UWM College of Letters and Science
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
College of Letters and Science

2000-2001
Affirmative Action Advisory Committee
Meeting: Monday, February 5, 2001, 12:00 noon
Holton Hall 131

Minutes No. 2

Present:   Reinhold Hutz, Connie Jo, Julio Rodriguez-Luis, Rhea Steinpreis, Trudy Turner, Donna Van Wynsberghe (ex officio), William Velez


  1. Call to Order - The Chair, Rhea Steinpreis, called the meeting to order at 12:02 in HLT 131.


  2. Procedural Matters - none


  3. Automatic Consent
    1. Minutes #3 of 1999-2000 Committee Year (April 13, 2000) were approved as submitted.
    2. Annual Report, 1999-2000 Committee Year was approved as submitted.
    3. Minutes #1 of 2000-2001 Committee Year (December 13, 2000) were approved as submitted.

  4. Old Business
    1. Review Various Reports - The documents that committee members were able to collect since the last meeting were reviewed briefly. They include:

        2. Summary Analysis of Utilization of Women/Minorities (from OED)
        Charter of University Affirmative Action Committee
        L&S Career Tracking "Report Card" and Narrative
        Plan 2008

      Rhea noted that the conclusions of the "report card" make the status of Affirmative Action in the College clear. The Administration is very conscious of areas where improvement is needed, but she thought perhaps faculty members were not well informed about the situation. Donna Van Wynsberghe stated that there are valiant efforts being made in recruitment. Trudy Turner agreed with that, but noted that more needs to be done once people are on campus. Rhea noted that the deans are limited in their impact since they do not see all of the applicants for new positions; rather, they see only the top three. There was some discussion concerning the reason for the "report card" being marked confidential.

    2. Continue Discussion of Role of Committee

      3. Committee members discussed the kind of data that would be available from Human Resources concerning applications and hiring for the past several years. If underrepresented department does not include women/minorities in finalists, chair needs to prepare a statement regarding the reason. Trudy Turner wondered how much oversight these statements receive. Rhea Steinpreis asked members if they thought it would be useful to add to the committee's charter responsibility for collecting and reporting data on hiring each year. Donna Van Wynsberghe suggested the focus be on educating departments about affirmative action and trying to make a positive impact on future hiring. Trudy Turner thought it might be useful to have the past information as background. She suggested that we need a greater focus on retention, on the experience of minority faculty on our campus. In addition, she suggested that there be a biennial mandatory diversity presentation for faculty.

      Committee agreed they wanted to compile data on departmental hiring in the past, for each department individually as well as a summary statement for the three divisions within L&S. Rhea will send to committee members for review a draft of memo to HR, outlining the data group will request. Members should respond by email if they have suggestions for revision.

  5. New Business
    1. Meeting after spring break on a Monday at noon. Be sure not to conflict with Graduate Curriculum Committee.

  6. Adjournment - The meeting adjourned at 1:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Connie Jo
Special Assistant to the Dean
Secretary to the L&S Faculty


Distribution: Interim Dean Richard Meadows
Associate Deans O'Bryan, Schuster, Van Wynsberghe
Assistant Deans Horstman, Kissinger
Secretary of the University

cj
C:comm/aaa/agenda#2


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Last Updated: April 24, 2001		 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee