ASM Shared Governance

Joint Southeast Campus Area Committee - July 19, 2010

2010-08-20T09:31:00.002-05:00

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

2010-06-25T21:08:00.002-05:00

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

2010-05-14T22:17:00.002-05:00

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

2010-04-26T15:47:00.012-05:00

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

2010-04-25T21:36:00.002-05:00

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

2010-04-25T21:20:00.002-05:00

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

2010-04-24T13:38:00.005-05:00

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

2010-04-21T12:20:00.002-05:00

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

2010-04-16T19:32:00.002-05:00

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

2010-04-14T12:00:00.002-05:00

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

2010-04-13T15:27:00.002-05:00

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

2010-04-12T16:28:00.014-05:00

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

2010-04-12T12:07:00.003-05:00

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

2010-04-08T12:14:00.002-05:00

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

2010-04-06T14:29:00.003-05:00

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:
Madisons Central Business Improvement District (BID) represents business and
property owners in the greater State Street and Capitol Square area. The mission of
Madisons 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

2010-03-25T23:10:00.003-05:00

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

2010-03-23T12:20:00.002-05:00

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

2010-03-22T16:51:00.000-05:00

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

2010-03-21T19:54:00.003-05:00

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

2010-03-20T15:04:00.002-05:00

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

2010-03-18T18:38:00.001-05:00

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

LGBT Issues Committee meeting summary

2010-03-18T15:47:00.004-05:00

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

2010-03-16T14:19:00.002-05:00

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

2010-03-15T22:37:00.002-05:00

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

2010-03-14T20:11:00.002-05:00

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

2010-03-13T16:20:00.004-06:00

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

2010-03-12T11:17:00.002-06:00

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

2010-03-10T13:11:00.004-06:00

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

2010-03-08T16:35:00.002-06:00

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

2010-03-06T12:57:00.002-06:00

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

2010-03-05T11:11:00.001-06:00

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

2010-03-02T15:42:00.002-06:00

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

2010-02-26T11:52:00.001-06:00

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

2010-02-25T20:51:00.004-06:00

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

2010-02-22T14:13:00.001-06:00

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

2010-02-21T21:33:00.002-06:00

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

2010-02-21T13:13:00.002-06:00

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

2010-02-18T23:22:00.002-06:00

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

2010-02-18T13:09:00.004-06:00

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)

2010-02-17T16:11:00.002-06:00

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

2010-02-15T13:28:00.002-06:00

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

2010-02-11T01:08:00.003-06:00

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

2010-02-11T01:02:00.001-06:00

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

2010-02-11T00:41:00.005-06:00

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

2010-02-10T20:00:00.003-06:00

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

2010-02-10T19:38:00.003-06:00

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

Advisory Committee to ODOS, Minutes 2/4/10 (Formerly Non-Academic Misconduct Panel)

2010-02-09T16:33:00.004-06:00

1. Discussed ODOS Budget Update

2. ODOS in need of extra space for growth and development. Will propose to appropriate committee for increase and relocation of the office. Space will become available once Union South opens in Spring 2011.

3. Discussion about inappropriate fan behavior at Badger games. ODOS will consider involving UW student athletes and coaches to engage and encourage more appropriate discourse.

4. Discussed proper procedures for testing accommodations for first generation students (i.e. extra time). A member brought to our attention that there is an already established procedure (within Diversity Texts) that the professor of an individual course may grant additional support and accommodation for the first generation students.

Please respond to Item 4 with suggestions. Thanks!

Roxy Godiwalla

Shared Governance Committee Minutes

2010-02-05T14:47:00.003-06:00

February 5, 2009 minutes are online in draft form at http://www.asm.wisc.edu/shared-governance-minutes-2009-10-2.html. Please email any corrections to me by Monday at 8:00 pm.

Thanks everyone,

Andrew Briddell

Teaching Awards Committee, Meeting 2/1/10

2010-02-03T20:54:00.003-06:00

Prior to the meeting, committee members individually evaluated 29 nominations of UW Madison faculty for a total of 5 Teaching Awards to 10 recipients. The committee, composed of two students and four faculty, submitted preliminary scores, reviewed applications and discussed evaluations. Recipients will be notified within the next few weeks and the Awards Ceremony will be April 21, 2010. To complete responsibilities, the committee revised the committee guidelines for selection and elected a chair for the 2010-2011 year.

Lynette Studer and Roxy Godiwalla

January 2010 Information Technology Committee Meeting

2010-02-02T23:55:00.002-06:00

January ITC Meeting

The full meeting minutes are available here (at the moment, they’re still in draft format, so until mid-Feb please don’t quote from them)

Updates
- The MyWebSpace upgrade has happened. There was general agreement that the new interface for finding groups is pretty lame, hidden under the icon that’s supposed to be the Sun.
- The trickiest part of the cooling upgrade for the Computer Sciences building, which includes the DoIT machine room (ie, where www.wisc.edu, wiscmail, MyUW, Learn@UW, etc all live). The computers produce so much heat that they have to be air-conditioned 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and the building gets chilled water to drive the A/C. The equipment that handled it was past its rated lifetime, and we were in danger of maxing out the cooling, so we upgraded the pipes to bring in more water, with bigger pipes.

In order to do this, we had to shut down the current cooling system so the steamfitters could cut out the old pipes and switch to the new ones. To puthis off, we shut off as much of the computing resources as possible, taking advantage of an early January lull, and with a huge collection of fans and temporary ductwork, used the outside air to cool the building. We were helped by outside air temperatures of -3 below, but even then we just barely made it. (The lack of humidity was problematic, but we apparently pulled it off.) The pictures tell some of the tale:
http://can.doit.wisc.edu/~bradshaw/cooling/ - one of the hardest things was having to switch the person on guard duty at the doors frequently given the extreme cold and the wind from the fans.

- A quick update on the “Hacker Within” student org ( http://groups.google.com/group/hacker-within ) This is a student-led group, that teaches other students who are mostly (all?) not computer science students, but still need programming in order to get their work done. Computing is becoming critical to more and more disciplines, so it’s good to see things like this springing up.

Our main agenda items were up next. We started out with an update from the library on the Hathi Trust – hathitrust.org (It’s the Hindi word for ‘Elephant’). This is related to the Google Book Scanning agreement. The HathiTrust is a collaboration between the University of California System and the CIC (The Committee on Institutional Cooperation – basically, the academic version of the Big Ten, but still with the University of Chicago). The trust serves as an insurance policy with the Google book scanning deal – they’re keeping digital copies of everything that Google scans. For now, we’re trying to stick with things that are out of copyright or were always public domain, but as much as possible, we want to make electronic access available to all of our collection, on demand. The powerpoint from the meeting has some interesting stats and facts about the Google book deal

Next we got a demo of the new Courseguide system enrollment management is developing. This is something that we should ask to have demoed in a Shared Gov meeting, and to get them to talk about some of their future plans, because some of it is pretty cool. One thing that I thought was really cool was the hope to sort of pre-create some common course plans.
Eventually, the course guide is going to get live data on what seats are open, and what sections are full versus what sections just aren’t open, and more information about the instructor. Right now it’s pretty bland, but eventually the hope is to get real professor information, a syllabus, research the professor is involved with, and hopefully some actual lectures and information about the teaching style of that class, so you can pick what class might be the best fit for your learning style.

The last thing we looked at was a report from the “Deans Working Group on Information Technology and Library Infrastructure”, but it’s still an early draft, so I’ll wait until we see a later version before going into it.

Erik Paulson

December 2009 ITC Meeting

2010-02-02T23:00:00.002-06:00

The full minutes are online here, So I’ll just hit the highlights of the discussions.

ITC meetings always start off with a half hour of so of “roundups.”. In December, we talked about

-the search for a CALS CIO (Chief Information Officer) – mostly just that they were looking for someone, not much on what they’d do.

-The standard update on the lawsuit between Desire2Learn and Blackboard. The reason we care is that Desire2Learn makes the software behind Learn@UW, and if D2L lost that lawsuit the consequences could be that we’d have switch software behind Learn@UW. The lawsuit has been going on for a couple of years, and to be safe the UW developed contingency plans in case we had to switch. This wasn’t a complete waste of time – we’ve actually got a lot of colleges that prefer our backup option. Thankfully, we’re done getting these lawsuit updates as D2L and Blackboard announced a settlement.

- A cooling upgrade for the data center. More on that in the January report

- The ITC has a representative on the Campus Planning Committee, so we get standing updates from the CPC

- A security update. You may remember an incident earlier this year in Chemistry, in which social security numbers were inadvertently exposed (and likely weren’t exposed, the hackers were just using the computers to share movies, and probably never even knew there were SSNs on the machine. Still, the UW assumes that they were and acts accordingly). The concern is that we’re approaching having to spend upwards of a million dollars with software to try and defend against all of this, and it is only getting worse.

- The UW is looking at “Digital Measures” - http://www.digitalmeasures.com/ It is an online course evaluation system (ie replacing the scantron thing we fill out at the end of the semester) with some fancy reporting tools. We’re supposed to see it at a future ITC meeting, so I’m trying to keep an open mind. (There’s something to be said for better processing of this data, but once upon a time ASM managed to put it all on the web, so it can’t be that hard to do)

We then moved on to our big agenda items. The first topic was the start of reorganizing the libraries on campus, and reinterpreting the role of libraries. This might be something we’d like to discuss further, and other committees have mentioned, but the gist of it is that the libraries will be moving away from specialized libraries and collections, and towards a more centralized functional system.

Our next discussion item was titled “Reflections on a snow day” – this was about a week after the December campus closing. Some things we talked about:

- the University’s website was nearly crushed by the spike in load, as people were trying to get information about the closing. In the future, we’re going to go to a stripped-down version earlier.

- We need to clarify what it means for “campus to be closed”, particularly in regards to things that don’t physically need campus. For example, there was a lot of ambiguity for assignments that might have been due on that day. As much of the submission of homework/papers/projects is electronic, a snow day doesn’t matter. Similarly for virtual classes that meet electronically – there was no need for them to be cancelled, at at least some of them “met” as normally scheduled.

-Erik Paulson

Recreational Sports Board Meeting-Jan. 26, 2010

2010-02-02T20:30:00.002-06:00

The Recreational Sports Board met Tuesday, Jan. 26.

In the first order of business, the Rec Sports Board passed the budget for the 2011 fiscal year.

We also discussed ongoing efforts by NatUP 2010, a student organization dedicated to the renovation and expansion of the Natatorium facility. The group is currently petitioning for signatures to get the Nat construction plans on the ballot in the April 12-14 elections.

For more information, please visit www.natup2010.com

Alcohol Density Plan Meeting - Tomorrow, Jan. 28th, 4:00pm

2010-01-27T18:28:00.003-06:00

Sorry for the short notice, but I wanted to let anyone who's interested know that the ALRC's (Alcohol License Review Committee) subcommittee on Downtown Alcohol Issues and Ordinances is meeting tomorrow at 4:00 in the City-County Building, Room 108 to discuss possible changes to the Alcohol Density Plan Ordinance (ALDO).

Given there were only a couple official ALRC members at this subcommittee's last meeting, I'm not sure how influential this meeting will be, but it should be interesting to hear discussion on possible ALDO changes proposed by the Central Business Improvement District (BID) Board like more flexibility in the alcohol-other revenue ratio, capacity increases, and longer license transfer periods.

Agenda - January 28, 2010

2010-01-27T15:42:00.002-06:00

ASSOCIATED STUDENTS OF MADISON
Shared Governance, 16th Session
5:30 PM; 28 January, 2010
Caucus Room, Student Activity Center, 333 E. Campus Mall

I. Introductions
A. Name, Major, Committees You’re Appointed To
B. Ice Breaker: What was the best thing you did over winter break?
II. Announcements
A. ASM’s Haiti Day of Action – Donate at the Union tonight!
B. Attendance Policy Now in Affect
C. New Appointees to the MSC and CfLI Search and Screens
III. Blog Etiquette Mini-Training by Andrew
IV. Discussion
A. Shared Governance at UW
1. What do students know?
2. Where do they get their information from?
3. How can we educate and better communicate with students?
V. Committee Updates

Congratulations New Appointees!

2010-01-26T15:08:00.009-06:00

I am proud to present Alexandra Sevett, Vickie DeMarco, and Katie Grimm as new Shared Governance Appointees.

Alex will be serving on the Center of Leadership and Involvement (CfLI) Director Search and Screen Committee. She is currently a Shared Governance appointee to the Committee on Academic Advising and she has experience working with CfLI.

Vickie and Katie will serve on the Search and Screen for a second Multicultural Student Center (MSC) Social Justice Education Specialist. Vickie and Katie have a varied experiences in hiring as well as working on multicultural and social justice issues.

Note: As Search and Screen committees require a great deal of confidentiality in the hiring process, it is unlikely that many updates will be posted from these committees.

Dean of Students Advisory Board Meeting - Thurs., 1/21

2010-01-22T18:52:00.007-06:00

Restructuring the Campus Library System

The campus library system is being restructured and the directors are seeking student input on how this should be done. Campus-wide student input will be instrumental in determining what the different libraries will look like in the future, but the directors are not certain how to get this input. They are thinking about using online surveys, paper surveys passed out in certain classes, focus groups, and a multimedia video to get students interested and involved in the process. Students who are interested in making such a video as part of a school project or internship are invited to participate in the process.

ODOS Budget Update

The Budget for the Fiscal Year 2010 was reviewed because it may receive reductions in the future with the state's current deficit. If this occurs, the budget will be revisited.

Halloween Event Management Plan

The 2010 plan was reviewed and compared to 2009's plan, which was very similar and had positive results. The Board agreed that the 2010 plan was reasonable and could move forward.

Testing Accommodations for 1st Generation Students

A UW professor suggested providing students who are the first in their families to attend college with more time to take their exams. Similar accommodations are made for ESL students, and we discussed whether a general accommodation can be made for all first-generation students. On a whole, we felt that the abilities of first-generation college students vary and may not be entirely based on the fact that they are first-generation college students, but professors can offer support groups, extended office hours, or extended test-taking time for the entire class, for instance.

Fan Behavior

Recent letters from parents and members of the Madison community addressed inappropriate behavior surrounding UW sporting events. The letters commented on the offensive language targeted at opposing teams and fans who visit Madison, and this behavior is seen as unacceptable and a poor representation of the university. The ODOS believes this is a very important issue and wants to take well thought-out actions to change how students behave at sporting events. Changing the student mentality to give them a greater sense of responsibility to their school's reputation and trying to get the students to focus on being funny and creative rather than derogatory were some goals mentioned. Testimonials, news articles, and Greek support were brought up as possible methods to accomplish these goals, but we hope to revisit this issue during the next meeting with more ideas.

-Laura Hirsh

Shared Governance Committee Minutes

2010-01-21T12:20:00.004-06:00

Minutes from weekly Shared Governance Committee meetings are available online at:

http://www.asm.wisc.edu/shared-governance-minutes-2009-10-2.html, or by clicking on the link in the "More information" section on left side of the Blog.

Search and Screen Positions

2010-01-19T23:41:00.000-06:00

There are 2 Search and Screen committees looking for student involvement. If you are interested in being on either of these committees, please e-mail me a resume and cover letter by 5:00PM on Friday, January 22nd. The cover letter should include why you are interested in serving on this committee and why you are the most qualified to be appointed. The Center for Leadership and Involvement (CfLI) is searching for a new Director (1 student seat) and the Multicultural Student Center will be hiring a second Social Justice Education Specialist (2 student seats).

Please forward this information to anyone who you think may be interested in serving on these committees. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Thanks,

Melissa

Spring Semester!

2010-01-19T16:42:00.004-06:00

Hello all and welcome back to Madison! Hope everyone's having a wonderful start to the semester.

ASM Shared Governance will be holding our weekly meetings on Thursdays at 5:30 in the 4th floor Caucus Room at the SAC starting Thursday, January 28th. These are open meetings and we welcome every student on campus to attend! To remind everyone of the meetings this semester, I will be posting agendas here on the blog at least 24 hours in advance of the meetings.

Also, I encourage anyone who is interested in Shared Gov or ASM to come discuss it with me during my office hours:

Tuesdays 2:30-4:30
Wednesdays 2:45-4:45
Thursdays 12:30-1:30
...or by appointment.

Andrew Briddell, the Shared Gov PA will also be holding office hours this semester:
Mondays and Wednesdays 1-3:30
Thursdays 3:30-5:30

I'm looking forward to another great semester with Shared Gov! :)

Melissa Hanley

Chair, Shared Governance
Associated Students of Madison
melissa.dee.hanley@gmail.com

ITC - November Meeting

2010-01-19T13:43:00.002-06:00

Some interesting things were brought up in the November meeting that I had forgotten to report here, and some things you may have noticed going into effect.

Things the ITC could use input on:

i-Clicker - We had a demo of i-Clicker. The idea is that everyone in a classroom has a device with 5 buttons, and when the instructor presents a question, everyone can answer. The bookstore showed 7 classes using clickers. i-Clicker also has a web interface. The clickers are $35, but do not have a recurring fee, so you could use the same one forever. Should these be used in class? Keep in mind that they could be anonymous or for a grade.
Moodle - You may have noticed some classes using Moodle as a course website. It's kind of like Learn@UW but more customizable and community oriented. If you have used Moodle in a class of yours, what are your thoughts? Do instructors use it effectively? Does it help your learning? There is a Moodle council in ComETS that helps define best practices for Moodle's use in the university and acts as a common ground for those in the UW-Madison community who are using Moodle. http://comets.wisc.edu/groups/61/moodle-council
Learning Spaces - We had a demo on Smartboards and Promethean whiteboards. They are basically whiteboards with a projector on them and some sort of way for the person writing on the whiteboard to interact with the computer. There was some concern about the support needed to keep a system like this running in classrooms. The question is whether these interactive whiteboards improve learning. If one of your classes uses one, we could use some input.

General updates:

New Wiscmail - the new web-client for Wiscmail has been in testing since September, and more people were invited week by week. The process of inviting people was due to be completed in December. You can permanently switch by going to http://admin.wiscmail.wisc.edu. The old client is scheduled to be retired this February.
Google - Yes, there is work in progress to make Google apps available to UW-Madison students. At this point, Google Docs, Spreadsheet and Sites will be available. All will be authenticated with your NetID. While the services are free, DoIT had to invest in legal research and technical integration in order to get us Google stuff. Google basically provides the service, but we need to make sure it is legally and technologically feasible ourselves.
Adobe Connect - Adobe connect is kind of a remote meeting solution that may work as a remote classroom setup. DoIT has purchased some licenses and will be selling them at a discount, for $100 until June 2010. Only the presenter/organizer needs a license.

Comments and questions are definitely welcome.

University Honors Committee

2010-01-17T12:41:00.003-06:00

The University Honors Committee met several times during the fall semester. The primary topic of discussion was the Honors Assessment Project, which asked both current Honors students and alums to evaluate their Honors experience. The results are finally in, and the next step for the Committee will be to communicate our findings to a wider audience and provide actionable recommendations based on the data. Our plan for the spring is to develop a workshop for the 2010 Teaching and Learning Symposium to be held May 19 & 20. This session would provide interested faculty and staff with an overview of the Assessment results and would facilitate discussion about ways to achieve the kind of enriching and challenging learning environment that Honors is all about. You can learn more about the Teaching and Learning Symposium at http://www.learning.wisc.edu/tlsymposium/index.html

Another recurring subject of discussion was the new Letters & Science Honors Admissions Policy. Invitations to apply for L&S Honors were formerly sent to prospective students who met particular academic criteria. Under the new policy, which was first implemented for the 2008-2009 schoolyear, all L&S admits are invited to apply. Data from the past two years shows that this policy change is already having a substantial impact. Fewer applications have been submitted: the past two years averaged 509 applications, compared with an average of 716 applications for the five years prior to the change. While a majority of applicants had previously been Wisconsin residents, the past two years have seen an applicant pool that is two-thirds out-of-state. If you are interested in seeing more data or hearing potential explanations for these trends, please contact me via email: cklynch2@wisc.edu.

I look forward to another great semester with Shared Gov! See you all soon!

Alcohol and Other Drug Taskforce - 12/04/09 Meeting - Alcohol and Drinking Symposium

2009-12-11T15:59:00.005-06:00

The Alcohol and Other Drug Taskforce met Friday December 4th. Primarily, our focus was on the presentation for the symposium titled "Examining Our Student Drinking Culture: A Look at the Culture Now and Ways We Can Improve It". Summarizing the two-day program scheduled for April 27th and 28th of 2010 (Tuesday and Wednesday) is as follows.

Night 1: Our Drinking Culture: A New Age Look at Alcohol Consumption

This night will examine the current drinking culture of this university and this city. It is important that we know where we are with alcohol as a community, not five or ten years ago, but today. We will learn about the effects of toxic drinking and the new studies being done that will help us determine the climate of our drinking culture. This night will also emphasize the importance of alcohol education. The goal of this night is to better understand where we are today so that we may improve our culture into the future.

Night 2: Chaning the Drinking Culture: Where to go from here?

This night will concentrate on current alcohol policy and discuss ideas for improving the drinking cuture in the future. We will get a physiological background on alcohol before we discuss the effects of the drinking age. The rest of the night will be panel-led discussion on city alcohol policy, and a comparative student look into the drinking cultures of our Big Ten and system neighbors. The goal of this night is to give us insight into the direction alcohol policy must take in light of current policy already in place, within the city and the university.

Some of the concerns brought up in discussion were consistency of student attendance, the venue it would be held at, and the equality of representation. Chances are it will be in a dormitory or somewhere like Grainger. Another related topic was food costs. Advertising and food were going to be the key ways to attract and maintain students. Lastly was equal representation. The issue was on our second day, we would have a returning guest, Dr. Kevin Strang, and a presentation from the The Amethyst Initiative Choose Responsibility group. Dr. Strang would give a physiological perspective on drinking and common misconceptions and one of the main points of the second guest is reasons to lower the drinking age. Some of the members of the AODT want to see a different speaker instead of Dr. Strang to fairly contrast the view of the Amethyst Initiative. A link for the schedule thus far will be added to this blog ASAP.

Office of the Registrar Advisory Board Meeting - December 4, 2009

2009-12-08T15:45:00.005-06:00

The Office of the Registrar Student Advisory Board met on Friday, December 4, 2009. This is a new committee for the 2009-2010 academic year. The purpose of the committee is to meet with representatives from the Registrar's office and discuss ways in which to improve the Registrar's services, as well as increase student awareness of existing services.
At this meeting, we discussed Student Center, the web-based program in which students can register for classes, update addresses, and view financial aid information. The Advisory Board provided input on changes that could make Student Center more accessible and easier to understand for students. For example, we discussed making "help" options more visible on various pages of Student Center; noted that sometimes there is confusion about whether or not a class has been actually added to a schedule or if it still remains on the Wish List; and also noted that it is frustrating when the search defaults to the fall term instead of spring. We also discussed how the process of running and reading a DARS is somewhat confusing, and how students do not receive education about DARS reports and their purpose in any formal manner. Board members suggested that it may be helpful to have students go through online tutorials/demos of enrollment and DARS before they come to SOAR, so that they are more prepared for first semester enrollment.
Other Shared Governance members are encouraged to comment below or contact an Advisory Board member if they have input on services from the Registrar's office, including posting of deadlines, Student Center, enrollment information, DARS, and Course Guide.
-Kendra Gurnee

Campus Diversity and Climate Committee Meeting, December 1, 2009

2009-12-06T17:03:00.003-06:00

With the conclusion of Plan 2008 and the campus community abuzz with talk about "inclusive excellence" (the framework for diversity and climate adopted by the UW, systemwide), the CDCC has begun to re-examine its purpose in relation to diversity initiatives. At this past meeting, the group discussed the question, "What does the university community need the CDCC to do and to be in order to accomplish the broad goal of inclusive excellence?" Several students from the ASM Diversity Committee were in attendance as guests, and they participated in the conversation as well.

Some key topics of the conversation included:

* the CDCC as a "the conscience" of the university around diversity and climate

* what sorts of incentives can be provided to enhance diversity initiatives across campus

* increasing student involvement in the committee

* broadening membership to include groups not normally brought in to diversity conversations

* creating clear plans for activating goals

* involving the chancellor and provost in future work of the committee

* being able to work simultaneously on programmatic action steps and big picture system thinking

* increased accountability structures

* incorporation of divisions and units

* translating ideas into action

This was just a brainstorming session, to be followed by some more intensive conversations throughout the spring about the charge of CDCC. Several times people noted the presence of students as a positive force, and people are reminded that the committee's meetings are open to the public and that guests are welcome.

The schedule for spring 2010 meetings is being revised, so any posted meeting times are subject to change.

--Frank Honts

2009-12-03T20:20:00.001-06:00

Test

Campus Planning Committee: Meeting of November 19, 2009

2009-11-25T11:41:00.011-06:00

With neither welcome, nor introduction, the Campus Planning Committee (CPC) commenced its November 19, 2009 meeting. There were four items on the agenda:

1) Approval of the November 12, 2009 Minutes.

2) Irwin Goldman, Interim Dean of CALS, gave the presentation on replacement of the existing Seeds Facility. The wooden structure was built in the late 1940's. The reasons for this request is the proposed expansion of the Meat Science and Muscle Facility and the inability to preserve seeds. For example, under normal conditions, seeds should last at least 25 years, but in the current facility, it is only 5 years.

3) Al Fish, FP&M, gave the presentation on the improvement of the lakeshore area that is north adjacent to Memorial Union and the Evelyn White building. The scope of work includes repair of the concrete piers, improvement of the walking areas, and the development of a park between the Red Gym and the Memorial Union. The goal is the prevention of lakeshore erosion and the connections of a pedestrian walkway from the lake shore to 21 North Park Street/Smith Hall.

4) Teresa Adams, FP&M, presented a proposed scheme for the Capital Projects requests for the 2011-13 biennium. The requests originate from the projects reviewed this semester. After some deliberation, the ranking of General Fund Supported Bonds are as follows:

Nursing Science Building
Utility Projects
Walnut Street Greenhouses
Seeds Facility replacement.

The ranking of Program Revenue Supported Borrowing is as follows:

University Houses
Natatorium Renovation (pending student vote)
Lakeshore Improvement/Alumni Park

The Chemistry request has been placed in the 2013-15 biennum for further discussion/analysis.

With that, the meeting adjourned.

dr-m

Campus Planning Committee: Meeting of November 12, 2009

2009-11-25T11:07:00.011-06:00

With neither welcome, nor introduction, the Campus Planning Committee (CPC) commenced its November 12, 2009 meeting. There were three items on the agenda:

1) Kathryn May, Dean of the School of Nursing, gave a presentation for the construction of a new School of Nursing building to be located at Parking Lot 85. Currently the school is ranked 20th in the nation and 18th in funds from the NIH. Current enrollment is nearly 500 students, but because of low student teacher ratios, the School of Nursing has to turn down qualified students because of lack of facility space. In addition, the new building will allow the school to incorporate POD, SCALE and Human Patient Simulators as part of the curriculum.

2) Paul Evans, Director of Housing, gave a presentation regarding the renovation of the University Houses. These are graduate housing facilities that are south adjacent to Eagle Heights and abuts the Village of Shorewood. These wooden apartment facilities were built in the late 1940's as post WWII faculty housing required for the large number of returning veteran students. An earlier proposal advised that these buildings be removed, however, that proved expensive. Housing derives its funding from its residents and a demolish/rebuild would have seriously increased rental rates. As proposed as a phased renovation, the rental increase will only be $50 per month for University House residents.

3) John Herrod, FP&M, gave a presentation that outlines more utility projects for the campus. They will be located near the Cogeneration Plant and Central Campus. In addition, one project will improve stormwater reduction within existing retention ponds.

With that, the meeting adjourned.

dr-m

Campus Planning Committee: Meeting of Oct 29, 2009

2009-11-05T20:03:00.008-06:00

After a brief welcome and introduction, the Campus Planning Committee (CPC) commenced its October 29, 2009 meeting. Provost DeLuca chaired the meeting an gave an address regarding the process and functions of the committee. There were three items on the agenda:

1) Approval of the October 22, 2009 Minutes.

2) Robert Hammers, Chair - Dept. of Chemistry, made a presentation that demonstrated that the current chemistry building does not meet the current demand for students of organic and applied chemistry. The current building has out-of-date fume hoods, lack of storage, and limited lecture discussion facilities. He stated that Chemistry courses serve 41% of CALS students, 33% of Engineering students, and 48% of Med/Nursing students. However, he was not able to determine if this were students with single, double, or triple majors. Unfortunately, their proposal did not contain a minimum square footage or any costs, but suggested a 6 story structure.

3) Bill Tracy, Chair - Dept of Agronomy, gave a presentation that outlines the need for new and updated greenhouses that are north of the Cogeneration Plant. Within the next few years, another phase of construction at the Cogerneration Plant will place the existing greenhouses under shade. The proposal is construct 5 new state-of-the-art greenhouses so that the current facility square foot capacity is not reduced. Within the past 3 years, the facility has upgraded its utilities and therefore, the site is fully capable to support the construction. An alternative plan, using a West Madison (Junction Road & Mineral Point) was discussed. The disadvantages of this location is the distance and the required infrastructure.

With that, the meeting adjourned.

dr-m

Campus Planning Committee: Meeting of Oct 22, 2009

2009-11-05T19:42:00.004-06:00

After a brief welcome and introduction, the Campus Planning Committee (CPC) commenced its October 22, 2009 meeting. Provost DeLuca chaired the meeting an gave an address regarding the process and functions of the committee. There were four items on the agenda:

1) Approval of the September 24, 2009 Minutes.

2) Hank Walter, of Food Services, gave an overview of the food service locations that exist on and are planned. His main points were that food service must turn a profit, therefore new food service requests (i.e. ICU Deli) should have a quantifiable demand. If the demand is not met, then the requesting organization must pay into an operational subsidy. Over the summer an ad-hoc subcommittee made recommendations for the implementation of future food service requests: a) Housing Services or the Wisconsin Union have first right of refusal of any request. b) Outside vendors (i.e. Starbucks, Taco Bell, etc.) can then submit an rfp. The ad-hoc committee 'recommended' that living wages would be used by outside vendors, but did not make any statements regarding corporate ethics or responsibility.

3) Faramarz Vakili, of FP&M, gave an update on the We Conserve program. The guiding principles are Efficient Systems, Informed People, Realistic Expectations, and Responsipble Action. Currently, the campus' utility bill is $50M per year--3x the maintenence budget. The increases in fuel and electricity costs are the drivers of this amount. The biggest demanders of energy are HVAC systems and as a result, they use 65% of a daily energy use. The program was commenced on Earth Day 2006 and will terminate in 2010, unless support (finanical and adminsitrative) is found.

4) Al Fish, of FP&M, gave an update on 2 NIH grants and 1 NSF proposal.

With that, the meeting adjourned.

dr-m

Letters and Science Curriculum Committee

2009-10-26T16:24:00.001-05:00

These are some of the issues which were discussed on the October 26, 2009 meeting in South Hall 101.

• Aiming for consistency between Elementary/Intermediate listings with course numbering (300 level elementary course) in Hebrew/Semitic Studies. Course approved, letter advising department to use numbers to distinguish levels of courses sent.
• Ensuring prerequisite of QR-A is enforced prior to students taking QR-B – class violating this currently in School of Human Ecology
• Course Overlaps cntd –
o Sending inquisitor memo to departments inviting discussion regarding course overlaps, providing initial questions so far as what the issue is and what can be done to resolve it
o What happens to the exceptions to the rule?
o Multiple overlapping introductory sequences raise many questions.
o Departmental or college level problem? What happens when Math must determine which Physics courses do/do not count?

Health Care Advisory Committee (HCAC)

2009-10-23T12:21:00.004-05:00

The committee met on October 15, 2009.

After a brief introduction of all committee members and attendees, the UHS annual report was distributed and comments and questions were raised.

One concern brought up was the impact on student health insurance under proposed health care reforms that include a group/employer-based model and an individual model; student health insurance would not fall under either model. UHS and others around country are concerned about making sure student health insurance plans are taken into consideration in the reform process.

Another question brought up was the impact UHS has on campus nutrition (e.g., quality of food offered in residence halls, etc.). UHS does not currently provide input, but the proposed WiscFit campus-wide wellness initiative for students, faculty and staff has a nutrition component.

The following points were addressed:

Fall activity update: Visits were up 20% as of the end of September. Part of increase is related to H1N1, but 10-15% increases began as soon as UHS moved. Resources are stretched thin; costs are going up.
Director Searches: Prevention Services: Susan Crowley left. There is November 15 application deadline for her position. Counseling Services: Position description is being developed and should be posted by mid-November. Interviews will be in February.
Budget Timeline: HCAC reviews UHS budget and recommends that it be forwarded to Student Services Finance Committee (SSFC). SSFC meets in mid-February and makes recommendations to the Chancellor. Although UHS budget is included in the non-allocable portion of student segregated fees, recommendations made to the Chancellor are important. HCAC will begin discussing UHS budget in December. We will review the budget at the January meeting, the week after the Martin Luther King holiday. Copies of the proposed budget will be distributed for review prior to the January meeting.UHS is also doing a study to evaluate costs and new revenue sources which HCAC will review at the November meeting.
H1N1 Update: There were 1,300 H1N1 calls in September. Students are interested in H1H1 vaccine. Seasonal vaccines are also up. UHS was given 2,500 doses of H1N1 vaccine so far. First priority will be to health care workers. There will be a large clinic on November 3 to distribute vaccines. Michael Rosenblum at UW Hospital will be contacting all UW students who have been hospital volunteers. People with chronic health issues are prioritized but not in the top priority, per CDC guidelines; there will be enough vaccines to vaccinate all remaining students at the same time. UHS is working with UW Communications and their own communications department to get information out and alleviate fears based on myths about the safety of the vaccine. H1N1 will probably be part of the seasonal flu vaccine next year. People who think they already were sick with H1N1 but were never tested are still being encouraged to get the vaccine. People can receive both the seasonal and H1N1 vaccine at the same time, provided both are not the nasal spray type. All campus units have Continuity of Operations Plans (COOP) to help them prepare for things like pandemics, natural disasters, etc. Academic units do continuity of instruction plans. Other individual units focus on how they would continue to provide their services with decreased staff, compromised buildings, etc. UHS is involved in overall campus pandemic planning.

Comments are desired. What do you think? Should UHS be involved in improving campus nutrition, such as residence halls and unions menus?

Union Council Minutes - May, 2009

2009-10-16T12:45:00.005-05:00

There seems to be a bit of confusion over Union Council's May 2009 action in regards to the building project's Design Committee. Since Union Council meeting agendas and minutes are not accessible online, the section of minutes relating to that action is listed below.

To provide context, Union Council was incorrectly informed in May 2009 that the furniture design needed to be completed by the end of summer 2009 - Union council is now not review these designs until December. Thus, in an effort to meet the stipulated summer deadline for completing the furniture design, an interim Design Committee process was developed that would fulfill the obligations established by the 2006 referendum authorizing the expenditure of nearly $100 million of student fees for the Union project. This summer process would convene an interim, but still student-majority, Design Committee of to review furniture design decisions.

In July 2009, an email from Union administration thanked participants for their time and informed them that the process was being "streamlined" to expedite the furniture design process. The interim process was thereby "postponed" without plans to restart it.

These minutes also stipulate that a report with recommendations for the Design Committee's future be presented at the first meeting of the fall semester. That report has yet to be given, even though planning and visioning for the Memorial Union phase of the project has already begun.

------------------

[earlier portion of meeting minutes are omitted]

Mr. Cornelius reported that he, Mr. Guthier, Mr. Walter, and Mr. Broadhead wrote a recommendation for the design committee structure in the future. A copy of the proposal/description/recommendation is on file with the minutes. Mr. Walter clarified that a summer design committee will be needed to review furniture specifications, provide a way for students to provide input, and perhaps provide a more flexible, temporary structure.

Mr. Guthier said he he’d like 2-3 students on subgroups during the summer. Ms. Boegel said she felt the current design committee members should continue to receive communications.

Mr. Weinschenck MOVED and Mr. Cornelius SECONDED to approve the following:

Design Committees for the Building Project

The Wisconsin Union expresses its deep appreciation for the work of the Design Committee during Phase I of the Union’s Building Project. Over the course of the last three years, hundreds of hours have been dedicated by countless students to the design of the New South Campus Union, all under the direction of the committee and led by its commendable students. As the formal structural, exterior, and interior design of the building comes to a close in May, 2009 Union Council extends its gratitude to the members of the committee and looks forward to the next chapter in the design process for the Union’s overall building project.

Design committee members are: Ade Afolayan, Angela Pakes Ahlman, Jon Augelli, Andrea Bill, Bruce Kieffer, Bradley Molzahn, Paul Broadhead, Carl Korz, Dan Erdman Stephanie Dar, Paul Davidsaver, Dan Cornelius, Drew Lake, Gwen Drury, Hank Walter, John Sharpless, Julie Grove, Jacklyn John, Jeremy Chapman, Josh Clements, Jeff Rolling John Sinclair, Kyle Olsen, Kaitlin Koehler, Katey Smith, Mike Lasecki, Lynn Stathas, Melissa Mamayek, Mark Guthier, Matt Colvin, Marc Kennedy, Margaret Tennessen, Michael Nemmetz, Liz Novy, Patrick Tilley, Jamie Schroeter, Shayna Hetzel, Susan Dibbell, Shira Weiner, Charles Johann Sung, Tim Gloeckler, Lea Zeise, and Xiangyun Zhang. They will be kept updated on all aspects of the building project.

To that end, the Council requests that every effort be made to fully engage students over the course of the summer in 2009 as a bridge to the next iteration of a Design Committee for Phase II of the Union’s Building Project. It is expected that final furniture, fixtures, and equipment (along with other items) will be determined during the summer months and it is Council’s intent that students have an influential voice in those decisions. A fully developed summer plan that includes an interim Design Committee structure and defined student leadership roles should be presented by the Vice President for Project Management to the 2009-10 Union Council Executive Committee at its May 18, 2009 meeting for approval.

In preparation for Phase II of the Building Project, Union Council requests that the Vice President for Project Management present a recommendation for the constitution and responsibilities of a Design Committee for its consideration at the first meeting of the Council in the fall semester of 2009-10.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:20 pm

Campus Planning Committee: Meeting of Sept 24, 2009

2009-10-08T11:35:00.009-05:00

After a brief welcome and introduction, the Campus Planning Committee (CPC) commenced its September 24, 2009 meeting. Provost DeLuca chaired the meeting an gave an address regarding the process and functions of the committee. There were three items on the agenda:

1) Approval of the May 14, 2009 Minutes--at this session the committee discussed --at length--the process of ranking projects. The CPC had intended to meet over the summer, but due to the pending appointment of incoming Provost, Alan Fish advised that the CPC suspend these discussions until fall.

2) David Miller, of UW System, gave an overview of the capital ranking process from the UW System point of view. In essence, he addressed whether or not any one UW campus disporpotionately benefits from the process. In short, campuses, such as UW-Madison, that are able to supplement their proposals with Gifts & Grants are more successful.

3) Alan Fish, of FP&M, gave a presentation on the UW-Madison 2011-17 Capital Budget and explained Madison's process of developing construction proposals. At his conclusion, the CPC voted on the proposals that we will hear during the Fall 2009. In addition, the CPC questioned the two-tier system and has marked the December 3rd meeting for a larger discussion on projects that lack Gifts and Grants.

With that, the meeting adjourned.

dr-m

Central BID Board

2009-10-06T10:31:00.003-05:00

The Central BID (Business Improvement District) Board has its monthly meeting from 12-1:30 on Thursday October 1st at the Madison Chamber of Commerce Building, 615 East Washington Ave. Meetings are typically the first Thursday of the month at this location.

The upcoming annual review of the Alcohol License Density Plan received a fair amount of attention, particularly following a borderline contentious exchange with City of Madison Alcohol Coordinator Katherine Plominski. The exchange was largely centered on the depth of detail and analysis the review requires. Specifically, multiple Board members expressed concern that use of statistical evidence should attempt to take other factors into account. For instance, does a decrease in house party reflect changing police enforcement priorities? Also, do total arrests and calls for service account for events such as the Mifflin Street Block party where total citations were down 200-300 or more this year?

The Board also received updates on planning for the Downtown Madison Family Trick or Treat that will take place on State Street and the Capitol Square from 11am-6pm on Friday, October 30th; possible streetscape improvements to the Capitol Square next summer (most notably replacing the old style benches new ones on Main Street); the status of the Peace Park project, which continues to move through the approval and public outreach processes.

Advisory Committee to the Offices of the Dean of Students

2009-10-03T17:49:00.003-05:00

The committee met Thursday October 1 at 225 Hiram Smith Hall. The meeting was chaired by Professor Jacqueline Hitchon

After introductions of new and former members Dean Berquam asked the committee to review different proposal for the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates. Among the proposals and proponents were:

Expansion of the Wisconsin Experience Seminar course. The proposal would create more sections for this course.
GUTS Greater University Tutoring Service.
McBurney Disability Resource Center
MSC
and others

(Copies of the proposals were returned to Dean Berquam)

Each member of the committee was handed out copies of each proposal and briefly read them. Dean Berquam introduced each one of the proposals and all members of the committee had the opportunity to comment on each proposal. Dean Berquam took note of all comments and opinions about each proposal. This process took most of the meeting's time.

An H1N1 flu update was given by Dean Berquam. The number of cases have been decreasing but it cannot be predicted what will happen in the future. Some members of the committee mentioned that pandemic plans were already in place in their departments while in others departments they were yet to be developed.

With that, the meeting adjourned.

Peace Park Neighborhood Meeting, Sept. 29th

2009-09-24T12:35:00.007-05:00

There will be a neighborhood meeting focused on the Peace Park redevelopment next Tuesday, September 29th at 7:00 at the Wisconsin Lutheran Temple, 220 W. Gilman St.

Peace Park, located across from Hawk's Bar and Grill on State Street, is scheduled for a large-scale makeover intended to turn the space into a more thriving community space. Here's a rendering of the current plan:

Applications and ASM Kickoff!

2009-09-11T02:22:00.003-05:00

There are over 65 student seats still available on Shared Governance committees! Check out the ASM Shared Governance website for a list of open seats and to download an applications: http://www.asm.wisc.edu/shared-governance.html!

Send all applications to melissa.dee.hanley@gmail.com by September 23rd at 5:00PM!

Also, the ASM Kickoff is Wednesday, September 16th at 7:00PM in the Student Activity Center! Come see what ASM is all about and the learn more about the goals of the other ASM committees this year! :)

Any questions can be directed to Shared Governance Chair, Melissa Hanley at melissa.dee.hanley@gmail.com.

Campus Planning Committee: Meeting of April 23, 2009

2009-04-29T15:23:00.006-05:00

After a brief welcome and introduction, the Campus Planning Committee (CPC) commenced its April 23, 2009 meeting. Interim Provost Julie Underwood chaired the meeting. Chancellor Martin was also in attendance an addressed the committee. There were five items on the agenda:

1) Approval of the March 26, 2009 Minutes.

2) Gary Brown, of FP&M, gave an on the Campus Master Plan. Highlights include that we currently have 13 projects under construction. Mr. Brown currently represent the University on the City of Madison's Zoning Code Update Committee. Currently, their is a proposal that would create a new sub-district for the University. This would allow the University to bypass certain commission during the approval of construction projects--as long as the proposed projects were in compliance with the Campus Master Plan.

3) Dan Okoli, of FP&M, gave a presentation on the role of the Design Review Board. Currently the board is charged with design review of upcoming projects as long as the review does not hinder production of add addition costs. A current issue is the maintenance of green space that is not associated with a construction project.

4) Al Fish, of FP&M, gave an update of projects proposed for the NIH portion of the Federal stimulus bill.

5) Al Fish, of FP&M, gave an update on the 2009-11 Capital Budget.

With that, the meeting adjourned.

dr-m

Reaccreditation

2009-04-22T13:52:00.003-05:00

What is reaccreditation and why should I care about it?
Reaccreditation is like a giant peer review of the entire university that makes sure the university is actually doing what it is supposed to do, educating students. It's sort of like quality control in manufacturing. You should care because it is our chance to show other universities and the government how awesome we are, and in a broader sense that we should continue to exist.

Student meeting with the reaccreditation team: Monday, April 27th, 3PM, Pyle 309

Wikipedia article on what accreditation is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_accreditation

The University's self-study: "For Wisconsin and the World: A Great Public University"
http://www.greatu.wisc.edu/

Article on the future of accreditation: "More Meaningful Accreditation"
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/04/22/accredit

Library Committee Update

2009-04-14T16:37:00.003-05:00

The library committee met today and largely discussed budgets and resource sharing services, such as inter-library loan (ILL) and document delivery services like Library Express.

The overall library budget has not been cut as much as we thought it might. It is only 1% rather than the anticipated 5% or more. While this is good, projects such as the preservation facility will not be funded in this year's state budget. This means that libraries will continue to be short on space for storage and student use. Some libraries with separate budgets, such as Ebling, are still looking at large cuts and the library system is looking at ways to consolidate services with them.

ILL has seen a massive increase in use. There has been an overall 141% increase in demand since 2001. The trend is increasingly towards articles, rather than returnable items such as books. Grad students and faculty have the highest proportional use, but undergrads dominate through sheer numbers. Turnaround time for Library Express services has decreased by about half as software and staffing have improved performance. There is some discussion about possibly capping the amount materials that can be requested because of expense. Discussion on this topic has been tabled until the next meeting.

What I would like to know from other students is how they feel about the library system not promoting this service. Because of the limited budget there is concern that promoting it would swamp the service. While this may be true, my concern is that there is a divide between those who know about the service and those who don't. I think this might be an issue because Library Express is an incredible service that many student may be missing out on simply because they don't know it exists. What do you think? Find out more about Library Express here if you haven't heard about it.

Other items brought up:

College Library is hosting an event with American Indian leaders on campus tonight (5:30) to compliment the PBS "We Shall Remain" series, the first episode aired last night.
Past American Library Association President Loriene Roy will present on indigenous libraries in the School of Library and Information Studies Commons (4th floor Helen C. White) on Wednesday, April 22, at 4:30PM.
MERIT library (formerly CIMC) is letting people have "Read" posters made with their own pictures on them in celebration of National Library Week.

Madison Initiative for Undergraduates

2009-04-14T15:42:00.003-05:00

Hopefully you've heard of the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates. If you haven't, get out from under your rock and check out http://madisoninitiative.wisc.edu/. Basically, the initiative is being proposed as a way to improve student services, provide more need-based financial aid, and hire more faculty through a tuition differential that will increase in-state tuition by $250 per year and out-of-state tuition $750 per year over the next four years.

Obviously this is a big deal, for students and the institution.

This Initiative could be very positive for students and the reputation of the University of Wisconsin. However, it will need a lot of oversight to work, most likely through a shared governance committee.

How do you see this oversight process working? What would you like the committee to be charged with? Who should be sitting at the table? Should there be a separate student subcommittee to evaluate student services proposals? How can students be engaged, active participants in this process, putting their tuition dollars to work in the most effective ways?

Comment on this post with your thoughts!

Student Policies and Non Academic Program Committee Updates (Feb 24th,2009)

2009-04-12T11:20:00.003-05:00

The SPNAPC had its 2nd meeting of the semester on Feb 24th, 2009.

The following is the agenda:

A. The offices of the Dean of Students Unit Overview

a. there are now 8 units under ODOS: ASM,ISS,LGBT, Mcburney Disability Center, Multi-culture Student Center, center for the first year experience, student advocacy and judicial affairs and the student organization office.

b. Each unit gave an short introduction of their function and problem.

B. ODOS Budget

a. Overview of the Budget: the division spent 93% of the budget for salaries.

b.7% is for Center for the First Year Experience (partial), Central Admin, ISS, Mcburney Disability Resource Center, MSC, Student Advocacy and Judicial Affairs, and Student Organization Office.

c. the budget does not include: ASM, LGBT and GUTS because of different funding streams

d. Strategies Employed:

1. Each unit identified their potential cuts at 8%

2. Discussed with constituents the impact

3. Met with stakeholders and asked for feedback

4. Awaiting final amounts from budget office

5. CLT will determine the cuts from each unit with their recommendations

e. Impact

1. No Special Assistant to help DOS

2. Reduce web position and student presence at SOAR tables and in hiring

3. Eliminate voicemail, copying, office supply purchases

Memorial Library Committee Meeting 4/9

2009-03-31T16:21:00.001-05:00

The MLC committee will have a meeting on 4/9. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks!

Campus Planning Committee: Meeting of March 23, 2009

2009-03-30T12:31:00.014-05:00

After a brief welcome and introduction, the Campus Planning Committee (CPC) commenced its March 23, 2009 meeting. Interim Provost Julie Underwood chaired the meeting. There were four items on the agenda:

1) Approval of the November 13, 2008 Minutes. During that meeting, the Dean of CALS reviewed the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative and Director of FP&M presented an update on Campus Facilities Communications.

2) Al Fish, of FP&M, gave an update on funding from the WI office of Recovery and Reinvestment. Because the actual congressional bill that authorizes funding was just passed in February 2009, the WI office is still sorting through the details and parameters. In essence, their are about 74 new competetive grants that are being reviewed and most of those are sponsored by the NIH, NSF and DOE. Further information on Wisconsin's efforts can be found at http://www.recovery.wi.gov/. Further information on the Federal effort can be found at http://www.recovery.gov/.

3) William Mellon, Associate Dean for Research Policy,. Graduate School, presented a presentation that demonstrates how the Graduate School intends to apply for Federal Stimulus Recovery Funds. The actual process began last fall and will occur in three phases. The targeted agencies are NIH, NASA, DOE and NSF.

4) Al Fish and Teresa Adam, of FP&M, presented an update of the SBC Higher Education Subcommittee. In Fall 2007, the CPC recommended five projects to UW System for a system wide competition of UW System construction. The five projects were:

21 North Park Street Purchase, $38.60 million
Utilities, $31.71 million
Integrated Dairy, Phase III, $2.76 million
Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research Middle Tower, $67 million
High Density Remote Shelving Facility, $9.7 million

The Integrated Dairy and the High Density Remote Shelving Facility were not funded in the 09-11 budget request, however, the University is still exploring other options for those projects.

With that, the meeting adjourned.

dr-m

CURAFA - March, 2009

2009-03-11T17:00:00.002-05:00

John Bechtol, from the Office of Veteran's Affairs and Services here on campus, talked to the Committee on Undergraduate Recruitment, Admissions, and Financial Aid about the steps he has been taking to help vets attending UW as well as his plans for future improvement.

Because of the new federal GI Bill (aka the Post 9/11 GI Bill), it is expected that universities will have an influx of vets in the next couple of years; John is doing his best to help UW prepare for this. He is working to improve UW's system of identifying veterans as well as guiding them through the process of receiving the higher education benefits.

During the final meetings of the semester, the committee will be compiling all of the information brought before the committee throughout the year in order to formulate recommendations to the Faculty Senate.

If anyone is looking for more information on what CURAFA has done this year or wants to give input on any issue this committee deals with, let me know.

Do we learn anything outside the classroom?

2009-03-11T13:37:00.004-05:00

Do you personally learn stuff outside of the classroom?
What do you learn outside of class? Is it the same stuff you learn in class?
When do you learn (internships, work study, daily life, student groups)?
How would you measure how much you learn?
How would you compare what you learn to what someone else learns?

Please brainstorm and share your ideas about/answers to the questions above!

The cutting edge of assessment is figuring out how to measure how and what students learn outside of the classroom, in the co-curricular, and then using that information to show government officials, alumni, prospective students, and other schools how awesome (or not) this school is compared to others.

This question comes from the University Assessment Council meeting yesterday. We discussed reaccreditation for much of the meeting, but we also broke into small groups to discuss the future of assessment at the UW.

University Academic Planning Council recaps

2009-03-11T13:04:00.005-05:00

The UAPC meets monthly, but thus far this year we’ve canceled as many meetings as we’ve had. The September meeting was canceled, so our first meeting was October. November was canceled, we met briefly in December, and January was canceled again. February was our first real meeting in a long time.

I’ll recap the December meeting quickly, which won't be hard because it was very short. It was the Thursday of finals week, and the big blizzard was right on our doorstep, so we were probably ready to move quick and get out of there. The item that’s of most interest to students was authorizing the implementation of a new BS in Personal Finance. We’ve always had a personal finance curriculum, as a track in the Consumer Science major. The current option covers all of the courses necessary for a graduate to obtain Certified Financial Planner status from the Fin. Planning professional society. The new major uses the same curriculum, but as an actual major will be easier for students to find, and be easier to explain to potential employers.

We closed the meeting with a commendation for Pat Farrell, as this was his last meeting as Provost and chair of the committee. We adopted the following: “The members of the UAPC greatly appreciate the leadership and dedication provided by Provost Patrick Farrell during his 2.5 years as Provost of the University of Wisconsin –Madison. Under Provost Farrell, the University of Wisconsin continued to excel as a world-class university, and Provost Farrell brought both integrity and vision to our University.”

We next met in February, with Julie Underwood, dean of the School of Education and now interim Provost as chair. Her meeting pace was a little quicker than we’ve been used to, but she’s very funny to match it and I have no doubt she’ll be a good chair for however long her tenure as interim provost runs.

We approved two items that of note to students. First, we agreed to a request to rename the Department of Rural Sociology to Community and Environmental Sociology. The name Rural Sociology didn’t cover much of what the department did, and the current students in the department are enthusiastic about the name change. The UW is one of just two universities to still use the name Rural Sociology. The department believes that the new name will help them attract more students to their program. (The Faculty Senate still has to sign off on the name change)

We also approved a new Certificate in German. Surprisingly, we don’t have many certificates in languages. With all of the emphasis in internationalization, language study is an important complimentary component to other majors, but short of getting a second major in the language, there are few options for getting recognition of those efforts. The hope is that by offering a certificate in German, we can help students who want to take more German than what was required to get retro-credits for high school German work, but don’t have the time or desire to get a full German major. This may take some pressure off the German major, because some students can opt for just the certificate. Other language departments will be watching to see how this works, and could potentially start to offer their own certificates.

One of the lessons I’ve learned is that we are not a speedy committee, and in February we took up a discussion of the makeup of the committee, which was an idea from October. We don’t have final approval over our makeup, but we have recommended to the University Committee (which is the executive committee of the Faculty Senate) that they amend our charter to make the student member a voting member of the committee. The UC may make a recommendation to the Faculty Senate, who may or may not take it up, but I’m hopeful and think that future student appointees will have a vote. I will obviously keep following this.

Finally, we discussed potential agenda items for upcoming meetings. At our March meeting, we’ll be discussing clinical/professional PhDs, and the distinctions between these degrees and the more traditional research PhDs. I’m also concerned about time-to-degree for PhD students, but we may not have the right data for that discussion until next year when the Council of Graduate Schools study finishes up. I want to keep on this, because I think we can make progress before we need that data. I also hope that we will be discussing transfer credit agreements and the processes involved in approving those yet this year.

In the past week or so, there has been a fair amount of news coverage about multiple majors and the implications they have on the University. This is something that is within the scope of the UAPC to discuss. It is not on our agenda for March, but I will get a sense if this is a discussion that is coming for a future meeting. Look for a post about multiple majors, hopefully near the end of spring break.

Union Council Meeting 3/3/09

2009-03-09T15:50:00.002-05:00

This meeting was dedicated to interviewing and selecting the Union/WUD officers for the '09-'10 school year. Those voted into position include:

President - Xiangyun Zhang
VP Public Relations - Kaitlin Koehler
VP Program Administration - Ade Afolayan

VP Project Management - Rebecca Gilsdorf

Their positions officially begin on May 7th, but their training begins as early as this week.

Applications for the 2009-2010 academic year are now available!

2009-03-02T14:11:00.002-06:00

The application for standing committee seats for the 2009-2010 academic year has just been posted online! Application guidelines have also been updated and posted. The application will be due on April 3, 2009, and interviews will take place in the middle of April.

As a reminder, Shared Governance Committee seats are a one-year appointment - every seat is open for you to apply for! If you have any questions reply to this post and I'll write back, otherwise email me!

Check out the application here!

Library and Childcare Committees

2009-03-01T11:19:00.004-06:00

University Libraries Committee:
The main issue highlighted at this month's University Library Committee meeting was anticipated budget cuts coming down the road. There is still some question about what form these will take. Nonetheless, the ULC is being proactive in looking at where the libraries can increase efficiency while maintaining services and what could be eliminated if need be. The anticipated cuts are somewhere in the range of 5-10% of the overall budget. What the numbers are will not be entirely clear until everything is worked out with the revised State budget and what impact the federal stimulus package will have. What the directors of the General Library System have committed themselves to, however, is to maintain innovation to meet the university's information needs. While the library system will have to slim down in some places, the overall attitude remains positive and hopeful for the future.

University Child Care Committee:
At the University Child Care Committee meeting we discussed broad array of issues, but perhaps the most prominent one was the problem of a lack of available child care on campus. There are many great programs at this university, such as the Child Care Tuition Assistance Program which makes it possible for parent students to better focus on their studies, but clearly more could be done. One of the concerns I raised with the committee was the difficulty of using the current after care program for students. After care is a service for parents who need to take evening classes, and it is something that may need more attention as graduate programs increasingly migrate their classes to evening timeslots to accommodate students who work full time. The facilities used for the after care program are excellent (the Little Chicks Daycare on Whitney Way and University), but they are also inconveniently located far from much of the campus. We discussed the possibility of finding another daycare east of campus that could provide services for students who live in that part of town. Ultimately, however, many agreed that there is a glaring need for modern daycare facilities located near the heart of the campus. When new buildings are drawn-up for campus the feasibility of having a daycare located in them is supposed to be explored. It seems, however, that increased pressure on decision-makers would help move this forward, since there are no solid prospects at this point. If UW-Madison wishes to continue to attract a diverse array of students they will have to invest more in child care infrastructure.

Perhaps this is an issue the Campus Planning Committee could be willing to take up?

Athletic Board Meeting- February 20th, 2009

2009-02-26T12:40:00.003-06:00

Hello fellow SGers,

We recently had an athletic board meeting and touched on many important things. The meeting began with an approval of the agenda and previous minutes from the January meeting. After this the new Men's Track & Cross Country coach Mick Byrne, spoke to the board about his journey to becoming the new UW coach and also his plans while coaching at UW.

Chair, Walter Dickey, presented information about the recent Big Ten Conference and noted that the main topics discussed all focused on the economy and how to save money in this tough economic climate. Later in the meeting, the board revised and discussed the proposed budget. Some things to note in the budget are that the support department cut their budget by 5%, capital projects were cut by 53%, operational sports budgets were reduced, salary increase requests were put on hold, and at the same time there were no ticket price increases. An interesting item of note is that of the 11 schools in the big ten, UW football ticket prices are third cheapest.

The AD, Barry Alvarez noted that the college game day here at UW for the Saturday night Ohio State game went extremely well. The staff at ESPN was thoroughly impressed with our fans behavior and cooperation. It also was important to host game day because the set and crew were broadcasting and reporting throughout the day from the center of the Kohl Center.

The itmes of most importance from this meeting are that on March 31st, there will be a public meeting to discuss the NCAA Self-Study Certification. This was the review of the operations of the UW athletic department. This meeting will allow for the public to voice concerns and ask questions about the certification process and results.

Finally, on March 9th at 5pm, in the Nicholas Suites at the Kohl Center we will be having a student focus group to discuss football ticket policies. It is extremely important that you show up and voice your opinions about the issues. On top of this it will be very informative to hear about the previous policies, current proposed policies, and why things are the way they are. Adam will send out an email and if you plan on attending you will need to RSVP to Megan Lee. Thats all folks see you soon.

Jake McGhee, Athletic Board Rep.

Union Design Committee 2-23-2009

2009-02-25T13:10:00.001-06:00

The Union Design Committee met Monday to discuss decorating themes in the club, meeting rooms, WUD area, Badger Hall, the theater, student activity center, and the information technology center. Also, last week the Building Commission approved construction on the new South Campus Union, and construction has officially begun.

In the basement club area, ideas were presented of a vintage themed room with old badger memorabilia and pictures. Color schemes include chocolate browns, deep reds, and gold.

Color scheme ideas for the following rooms included:
- Meeting Rooms: Cool colors such as greens and blues
- WUD area: Cooler colors accented with chocolate brown
- Student Activity Center: Funky colors; possibly purple

Badger Hall is set to have wood floors, detailed light fixtures, and wood-paneled dividing walls. The walls separating Badger Hall and the pre-function area may be designed to lift into the ceiling to open the area between the pre-function space and Badger Hall. Currently, the pre-function space is set to have a lightly patterned carpet of a color yet to be determined.

The theater will consist of a darker color palette including badger red seats, concrete floors beneath the seats, dark grey acoustic walls, and soft seating with cup holders. It is set to hold more than 350 people.

Because of the rapid rate at which technology is changing, not much time was spent discussing the information technology center. Group study areas with large LCD screens, as well as a computer bar were among the ideas that were brought up, along with relaxed cool colors and soft seating along the windows. Sustainable materials were brought up to be used for the desk counter top.

Any questions or comments would be greatly appreciated as this information can then be relayed back to the committee. Thanks!

University Assessment Council

2009-02-24T09:48:00.002-06:00

The Assessment Council met last Tuesday, we discussed the mission of the committee, not much to report.

Last semester I remember discussing use of clickers in classrooms, here is an interesting article on the issue. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/02/24/bruff

PACE Coalition 2/17/09

2009-02-20T19:57:00.002-06:00

The PACE Coalition met on Tuesday, February 17th. Several issues were discussed:

The Recovery Foundation, an organization that funds treatment for financially needy people suffering from alcohol and other drug addiction, is hosting Jam Fest next Friday, February 27th at 6pm at the Loft. This fundraiser will feature a raffle and performances by several bands. Tickets are $10 and there is a $5 student discount.

The Wisconsin Union Directorate funds a grant supporting late-night events on campus, with the goal of providing fun alternatives to drinking. However, a recent survey of funding recipients revealed that most of these events end before midnight. WUD members hope to determine why this pattern has arisen and what can be done to encourage alcohol-free events that run later into the night.

After hosting a successful campus symposium this past fall, the Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Taskforce is planning another symposium to be held at the Pyle Center in September. This event will be open to the public.

Revisions are being made to the annual College Health Behaviors survey, which addresses binge-drinking on campus. The survey will be pared down to encourage more participation and questions are being formulated to determine how much students spend on alcohol, as available data on this subject is extremely outdated.

University police have already begun a dialogue with students and Mifflin Street residents concerning the annual Mifflin Street block party. Issues discussed at the first meeting include whether to have a band, whether to pursue sponsorships, and what the police role should be.

University Honors Committee 2/19/09

2009-02-20T17:06:00.002-06:00

The University Honors Committee met on Thursday, February 19th. Several issues were discussed:

Applications for the undergraduate research symposium are due TODAY. Participants will present their research at the Memorial Union on Thursday, April 16th. An additional poster session will be held at the Capitol on Wednesday, April 22nd, where several students will be selected to represent the University at a system-wide event.

The Churchill Scholarship funds one year of post-baccalaureate research in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics at the University of Cambridge. A UW-Madison student has not received the award since the 1980s, due in part to the fact that most eligible students already have plans to attend graduate school and regard a year-long research hiatus as a break they cannot afford to take. These recruitment problems have caused the Churchill Foundation to consider revoking UW-Madison's invitation to nominate students for the award. A representative from the foundation is visiting campus on Thursday, March 5th to gauge the situation and will hopefully jump-start some interest in the program. An information session will be held for students, and the foundation representative will visit various campus laboratories that host undergraduate researchers. The ultimate goal is to find new ways to enhance our recruitment efforts and ensure that this awesome opportunity is not lost to students.

About 500 students have responded to the first of three online surveys addressing the Honors experience at UW-Madison (about a 25% response rate, which is fairly high considering that no incentive was offered for completing the survey). This is part of an Honors Program assessment that seeks to determine how the Honors experience aligns with student expectations. Subsequent surveys will be targeted towards incoming students and alumni.

A proposal for a campus-wide Honors commencement reception was drafted. Such a reception would offer greater recognition for the achievements of Honors graduates and would provide an opportunity to create good will among a population of prospective donors to the University. The next steps will be to find funding sources and to coordinate a workable time for all of the programs involved. We hope to organize the first Honors reception for fall commencement in December.

The Pathways Scholars Program is an 8-week intensive summer research program for upper-level undergraduates. Applications are due by Friday, March 13th. For more information, contact Amy Sloane at alsloane@wisc.edu or visit the program website: http://www.lssaa.wisc.edu/psp/

Letters and Science Curriculum Committee

2009-02-16T12:46:00.003-06:00

The L&S Curriculum Committee met last Monday to discuss new, deleted and modified courses in addition to a discussion about possibly limiting the number of majors a student can have.
Recently, due to tight budget constraints and mounting administrative work, Dean Sandefur and the rest of the college staff have begun discussing the options available to them to in terms of limiting majors. The number of double, triple and four majors has been increasing every year with Spanish being the most common double major. There are many different aspects to this conversation including the fact that recently students who have one major seem to think that two, three and four make them that much more marketable after college. As of our last meeting there were no decisions made, Dean Sandefur just wanted feedback so he work further on this problem.

It would be helpful, to get more student feedback so I can bring it back to the committee next Monday. If you want anymore information on the topic you can posts those requests here too and I'll check back soon. Thanks.

Campus Safety Committee: 2/11/2009

2009-02-12T02:35:00.001-06:00

The Campus Safety Committee met on Wednesday February 11th to discuss newspaper collaboration efforts, false alarms, and Wisc Alerts.

During the last meeting of the fall semester 2008, the idea arose to contact the campus newspapers about possibly posting a weekly column with the most prevalent three to five crimes each week, along with preventative safety tips and ideas. The idea of is to inform students what and where crime trends are taking place.

False fire alarms are often pulled in large apartment buildings near campus. This was brought to the committee’s attention, where the idea of having landlords give student’s names to the University who have pulled a false alarm, and allowing the University to take disciplinary actions. Another idea discussed was talking to the landlords of these apartment buildings about installing security cameras and taking other preventative measures.

Currently students who have signed up for WiscAlerts will receive a text message when an unsafe, widespread event has taken place on or near the campus that puts students in direct danger. The latest WiscAlert was sent out earlier this semester regarding a gas main break. WiscAlerts only informs students of major events on campus that may cause harm to students.

Any feedback, ideas, or sentiments that anyone has regarding the usefulness of the collaboration with the news papers, disciplinary and preventative measures with false fire alarms, and WiscAlerts would be great appreciated for our next meeting on March 11th.

During this meeting I will make sure to bring up the campus safe services and the student desire to have them expanded.

Union Design Committee Meeting: 2/9/2009

2009-02-12T02:34:00.002-06:00

The Union Design Committee met on Monday February 9th to discuss additional first floor revisions and the percent for art program.

First floor revisions included having a single fireplace facing the coffee shop area while having the coffee shop seating on a raised platform. The height of the platform has yet to be determined. Revisions also included moving the hotel desk from the east wall to a more centralized location along the main walkway.

Percent for Art is a program created during the 1980’s to include artwork in public buildings for the purpose of improve the aesthetic and beautify the building. Two-Tenths of one percent (.2%) of the total funding of the project is set aside for artwork in highly-trafficked public buildings.

Jill Sebastian was the artist chosen for the artwork in the new South Campus Union. At this meeting, brainstorming was done to determine on which level the artwork should be placed, what it should incorporate, ideas for materials, etc.

If there are any ideas, comments, or concerns, please bring these to my attention so that I can inform the committee at our next meeting, all input and ideas are useful!

Union Design Committee Meeting: 2/2/2009

2009-02-12T02:34:00.001-06:00

The Union Design Committee met on Monday February 2nd to discuss revisions of the first floor designs.

On the first floor near the entrance facing engineering hall, the coffee shop seating was expanded, while two fireplaces and soft seating were placed on either side of the main walkway running through the building. Seating in the Sun Garden (Formally known as the Winter Garden) was reduced, while the restaurants were moved from a kiosk feel to a more restaurant style feel.

Please respond with any questions, comments, concerns, or general feelings.

Committee on Undergraduate Recruitment, Admissions, and Financial Aid - January Meeting

2009-02-06T11:23:00.005-06:00

Our committee has been accumulating information in order to make recommendations to the Office of Admissions by the end of this semester. Each meeting is meant to gather information about the various aspects of this committee (recruitment, admissions, financial aid) through talking with people knowledgeable in each area. Here is a summary of the January meeting:

Kathy Cramer Walsh, Political Science - How Wisconsinites View UW-Madison

Wisconsinites are proud of our sports, marching band, and research

They are not happy with admissions, cost, and partying.

Many Wisconsinites view UW faculty as lazy, liberal, and elitist.

Kathy found that not as many rural students apply to UW but those who apply do very well in both admissions to UW and perform equal to others in grades once here.

I'm hoping some of you reading this will have suggestions as to how we can better reach out to the rest of Wisconsin...

As of Monday, February 2, the Office of Admissions and the Office of Visitor & Information Programs have been combined into 1 office, headed by the Director of the Office of Visitor & Information Programs.