Present:	Sukanya Banerjee, Karen Brucks, Eduardo Douglas, Glen Fredlund, Peter Geissinger, Joyce Kirk, Kris Ruggiero, Daad Saffarini, Kathleen Wheatley
Excused:	Pat Kissinger
Guests:	Connie Jo, Richard Meadows, Kim Romenesko

1. Call to Order -- The chair, Peter Geissinger, called the meeting to order at 10:05 a.m. in Holton 241.
2. Automatic Consent
   1. Approval of Minutes #2, 2007-2008 (October 30, 2007) -- There were no corrections to the minutes; they stand approved.
3. Old Business
   1. Spousal and Target-of-Opportunity Hiring - postponed
   2. Distinguished Professors - postponed
4. New Business
   1. Discussion with Dean Meadows

      Dean Meadows began the discussion by talking about the campus academic planning exercise. The bulk of the work will be done by three subcommittees with a geographic focus.

      --Kenwood/Columbia campus Subcommittee
      --Downtown campus - Health Professions Subcommittee
      --Wauwatosa campus - Engineering and Sciences Subcommittee

      Richard has argued that the Kenwood/Columbia campus Subcommittee be renamed "Liberal Arts and Professions" to emphasize academic planning, rather than physical space planning. He believes the committees should focus on the university's three-pronged mission: undergraduate education, graduate education, and research. He provided the committee with a list of questions that were circulated among the three planning groups for their input (the list is attached to the original of the minutes). The questions focus on what UWM's academic program array should look like in 10-20 years. Richard said the most important question to answer may be "if the overall scale of the university is growing, how might L&S grow with it? How might lines be allocated?"

      Richard provided the committee with an analysis of student credits generated over a five year period. The analysis showed that L&S has grown courses at a faster rate than campus as a whole for freshman level (000-199), upper level (300-699), and graduate level courses (700-999). Will instruction continue to grow at the same rate (17%) over the next ten years? The Provost thinks "no." Richard thinks "maybe," especially if the Chancellor makes good on the promise for more dorms, which would increase both admission and retention. Richard recalled that a 1% increase in retention from freshman to sophomore year translates into 1000 more students. In addition, he indicated that growth may occur as more on-line programs are developed, and asked if we continue to grow, what kinds of positions will be needed?

      In budget news, Richard reported that the state approved the DIN (decision item narrative) submitted by campus. The DIN will provide base budget support of approximately 2 million dollars in each of the following four areas: faculty hires, especially in the sciences and engineering; undergraduate research; graduate student stipends; and support of the RGI program. Richard said most of the money would be available next year; this year, campus will focus on recruitment for next year's hires. Richard said that the Chancellor believes that our ability to get DIN funding for round II and III (the next two biennium budgets) will depend upon what happens with money provided for this budget round.

      Richard handed out a draft of a call for proposals for "Building Interdisciplinary Research Clusters." He emphasized that proposals should span departments, or perhaps even schools/colleges. The Chancellor will decide which clusters get blessed. Richard said that he expects to get orders soon to put out a call for proposals to recruit faculty and staff for the research clusters and UROP cluster. The likely break-down for instructional positions will be 3 in the natural sciences, 3 in the humanities, 3 in the social sciences, and 6 in the professions.

      Regarding the L&S budget deficit, Richard said he does not see research generating surplus funds, nor does he believe we can grow our way out of the problem. However, he said that SOIS has generated a lot of money with their on-line courses which they have put back into their program. One possible new funding stream may be to create applied master's programs that do not require new faculty. Applied programs generally do not provide financial support such as tuition remission for their graduate students, so such programs could be profitable.

      The committee provided Richard with a few pages of "talking points" to guide discussion about potential ways to reduce the L&S budget deficit. The item that seemed to be the most promising was to "offer more instruction on-line." Richard said that departments get $25.00 for each of the first 15 students enrolled in on-line courses and $75.00 for each student beyond that.

      Regarding a compensation package for this year and next, Richard said there is still no word. However, he said the cap on tuition was removed, which bodes will for compensation. He said a 3-4% raise is likely.

5. Adjournment - The meeting was adjourned at noon.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Kim Romenesko
Senior Administrative Program Specialist
Letters and Science Administration

 

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

Minutes #3, 2007-08.apgc