Present:	Karen Brucks, Eduardo Douglas, Glen Fredlund, Peter Geissinger, David Heathcote, Joyce Kirk, Pat Kissinger, Michael Liston, Gabrielle Verdier
Excused:	Kris Ruggiero
Guests:	Alice Gillam, Connie Jo, Margaret Mika, Kim Romenesko, Chuck Schuster

1. Call to Order - The Chair, Glen Fredlund, called the meeting to order at 10:03 a.m. in Holton 141.
2. Procedural Matters - None
3. Automatic Consent
   1. Approval of Minutes #1, 2006-2007 (September 28, 2006) -- There were no corrections to the minutes; they stand approved.

      It was moved, seconded, and approved to suspend the agenda to accommodate guests.

      V.

      New Business Discussion of English Competency - Alice Gillam, Chuck Schuster, and Margaret Mika, all of whom are from the English Department, were invited to the meeting to address student writing, which emerged as an area of concern for the APGC at the last meeting. Chuck and Alice provided some history on changes to the English Competency Requirement. Students historically had to pass a 90 minute blind topic exam to meet the writing requirement. The exam requirement was eventually eliminated and a new focus was placed on ensuring that instructors graded rigorously and prepared students for a portfolio review. Alice said the English Department's first year writing program currently is strong. However, she said that having a strong first year program is not enough to solve the writing problems many UWM students have. The key to improving student writing is to have them write in all of their classes, which is often not possible at UWM due to large classes. Efforts to increase student writing in courses outside of English (writing intensive requirement, writing across the curriculum projects, etc.) have generally not worked well because these types of efforts require resources-classes must be small, faculty must be trained to teach writing and must have time to do it, etc. Margaret Mika spoke about the work she does at the Writing Center. Funded by the College of Letters and Science, the Writing Center is a resource that is available all students, faculty, and staff on campus. The Center is staffed by Peer Tutors who are carefully screened and given intensive training. Margaret provided a packet of material to the committee, including a brochure, reports, and a Student Guide (copies attached to the original of these minutes). Glen Fredlund thanked Chuck, Alice, and Margaret for the information they provided.

      It was moved, seconded, and approved to return to the order of the agenda.

4. Old Business
   1. Nominations Process - After examining the material from last year's nominations process and hearing Connie Jo's assessment that the process presented to the committee worked well in the past, the committee agreed that the nomination process should be handled the same way as last year. David Heathcote reported that committee members had attended meetings of the chairs with their associate deans to urge the chair to encourage members of their departments to volunteer for committee service. He noted that this effort did not have much of an impact. He suggested that APGC committee members encourage faculty members in their departments to run for L&S committee seats and that Dean Meadows ask people at the next Chairs and Directors' meeting to encourage their faculty to nominate themselves or others for L&S Committees.
   2. Faculty Recruitment - Committee members compared the faculty recruitment recommendations that last year's APGC provided to Dean Meadows with the final faculty recruitment list presented by the Dean to the Provost. The two lists were very similar. Connie Jo said that the new position request deadline was going to be pushed up this year because the APGC had a difficult time putting their recommendations together within last year's timeline. Glen Fredlund brought his faculty recruitment binder from last year to share with committee members who wanted to examine last year's process more closely.
5. New Business
   1. Discussion of English Competency - see above.
   2. Recommendation to Revise the AP&GC Committee Charter to reflect the co-chair policy change approved at the last meeting - The Committee reviewed a draft of the charter changes that Connie Jo had prepared. It was moved, seconded, and approved to forward the recommendation to the L&S Faculty.
6. Adjournment - The meeting was adjourned at 11:45 a.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

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

 

Distribution: Dean G. Richard Meadows
Associate Deans Gajdardziska-Josifovska, O'Bryan, Schuster, Swain
Assistant Deans Horstman, Jo
Secretary of the University

Minutes #2, 2006-07.apgc