Joint Southeast Campus Area Committee - July 19, 2010

The most recent meeting for the Joint Southeast Campus Area Committee was held last month. The meeting started with review and approval of the previous meeting minutes (March 15). No one was present for public comment.

Next, the board reviewed updated plans for the Charter Street Heating Plant. The project was first reported about at the March 15th meeting. Members of the project team were present to answer questions. The board voted to recommend the first phase of the project which includes constructing facilities that will be needed to maintain production during the other phases of construction. If the University gets final approval from the city, this phase will begin in 2011.

Other updates:
Chazen Museum of Art - on schedule, opening fall 2011
East Campus Utilities – this project should be completed by the end of August, work is mostly completed on Library Mall, and Observatory Drive will open soon
Hockey Swim Project - on hold for funding purposes
South Campus Union – back on schedule
WI Institute for Discovery - on schedule, the sidewalks will be restored soon
Education Building – faculty have started moving into their offices
Memorial Union – currently in design phase to renovate the entire building
Gordon Commons – will start in early 2011

Joe Klosterman, jfklosterman@wisc.edu

Vice Provost for Information Technology Ron Kraemer moving on

UW students are losing a friend in the administration this summer with the departure of Vice Provost for Information Technology Ron Kramer for a similar position at Notre Dame. Ron actually has three titles at UW: Vice Provost for Information Technology, Executive Director of DoIT, and campus Chief Information Officer.

Ron became CIO a few months into my tenure on the Information Technology Committee, and immediately made clear that he was going to consider student issues central to his approach to the job – both in shared governance and in the focus on the application and deployment of information technology across campus.

I’m not sure what Ron would consider his biggest accomplishment – certainly, the development of a campus IT strategic plan was important, and all in all there have been some great advances these past few years, but there are three important things for students I want to highlight.

First, early in his tenure were the RIAA lawsuit threats of a few years back. Ron was very supportive of developing an education campaign that was realisitic in its approach. It wasn’t a pie-in-the-sky “Drugs are bad, mmkay” approach to copyright infringement – it recognized that the RIAA was specifically targeting university students and UW students were at greater risk. He was a good leader on campus and nationally in the response to the RIAA.

Second, Ron has lead the fight to finally abolish the use of social security numbers on campus, and to continue to be vigilant on the protection of personal information. Not only will students individually be able to rest easier knowing that the likelihood of identity theft due to university data losses is greatly reduced, collectively we have saved considerable sums of money from having fewer data loss incidents. This is money that can be focused on the teaching and research mission of the University.

Finally, Ron was the driving force behind the SITIAC shared governance committee that finally brought student involvement to the distribution of student technology fees. As more and more of the educational experience becomes tightly coupled with technology, it will be vital for students to have a direct say in how the infrastructure evolves. Our seat at the table would absolutely not have happened had it not been for Ron fighting for us.

Ron will be difficult to replace, and it will be a national search process. There will be two students on the search committee – look for more information on that later.

Personally, I’m proud to consider Ron a friend, and will miss him when he leaves for his new post in August. Notre Dame has made a great hire, and I wish him all the best in his new job.

Erik Paulson

Programs Committee- School of Education

The Programs Committee for the School of Ed met on Thursday, May 13th at 11:30 for the last meeting of the session. The agenda was short.

Two courses in the Educational Psychology Department were reviewed.

Ed Psych 540 Intro to Prof. School Psychology was changed from 3 to 2 credits to accommodate the requirement of a 1 credit practicum without overloading on credits.

A new course, Ed Psych 542 The Biological Basis of Behavior, was added to fulfill the need of students in the Ed Psych department who can't access the course offered through the Psychology department.

A course change proposal from the Rehab Psych and Special Ed Department was withdrawn after detailed discussion, it will return at a later meeting.

The prerequisites for Dance 420 Sound Design for the Performing and Visual Arts were changed to make the class more accessible to the entire student body, not just Dance majors.

This meeting was the last of the session.

April 26 Meeting of the Letters & Science Curriculum Committee

We held off on approval of Comp Lit 500 because of concerns regarding it as a "Meets With" course.

Discussion on LAS credit for Dance/Movement Therapy was tabled; we are waiting for additional discussion and support from the Psychology Dept. in relation to the potential certificate program.

Life Science Communication 450 was approved for Z designation L&S Credit.

Discussion regarding the creation of a Liberal Studies degree or major. Professor Emeritus Michael Hinden joined us, as did Vice Provost Aaron Brower, and Christopher Lee presented regarding Majors & L&S Degrees for background knowledge for the committee. Degree programs seem to emphasize focus, gaining depth in something you wouldn't be able to achieve if you spread yourself thinly. There have also been committed efforts to ensure that major coursework doesn't overtake a student's education. This leads to the question of if current majors are doing their job effectively. We have discussed continually who exactly this vague liberal studies major would serve, and thus Professor Hinden is sharing about how the existing Integrated Liberal Studies program could potentially aid in development of this program.

ILS is based loosely on the "Great Books" concept, and offers a way to satisfy breadth requirements with a cohesive structure and it sees itself as working with majors as opposed to being majors. About 1,000 students enroll in ILS courses each semester, with about 30 to 40 graduates each year from the certificate program. It has roots in the Meiklejohn Experimental College, and is very aware of the scale of the program. Students served by ILS come from many different majors and even from outside of L&S. Faculty for ILS are borrowed from other departments, and over the past 5 years, 27 faculty from 10 departments have participated with ILS, and about a dozen have taught repeatedly. It's a rather informal relationship which has been pretty successful.

Prof. Hinden (this is his own opinion, not on behalf of all of ILS because they have not had a discussion about this program yet) said if a Liberal Studies major went ahead without ILS involvement, it could potentially compete with and injure the program, but developing ILS to a degree or major is challenging because it may not be able to maintain a cohesive curriculum and a concern about maintaining the close faculty/student relations with exponentially expanded student numbers; faculty staffing has also been an increasing issue and ILS has a tight budget. He also raised a concern that if it is a liberal studies program, it may not be appropriate to focus solely on western culture as the foundation of a program, which is what ILS does. If there were to be a liberal studies major, it may not be appropriate to focus solely on Western culture and it may likely bring objections from other areas (Int'l Studies/Foreign Languages). He questioned whether or not depth could be satisfied by this new program, and if it philosophically fits into what a major is designed to be. Concern: Could there even be a one-size-fits all option of a liberal studies major? Can a degree in Liberal Studies be conceived without various pathways? Could ILS be one pathway? Or could ILS be a feeder to various pathways using the existing introductory courses? Could this new major use ILS to fulfill breadth requirements? Also which students would this appeal to? ILS began as a program geared toward freshmen and sophomores, then has evolved to being a certificate which provides a broad base as students specialize in another area.

Vice Provost Brower brought up a "General Studies" major at Michigan - 2 groups of students: students who couldn't choose and students who didn't want to choose. He questioned the demand for this course sequence - is there something missing from existing majors which UW offers? He made the point that if we are going to have new courses, and borrow the ILS model, departments cannot always allow faculty to be lent to ILS -- it is expensive. It's not a good model and can lock out smaller departments where there are not sufficient faculty to staff their own courses and ILS-type courses. This wouldn't be a problem if there are no new courses, but that then locks down the model. He would like to see grads who we knew achieved the kinds of liberal education learning outcomes we've described, and isn't convinced this is the route. Can this possibly be done through evolving existing majors? He suggested thinking about how we can help courses (especially intro-level) think about these questions so outcomes are being achieved, pushing departments to help students. Capstones also help include this level of integrative thinking.

We still don't have a clear vision of what this program would be, and are looking to ILS for some type of existing structure or inspiration as we continue to develop this potential program. There was additional consideration regarding senior integrative capstone courses, team teaching, using the FIG idea of linking courses...also how does this all tie in with how faculty are motivated to transcend traditional/existing boundaries even within their own departments.

PACE Coalition - 20 April 2010

The PACE Coalition met for the final time this past Thursday, April 20. It was an occasion to celebrate the accomplishments of the Coalition over the past nine years in addressing the problem of high-risk drinking on campus. Although the PACE Project itself has now come to an end, Coalition members are confident that their work has been incorporated into durable and sustainable institutions that will continue to carry it forward.

University Honors Committee - 15 April 2010

The University Honors Committee met on Thursday, April 15. Tom Reason from the Office of Admissions gave a presentation about current recruitment efforts, admissions trends, and the academic profile of incoming students. This sparked a discussion about how the Committee and Honors programs could better cooperate with Admissions to help recruit high-achieving students. The Committee agreed that developing a stronger partnership with Admissions should be one of our goals for the coming year.

Center for the First Year Experience Committee

Hello World,

So this is, unfortunately, the first and last(and only) post for the Center for the First Year Experience(CFYE) for this academic year. Good thing for you readers everything that has been discussed is all here =) !

CFYE met twice this semester on April 8 & 15th. The first meeting was with the CFYE staff, myself and a few other students and the second one was a repeat of the first but with faculty from across campus. The basic thing that came out of these meetings was discussion of the Orientation Review Project. CFYE was and still is coming up with ways to make their current programming more effective and beneficial for students.

Below is all the literature from the meetings. Do keep in mind that ALL Ideas listed are only IDEAS nothing is final or even in the the process. The goal of these Ideas is to solicit feedback from STUDENTS and faculty alike. (So if you see something awful or something you would really like comment!)
Here it goes!

Current Programming (done by CFYE):
-Freshman SOAR: 2day sessions throughout June/July. Condensed 1day sessions in late August & January. Components on academic Advising, enrollment, "campus life" and building social connections. Concurrent parent/guest program.

-Transfer SOAR: 1day sessions throughout June/July and late August, January. Emphasis on academic advising and enrollment. Little information on resources, "campus life" and social connections. Concurrent parent program.

-Wisconsin Welcome: Large & Small scale events prior to classes through the first month. Events are social informational & welcoming. Attendance is optional.

Philosophical "Big Ideas"
-Removing most discussion of campus life issues from summer programming and emphasizing academics only. Capitalizing on campus life programming that already occurs within University Housing in the fall.
-Development of more online components for pre-orientation, such as Interest Exploration and Academic Information provision.
-Structured Fall/First-week program series themed on the Wisconsin Experience. Large Presentations followed by small-group discussion in residence halls.
- "Welcome " events(Social & WI Experience) occurring primarily during the first week of classes, not several days before.
-Transfer students would participate in targeted programming tracks for fall experiences.
-Summer parent program focused more on parenting and transition issues rather than detailed information(which would still be provided in print and online).

Logistical "Big Ideas"
-Length of the summer program, options include
*Restructured 2day program(noon-noon) that incorporates advising components on both days
*1day(8am-5pm) program focused almost entirely on advising and enrollment
*Distance advising and enrollment
-Summer sessions occur from mid- June through late- August continuously(with short breaks)
-Increase total number of sessions and decrease attendance at each session





Comment away, I will forward all comments to the CFYE Chair and I will send her a link to this also>

CFYE website: http://www.newstudent.wisc.edu/index.html

Good Luck on Finals!
-Jasmine "Jay" Savoy

Dean of Students' Advisory Board April 15th

The April 15th ODOS Advisory Board meeting marked the last meeting of this year. The agenda for our last meeting was a presentation by Wren Singer and Carren Martin from CFYE on the new student orientation, a division name change for the Office of the Dean of Students, and our "year in review".
The presentation by CFYE was to get the advisory boards' opinion on the re-evaluation of SOAR programs. CFYE had plenty of ideas for how they would like to change SOAR in the coming years. One of the ideas was to take away most of the "student life" information from the SOAR dates and move it into the control of University Housing once the students move in. CFYE said they would like to do this to make room for more advising and enrollment help. Because of of the biggest problems with SOAR now is the second day enrollment period, CFYE wants to give students more time to learn about enrollment and classes before they have to actually do it. Also the board gave CFYE the suggestion to add more online pre-enrollment options for students so they can take a look at possible classes and the Student Center before they attend SOAR. Also CFYE would like to make the parents' part of SOAR more about the transition and how to parent their children while they are at college. With all these proposed changes CFYE also suggested offering two options for SOAR; a two day period running from noon the first day to noon the second, and a one day option for those who are traveling a long distance. Another thing CFYE proposed changing was Wisconsin Welcome Week. That first week before classes start has been the worst time for students taken to detox and there are high costs for opening the dorms and other buildings up that early. CFYE would like to move move-in day closer to the start of the school year and transfer Welcome Week activities to the first week of classes. The board warned CFYE that those couple of days before school starts, while costly to the University, are invaluable to incoming students. That is their time to explore the campus and get settled before the crunch of classes begin. CFYE made the point to mention that none of these suggestions will go into effect for this falls upcoming SOAR dates.
The next item on the boards' agenda was a name change for the Office of the Dean of Students. There is much confusion between ODOS and the Dean of Students' Office. The first is the entire collection of programs and offices inside Bascom and the later is specifically the Deans' offices. The board was told that the entire office was surveyed on what they would like the name to be changed to and it came to a consensus that "Division of..." should be included in the title. With that the board was given several options for names and after debate about whether the name should be more "student-friendly" or authoritarian, the board decided that the "Division of Student Life" was the most appropriate. This decision was passed on to Dean Berquam (who had to leave the meeting before this conversation took place).
The last thing we covered was just a short "year in review". We quickly went over all the major topics the board had covered this school year. The board was thanked for our service that our last meeting of the school year adjourned.
If you have any questions feel free to post a comment!
Rebecca

Programs Committee- School of Education

The Programs Committee for SoE met today, April 16th at 12:30pm.

The agenda consisted of course changes.

For the Art department, the course 518, Artist Video, had a syllabus change to make it not repeatable, as it is not the highest level course in the subject.

In the Kinesiology department, a similar case was present for the course 499 and the wording was changed to make it repeatable. In addition, there was a program change for the Athletic Training Sub-Plan, adding and editing certain courses.

Lastly, there were a group of courses on which the departments of Counseling Psychology, Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education, and Educational Psychology collaborated to consolidate and cross-list and make it more comprehensible for students in those programs. Psychology 629, Counseling Psychology 736 and 737, and Rehab Psychology/Special Ed 735 are now cross-listed. Counseling Psychology 995 was added as a 0 credit class in order to waive student tuition for those who have an internship while working on their dissertations.

Those were the interesting points of the meeting. Next to be held May 13th at 11:30am.

Campus Diversity and Climate Committee Meeting, April 13, 2010

It has been several months since the Campus Diversity and Climate Committee (CDCC) last met. The committee canceled a planned retreat in February and its March meeting, so there was a lot of business to cover on the April 13 agenda.

Vice Provost and Chief Diversity Officer Damon Williams began the meeting with several updates about his work over the past few months. Williams has stepped into the role of evaluator of the PEOPLE program, a program that supports young people of color through after-school tutoring, summer programs, and college transition services, after the sudden passing of the program’s evaluator. Williams highlighted a few points about the lessons he has learned about PEOPLE and spoke both to the success the program has experienced since it began as well as the need to support program leadership given the enormous range of tasks underway at any one point in time. Williams pointed out that PEOPLE is the largest in the nation of this kind of program, which brings unique challenges. Additional updates about the program will emerge in the coming weeks and months.

Williams also briefly spoke about a proposal he submitted to the Chancellor in February to support several new diversity initiatives. These include: “(1) organizational realignment of several key diversity programs; (2) a faculty diversity strategy; (3) a fund to seed diversity innovations; (4) curriculum revision project with DELTA aimed at a number of gateway courses; (5) global intercultural experience for undergraduates.” Williams reported that the proposal has been well received by many of the people who have given him feedback on it but that it must also first receive the Chancellor’s approval in order to move forward.

The bulk of the meeting, however, focused on a proposal for the CDCC’s work going forward. This project incolves three interrelated tasks, each of which will begin almost immediately. First, the CDCC will work to draft an institutional definition of “diversity.” Second, the committee will reassess its membership structure and determine what sorts of changes need to be made to the group’s membership. Finally, the CDCC will design a campus-wide diversity assessment tool that will be used with schools and divisions to assess progress toward diversity goals in the coming year.

The final part of the conversation was also the most interesting. People discussed what a diversity “scorecard” might look like, with back-and-forth conversations about how to balance the “carrots” and “sticks” of any accountability program. Although no concrete plans were made during the meeting, group members seemed to support a program that offered concrete support to divisions and schools as they work to improve their own diversity initiatives. At the same time, people seemed to seek a program that had “teeth”—that is, something that could not easily be shelved and easily overlooked.

Sub-committees of the CDCC will form over the summer to take the next steps toward improving and implementing the plan that was outlined yesterday.

Submitted by Frank Honts

Assessment and the University of the Future

This is a good article about the future of higher education that explains why assessment is important. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/04/13/hlc

April 12 L&S Curriculum Committee

We have had continued discussion about the use of AP credits for fulfilling graduation breadth requirements, an issue raised by the Phi Beta Kappa selection committee. A possible solution is having on-campus breadth requirements, similar to that of the comprehensive honors program but this raises an issue so far as transfer admissions, particularly existing agreements with 2-yr UW System colleges and the role of AP credits as regulated by the UW System. The central conclusion of discussion is that we need to see more studies which have been done so far as AP students completing degrees earlier, or sacrificing breadth for depth as said by Phi Beta Kappa. Further research will be done over summer, with the topic raised again in Fall 2010.

Discussion regarding the Liberal Studies proposal is limited and will be continued April 26, when there will be two relevant presenters. We have compiled a list of universities offering similar programs, and obtained a survey regarding employer interest in broad liberal studies - it is clear employers want this, and the question is if we can identify existing programs that would match up with what employers want and is appropriate with UW wishes/needs. Surprisingly, a number of the B.L.S. programs are targeted at non-traditional students (i.e. Iowa State http://www.public.iastate.edu/~catalog/2007-2009/curric/las-liberalst.html). That isn't necessarily the motivation behind the committee's review of the proposal, and there is still a concern about the advising and resource needs such a program would require, especially depending on the flexibility.

There will be two more committee meetings before the end of the year, April 26 and May 10.

Advisory Board for the Office of Equity and Diversity

Update for Advisory Board for the Office of Equity and Diversity:

Meeting date: 03/26/2010

Main discussions:

- Chancellor Martin and Damon Williams, the vice provost for diversity and climate, are working on defining the university's visions on equity and diversity. This advisory board is interested to know what this vision is. Therefore, we are planning to invite Chancellor and the vice provost to one of our meetings so that we are all in the same page.

- We are also planning to invite other persons involved with diversity issues around campus to get their input and understand where they are at.

- WISELI (Women In Science & Engineering Leadership) will be holding 2 days workshops for faculty in 90 departments. The workshop is aimed to make faculty aware of unconscious biases that every person has in order to prevent these biases. There was discussion on that teaching assistants are not included, and where do they fit in terms of diversity workshops.

- WISELI also provides another kind of workshops called "Climate workshops" which targets department chairs and tries to make them aware of approaches that they can take in order to improve the climate in their department. Here is an interesting presentation regarding this subject: http://wiseli.engr.wisc.edu/docs/Present_STS_Sheridan_2010.pdf

- There were also discussions on that it is important that faculty get these trainings. However, these are not mandatory. We also discussed some of the issues that arises for students hired by the faculty that are not fully aware of what they should expect from their employees and how to treat them.

*WISELI Web site: http://wiseli.engr.wisc.edu/ You can register to be a member of this organization and get E-mails on the workshops that they provide for the students.

Posted by: Fatemah Panahi

Office of the Registrar Advisory Board Meeting

The Office of the Registrar Advisory Board meet March 24th.

Most of the meeting related to a presentation from on of the office's staff members. The presentation was a brief overview and explanation of FERPA or the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. FERPA is a federal law that guarantees students privacy of their educational records. The law also guarantees that students can have access to their records at any time and, if they chose, can chose to lock or release their records to third parties. The Advisory Board was told that we were getting the presentation about FERPA because, despite its importance for every student, the law is fairly unknown on campus. This can become a problem if a student does have a need or want to hide their records. The Office of the Registrar informed the board that students who want to lock or release their records can chose to do so right of of their Student Center. It can be found under the "Personal Information" tab if you scroll down your student center, and they click on FERPA Restrictions. Also the office pointed out that under "Personal Information" you can change your current address, phone number, and other pieces of information the University would like to have for their students safety. For more information of FERPA visit registrar.wisc.edu/ferpa

The rest of our meeting we used to continue talking about our ongoing conversation about both the Student Center and the DARS program. The Office of the Registrar is currently in the process of updating and changing the Student Center and is now focusing on what things they should fix to make the Student Center easier to use. The board suggested adding a new "Help" function. The function we recommended would be both located on the main Student Center page and also when students go to enroll for classes. This would connect the student to the area of the Office of the Registrar's page that give information about what the student is having trouble with. Specifically we suggested adding "clickables" next to some of the more specific areas of the class search page that students have the most trouble with. The members of the Office of the Registrar promised to take the boards suggestions into consideration as they continue to work with program designers.

If you have questions or would like more detail on either FERPA or the new plans for the Student Center let me know!
-Becky Brauer

Madison Central Business Improvement District (BID) Board, April 1 2010

The Madison BID Board met on April 1, 2010 and discussed the following items:

• The Madison Downtown Plan - Board members received an updated on the Downtown Plan from City of Madison Planning Director Bill Fruhling. The plan will hopefully be adopted in Fall of this year. More information on the Downtown Plan, including public meetings regarding the Plan, can be found here: http://www.cityofmadison.com/neighborhoods/downtownPlan/whatsnew.cfm
• The Madison Central Library - As many of you probably know, negotiations between the City of Madison and Fiore, the original developer of the new library on W. Washington have stalled and the Mayor is currently pursuing a renovation plan for the current library. The BID Board approved the following statement regarding their position on the project:
  Madison’s Central Business Improvement District (BID) represents business and
  property owners in the greater State Street and Capitol Square area. The mission of
  Madison’s Central BID is to increase the vitality and health of the District and promote
  business within it. BID programs support the economic vitality of central downtown as a
  regional destination for shopping, dining, entertainment, arts and culture. Both the
  current Central Library site and the proposed West Washington library site are within
  the BID.
  The proposed Central Library project on West Washington Ave. that included
  redevelopment of the current Library site had multiple benefits for not only the block but
  also the central downtown: a much-needed new Library; leveraging private investment
  with city dollars; adding to the downtown tax base and business activity; and more
  lighting, parking, and activity in a key area near Overture Center, State Street and the
  Capitol Square.
  The BID strongly encourages the City to further explore the West Washington Ave.
  Central Library project, and vision for the block, before abandoning it in favor of
  renovation of the current Library.
• Peace Park - Construction has begun and should be finished in Aug/Sept.
• Alcohol License Density Ordinance (ALDO) - The ALRC Subcommittee meeting regarding ALDO is this Thursday, April 8. The Board is interested in making several amendments to the ordinance, as well as analyzing the statistics currently used to support the ordinance.

If you have any questions, let me know. - Nicole

SGC Minutes

Draft minutes of the 3/25/10 Shared Governance Committee meeting are online. Please send corrections to Andrew.

Have a good break everyone!

Health Care Advisory Committee - 15 March 2010

Budget Update

It looks like that the 6.1% increase will be approved. Final word will be given in late may. There is some on how segregated fees will be handles.

The new prevention director Tom Sieger is very seasoned public health experience. High hopes for him, served as state-wide instant adviser during h1n1. Starts on april 12.

Mental Health Models:

There are 5 finalists, committee will be invited to interviews.Mental health issues need to be connected to physical health problems. VA (being able to meet with someone anytime) program is most successful modal to deal with mental health.Not serious counseling, just lighter counseling is in demand.Drinking behavior is another mental issue that needs to be slid back a bit. UHS screens for high-risk alcohol use and possible depression; also relationship/domestic violence. It is in the form of a green slip. A lot of negative feedback from students about screening for alcohol. Depression has better feedback.

Student Health Survey:

They want to do a survey of students to find how UHS is doing. The survey is almost done, but some two new questions were proposed for adding, and one question would be rearranged.

March 22 L&S Curriculum Committee

In the Monday, March 22, 2010 meeting of the L&S Curriculum Committee, we touched upon coverage of the potential Liberal Arts major/degree proposal from the Badger Herald (http://badgerherald.com/news/2010/03/11/liberal_studies_majo.php) as well as approved the creation of the course East Asian Languages and Literature 361, an Advanced-level course titled Masterworks of Japanese Literature: The Tale of Genji.
We will potentially be implementing a policy change for the Curriculum Committee regarding course overlaps after positive discussion at the Faculty Senate. We will hopefully work with the Registrar and academic departments to use prerequisite requirements to regulate course overlaps. More discussion on this topic is coming, and it will be looked into over summer.

There was further discussion of Liberal Arts proposal – looking to incorporate information from existing Integrated Liberal Studies program, and have invited a professor from the department to a future meeting.
This brings up evaluation of essential learning outcomes for UW and whether or not existing programs are serving the purpose they are intended to. Topic of how do we assess the efficacy of existing programs – survey recent alumni? Faculty? Graduating seniors? Based on previous institutions UW-Madison is further along the path of assessing learning outcomes compared to peer institutions.

We need to consider the infrastructure necessary to support such a multi-dimensional program – possibly creating a directive with core values and goals for the program. There is concern about whether or not existing programs have served the purpose they were intended to and if we are thinking about such a program, we need to establish the incorporation of values. There is potential for Liberal Studies to incorporate addressing social concerns. It shouldn’t become “just another degree.”

Moving forward we will prepare a written statement for the Faculty Senate. Eventually if we decide to proceed, we’ll write a request for permission to plan which includes addressing the need for the program, learning outcomes, how the program relates to the institution, relation to other academic programs, need for unusual resources (ex. Special tuition funding; probably not necessary for this option). It’s a long process to begin a new program, involving many steps going up to the Board of Regents, and is very complicated and detail-oriented – shortest period of time is three years, can be up to seven years which is a huge time commitment. Need to look at what other programs are doing and translate it into a realistic program for Madison.

Need to be conscious of the fact that we are not a small liberal arts college; we are a large research institution. how social and natural sciences integrate with humanities and have students ask why they are here – mechanisms to invite students to reflect in a regular way on the extent to which they are accumulating skills (i.e. integrating knowledge and learning to draw connections across academic areas).

There are still many questions about the program and nothing is decided, it’s an ongoing discussion at this point about how to best proceed. If created, what students would this program serve? How are the academic values we are instilling into students translating outside of the classroom? Is there a way to create a shared experience for all L&S Students? Questions of specialization v. general education and open program v. enclave of “bright students.” Is there value in a common curricular experience? And of course, a question regarding funding exists.

If you have questions or comments, please let me know – once there is a more firm vision/proposal we’ll look into student feedback.

Emily Kesner ekesner@wisc.edu

Joint Southeast Campus Area Committee - March 15, 2010

The meeting last Monday started off with a review of the updated plans for Gordon Commons. At the previous meeting in January a few committee members voiced concerns about the appearance of the facade facing Dayton St. They felt that it lacked a suitable amount of windows and wasn't appealing to pedestrians. In response, the design team added more landscaping and increased the amount of windows. They also incorporated the use of different surface materials to make the facade more interesting. The committee seemed pleased with the updates. The final plans will go before the city Planning Commission on March 23 and construction should start in December of this year or January of 2011. If this happens then the entire project will be completed in the spring of 2013.

Next, the board reviewed plans for the Charter Street Heating Plant. This new facility will replace the old heating plant and will run on natural gas and biomass making it much more environmentally friendly. The project would add rail lines and remove unneeded spurs between West Washington and Dayton. A draft of the plans will go before the Planning Commission on May 10 and the Urban Design Committee on April 7. There will be more specific plans drawn in the summer with a potential fall demolition. The start time is still unclear, 2011 at the earliest. The committee voted to approve their recommendation of the project.

Other updates:
Chazen Museum of Art - on schedule, opening fall 2011
East Campus Utilities - Park St. portion started 4 weeks ago
Hockey Swim Project - on hold for funding purposes
South Campus Union - a few weeks behind schedule, catching up
WI Institute for Discovery - on schedule, the exterior will be done in May and the sidewalks will be restored

Joe Klosterman, jfklosterman@wisc.edu

Programs Committee- School of Education

The Programs Committee for the School of Education met on Friday, March 19th at 12:30pm.

The agenda consisted of initiatives for changes from Curriculum and Instruction and Kinesiology.

First, a new program was proposed and passed for a graduate Certificate in French to accommodate needs from the graduate students in French Education, and to possibly generate more interest in the future.

Next, in conjunction with the Madison Metropolitan School District, C&I proposed a program for a new Certificate for 4K Professional Development in Early Childhood. This was created in order to further certify the EC teachers in the MMSD in working with 4yr-old students, as a new 4K program will start in the fall of 2011.

The majority of the meeting was spent updating/adding courses in the Kinesiology program. Ten courses were changed in either title, number of credits, or description (contact me for more specific information) and two changes were postponed due to lack of clarity. More significantly, there was an additional Graduate program added; a non-thesis option for an MS in Kinesiology. There is believed to be a lot of demand for a non-thesis program, and the Department was able to pull from already-existing courses and compile the program.

Other announcements: The Dance Program applied to become a department and was successful, so the University will have a Dance Department in the future.

Overall, this was a very productive meeting.

Contact me at: jabemis@wisc.edu

SGC Minutes

SGC Minutes from 3/18/10 online in Draft from. Please send corrections to Andrew by Wednesday.

LGBT Issues Committee meeting summary

The LGBT Issues Committee met yesterday, March 17, 2010.

The committee discussed a list of action items to pursue in the coming year. In part, the action items are based on last month's meeting with Vice Provost for Diversity Damon Williams. A key item, as identified by the committee, is to take another run at an MIU proposal for LBGTQ Faculty Line/Certificate support. The current academic certificate offered for LGBTQ Studies does not have a full, dedicated faculty position. Therefore, faculty teaching classes as part of this certificate program must accommodate it either by the approval of their home departments or through an overload situation. Either way, this is not a good situation in terms of maintaining the certificate program's viability. It is expected that there will be a third round for MIU proposals sometime this calendar year.

The committee chairman reported that Vice Provost for Diversity Williams has now agreed to field the inclusivity survey that has been conducted on many other UW System campuses. This is a positive step in identifying issues of tolerance, inclusivity, and attitudes toward race, gender, sexual identity/orientation and other related issues.

The LGBT Issues committee expects to be included in meetings during the final round of reviews in the search for a new Director of Admissions.

Student groups are continuing to work with University Housing to develop a plan for gender inclusive housing that would allow for roommate situations to be based on gender identity.

Former LGBTQ Campus Center Director Eric Trekel has moved into a temporary position in the Dean Of Students' office and will likely be leaving UW at the end of the semester. Robin Sereno is now serving as acting director of the center.

The LGBT Issues Committee will hold a joint meeting with the University Committee on Women's Issues on May 12th.

LGBT Issues Committee chairman Thomas Armbrecht will be teaching n France for the Fall 2010 semester, and will then be on sabbatical for the Spring 2011 semester. For this reason, the committee is now looking for a new chairperson to take over for Professor Armbrecht at the end of this semester.

--Dave Wilcox, graduate student representative to the LGBT Issues Committee

Admissions Director Finalists

The Admissions Director Search and Screen Committee has recently released the 5 finalists for the position of Director of the Office of Admissions. Formed last semester, this committee has worked hard to narrow a pool of candidates down to these 5; ASM Shared Governance appointees Steven Olikara and Patrick McEwen were important contributors to this process. This is a crucial position as he or she has the opportunity to shape the composition of the student body in the years to come.

See this link for more information on the finalists:
http://www.news.wisc.edu/17830.
The Badger Herald and Daily Cardinal also ran articles today:
http://badgerherald.com/news/2010/03/16/admissions_director_.php
http://www.dailycardinal.com/news/uw-names-five-finalists-to-fill-director-of-undergraduate-admissions-position-1.1268648

Feel free to share your opinion on these candidates by clicking 'comments' below!


Posted for Steve Olikara and Pat McEwen by Melissa Hanley

Dean of Students Advisory Board Meeting - Thurs., 3/11/10

Red Gym

Since VIP and other offices will be moving out of the Red Gym to the new Union South, the ODOS is thinking about reorganizing the space in the Red Gym to make it a stronger center for student involvement. To encourage students to visit the building continuously throughout their college careers, the ODOS is thinking about moving certain clubs that specialize in leadership and global experiences along with classrooms for academic and student organization use into the building. The concept is to make it an organized center for involvement rather a one-stop-shopping experience that students only use once.

Establishing Lifelong Connections

The Student Team for Establishing Lifelong Connections to UW-Madison wants to accomplish two goals by this coming July. The first is to learn about the different ways the university can digitally collect and organize information about UW students and their on-campus involvement into a cohesive database for administrative and alumni use. The second goal addresses the wisc.edu email domain that students lose a certain number of months after graduation. The team wants to find a way to learn about students’ secondary email addresses so that the university and alumni can stay in contact with students in the future.

Badger Herald Feedback

Current events surrounding the recent controversy with the Badger Herald were also discussed. These events included the article about the AEPi Overture Center Party for the Arts, the anti-Semitic comments readers made at the end of the article, and the advertisements on the Badger Herald from a Holocaust disclaimer that directly connected to those comments. We also discussed how the UW and different organizations addressed the situation and how the newspaper is an independent organization that is not run by the university.

-Laura Hirsh

Campus Transportation Committee, March 5

Last week the Campus Transportation Committee discussed upcoming sidewalk and street closings, a new evening parking permit, and the recent Peer Review Report draft.

Transportation Services Planner Rob Kennedy handed out a map displaying upcoming closings as part of an east campus utilities project. Starting March 15, some sidewalks along Park Street will be closed in preparation for further utility work over the summer. These closings will include a stretch of the east side of Park Street along the State Historical Society and the west side of Park Street along Chadbourne Hall and another section along Grainger Hall. In addition, southbound vehicle traffic on Park Street between University and Johnson streets will be restricted to one lane and Park Street at the corner with Langdon will be restricted to one lane with a flagger directing traffic. Students are advised to avoid these areas as much as possible and adhere to all sidewalk closings.

Transportation Services Director Patrick Kass then presented a new evening pass that students, faculty, and staff may purchase (which will be good for a year). It will be valid for a number of specific parking lots and will allow parking Monday-Friday between 3pm and 7am. This is a pilot program and no other permit rates will be impacted by the introduction of this pass.

Most of the discussion focused upon the draft Peer Review Report, which the committee members received last month. The peer review team made a number of suggestions pertinent to the structuring of the Campus Transportation Committee, the management and activities of Transportation Services, and suggestions for new initiatives and policies on campus. One of their major concerns related to pedestrian safety on campus and they encouraged the committee to embrace enforcement, engineering, and educational solutions in supporting a safe, pedestrian-friendly campus.

Adam Smith

Advisory Committee to the Offices of the Dean of Students March 4, 2010

The Advisory Committee to the Offices of the Dean of Students met March 4, 2010

1. The Dean of Students Lori Berquam presented for discussion a draft for a project charter regarding the establishing of lifelong connections to UW-Madison by students and alumni.

2. The Journalism, Ethics and Sensitivity Forum was discussed as well as the issues surrounding the current debate on campus regarding freedom of speech in response to comments posted in the Badger Herald.

3. The request of a student organization to bring Louis Farrakhan to campus was discussed during the meeting.

4. The WI Student Ambassadors presented during the meeting and talked about their experiences as students in UW-Madison.

Let me know if you have any questions.

SGC Minutes

Shared Governance Committee minutes from 3/11/10 are online in draft form. Please send corrections to Andrew By Wednesday.

Madison Central Business Improvement District (BID) Board of Directors, March 4

The agenda for this meeting can be seen here: www.cityofmadison.com/cityhall/publicmeetings

Main items:

• Recap of March 2 Property Owner Update meeting that reviewed 2009 and highlighted upcoming events and issues in 2010 (an article regarding this meeting was in the Mar 3 edition of the Badger Herald)
• Discussion of the Alcohol License Density Ordinance (ALDO) - The BID opposes ALDO because it makes it extremely difficult for property owners to secure tenants that are "bars." The BID is attempting to amend ALDO and is encouraging it not to be renewed in October, when it is scheduled to sunset. There was further discussion of this at the Mar. 4 ALRC Subcommittee on Downtown Alcohol Issues and Ordinances. That subcommittee is considering amendments proposed by the BID and will vote on two amendments at the next meeting, in approx. 4 weeks. The two amendments concern repealing the "365 day rule" and altering the definition of "exceptional circumstances" so it is easier for entertainment establishments to get liquor licenses. If you have any questions about this, please let me know, there are a lot more details.
• Approval of 2010 Budget
• Discussion of installation of 'Pay by space' parking meters - visitors will be able to pay for meters with credit cards. Installation starts next week and will begin in the Buckeye parking lot.
• Peace Park - construction will begin this month and last until approx. September

Let me know if you have any questions!

March 8 L&S Curriculum Committee

Today the L&SCC began a discussion about the possible addition of a Bachelor of Liberal Arts or similar program, in the wake of the creation of a similar program at UW Eau Claire. Below are the notes from the discussion, and further steps are still to be determined.

Would it be beneficial to a group of students to have a Bachelors of L&S/Liberal Studies, broad liberal studies curriculum as opposed to majoring in a particular discipline?
o Why force specialization at Undergrad when trying to get students to think broadly?
o Role of ILS program (certificate option but no major)
o Honors program
o Senior Thesis option
o Do you lose depth with the focus on breadth?
o Possibility to build on existing programs
o More flexibility = more guidance needed? Students looking for what their education is about, how they can combine interests. Finding courses that combine well, about interaction and a conversation.
o Option of core curriculum? Training habits of mind rather than focusing on a discipline. Build a foundation, continue from there.
o Way to integrate traditional and non-traditional students together.
o Is our current system of majors the best system for moving people toward essential learning outcomes?
Are we just doing it because we’ve always done it?
By creating more synthesis could we better prepare students for the changing world?
o Possible bad routes
o Degrees like this popular among athletes at other institutions
• Also don’t want an online degree route collaborating w/2 yr schools.
• Possible pressure to turn it into money-raising activity, b/c just need last 30 credits here, could bring in students from elsewhere who just finish here in Liberal Studies.

Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee

The bike/ped committee met last week (March 3, 2010) to discuss the details of building a Bike Station on campus. A bike station has the potential to serve many functions, including but not limited to the following: indoor secure bike parking both short and long term, lockers, maintenance, showers, and rentals.

Importantly, the bike station is more than just a building. It is intended to be a multimodal transportation hub: a place where visitors and residents alike could find, in one central location, all the information they need to navigate to and through campus and central Madison, whether they walk, bicycle, take transit (perhaps including a future light rail commuter service with a planned stop at the Union South), use a car sharing service such as Community Car, or plan on driving and parking their own car.

Currently we are in the process of securing funding for this project. The bike/ped committee has agreed to meet more regularly in order to facilitate this projects completion.

- Kyle VandenLangenberg, Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee

SGC minutes

Draft minutes from 3/5/2010 are online at http://www.asm.wisc.edu/shared-governance-minutes-2009-10-2.html. Please send corrections to Andrew by 3/10.

Shared Governance Committee Minutes

Draft minutes from 2/25 are online at http://www.asm.wisc.edu/shared-governance-minutes-2009-10-2.html. Please send corrections to Andrew by Thursday, 12:00 noon.

Update: Advisory Board for the Office of Equity and Diversity

Meeting on Feb. 12, 2010

Advisory Board for the Office of Equity and Diversity

NEWS:

- SEED program has received the Outstanding Social Justice Collaboration Award! CONGRATULATIONS!
- SEED is the Seeking Education Excellence and Diversity program in campus.
- Categories of race, and ethnicity have slightly changed with more focus on Hispanic vs. non Hispanic groups (I am not sure what this meant and need to follow up for the exact details). All UW employees will be asked to identify themselves regarding to the new category.

Advisory Board Activities:

- The Advisory Board for the Office of Equity and Diversity has prepared a report of the activities of different diversity groups around the campus. The report has been ready for more than a year, but for different reasons it has not reached the senate yet. This is the first item in the group's agenda to be completed.

- The board is trying to define a new agenda for the coming years:
- This advisory board will not solicit information from different diversity groups on campus directly anymore. This will be done on an annual basis by the OED office.
- We will invite different leaders to tell us about what they are doing regarding diversity on campus (possibly including the chancellor). This will inform us of what is going on, and also facilitate the conversation between different campus sections working on the diversity issue (if we can have meetings that different groups attend at the same time).
- We have to create an annual report for the Advisory Board which is due in June.

Other updates:

OED and the Advisory Board have attended a meeting hosted by Damon Williams, Vice Provost for Diversity & Climate on December 2th. Some of the issues that his office is focusing on are as follows:

- To have a centralized entity (such as a Web site) that gathers information from different diversity groups so that we know their issues and can help solve them.
- Faculty are not required to attend the harassment training which is an issue.

Fatemah Panahi, Advisory Board for the Office of Equity and Diversity

NatUp and Segregated Fees for Capital Building Projects

What Do You Think?

Tonight the ASM Shared Governance committee continued our discussion of the use of segregated fees in capital building projects. I'd like to thank NatUp for the extremely insightful presentation and thought-provoking conversation.

Many students do not have a comprehensive understanding of segregated fees or the effect increases due to capital building projects will have on the amount of money they pay every semester.

So...
What do you know and think about NatUp and other capital building projects?

Please add your comments and continue the discussion by clicking the comments link on the bottom right corner of this post. I encourage everyone to voice your opinions respectfully and limit discussion to seg fees relating to capital building projects.

Here are a few links for more information and to spur conversation:
http://www.natup2010.com/
http://badgerherald.com/oped/2010/02/01/natup_plan_too_short.php
http://badgerherald.com/news/2010/02/17/student_group_says_n.php


Official ballot language from SEC Chair Noah Pearce:
Natatorium Renovation/Expansion Project
The student organization Nat Up and the Division of Recreational Sports are initiating efforts to renovate and expand the Natatorium Recreation Facility, which was built in 1964. Previous student assessments and consultant reports have suggested the need to upgrade and enlarge campus recreation facilities to better meet demand, which has increased 50% since 2000-01. Student input has been and will continue to be vital to the planning and design process. The renovation and expansion, intended to be completed in the fall of 2014, may include:
• Cardio exercise space possibly up to seven times larger than current area
• Weight training space possibly up to three times larger than current area
• Renovation of the pool and aquatic area
• New locker rooms
• A multipurpose indoor turf field
• New basketball courts and indoor track
• Additional multipurpose rooms for group exercise and student organization use
• A “greener”, more efficient facility
• A fully accessible facility (ramps, elevators, restrooms, activity spaces and equipment)

This project will be funded by multiple sources:

Recreational Sports Program Revenue
• Debt service payments from 2011 – 2013 will be funded by Recreational Sports program revenue and will not impact student segregated fees.

Student Segregated Fees:
• In the Fall Semester of 2013, student segregated fees will increase by a maximum of $54.19 per semester specifically for the purpose of satisfying the debt repayment for the new facility.

• This amount will not increase further over the 30 year repayment period but is in addition to the segregated fee currently collected for Recreational Sports operational expenses. Any future increases to operational expenses must be approved by the Student Service Finance Committee through the annual budget process.

Segregated fee may be reduced depending on private donations as well as state and campus support.

I support the segregated fee increase to help fund the proposal:
YES ___NO ___

SGC Committee Minutes

Draft minutes from the February 18 meeting are online at http://www.asm.wisc.edu/shared-governance-minutes-2009-10-2.html. Please send any corrections to Andrew by Wednesday.

Health Care Advisory Committee - 20 Feb 2010

The counseling director search went well

• 50 applicants made initial screening for counseling

  • Good candidates; done by phone interview

  • All had health experience, kind of want psychiatry exp.; definitely want leadership exp.

    • Undergrad in international finance, GED ---health?

• Mental health is one of the biggest health concerns

  • several models; community health services

  • Want a more integrated mental & clinical services

H1N1 has not really reemerged

• are able to keep up with demand at the moment, as long as there is not another pandemic strike

• Midterms make things get weird

• Outbreak of mumps in new york; hope it doesn't migrate north

Insurance rates are increasing

• cost of healthcare is increasing countrywide

Student survey of the students for what UHS does:

• Mostly good

• They want the lab and xrays should be free, Committee opposite

• Cutting prevention staff? Alcohol makes it complicated

• No real agreement, submitted 6% increase to the chancellor

  • board of regents in May for hearing- waiting for approval

• Background knowledge could drastically change the outcome of the survey

• Possibly have the survey sponsored by the survey center; not UHS

Make an ASM open form to discuss UHS and other programs

• Conversational for costs, values, needs, wants

Have certain public-policy classes to discuss the issue.

Programs Committee- School of Education

The Programs Committee for the School of Education met Friday, Feb. 19, 2010 at 12:30pm. There were five course proposals and one program change on the agenda, and all were approved after discussion.

Three new art classes were proposed and approved pending minor changes to the syllabi. Art 629: 3D Digital Studio III will complete a sequence of three courses in 3D animation. Art 660: Art & Technology has been proposed in the past, but turned down due to the existence of a similar course in the dance program. With that course no longer being taught, Art 660 was approved. Art 700: Intro to Graduate Studies in Art has been a required seminar for all art graduate students in the past, and now has an official course name. This changes the Art MFA requirements in a small way, so this program change was also approved.

One PE Activity Program course was changed in a minor way. 212: Basic Scuba I was changed from two credits to one credit to accommodate the requirements in the official Scuba certification program which now requires less time in the pool.

Lastly, a course in the Rehab Psychology and Special Education program was changed. Course 610: Multicultural Issues in Special Education was changed to course 710. The standards of the course were thought of to be more appropriate for graduate level students. A lower level course (300 or 400 level) with similar but more appropriate material for undergrads is in the process of being created.

The next meeting for this committee will be March 19th.

University Honors Committee - 18 February 2010

The University Honors Committee met on Thursday, February 18. The first topic of discussion was the upcoming Teaching and Learning Symposium, where the Committee was planning to present some findings from the recent Honors Assessment project. Unfortunately, this plan fell through, and the Committee is now looking for other venues to communicate the Assessment data and its implications to a larger audience.

The Committee also discussed the upcoming allocation of monies from the Regent Scholars Fund, which is a resource for projects benefiting high-achieving students on campus. The size of the Fund is directly related to the number of National Merit and All-State Scholars who enroll at the University each year. For this reason, the significant downward trend in the size of the Fund over the past few years is rather troubling, because it suggests that the University is having a difficult time recruiting top students. Some Committee members postulated that this might be a result of the lucrative packages offered to top students by other universities.

The majority of the meeting was spent discussing the future of the Undergraduate Research Symposium. Planners would like to see the Symposium continue to build on its multidisciplinary character and perhaps eventually become a multi-day event. They are currently seeking ways to encourage greater representation of the humanities, visual and performing arts, and service-learning projects. Past student participants have also expressed disappointment at the size of the audience, so I would encourage you all to go check it out if you get the chance! The Symposium will be held April 15, and you can learn more at http://www.learning.wisc.edu/ugsymposium/

LGBT Issues Committee meeting summary

The LGBT Issues Committee met this Monday, February 15. Highlights of the meeting are as follows...

• UW Madison is hosting the Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgendered Ally College Conference this weekend at Monona Terrace. Details are available at www.mblgtacc.org.
• Point Foundation Scholarship, the nation's largest scholarship-granting organization for LGBT students of merit has announced the opening of its 2010 application season. Students who will be enrolled in the 2010-2011 school year are eligible to apply for the prestigious multi-year scholarships. Details: http://www.pointfoundation.org/instructions.html
• Committee chairman Professor Thomas Armbrecht presented the committee's annual report to the University Committee and the Faculty Senate earlier this month. Key recommendations included full funding of a faculty position for the LGBRT Studies Certificate Program (which serves an average of 25 students per year), University participation in formal LGBT admissions recruitment fairs held in the Midwest, the formalization of a faculty/staff mentor resource for LGBT students, among others. Feel free to contact Dave or Elliott for a full version of the annual report.

Additionally, the committee spent a productive hour meeting with Vice Provost for Diversity Damon WIlliams. Dr. Williams reviewed the committee's recommendations, discussed some strategic ideas for moving the recommendations ahead, and offered some valuable perspective on his ongoing efforts to improve diversity programs and address attendant diversity issues on campus. Dean of Students Lori Berquam also participated in the meeting as a regular member of the LGBT Issues committee.

The next committee meeting will be held in March, most likely on a Monday at 2:30. Exact date is still to be finalized.

--Dave Wilcox (Graduate student representative)

--Elliott Rezny (Undergraduate student representative)

Labor Licensing Policy Committee (LLPC)

First off, I apologize for not publishing this post earlier. But here we go:

The LLPC addresses issues of workers' rights violations by UW licensees. First, some background:
If a company wants to maufacture clothing with the UW logo or buck badger they have to secure a contract from the university. Part of this contract is the Labor Code of Conduct. This code of conduct states many things but the most important three are:
1. Companies must pay workers a living wage
2. They must obey local labor laws
3. They must respect the right of freedom of association of their workers
About 100 universities accross the country have the exact same code of conduct with each of their licensees. To monitor these companies, each university uses an organization called the Workers' Rights Consortium (WRC). Also in the code it states that in each factory there must be contact information for the WRC in the native language so workers can report labor violations.

Last year Russell Athletic, a former UW licensee, closed two factories in Honduras, employing 1,200 workers. They said the factories were closed because of "economic reasons." However, upon investigation by the WRC, a report showed that the workers in these factories were trying to create a labor union and that the company was sending t hem death threats and was actively repressing rights of freedom of association. The report cited the factors as the cause of the close of the factory.

As a result the LLPC reccomended that the chancellor cut the contract with Russell. She did along with about 100 other univresities (we were the sixth). These contract cuts cost Russell about $40 million and eventually forced them to reopen the plants wuth the original workers and to allow the union to organize throughout all of its factories in Honduras.

Now for this year: In January of 2009 Nike closed two factories in Honduras and did not pay the workers severance pay (as is stimpulated under Honduran law). Currently the workers are still owed $2.1 million (the average annual pay of a Honduran rural worker is $400). Upon a report from the WRC, Nike was proven to be liable. The LLPC urged the Chancellor to put Nike on notice (give them a time period in which to remediate the violation), which she did (UW was the first university to do so). We continue to urge her to do so and to take swift action. We also have started to outreach to other universities' LLPC's throughout the country to develop a working relationship in which we can develop a collective effort to push for workers' rights together.

Shared Governance Committee Minutes

DRAFT minutes from the Thursday, February 11 Shared Governance Committee meeting are online at http://www.asm.wisc.edu/shared-governance-minutes-2009-10-2.html. Please send any corrections to Andrew Briddell by Wednesday, February 17.

Joint West Campus Committee

All City of Madison Agendas, Minutes, and Meeting dates & times can be found on the following website:

http://legistar.cityofmadison.com/calendar/search.aspx

Next to the committee body tab select committee of interest and the year of interest then click on search.

Joint West Campus Committee

December 2009 Joint West Meeting

Rob Kennedy, with UW Transportation Services, provided an overview of the UW Commuter Solutions (formerly the campus TDM - Transportation Demand Management) program. The UW currently has approximately 42,000 students and approximately 22,000 employees including UW Hospital staff. Visitors are currently upwards of 4.6 million per year across the campus. TDM efforts generally have an overall goal to reduce the demand for driving alone to and from campus and to provide a variety of alternatives to single occupancy vehicles on campus.

Important planning processes related to TDM efforts include the 2005 Campus Master Plan, the UW’s long range transportation plan (as part of the overall 2005 Campus Master Plan), and coordination with major projects and their development across campus. Managing parking is an important part of the overall commuter solutions plan. As part of the overall master plan and in negotiations with the city of Madison and local neighborhoods, the campus has capped parking on campus at approximately 13,000 parking spaces including all permit and visitor parking spaces. Also, a goal in the 2005 Campus Master Plan is to replace surface parking with more efficient parking structures in key locations. Currently the UW also has over 9,400 bicycle parking spaces on campus and approximately 1,900 mopeds, the latter of which must park only in designated moped parking areas.

Walking and pedestrian facilities are also an important transportation system across campus. The overall pedestrian system is made up of strong sidewalk design standards, strong accessibility standards, bike/pedestrian paths and bridges, and the SAFEwalk program for students on campus. The campus “lightway” is still being used across campus to direct students to a well lit sidewalk path for nighttime travel.

Bicycle facility improvements are increased across campus including new bike lanes, new bike/paths, a new mixed use pedestrian/bike mall (East Campus Mall), and approximately 9,000 bicyclists on campus on any given day.

The current campus bus system provides 30,000 service hours with 2.2 million rides per year. The overall cost is shared between UW Transportation Services and the Associated Students of Madison. The campus bus routes are the most productive routes in the overall Madison Metro system. The unlimited bus pass program is provided to all faculty, staff and students with funding coming from segregated student fees (for students) and funding from Transportation Services (for faculty and staff). This program provides approximately 50% of the budgeted income for Madison Metro.

Alan Fish and Pete Heaslett (FP&M staff) provided an overview on the status of the proposed Wisconsin Energy Institute project. The project is a two-phase development that will likely be constructed over time. The second phase may happen immediately after the first phase if project funding becomes available. The first phase is a $50 million project with an office block on the south side of the building and a lab block on the north side. This helps reduce the size of the building on the south respecting the height of the church nave across the street. Alan Fish noted that the city is working with the university to redesign the overall intersection of University Avenue, Breese Terrace and Campus Drive. Options include a T-intersection of either Campus Drive to University Avenue or the other way around (University Avenue T into Campus Drive). The city has delayed reconstruction of the intersection from what was a proposed summer 2010 project.

The overall draft site plan was presented showing Phase 1 development on the old University Health Service site at 1552 University Avenue. The main entry is on University Avenue in line with Breese Terrace. A coffee shop/café is located on the southeast corner of the building on the first floor which has the potential of being a nice community asset for the campus users as well as the neighbors in the area. The Phase 2 draft site plan was also shared with further development to the west on the existing ROTC site. (ROTC would be relocated elsewhere on campus.) Alan reminded the group that these are very front end designs for the building and input is welcome. The same preliminary plans are being presented to the campus Design Review Board tomorrow and to the State Department of Administration’s peer review as well.

Pete Heaslett review the proposed building floor plans. First floor has mostly public visitor space with education and outreach spaces, the coffee/café, reception, conference spaces, main lobby, etc. Floors 2 through 5 are labs and offices. The main tenant is the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center doing bioenergy and renewable energy research. A central light well divides the office wing from the lab wing bringing daylight into the two parts of the building.

Pete also shared the early concept renderings of the exterior of the building. The office wing is slightly taller than the nave of the church. The lab wing is higher with the mechanical penthouse spaces that are about the same height as the Enzyme Institute to the west. The east end of the building is fairly clear and transparent that helps minimize the visual impact on the historic church to the south. Exterior materials have yet to be defined. The high walls around the mechanical penthouse helps reduce the noise generated by the HVAC systems.

Bike parking is located under an overhang along the south side of the building in Phase 1. Commuter showers are included inside the building for bicyclists. Additional bike parking would be provided under Phase 2 development.

Stormwater management is being reviewed for potential on-site infiltration through possible rain garden designs.

Alan shared a parking analysis for the facility that looks at what was existing on site with the old University Health Services building comparing it to the proposed parking for the new building. The UW district parking program provides parking for users in an area of campus and not for specific buildings. The number of occupants will be similar in the new building with most likely much less visitor traffic. Existing parking will be lost on site (about 50 parking spaces). Within the district we have a similar amount with new parking at Union South. It was noted that the majority of the Regent Street neighborhood (Regent Street to University Avenue and from Breese Terrace to Allen Street) parking is under 2 hour parking restrictions.

The entire building is approximately 100,000 gross square feet (both phases together is 200,000 GSF). Each floor is about 20,000 GSF in Phase 1.

Projected schedule is for construction to start in the end of summer 2010 with completion in the summer of 2012.

Union Council - January 2010

Union Council Meeting of January 21, 2010

Ms. Zhang reported tabling the naming of the new south campus union building until February 2. She said that adequate information had not yet been obtained. She said Mr. Guthier will lead a meeting for those interested in discussing the issue on Friday, January 22, 12:15 p.m. In response to Mr. Rolling’s question whether Ms. Zhang or Mr. Guthier met with Chancellor Martin, Mr. Guthier shared that he has talked with the Chancellor, and she wants to ensure students have input in the process. She said she also hoped both Union Council and ASM would work out the process.

Mr. Guthier announced the Memorial Union project RFP for architects/engineers will be going “on the street” this week. Projected dates for architect interviews are March or April. Mr. Guthier said that construction is approximately 14 days behind schedule at this time. He also said the project is tracking to be on budget.

Mr. Walter distributed the December preliminary financial report which indicates a year-to-date net loss of over $300,000. He noted that units build budgets from the bottom up and those are rolled together in one larage, complex budget. He said the budget will be presented for approval at the February 2 Union Council meeting. In order to save time at that meeting, the officers suggested not using a full hour presentation, and he is willing to meet with those Council members requesting more detail. Mr. Walter reported that positions have been frozen and that revenue is down.

Mr. Rolling suggested contacting SSFC prior to presenting the Union budget. Mr. Walter said that he, Mr. Guthier and Ms. Zhang are attempting to meet with the SSFC chair to review questions in advance.

Two other issues addressed include the Memorial Union renovation oversight/student involvement and the Union's student leadership structure for 2010-2011.

The oversight/student involvement structure keeps the original Design Committee structure, but it also attempts to make improvements from the Union South project structure by 1) adding an executive committee to serve as a more defined intermediary among Union Council, the architects, and other entities involved in the process and 2) shifting much of the initial planning discussions to input groups with the hope of freeing the Design Committee to focus more on bigger picture items like budget and overall project priorities. The five member executive committee will consist of the Union President, the Student Project Manager (described below), a student Design Committee member selected by the Design Committee, the Union Director, and the other Union staff member on the Design Committee. The fifteen member Design Committee will keep the same format promised in the 2006 funding referendum. Applications for the Design Committee should be sought sometime this semester, with the first meeting likely occurring in early May or before.

On a somewhat related issue, Union Council also addressed the student leadership structure for the 2010-2011 academic year. Eliminating the previous Vice President for Project Management officer position, two new positions - VP for Leadership Development and Student Project Manager - were created. The VP for Leadership Development will work to enhance existing efforts to train student leaders within the Union's student programming board. The position will also work to strengthen partnerships across campus. The Student Project Manager will work with the Union President to coordinate the design of the Memorial Union renovation.

The Union is currently seeking applications for 2010-2011 officer positions, which include Union President, VP for Program Administration, VP for Public Relations, and VP for Leadership Development. Applications are available here.

Spring Union Council Schedule:
February 23
March 4
March 25
April 15
May 7

Posted by Michael Nemmetz and Dan Cornelius

Central Madison Business Improvement District (BID) Board

The BID Board met on Thursday, Feb 4th. It was a lengthy meeting concerning several issues, including:

• 2009 Year in Review, 2010 Forecast
• Review of Assessment Methods for the BID (All property owners within the BID pay extra taxes that funds the BID - streetscape, planters, marketing, etc.)
• Review of Recommended Amendements to the Alcohol License Density Ordinance (ALDO) - This ordinance regulates the issuance of liquor licenses to new businesses. The Board is advocating abolishing the ordinance or making it more flexible. If you have any questions about this, please let me know.

More importantly to students, we also had a presentation on summer construction plans by the City of Madison Engineering Dept. Major projects include:

• Broom St - both lanes, from Doty to Johnson St, will be closed all summer
• Observatory Dr and Langdon St in front of the Memorial Union
• Sidewalk improvements around the Capitol Square, all summer
• Intersection of Park St and University Ave, most of summer but with lanes open
• 200 block of West Gilman
• Peace Park construction on State St - March to Sept.

The City's Engineering Dept. website (www.cityofmadison.com/engineering) will have more information on summer projects in the next few weeks.

Memorial Library Committee

The Memorial Library Committee met this afternoon (2/10/2010).

Among the discussion topics...

• The Memorial staff is happy to announce that the library classroom will relocate from the fourth to the second floor. The relocation brings it closer to other public services, and will offer a more open and user-friendly space. Most important to the student body, this move will allow the classroom to serve as study space when not in instructional use, including access to the approximately 20 computer work stations. Every little bit of extra space and computer access helps, especially during midterm and finals weeks.
• The library system will be looking for a new solution for remote shelving of low-circulation materials. University facilities management personnel have determined that a remote location in Verona will not be able to accommodate special needs associated with preservation of library materials. Back to the drawing board for this project. When you've been collecting materials for 160 years, you need a lot of space.
• The library system may see a 5-10% cut in student staffing budgets. A detailed plan will be developed once a specific budget is determined.
• The overall collections budget may see an 8% cut. Recent years' budget reductions have been made up through alternate funding sources but those sources do not appear to be available in the coming year. When inflation is considered, this potential reduction translates to about 10% less buying power. As the library reduces it's acquisition of materials, it will rely more on inter-library loans. It was noted that in the past few years, the UW library has become a net borrower, receiving more loaned materials than loaning out materials. Thus the library pays out more inter-library loan fees than it takes in.

The Shared Government Committee is allowed two seats on the Memorial Library Committee (one graduate and one undergraduate student) Currently, the undergraduate seat remains vacant. Students have the opportunity to voice concerns about Memorial Library through these committee positions. Undergraduate concerns may be relayed through me if there are any.

--Dave Wilcox, graduate student committee rep