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

2000-2001
Honors Program Committee
Meeting: Thursday, September 28, 8:15-9:20
Holton Hall 341

Minutes No. 1

Present:     B. Arnold, L. Baldassaro (ex officio), V. Cronin, J. Francki, M. Harris,
J. Jesmok (ex officio), J. Koethe, A. Kovach, M. Larsen, C. Phillabaum, K. Romenesko (ex officio), L. Roscioli (ex officio), D. Southward, K. Streip, R. Weigert, M. Wiesner-Hanks, B. Wishne
Absent: F. X. Baron, B. Brzeski

  1. Janet Jesmok called the meeting to order at 8:17 a.m. HPC members introduced themselves.

  2. Merry Wiesner-Hanks, Professor of History, was unanimously elected chair of the HPC for the 2000-2001 academic year.

  3. HPC meeting minutes of April 18, 2000 and April 25, 2000 were accepted and approved.

  4. Acting Director Janet Jesmok reported on a number of items.

    Honors Program staff met with Vice Chancellor John Wanat and Assistant Vice Chancellor Leslie Schultz on Thursday, September 14. Larry Baldassaro presented some concerns, including the need for more space, new scholarships, an honors floor in Sandburg Hall, and a computer center for honors students. Wanat responded favorably to an honors floor in Sandburg, but he asked if we would survey Honors students who are currently living in Sandburg to try to ascertain the need for a special floor. Larry Roscioli agreed to survey Sandburg honors students. Wanat said he would discuss the idea with Stanley Battle, Assistant Chancellor, Student Affairs.

    Baldassaro requested from Wanat copies of the Wisconsin Honors Initiative document that was created by the Chancellor's office. (Jesmok read some of the highlights of this document to the HPC at the meeting). Baldassaro noted that two important provisos had come out of a March 7, 2000, HPC meeting, which was called specifically to follow-up on a February HPC meeting where Dean Marshall Goodman first introduced the idea of an Honors College. The provisos are: 1. A UWM Honors College should stay under the L&S umbrella; 2. A UWM Honors College should retain the Honors Program's basic structure and pedagogical philosophy.

    Jesmok is working on an Honors College proposal, due in L&S on October 16. She explained the process and the events that led up to the call for proposals. On September 15, Vice Chancellor Wanat met with L&S Chairs and Directors about the the next two biennial budgets (2001-03 and 2003-05). Subsequently, Dean Goodman requested from individual units and departments, including the Honors Program, proposals detailing how units would spend the projected eight million dollars that UWM is requesting in the budget initiative. L&S will screen and forward the proposals to Chapman Hall where they will be evaluated by the Chancellor's team.

    Jesmok reported on the Honors new student orientation on September 9. Chancellor Zimpher welcomed 99 new students and 37 mentors who attended. Everything went very well, including break out sessions which included, for the first time, advisors from different schools and colleges. L&S Faculty Mark Bradley, Steve Forst, Bettina Arnold, and Renee Meyers gave terrific presentations. Honors students Ben Brzeski, Greg Whitten, Emily Fantetti, and Heidi Haserodt discussed their experiences with study abroad and other non-seminar opportunities available through the Honors Program. Jesmok congratulated Molly Larsen and Robin Weigert for the great work they did planning this event.

    Jesmok deferred to Molly Larsen, President of the HPSA, to report on HPSA activities, including the new mentoring program, the pizza party at Oakland Trattoria on September 21 (which 26 students attended), and the upcoming November booksale. Bradley Professor Adam Kovach announced the first Honors Colloquium of the year, a talk by Whitney Gould, Architecture critic for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, on October 12. Flyers will be sent to the HPC.

    Jesmok mentioned that at the L&S Awards Reception held on September 28, eleven of the twenty-five Freshman recipients were in the Honors Program, as were 3 of the 4 Halloran/Eichstaedt winners.

    Finally, Jesmok reported on the Honors Program's inaugural offering of a Summer Institute for Advanced Placement Teachers in the Milwaukee Public Schools during the summer of 2000. Two courses were offered between June 19 and 30, one in biological sciences, taught by Mary Gruhl, Director for the Center of Science Education, and one in history, taught by former HPC Chair Bud Weare, now retired Professor of History. The seminars, limited to fifteen students each, were designed to encourage participation and increase success of MPS teachers and students in the College Board's Advanced Placement courses and testing programs. These courses were the result of planning by Larry Baldassaro, Rus Smith, Curriculum and Instruction, and Lynn Krebs, Coordinator, Office of Guidance and Career Education, MPS. Funding was provided by the Vice Chancellor's Campus Opportunity Fund and the State Department of Public Instruction, which covered the tuition. Given the success of this initial program, UWM and MPS are already planning for another AP Institute for the summer of 2001.

  5. Larry Baldassaro requested that items 5 and 6 be deferred to the bottom of the agenda and handled in the minutes if time runs out. The HPC agreed and discussion turned to Bradley recruitment and budget issues.

  6. Bradley Recruitment:

    Larry Baldassaro reported that there will be two Bradley searches this year and recommended the fields of history and literature. The HPC agreed that the position searches should proceed as usual. Baldassaro said he would be calling on members of the HPC to serve on the search committees.

    Baldassaro spoke about the need in the Honors Program for a full-time, academic staff position. He told the HPC that even with the Bradley Professors, the Honors Program must still hire lecturers to meet the program's needs. In addition, the Honors Program employs a 25% writing tutor. After discussion about how to best define such a position and incorporate it into the Honors Program, the HPC made the following motion:

    "The Honors Program Committee strongly supports the addition of a full-time academic staff member to meet the curricular needs of the Honors Program to accommodate the growth of enrollment and services over the last decade."
  7. Honors Budget

    Larry Baldassaro discussed the honors budget. Funding for the S&E budget has come from two sources over the past nine years: L&S and Bradley funds. With the termination of the Bradley grant this year, the Honors Program is looking at a shortfall in S&E next year. (This shortfall does not include money provided by the Bradley grant for travel and research, computer upgrades, and other items.) Given the record enrollments in the Honors Program and the increased costs associated with the Bradley professors, the projected shortfall has the Honors Program concerned for the welfare of the program next year and beyond. HPC members agreed that the S&E situation posed a considerable threat to the integrity of the HP and unanimously agreed to the following motion to Dean Goodman:

    "Honors Program Committee strongly advises the Dean of the College of Letters and Science to establish an on-going S&E budget at the current level of spending when the Bradley grant expires."
  8. The titles below are proposed courses approved by mail during the late spring and summer.

    Honors 200     "Meanings of Death" (Kovach)
    Honors 200 "Meaning in History" (Mobley)
    Honors 200 "Ovid and the Mythic Imagination" (Southward)
    Honors 380 "Understanding Art" (Garrison)
    BioSci 380 "Learning from the Dinosaurs: Understanding Patterns and Processes of Life on Earth" (Barreto)
    BioSci 380 "Water: the Essence of Life" (Brooks)
    CompLit 381 "'Writes' of Passage: Stories of the Self in the Literature Travel" (Phillips)

  9. Reports on Freshman Admission, Honors Enrollment, and the Spring Schedule were distributed to committee members. For the minutes, Jesmok notes that on the 2000 Admission Report and the Fall Enrollment Report, Freshman admissions are down slightly from last year because of holding more strictly to eligibility criteria during the STAR programs and severely limiting those students who needed to take 102 (only one section of 102 was offered, and it will probably be phased out next year). Enrollment, however, is up slightly. The Honors Program is again offering 10 sections of Honors 200 this semester. Students are also actively pursuing non-seminar options.

  10. If anyone has questions or comments about items 8 and 9 of these minutes, please call Janet Jesmok at x4658.

  11. The meeting was adjourned at 9:25 a.m.


Romenesko, Secretary
October 5, 2000


· L&S Committees Home Page ·


Send your questions and comments to the L&S Web Team.
© 2000 UWM-College of Letters and Science
Last Updated: October 18, 2000		 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee