proactive
approach used for students; for faculty/staff, approach more reactive
· American
Disabilities Act requires reasonable accommodations be made
·
Coordination
for ADA under Personnel Services
·
Legally
have to take care of these issues, but is second issue of advocacy
·
Most
people clueless about this until personally involved
·
Perhaps
need to flesh out function of committee in regard to faculty/staff and proactive approach
·
Employee
health also deficit on campus
·
Health
Services for students; nothing for faculty/staff
·
Most
other big employing organizations provide such services
·
Disabled
employees need someone to think about them, just like disabled students do
·
Disabilities
not necessarily known when hired – some result from aging, not necessarily easily
discernable
·
Current
committee was created and functions for students; not intended for staff
·
[For
more details of the discussion , see University Senate Executive Committee minutes
on-line]
·
Suggested
perhaps should do two things: 1) Talk with Director of Services for Students with
Disabilities to find ways needs of disabled faculty and staff could be determined; 2) Need
to reaffirm and communicate that ADA coordinator is person for faculty and staff to go to
·
Provost
will share discussion with Advisory Committee on Persons with Disabilities when meets with
them next; Vice Chancellor Soll will talk with ADA coordinator also
2. Selected
comments from Follow-up on faculty workload open discussion and possible January
University Senate meeting [See University Senate Executive Committee minutes on-line
for more details]
·
Open
discussion at last University Senate was best attended by senators and visitors of all
meetings during this chair’s tenure
·
Seems
to have missed one thing – discussion and setting of priorities; where to spend time
·
Can’t
be all things to all people – so must set priorities
·
Would
be nice to know university-wide expectations and priorities
·
Should
always go back to mission statement
·
Currently
seems adding to laundry list – need to stop and look at resources when look at new
causes
·
List
getting longer, resources are not
·
Need
to know institutional priorities so can make directed decisions
·
Chancellor
would welcome conversation and discussion
·
University
does have ambitious agenda – continued that even when resources not forthcoming
·
Consensus
to have meeting January 23rd – direction and priorities of university and
how relates to workload
Items discussed with the
Senate Chair
1. Student Senate Resolution
44-R-24 in Opposition to the Smoking Entrance Policy Enacted as a Result of University
Senate Legislation 35-PP-1 states that the Student Senate believes that the current
smoking entrance policy is ineffective and unenforceable.
2. Discussion was held with
Ed Meachen, Associate Vice President for Learning & Information Technology at
UW-System about the raising costs for network use and if Regents have been apprised of the
rising costs. It is projected that UWEC will grow in internet usage from 38 mbps to 95
mbps in 2001-2002. Due to the raising costs for using the internet, the projected cost of
$475,000 is a dramatic increase from the current $190,000 (of which UWEC paid $32,072).
Meachen strongly suggested that a campus should not be looking at any reallocations at
this time to cover this cost until the committee currently being formed to investigate
funding methods has a chance to work. He also noted that Regents have not been informed as
of yet.
Board of Regents Meeting
1. Robert Kvavik, Associate
Vice President from the University of Minnesota, spoke on E-business: vision, strategy,
policies, and outcomes. He stressed how E-business was first and foremost about improving
service to ensure enduring relationships with clients, about community building and
especially developing and maturing the virtual learning community. E-business affords the
university the opportunity to transform key business processes through the use of Internet
technology to improve services to the customers. The web site demonstrated was organized
around the life of the users. All necessary links were conveniently available and pages
were customizable both by the user and the university to market special opportunities.
The key challenge to a successful university e-business site is changing the current culture from thinking about vertical integration to cross-department integration; from hierarchical and silo structures of service units to enterprise-wide solutions; from administrative solutions to self-service solutions; from a producer-centric culture to customer-centric culture; and from specialists to generalists. The benefits of such a system are convenience of integration/one-stop shopping; efficiency through cost reduction; information-based services that are scalable to more users; customized and personalized services for both the producers and the customers; and the availability of more choices. Each student entering the one-stop web page can redesign the page to meet his needs including such things as local events and local weather.
Kvavik’s goal is
to make the site easy enough that each person will want to visit the page everyday. For
example, one can register for classes, link to information about the instructor and the
course, have a list of necessary textbooks for the courses printed, order the textbooks
from the bookstore for delivery to the dorm or home (thus helping to capture business away
from the on-line bookstores such as Amazon.com), and use financial aid services to pay
necessary bills. Check it out at: http://onestop.umn.edu/ The Regents were obviously impressed and asked
Kvavik what role should Regents play. He responded: (1) develop a policy environment that
is friendly toward moving this way; (2) endorse the cultural shift; and (3) set outcomes,
priorities, and budgets that promote the change.
2. UW-System President Lyall
presented her recommendation for the 2001-2003 Unclassified Pay Plan that included a 4.2%
increase for each year of the 2001-2003 biennium for faculty, academic staff, and
university senior executives. Among other items included, it asked that the Department of
Employment Relations Secretary recommend to the Joint Committee on Employment Relations
that academic staff salary ranges be increased by up to the full amount of the pay plan
each year of the biennium.
3. The Board adopted
2001-2003 General Compensation Distribution Plan and Guidelines. These included the
standard 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 distribution and authorized the UW-System President, following
consultation with the chancellors, to earmark up to 10% of the total pay plan each year to
be used at the discretion of the chancellors to address special compensation needs such as
specific market shortfalls by faculty rank and to reward innovative, collaborative program
delivery and exceptional performance in support of institutional goals.
4. At the full Board meeting
on Friday, Regent Smith provided four key goals for the UW-System as they related to the
Economic Summit: (1) move ahead to form a voluntary statewide PK-16 council; (2) commit to
increasing the number of college graduates in the state; (3) develop a system-wide
strategy to bring more federal dollars to Wisconsin; and (4) enhance the Universities role
in nurturing entrepreneurial activity and developing technology transfer. Regent President
Smith announced he would ask the campuses to report in March what they will do in each of
these four areas.
5. The creation of voluntary
Wisconsin PK-16 Leadership Council was approved. “Regent Randall recommended that the
Superintendent of the Milwaukee Public School System be included on the Council, given
that system’s unique characteristics”.
6. The Education Committee
heard a report on teacher supply and demand. “Regent Axtell expressed concern that
UW-Stevens Point has capped enrollment in the areas of mathematics and science, and asked
what is done in situations where demand exceeds supply. Regent Mohs suggested position
reallocation and retraining as possible strategies. President Lyall noted that among
strategies being discussed nationally is a movement to bring mathematics and science
faculty from Arts and Sciences Colleges more actively into teacher education and possibly
eliminating separate schools of education…. Regent Mohs urged emphases on developing
measures to bring supply more in line with demand.”
7. Revisions to the UW
System Undergraduate Admissions Policy and Traditional and Nontraditional Freshman
Admissions Policy were approved to included the phrases “After September 2003
students graduating from public high schools in Wisconsin will be required to provide
evidence on their final transcript that they have taken all sections of the
state-developed High School Graduation Test or the test adopted by their school
board.” Regent Oliviere “urged UW System to be very involved in development of
the Wisconsin high school graduation test. Regent Barry expressed concern that the
proposed admissions policy applies only to students in Wisconsin public schools and
expressed his preference that the board support a strong testing program throughout the
student’s educational career.”
8. During the discussion on
high school admissions, Regent Mohs announced that he would be raising questions about
race-based admissions and hoped future dialogue would take place on the question. Regent
Olivieri noted that, “given the issue’s significance, it is important both to
specify when the issue will be discussed and articulate precisely what will be discussed.
Regent Smith described the issue as interesting and provocative, but questioned whether it
should be a priority of the board at this time. He stated his opinion that advocating for
the budget should be the board’s top priority, including budget items integral to
Plan 2008.”
When Mohs presented his request to look at race-based admissions to the full board on Friday, he made it clear that he stood behind Plan 2008 100% and that “the timing is never right to bring up this topic. This is a civil rights issue. The citizens of our state are ahead of us, they know what equal is.” Regent Smith once again stated how he respected Regent Moh’s right to bring this forward, but that all on the Board agreed to the stated priorities. “Ours is the budget. We are firmly behind 2008.” Regent Gratz said “looking at the Wisconsin grade report, it seems to work hand-in-hand with what we are trying to accomplish. Would like to see us all Regents rally behind Mohs and Plan 2008.” Regents Olivieri and Marcovic expressed concern for procedure and the need for a motion to be on the agenda to provide time for lots of discussion and information.
9. During the discussion of
new program authorizations, “Regent Olivieri raised two issues: (1) that new program
proposals attend to advising issues related to credits-to-degree; and (2) the importance
of using distance technology to make unique programs available across the state.”
10. Proposed sabbaticals for
faculty across the system, including those for 11 faculty at UW-Eau Claire, were approved.
Have
a Wonderful Holiday Full
of Joy, Peace, And
Special Blessings. -
Sue |