Programs Committee: School of Education

The Programs Committee met on the 15 of February. There were three main articles on the agenda. The first of which discussed was a proposal for Dance/Movement Therapy certificate. The program existed in the sixties, and was one of the most popular programs, though it died out when certain faculty left the school. A new, qualified professor, Rena Kornblum has been secured to forward the new program. Ms. Kornblum has thirty years of professional experience as a dance movement therapist. The courses will specialize on creative and expressive movement for the mental health profession. The committee approved the measure with great support and suggested that it would be a very popular program across majors.
The second course proposal was for the course EPS/IS 335 “Globalization and Education.” Its purpose is to examine the impact of globalization of education and compare how political and social aspects impact education between developed and developing country. The course was piloted in the previous semester, and was successful except for too much required readings. Appropriate changes were made and the course was approved by the committee with much excitement. The only debate centered around the ability of freshman to take the class. The course is listed in the 300 level, but will be available for every student especially for students who have not yet entered the education program but are interested in it. The department acknowledged that it will be certain to watch freshmen performance in the class, and make appropriate alterations.
The final article on the agenda was to discuss a School of Education assessment plan. The plan was last updated in June 2003. The committee hopes to increase awareness of the plan, and to increase frequency of updates. The discussion highlighted the need for an assessment plan, because lately there have been different mentions of standards for higher education. As educators are constantly checking what their students are learning, and their own performance, and by creating a public assessment, both students and the community will benefit. The mention of the plan was noted, and the department heads all agreed to take the project on. The meeting closed with a lot of excitement for the future programs and was dismissed.

Dean of Students Advisory Board - 2/27/08

The DoS Advisory Board is a forum for student input and feedback on DoS ideas and programs.

Today's meeting featured Rebecca Martin, Senior VP of the UW System Office of Academic Affairs. She asked us questions along the line of What is it like to be a student at UW-Madison? What makes it different from other UW System schools? positives? negatives? What does the UW System need to improve/change in regards to student life and academics?

The discussion generated some interesting ideas: playing up the college campus atmosphere in Madison, investing in the Wisconsin Experience, integrating the campus with the community, retaining the Wisconsin culture while still being an elite institution, ensuring job opportunities after graduation, etc.

We also were presented a draft of changes to the UW System statues UWS 17 & 18 (the Misconduct Code). There will be a listening session within the next week and a half. The changes (I haven't read through them all yet) involve modifying the scope of jurisdiction and clarifying what misconduct is of "substantial interest" to the UW. These policy changes wouldn't go into effect until Fall of 2009 (tentatively), and there will be ample opportunity for students to be reviewing these amendments.

Those were the major topics of discussion at this afternoon's meeting. I have more information on additional agenda items as well.

Health Care Advisory Committee, 2/26/08

The HCAC advises University Health Services in budgetary and administrative areas.

The new University Tower at U-Square is coming along well, and UHS staff got to walk through the building in anticipation of the December move. We spent some time talking about parking issues and also handicapped accessibility. Parking, like everywhere else in Madison, will be tight but may be alleviated because most students will be walking to the new location.

The current satellite clinic in Sellery will be closing, and UHS had discussed moving it to Lakeshore but the Lakeshore redevelopment funds were not included in the latest state budget.
Question: Is U-Square too far for Lakeshore students to travel? Would a satellite clinic in the future in the Lakeshore neighborhood be adequately utilized? Part of the reason why the Sellery clinic was needed was because the University Avenue location was just so far away. Having U-Square in the center of campus will change traffic/usage patterns. Thoughts?

In other news, electronic health records are coming along well. There was discussion about integrating the publicizing and familiarization (and also taking health histories of incoming students) of the "new" UHS at SOAR.
Question: Would more information about the location/services/appointment processes of UHS have been helpful at SOAR?

University Honors Committee - February Meeting

Director of Admissions Rob Seltzer gave the committee an Admissions Update. By last Thursday afternoon the University received 24, 766 applications and expects to have a total over 25,000 - meaning about 500 more applications received than last year. UW has had a steady increase in applications over the past few years. This year, the Admissions office is under strict orders to keep the 5,700 cap for students in the freshman class. As a result, less postponed applicants will be admitted.

Jeff Shokler of L&S Honors reported that they have made a few changes. In previous years, L&S Honors sent applications to select incoming L&S freshman who met quantitative requirement. Their post-graduate survey found that most students were part of L&S Honors only for credentials. In an attempt to focus on improving knowledge rather than students' resumes, starting this year, L&S Honors sent applications to all incoming L&S freshman. The new invitation details the goals of L&S Honors (which can also be found at http://www.honors.ls.wisc.edu/SiteContent.aspx?id=269). The new first-year student application to L&S Honors does not ask for GPA, class rank, or ACT/SAT scores but has more short-answer essay questions and space to list activities in which the student participated.

Undergraduate Symposium - The committee encourages all students to consider participating and sends a reminder that the online applications are due this Thursday, February 28.

Office of Equity and Diversity Oversight Committee February 20, 2008

The Office of Equity and Diversity Oversight Committee met primarily to make final edits to the 2003-2006 report. This report was compiled by Jeffrey Lewis from an open ended survey that was filled out by the learning communities around campus. We discussed problems with the survey method and ideas for the next survey. We also decided that a forum will be held and the report will be used to generate discussion.

Office of Equity and Diversity Meeting (20 February 2008)
Rachel Witt
1. Auditing Budget
a. currently Jeffrey Lewis is finalizing edits to 2003-2006 OED report
b. questionnaires were too vague and provided data that didn’t have quantifiable parameters
c. free choice in questionnaire did not give full report of activities in learning communities
d. auditing budget has been cut—Office of State Employment Relations only has three auditors and auditors often do not even visit site
2. Review of OED Report
a. primarily edited for presentation corrections
b. decided that report would serve exploratory function to determine areas that need to be evaluated and to generate a more useful questionnaire in the future
c. survey lacked direction for responses
d. forum or session planned for learning groups to come together and discuss results of questionnaire—report will serve to initiate conversation
e. report condensed to themes for discussion
3. Next meeting (6 March 2008)
a. review final copy of report
b. establish date for discussion forum

Recreational Sports Meeting February 13, 2008

Hi guys,

Sorry for the delay in this post. I've been having a rough time with technology and getting myself added. Below is my summary of the Recreational Sports Meeting.

Recreational Sports Board
Rachel Witt
13 February 2008
1) Nielsen Tennis Statement
a) Roof resurfacing scheduled for 2009
i) $1.9 million necessary
ii) $300,000 saved by Recreational Sports Board to date
iii) State has agreed to pay 50% of cost—still have to secure funds
b) New Furniture for lounge
i) $42,000 budget
ii) will replace temporary SWAP furniture currently there
c) Fee increase for tennis and squash courts
i) Indoor tennis and squash fees increased $1/hour/court
ii) segregated fees not allocated for Nielsen
iii) membership fees to increase based on % increase in segregated fees
(1) 3.7% increase allowed—Recreational Sports asked for a 2% increase
2) SERF
a) New 2008-2009 Expenditures
i) IT Hub- $37,500
ii) New Equipment at the Shell- $40,000
iii) Paint/valves for SERF swimming facilities- $50,000
iv) Red Cross class equipment- $11,000
v) New lockers- $441,800
vi) Replace track- $75,000
vii) Replace locker room plumbing- $175,000
viii) New aquatic sound system at NAT- $7,000
b) pay student employees more than $900,000 in wages annually
c) unusually high expenditures this year because Recreational Sports is moving from the Department of Education to Administration
i) increase in Group X Class fees
ii) student summer pass- $15.00
3) Cell Phone Policy in Locker Rooms
a) Cell phones not allowed to be used in locker rooms because they have camera features
b) future state legislature may also prohibit this
4) Next Meeting: discuss future renovation of the NATThe Recreational Sports Board met on 13 February 2008. The majority of members were present. The main topic of discussion was the approval of the 2008-2009 budget for Recreational Sports. The budget had been reviewed several weeks before by students on the board and recommended for presentation to the entire committee. In addition to the below minutes, several topics of discussion were considered at greater depth and seemed like important issues for students to consider.Under the expenditures for the SERF is a figure for IT consolidation. Instead of paying per service appointment by the IT department, the Recreational Sports Board will now be contributing in a set amount to an IT department that will provide service when needed. This should actually lower the cost of hiring per appointment.Segregated fees were addressed because there was discussion as to whether it’s fair to use the fees to cover half of the cost of providing Group X Fitness classes. It was decided that in other departments there are uses for the fees that are not actually used by all students. Students in the class are already required to cover half of the cost of classes. The segregated fee allotment per student per semester was $25.28 for 2007-2008. This amount is much less than other Big Ten schools.At the next meeting the board will discuss future renovations at the NAT.

Labor Licensing Policy Committee February Meeting

So, we had another LLPC meeting on Friday. It was actually a pretty uneventful meeting. We got an update on New Era (UW recently cut the contract). The union and New Era have reached a tentative agreement--yay!--but the University is sticking by its decision to cut the contract, even though New Era seems to think there are some legal issues. Nothing has really changed for Hermosa according to the former workers, we will get a report from adidas when Gregg Nebel visits us on April 4th, along with Scott Nova of the Worker Rights Consortium. A lot of our meeting, and most of our next meeting, was dedicated to planning for the April 4 meeting, figuring out questions to ask, etc. We decided to try and get an outside facilitator so that we can all play the roles of concerned students, faculty, staff, etc., rather than the role of unbiased facilitator. I'm still encouraging people to come to that meeting, or let me know if you have any questions you want me to ask Gregg or Scott, but other than that, nothing else really happened.