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

2001-2002
Honors Program Committee
Meeting: Wednesday, September 19, 8:15-9:20

Minutes No. 1 (Draft)

Present:   L. Baldassaro (ex officio), C. Barreto, V. Cronin, C. Cupples, J. Koethe, H. Lawson, J. Lynch, C. Phillabaum, K. Romenesko (ex officio), L. Roscioli (ex officio), V. Sichi-Krygsman, Rachel Skalitzky, D. Southward, G. Whitten, M. Wiesner-Hanks, Erich Wolff.
Absent: B. Arnold, D. Best, B. Wishne


  1. Chair Merry Wiesner-Hanks called the meeting to order at 8:05 a.m. Members introduced themselves.


  2. The HPC meeting minutes of April 12, 2001 were approved.


  3. Director's Report.

    Baldassaro reported on Honors new student orientation on September 8. Vice Chancellor Wanat welcomed nearly 100 new students and 26 mentors in attendance. Everything went well, including break out sessions, which included advisors and mentors from different schools and colleges. Honors students Valerie Sichi-Krygsman and Lori Steimke discussed their experiences with study abroad and other non-seminar opportunities available through the Honors Program.

    Baldassaro deferred to Erich Wolff, President of the HPSA, to report on HPSA activities. Wolff reported that the pizza party on September 12 was a success, with many new students attending. Other HPSA/Honors Program activities that are coming up include a booksale, the UWM Open House, peer advising for spring registration, and the Holiday Open House. Kim Romenesko announced the first Honors Colloquium of the year, a reading by Antler, local poet and author, on November 8 at 7:00 p.m.

    Roscioli reported the winners of the Langston Hughes Scholarship, a new scholarship for high achieving African American students being administered by the Honors Program. Honors students Mwende Mualuko and Brian Williams each won $1,000. Honors student Michele Robinson won the Letters and Science New Directions/Next Generation scholarship. These students, along with other Honors student scholarship recipients in the College of Letters and Science, will be honored at the 2001 L&S Award Ceremony on Thursday, October 4, 4-6 p.m. in Greene Hall.

    Finally, Baldassaro informed the HPC that 80 students are residing this Fall in Sandburg Hall's "Honors House," which is located on the top two floors of the West Tower. To be eligible for Honors House residency, students must be admissable to the Honors Program or have a 3.5 high school grade point average. An Honors House brochure was distributed.


  4. Baldassaro and HPC Chair Merry Wiesner-Hanks provided an update about the Academy of Scholars initiative. Wiesner-Hanks and Janet Jesmok had met with Ruth Williams late Spring semester to revise the Academy of Excellence Document (renamed "Academy of Scholars") to be more inclusive of Honors education. Baldassaro reported that the revised Academy of Scholars document was distributed to the participants of an August 22nd meeting held in Chapman Hall. Baldassaro and Romenesko attended the meeting, which was called by Ruth Williams, along with other "Academy" stakeholders (Richard Meadows, Tom O'Bryan, Beth Weckmueller, Linda Anderson-Courtney, Dev Venugopalan, Carl Merideth, Karen Coy-Romano, Rita Cheng, Kanti Prasad). Most of the discussion at the meeting revolved around the accelerated curriculum options developed by the College of Letters and Science, School of Business, and School of Engineering and Computer Science, though there was also preliminary talk about scholarships, admission criteria, marketing, resource distribution, etc. The revised Academy of Scholars document was not discussed by the group.

    Wiesner-Hanks, Baldassaro, and Romenesko then met on September 6 with Williams to discuss the resources Honors would need to increase the number of new freshmen Honors students. Baldassaro emphasized at this meeting that in addition to instructional resources, Honors would need seminar space and support for advising, recruitment, administration, and scholarship advising. Williams said she would soon send a detailed e-mail about how the various groups involved in the Academy were to proceed.

    Shortly thereafter, Baldassaro met with Mark Harris, Associate Dean of Natural Sciences in the College of Letters and Science, to discuss the Honors Program's role in the Academy proposal. Baldassaro was told that a review team, comprised of Dean Gregory (Engineering), Dean Meadows (L&S), Dean Prasad (Business), and Vice Chancellor Williams, was to meet soon to determine how the million dollars in new money would be allocated. Baldassaro drafted a proposal, "Plans for Recruitment and Retention of Additional Students," and budget documenting what resources the Honors Program would need to increase the honors student population by 60 to 180 new students. The proposal was hand delivered to the three Deans and VC Williams for their consideration; Baldassaro provided copies of the proposal to HPC members for their review.

    After reviewing the proposal, the HPC had questions concerning the organizational structure of the Academy of Scholars. Will there be an administrative connection between the Academy and Honors? Will the Honors Program be subsumed within the Academy, or will the two programs work independently? The HPC also questioned whether the Academy of Scholars program needed approval by faculty governance, a question that had arisen at earlier HPC meetings. It was noted that when the Honors Program changed from an L&S based program (limited to students in the College of Letters and Science) to a university-wide program in 1983, approval by the Faculty Senate was needed.

    In response to the discussion about how the Academy of Scholars might influence the identity of the Honors Program, the HPC made (and unanimously passed) the following motion:

    "The HPC endorses the drafting of a resolution stating that the Honors Program must retain its distinct identity and not become part of an umbrella administrative structure within the Academy of Scholars or any other new administrative entity."
    The HPC also unanimously approved the "Plans for Recruitment and Retention of Additional Students" proposal that had been forwarded to the aforementioned Deans for funding consideration. The committee recommended that Baldassaro contact Dean Meadows to request that faculty positions be added to the proposal. Their concern was that Departments would not be able to offer an increased number of Departmental based Honors seminars without new faculty. Baldassaro said he would e-mail the Dean following the meeting.


  5. Baldassaro announced that another Bradley search would have to occur this year to replace Adam Kovach's Philosophy position. Baldassaro reported that the Philosophy Department already had three searches in process, and voiced concern about whether two faculty members could be found from that Department to serve on an Honors search committee. An alternative, he suggested, would be to search from the discipline of Political Science for a person who does Political Philosophy. The HPC provided approval for a Philosophy search, and gave provisional approval to a search in Political Science if things could not be worked out with the Philosophy Department.


  6. Romenesko commented on the 2001 Admission Report and the Fall Enrollment Report. Freshman admissions are up slightly from last year because of a significant increase in continuing student admissions. Enrollment for Fall 2001 is comparable to a year ago, with most courses nearly full. Romenesko distributed the 2000-2001 Recruitment/Retention Report and noted the slight increase in overall enrollment and the marked increase in graduates.


  7. The titles below are proposed courses approved by mail during the late spring and summer.
    Honors 200: "Inside Poetry" (Equitz)
    Honors 200: "Crusades and Conquests: Cross-Cultural Encounters before Modernity" (Cupples)
    Honors 200: "Worlds Apart" (Cupples)
    Honors 200: "King Arthur: The Heroic and the Tragic" (Best)
    Honors 200: "Literary Monsters and Social Perceptions of Monstrosity" (Best)
    Honors 200: "The Art of the Short Story" (J. Nardin)
    Honors 680: "Information, Law, and Policy in the Information Society (Lipinski)"
    Honors 680: "Human Rights: Making Rights, Claims and Global Justice" (Bradley)
    English 685: "The Art of William Falkner" (Southward)
    English 685: "Chinese American Women Writers" (Buley-Meissner)
    Political Science 380: "The Politics of Social Dilemmas" (Alter)
    Women's Studies 380:   "Constructed Identities: Gender and Representation Cinema" (Berg)

  8. In other business, Romenesko announced that the Fall Women's Studies Honors seminar, "Gender and Representation in Cinema," had to be cancelled due to the hospitalization of the instructor, Eliana Berg. Baldassaro and Romenesko thanked Merry Wiesner-Hanks for agreeing to teach, during the same time slot, a Women's Studies Honors seminar focusing on women, sexuality, and religion. Wiesner-Hanks said the change in instructor and topic caused only one student to drop the course.


  9. The meeting was adjourned at 9:20 a.m.


Respectfully submitted,
Romenesko, Secretary


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