Joint Southeast Campus Area Committee - July 19, 2010

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

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

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

Joe Klosterman, jfklosterman@wisc.edu

Vice Provost for Information Technology Ron Kraemer moving on

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Erik Paulson

Programs Committee- School of Education

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

Two courses in the Educational Psychology Department were reviewed.

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

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

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

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

This meeting was the last of the session.

April 26 Meeting of the Letters & Science Curriculum Committee

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PACE Coalition - 20 April 2010

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

University Honors Committee - 15 April 2010

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

Center for the First Year Experience Committee

Hello World,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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





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

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

Good Luck on Finals!
-Jasmine "Jay" Savoy

Dean of Students' Advisory Board April 15th

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

Programs Committee- School of Education

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

The agenda consisted of course changes.

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

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

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

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

Campus Diversity and Climate Committee Meeting, April 13, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

Submitted by Frank Honts

Assessment and the University of the Future

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

April 12 L&S Curriculum Committee

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

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

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

Advisory Board for the Office of Equity and Diversity

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

Meeting date: 03/26/2010

Main discussions:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted by: Fatemah Panahi

Office of the Registrar Advisory Board Meeting

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SGC Minutes

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

Have a good break everyone!

Health Care Advisory Committee - 15 March 2010

Budget Update

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

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

Mental Health Models:

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

Student Health Survey:

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

March 22 L&S Curriculum Committee

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Emily Kesner ekesner@wisc.edu

Joint Southeast Campus Area Committee - March 15, 2010

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

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

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

Joe Klosterman, jfklosterman@wisc.edu

Programs Committee- School of Education

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall, this was a very productive meeting.

Contact me at: jabemis@wisc.edu