1. Call to Order - Dean Richard Meadows called the meeting to order at 3:34 pm in MER 131.
   1. Announcements - Dean Meadows made the following announcements.
      • The College's annual retirement dinner will be held at the University Club on May 12; there still is time to sign on.
      • The accreditation visit of the NCA went very well. Thanks to everyone who played a role in preparing for the visit.
      • Since the last report on L&S faculty members who have received outside offers, we have lost two colleagues to Madison. One other negotiation is pending.
      • There is not much change on the budget news. The Joint Finance Committee currently is working on it. We still are hopeful that there will be a pay plan.
   2. Question Period - There were no questions from members of the Faculty.
      
      
2. Automatic Consent Business

   A.

   Automatic Consent Business - There were no objections to the Automatic Consent item. The minutes of the April 7, 2005 Faculty meeting stand approved.

3. Old Business - none
   
   
4. New Business

   A.	Recommendation to Create an Earth and Freshwater Sciences Curricular Area - It was moved and seconded to recommend to the Dean approval of the Earth and Freshwater Sciences curricular area. Doug Cherkauer moved that Fac. Doc. No. 703 be amended to correct two errors: in the "Reason for change" section, change "geology, hydrogeology, and bioaquatic systems" to "freshwater systems, geology, and water resources;" in the "Other departments and curricular areas that may be affected" section, change "jointly-offer" to "crosslist." The motion to amend was seconded. Doug noted that the curricular area request form was prepared prior to approval of the final version of the EFS Ph.D. document. The abovementioned changes were made in the Ph.D. proposal, but they did not get incorporated into the curricular area request. The proposed amendment brings the two documents into agreement. The motion to amend Fac. Doc. No. 703 was approved with two abstentions. Doug explained the rationale for having a new curricular area. Connie Jo distributed copies of an email message from Michael Day, Chair of the Department of Geography (copy attached to the original of these minutes), expressing his concerns about the development of the EFS proposals without appropriate communication with the Geography Department. Doug stated that the failure of the ad hoc committee to substitute Geog 411 Physical Climatology for Geog 450 in the Freshwater Systems list was an oversight that would be corrected. Mark Schwartz indicated that there was a more general concern about the Geography Department's lack of involvement in the planning. Genni McBride stated her opinion that the Faculty should not be asked to act in the face of a lack of collegiality, and she suggested that the proposal be tabled until the deans and department representatives get together and reach an agreement on the proposal. Mark Harris reported that the original Ph.D. was intended to be an interdisciplinary program, and this was not going to change. Mark Schwartz stated that the Geography Department was just looking for assurance that there would be cooperation on future hires related to water resources. Doug said that this was the EFS Ad Hoc Committee's understanding as well. EFS will have a natural science focus and Geography a more social science focus on related issues. Mark Schwartz said that this division was too simplistic; Geography has a strong natural science perspective as well. Richard Meadows stressed the interdisciplinarity of the revised program. He indicated that his vision always has been to keep the program broad and to allow participation by all interested parties. It is not meant to be exclusionary. Peter Geissinger noted that the proposal did not contain the administrative structure document that had been reviewed by the L&S Academic Planning and Governance Committee. Connie Jo noted that historically an administrative structural reorganization did not go to the entire Faculty for a vote; however, the proposal for an EFS administrative structure was distributed to everyone at the beginning of the meeting. (A copy of that document is attached to the original of these minutes.) Mark Schwartz asked why a reorganization document was needed if this is a modification of an existing degree. Doug responded that the creation of tracks that involve faculty members from different departments and scientists from the WATER Institute make it necessary to create a more interdepartmental administrative structure. Tom Holme asked that it be made clear that including WATER scientists in the program faculty does not imply they also are University faculty. Mark Harris said they would remain members of the academic staff with faculty status just within this program. Norm Lasca noted that UW System commonly uses "program faculty" to include members of the academic staff. Richard indicated that this kind of interdisciplinary program was somewhat new, but we will be seeing more of it. Fac. Doc. No. 703 was approved as amended with three abstentions.		703
   B.	Recommendation to Rename and Modify the Geosciences Ph.D. - It was moved and seconded to recommend to the Dean approval of Fac. Doc. No. 704. Peter Geissinger asked if adoption of this document implies that EFS will receive priority for future resources. Richard Meadows responded that some additional resources will go into the program, but they will be modest. Art Brooks asked if it was not likely that any new hires would be in Geosciences in any case. Richard said that was likely. Genni McBride asked what was the relevance of this issue to the motion to rename and reorganize. There was no further discussion. The motion was approved with three abstentions.		704
   C.	Recommendation to Amend Fac. Doc. 678 Defining Criteria and Procedures for Approving Courses that Fulfill the International Requirement - It was moved and seconded to recommend to the Dean approval of Fac. Doc. 705. Kris Ruggiero moved that Doc. 705 be amended to substitute "300" for "200" in the second statement under "Implemention;" the motion was seconded. (A copy of the proposed amendment is attached to the original of these minutes.) Kris noted that students who have little foreign language in high school are at an advantage because, under the current statement, they can overlap six credits of their foreign language requirement with the international requirement. Tom O'Bryan asked if the restriction to 300-level referred only to the courses that teach language skills. Kris and Kathy Wheatley stated that it did. Kristin Pitt expressed concern that the last paragraph of the rationale implies that science students do not want to study foreign language. She asked if the statement could be amended to allow courses beyond the required level to count. This differs for B.A. and B.S. students. Kathy suggested stating that courses that meet the foreign language requirement will not count toward the international requirement. Jay Beder noted that 200 level language courses include cultural exposure and, therefore, should count toward the international requirement. He said that some people always find some requirements easier to complete than do other people. Kathy stated that the language requirement is not being strengthened if the change proposed is not adopted. Jay said that the purpose of the international requirement was not to strengthen the foreign language requirement. Genni McBride expressed the view that these requirements cannot be viewed in isolation. Students already have too many requirements to fulfill; the amendment will make it even tougher to complete everything within 120 credits. Tom O'Bryan suggested that not counting 200-level courses would discourage students who had four years of language in high school from continuing their language studies. Mark Harris said his concern was mostly with B.S. students facing creeping increases in requirements. The vote was taken, and the "nays" appeared to win. There was a call for a show of hands. The motion to amend was defeated on a vote of 9 - 22. Kris Ruggiero moved that the proposal be amended to add the following statement to the implementation provisions: "Credits earned through the advanced placement (AP) program may count toward the international requirement." The motion was seconded. Someone suggested a "friendly amendment" to add "International Baccalaureate" to the amendment. The mover and seconder accepted that change. Tom O'Bryan suggested that the amendment be withdrawn because this already is the practice, and the proposed amendment doesn't include all possible types of credits. Its approval would suggest that other similar credits not specifically mentioned do NOT count. The mover and seconder agreed, and the motion was withdrawn. Jay Beder moved to amend the recommendation to add ", in part," between the words "covering" and "the historical" and to change the word "or," which follows "events," to "and." (See amendment proposal, attached to the original of these minutes, for wording with these changes incorporated.) The effect of the proposed amendment would be to require that a portion of courses that meet the international requirement MUST have both contemporary and historical content. Patrice Petro said that the amendment would be problematic because it is difficult to define "contemporary." Jay responded that the greatest value is derived from being immersed in a culture for a specified period of time. Only study abroad does that. The international requirement should provide the next best thing. The Faculty needs to apply the scrutiny necessary to accomplishing something meaningful. Patrice noted that being at the University is all about immersing oneself in other worlds, and there are various ways to do this; study abroad is not the only way. Ed Mabry suggested that this type of editing is worrisome, that it will interfere with the academic freedom of the people who design international courses to conform to the requirement as they understand it. Colleagues should be trusted to understand the purpose and meaning of the requirement. Tom O'Bryan spoke in favor of changing the language to "and." Chuck Schuster indicated that he favors "or;" the study of Ancient Rome is valuable. Genni McBride agreed that such a course is valuable, but the value of a course does not imply that it meets the intent of the requirement. The time set for starting discussion of the next item was approaching. A show of hands on the amendment was requested. The amendment failed on a vote of 10 - 15.		705
   D.	Recommendation to Add Two New Tracks to the Global Studies Degree and to Expand Ownership of the Degree to Additional Participating Schools/Colleges - Dean Meadows announced that this item was being withdrawn.		706
   E.	Recommendation to Enable Creation of a College/School Within the College - It was moved and seconded to recommend to the Dean approval of Fac. Doc. 707. Kathy Dolan, Chair of the AP&GC, explained that there currently is no enabling legislation to allow what Fac. Doc. No. 708 is requesting. The Committee wanted to set parameters for defining a college or school within the College. There was no discussion; the motion was approved unanimously.		707
   F.	Recommendation to Rename the University Honors Program - It was moved and seconded to recommend to the Dean approval of the recommendation to change the name of the University Honors Program to the Honors College. Larry Baldassaro, Director of the Honors Program, indicated the motivation behind this proposal was the same as the reason that a number of honors programs at public universities around the U.S. have made this change - it is more appealing to students and parents, so it should help attract students to the program. Dean Meadows added that we are hoping the name change will provide a naming opportunity to assist in fundraising. There was no further discussion, and the motion was approved unanimously.		708

C. (cont.) As there was time remaining, the Faculty returned to Fac. Doc. No. 705. There was no further discussion, and a show of hands was requested. The motion was approved by a vote of 17-2-6.

5. Adjournment - The meeting was adjourned at 4:26 pm.
   
   
   

Respectfully submitted,

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

cc: Secretary of the University