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

2000-2001
Letters and Science Faculty
Meeting: Thursday, April 12, 2001, 3:30 p.m.
BUS N140

Minutes No. 3
  L&S Faculty
Doc. No.
  1. Call to Order
    1. Announcements - Dean Meadows reminded the faculty of the L&S Retirement Dinner, scheduled for May 3, and encouraged everyone to attend. He also announced that a summary of the campus action plans had been prepared. The plan is tentative, as it lays out the expenditure of $16M over two years, and the receipt of this kind of budget increase is very uncertain. It appears L&S will get about one-third of the faculty positions budgeted. Dean Meadows said he believes this information is available on the Vice Chancellor's web site.
    2. Question Period - There were no questions from the members of the faculty.

  2. Automatic Consent Business
    3. A. The minutes of the February 8, 2001 Faculty meeting were approved as submitted. They are available on the web at http://www.uwm.edu/letsci/committees/index.html
    		    
    B. There were no objections to Fac. Doc. No 584, Recommendation for 584 Consideration of Candidates for Degrees and Honors for May, 2001. It stands approved.   584
    C. There were no objections to the following two committee reports:    
      1. Certificate in Translation Advisory Committee Annual Report, 1999-2000   585
      2. Committee on Committee's Nominations Report, 2000-2001
    They stand approved.    		   586

  3. Old Business - None
    1. Dean Meadows relinquished the floor to Mary Lynne Collins, who gave a progress report on the L&S dean search. She first apologized for the search committee for its failure to notify directly the L&S faculty that the position description was posted on the web, and she noted that nominations and applications still are being accepted. She also indicated that screening of candidates (currently there are 45) will be on-going while new applications are being considered. The committee is on a very short timetable. Dave Heathcote, representing the L&S Graduate Program Committee, indicated that it is essential that candidates be aware of the crisis situation in which Graduate Education at UWM finds itself. Mary Lynne suggested that this concern be circulated to the members of the search committee and to the L&S faculty through the lsdean and lsfaculty listservs. Swarnjit Arora reported that the L&S Academic Planning Committee had asked the Provost to ensure that the APC had input in the process and contact with the candidates brought to campus. He did not think that was built into the process, and he requested that the search committee respond to that concern. Mary Lynne stated that planning the itineraries for visiting candidates was not among the search committee's duties, but she suggested this concern also should be widely shared through the listservs. Don Pienkos asked if this matter could be placed on the agenda of a search committee meetings. Mary Lynne indicated she would do so.

  4. New Business
    A. It was moved and seconded to recommend approval of Fac. Doc. No. 587, Recommendation to Approve the BAGS Implementation Plan. Connie Jo introduced a minor revision approved by the Business Administration faculty. It was moved and seconded to amend Fac. Doc. No. 587 to revise Appendix B, Committee membership, by removing the words "by the respective Deans," following "appointed." The amendment was approved unanimously. Fac. Doc. No. 587, as amended, was approved unanimously.

    Dean Meadows commended all those who had worked so hard to develop the BAGS Program, particularly Patrice Petro, Don Pienkos, Chuck Schuster, and Mark Schwartz, whose extraordinary efforts have created what he believes will be a very strong program. Don Pienkos extended thanks to Richard Meadows for his leadership in the process and especially for his ability to build a sense of community and collegiality among the members of the planning committee.

    * Requires Acrobat Reader     		  587
    587d*
    587e*
    B. It was moved, seconded, and approved unanimously to recommend approval of Fac. Doc. No. 588, Request for an Entitlement to Plan a Major in Women's Studies. Genni McBride thanked Ellie Miller for her hard work in bringing this proposal forward and for her long participation and leadership in Women's Studies at UWM.   588
    C. Dean Meadows relinquished the floor to Cam Tatham, Chair of the L&S Committee on Committees, who requested nominations from the floor for the 2000-2001 election of faculty standing committee members. Merry Wiesner-Hanks was nominated for the Graduate Faculty Council. Currently there is just one natural science nominee for membership on the Course and Curriculum Committee and one humanities nominee for the Academic Policies and Appeals Committee. The faculty agreed to permit the addition of additional nominees to the ballot if candidates could be identified. [Postscript: Kathy Wheatley agreed to be a nominee for the APAC.]   586
    D. It was moved and seconded to approve Fac. Doc. No. 589, Recommendation to Establish a Certificate Program in Celtic Studies. Mark Harris expressed his concern that there is not a single core course in the program that pulls the participating subject areas together. Jeff Merrick responded that many of the current certificate programs do not have this. It was noted that John Gleeson had reported that such a course could be developed in the future. The motion was approved unanimously.   589
    E. Dean Meadows noted that a corrected motion had been prepared for Fac. Doc. No. 590, a Recommendation to Establish a Center for Celtic Studies. It was moved that the Faculty of the College of Letters and Science approve the establishment of a Center for Celtic Studies as described in Fac. Doc. No. 590, effective September 2001, contingent upon clarification of the budget and revision of the proposal to strengthen the description of the Center's research component, and subject to the review and approval of the L&S Academic Planning Committee. The motion was seconded. Several faculty members suggested that approval of the motion may be premature, since there are questions about the budget and the research role of the Center. Jay Moore asked if the Center would require additional space from Garland or Pearce Halls. Associate Dean Chuck Schuster indicated that it would not. Dean Meadows said it would require some additional space, but it was very unlikely this would come from Garland or Pearce. Connie Jo noted that a vote for the corrected motion was the equivalent of a faculty vote to authorize the APC to act for the faculty in giving final approval to the proposal. This is requested because the faculty will not meet again until October or later, and there is a time constraint imposed by the planned visit of the President of Ireland in October and the need to respond to an offer of grant money from the Country of Ireland in support of the enhancement of Celtic Studies at UWM. Swarnjit Arora noted that another concern of the APC was the need to clarify the role of the Center for International Education in carrying out some of the functions described for the Center for Celtic Studies. Upon completion of discussion, the motion was approved with one negative vote.   590
    F. It was moved and seconded to approve Fac. Doc. No. 591, a Recommendation to Reinstate and Rename the Curricular Area Code for Latin American Studies. Mark Schwartz asked why, several years ago, the code had been deleted. Kris Ruggiero noted that the interdisciplinary location of the courses required that departments lend their faculty to teach them. During the 1980's, many faculty positions were lost, and a number of faculty members with specialities in Latin American Studies left the university, so that it became very difficulty to staff the 522 area courses. That situation has changed, and the faculty members now are available. Julio Rodriguez-Luis asked if such courses could be crosslisted. Connie Jo replied this certainly is possible. The motion was approved unanimously.   591
    G. Merry Wiesner-Hanks called attention to a document that was distributed to faculty members coming into the meeting. It outlines concerns of the L&S Honors Program Committee related to the University's initiatives in this area. A copy of the document is attached to these minutes.


    TO: Letters and Science Faculty
    FROM: Honors Program Committee

    We wish to inform the L & S faculty of our concerns regarding what was originally titled the Wisconsin Honors Initiative. Building on a DIN proposal submitted by Honors Program staff, last fall Dean Marshall Goodman submitted a DIN Proposal for an Honors College, a move approved by the Honors Program Committee. At roughly the same time, then Lieutenant Governor Scott McCallum made a speech on campus, announcing his interest in making UW-Milwaukee a "first-rate destination campus, one that is recognized as a premier school of excellence in Wisconsin and throughout the nation" (September 6, 2000, press release). He called for the development of a program which "feature[s] small class sizes taught by top faculty." As you may be aware, now Governor McCallum included a recommendation for $1 million for such an "Honors" program in his budget proposal to the legislature.

    In response to the Governor's interest, an "Honors Action Team" was set up by the campus administration, and developed a proposal for an "Academy of Excellence." This team was made up of five administrators and one faculty member; none of these individuals is involved with the Honors Program, nor was the Honors Program or the Honors Program Committee informed of or consulted about the plan they were drafting. The plan for the "Academy of Excellence" is primarily an acceleration program that would allow students in certain fields (Business Administration and Computer Science are those mentioned) to earn a BA in 3 years and an MA in five years. It would provide full ride scholarships for these students (or some of them), and allow them "the opportunity to participate" in the Honors Program, but not mandate this; the budget outlined in the "Academy of Excellence" proposal provides significant funding for recruitment of students, and envisions 100 students graduating from the program each year once it is up and running.

    Our concerns about this program are three-fold. 1. Governance Concerns: The ad hoc administrative committee that developed the "Academy of Excellence" document has assumed responsibilities that infringe on the standing Honors Program Committee and did not communicate adequately (in fact, at all) with the HPC nor with the relevant constituencies of faculty governance. 2. Quality Concerns: The "Academy of Excellence" plan does not address educational quality, but emphasizes acceleration in selected professional schools, and is thus inconsistent with McCallum's Honors Initiative. HPC members questioned the assumption that programs which graduate students faster are better than traditional programs, and wondered how they can develop critical thinking, writing, and oral communication skills. 3. Audience Concerns: The HPC doubts that this curriculum will be especially appealing to capable Wisconsin students who are now being turned away from UW-Madison, an issue expressly noted by Governor McCallum. Such students are already well represented in the UWM Honors Program, and the Program could certainly attract more students if it could offer scholarships or had a recruiting staff.

    The HPC applauds Governor McCallum's desire to make UWM more attractive to highly-qualified undergraduate students. Large numbers of such excellent students are already enrolled Honors Program courses (approximately 715 students in 1999-2000, more than double the number in 1988-89) and we are concerned that their interests and needs are not necessarily reflected in the "Academy of Excellence" plan. We wish to make sure that future plans developed in response to the Governor's initiative involve Honors Program faculty (of which there are more than 100 among current faculty, including many outside L&S) as well as the standing HPC, and build on the strengths of the Honors Program along with developing new programs of acceleration which might be attractive to some students. We will be bringing our concerns to the University Committee, but wanted to inform other faculty groups as well. A list of the HPC members is attached, and we welcome any responses.    		    

  5. Adjournment - The meeting adjourned at 4:32 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,


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



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