Athletic Board Meeting

Hello SGers,

The athletic board met October 17th. The meeting started with both the chair's and the director's reports. The chair, Walter Dickey, commented on his experience at the Big Ten meetings which took place earlier on. One of the most important subject discussed was the issue regarding mandatory summer school for basketball players. Currently there hasn't been too many members of the Big Ten in favor of mandatory summer school but the idea is gaining momentum throughout the conference, including some athletic department members here at UW. This is a very complex issue with both positives and negatives but for now we would just like to make it known that the idea is being discussed and will provide updates when we have more information.

There was also a discussion regarding the creation of a committee within the atheltic board to research the possibility of creating some type of academic sports program here at UW. We are waiting to hear from the chair still but both Logan and I will be very involved with this committee as soon as it is created. Logan did an independent research study on this issue and found that many Big Ten schools already have a program like this and many different schools throughout the nation have similar programs. With the increasing demand and popularity of programs like this we feel that it is essential that UW-Madison has a program like this because there are many people who would love to pursue some sort of career in athletics.

There was a member of the board who resigned from the athletic board. Despite the loss of the member, the board is moving forward in a positive direction and a new appointee will be named prior to our December 5th meeting. If you have further questions please ask.

A large part of the meeting was designated to talking about the Ad-Hoc committee which was designed to determine the exact role of the athletic board and how it operates. Each member of the board is assigned to different sub-committees and much of the work that gets done on the board is done on these various sub-committees. Some of the committees meet more often than others and some are also interrelated, so we may potentially combine some of these committees for the convenience of the members and efficiency of the board. There was a huge discussion regarding the functions of the board and what exactly is the role of the board members. We also discussed and tried to order the priorities of the board. This will be presented at the next meeting. The Ad-Hoc committee will be meeting and re-wording their draft in hopes that we can potentially approve the role of the board in one of our future meetings.

Finally, we are currently in the process of the NCAA-Self Study which is our way of self assessing our athletic department to make sure that we are complying with all rules and regulations and are also making attempts to improve upon our deficiencies in areas such as gender equity, diversity, and student athlete well being amongst many others. This process is supposed to be a community and campus wide project. We are near the completion of our answers to the many questions provided by the NCAA and as soon as we are done with this, we will be creating a website where members can submit questions and comments. We will be sure to let you know when the website is up and running.

Thats all folks. Any questions, feel free to ask.

University Assessment Council

The University Assessment Council (UAC) had it's October meeting (sorry this post is late).

Important stuff:

• Keep in mind that we are in the middle/end of University reaccreditation.
• UAC is going to be re-visioning the committee to serve the University better.
  
• I suggested re-doing the website to make it better reflect what the comittee does and to serve as a clearinghouse for data (maybe).
• UAC can visit this committee if we would like.
  

-Emily

Here is the agenda with my comments:

AGENDA

1. Welcome and introductions

2. Updates: Consortium on Financing Higher Education (COFHE) and Higher Education Act and Public Disclosure - Jocelyn Milner

· wants UW to endorse statement on assessment in higher education

o critique of standardized testing

o thinks it’s pretty non-controversial to sign on to this – don’t want every institution in the nation to be judged on the same test

o UW has already signed on to the VSA – voluntary system of assessment, need to make sure these don’t contradict each other “college portrait”

§ Three tests possible CLA, MAPP, CAP(comes from ACT, proposal to move to this at UW)

· have chosen not to do testing right now, thinks we do enough already

· higher edu act 2008 –

o went beyond financial aid

o need to report on faculty student ratios

o lots of information that is going to be needed

o mandated public disclosure of exit plans of students and info on alumni

3. UW-Madison Re-accreditation Site Visit Update – Nancy Mathews

· site visitor wants to meet with committee in April 27-29^th, concerned with details

· be prepared to talk specifically about outcomes, specific programs, changes that have been made, activity not just intentions

o going to want to talk to students this spring

· making information more accessible – putting it on the web, information on changes made

4. Criterion 3 feedback – Nancy Mathews

* Observations and responses from UAC

http://www.greatu.wisc.edu/themes/criteria.html

Please bring a copy of Criterion 3 to the meeting (see link above).

·

5. Planning for the Future and Re-Visioning the UAC

To begin our discussion about the future role/scope of the Council, below are a few questions to help start the conversation.

a. Are there specific student learning and assessment efforts in your unit that link to Criterion 3 (build on Nancy’s comments)?

b. Are there other program efforts being pursued in your unit that are beyond/outside of the Student Learning focus?

c. If you could create a wish list for the next 1-3 years, what issues or priorities would your unit want to engage in related to assessment, program improvement, student learning, etc.? How can the UAC and other resources be of support?

6. Visits to schools/colleges/units

At our last meeting, we discussed scheduling discussions within your school/college/or unit regarding the upcoming Re-accreditation site visit, program assessment in general, university-wide strategies and plans, etc.

If this might be useful for your unit, with whom might this conversation include?

We will want to schedule these discussions soon.

Adjourn

Lectures Committee - Fall 2008

The Lectures Committe one and only fall meeting went well.

There was discussion of current lecture applications.
Also, the committee is looking to the future to find ways of equally distributing the funds as travel costs increase; the committee does not fear running out of money for lectures this year but that may be a problem in the near future.

If anyone has any questions or concerns about the Lectures Committee, feel free to post a reply.

~Melissa

Union Council

On Thursday (Oct. 30th) Union Council held its monthly meeting. It lasted about three hours, and included several important action items. First, we listened to an update by all WUD Directors (this includes the music committee, Global Connections, etc... if you really don't know what WUD is, ask me). We then approved a a document that overhauled all of the procedures to accept "naming" donations for all Union rooms. We decided that the Rath probably shouldn't become the KFC Beerhall, and so we included a list of locations that should not be named. This bill has been in the wings for years, so the fact that it was finally passed made the admin very happy. I don't think many students ever want to see buildings "sold" via donations. But, at the same time... money is very very nice.

We then authorized the Union to be the administrative home for a program for incoming freshman to go on a trip to bond. This program was started by students, but they are graduating, and need it to have a real home. In the future there is the hope that any group/org will be able to go on the trip to "bond".

A new programing fund was also started (funded by the Union) for programing that encourages democratic values. The requirements are pretty loose, so be creative!

Thanks,

Guthrie