1. How Does UWC Senate Work?
Quick start guide for senators
2017

2. Overarching structure/membership
Voting members of Senate made up of three “councils” and student representatives
Faculty Council—18 members (ranked/tenure-line faculty)
Academic Staff Council—8 members (instructional academic staff and academic staff, aka instructors working off the tenure track and staff such as instructional designers, academic advisors, academic librarians, or other positions with an academic component)
University Staff Council—5 university staff members (positions such as administrative assistance, custodial positions, etc)
Student senators: 3 senators, elected by the Student Governance Council

3. Elections and Representation
Senators are elected by their constituent groups.
The faculty senators are elected by faculty on their campuses.
Academic staff senators are selected from a Colleges-wide election held electronically.
University staff at each campus (including Online) and Central elect a local representative. Those reps then elect the five senators from among themselves.

4. UW Colleges Constitution Senate Bylaws Senate Policies
Governing Documents
UW Colleges Constitution
Senate Bylaws
Senate Policies
121: Senate Procedures

5. What Policies Cover
Existing policies cover several areas and are numbered according to the focus of those areas:
100-level policies are General Institutional Policies
200-level policies are Curricular Policies
300-level policies are Instructional Policies
400-level are the Policies Regarding Students
500-level policies are the Policies for Teaching Staff
600-level policies are the FPPs, the Faculty Personnel Policies
700-level is Instructional Academic Staff Personnel Policies
800-level policies are Administrative Academic Staff Personnel Policies
900-level policies are University Staff Personnel Policies

6. Standing Committees (elected senators)
Senate has four Constitutional Committees; they do much of the 'heavy lifting' of Senate policy work and are comprised only of elected senators.
Steering
Budget
Academic Policy
Faculty Professional Standards
Each senator is a member of a Council (depending on their constituency--faculty, staff, student) AND a constitutional committee.

7. Policy work process
Policy work happens through several routes: sometimes items come to Steering from constituents aka someone has a question, issue, or concern about a policy or institutional process. They write to Steering.
Sometimes institutional changes necessitate a change to policy (regionalization, a system-level change, a new program, degree adjustments)
Sometimes are generated by Steering, or brought to Steering from administration
SAPC and Professional Standards can also initiate/propose policy changes. They aren't limited to charges that come from Steering.

8. Steering Committee
Steering serves as a sort of 'hub' of Senate. There are nine voting members--five faculty, as well as two academic staff (specifically the lead academic staff senator and AS representative to the UW System), the lead university staff senator, and the lead student senator. Nonvoting members include the US rep to UW System, and representation from the chairs and deans. Meetings are also regularly attended by the provost, chancellor, and associate vice chancellors
Policy changes are generally directed to Steering who then 'steers' them to committees that do much of the revising and writing work

9. Senate Academic Policy Committee (SAPC)
SAPC is often the busiest committee and one that has significant responsibility for crafting strong, well-written policies that will cover a wide range of institutional and curricular issues.
SAPC typically receives a charge from Steering (or identifies an issue with a policy), works within its committee to make changes to the policy, then "introduces" that policy to full Senate. Once introduced...
Senators bring those items to their constituents through collegium or distributed discussions (such as university and academic staff)

10. Faculty Professional Standards Committee (FPSC)
Like SAPC, FPSC is responsible for a range of "in the trenches" policy work, though they are responsible primarily for those policies that have to do with faculty personnel--evaluating faculty; tenure, retention, and promotion; processes requesting new positions; merit policies; evaluating chairs; granting emeritus status.
Essentially, anything that has to do with evaluating faculty performance in a range of areas will be tackled by this committee.
Like SAPC, FPSC also revises and introduces policies to the full Senate meeting for representatives to take back to their collegia and vote on them. More often, FPSC introduces revisions at the Faculty Council meetings; faculty senators later discuss those with faculty colleagues on their campuses.

11. Senate Budget Committee (SBC)
The Senate Budget Committee consults regularly with the vice chancellor and associate vice chancellor of Administration and Finance
Senate Budget has most recently worked on developing financial priorities for investment of available funds and taking specific positions on resource prioritization

12. Council Work: Academic Staff, Faculty, and University Staff-Specific Issues
Many issues within the institution are relevant to particular constituency groups: academic staff, faculty, university staff. In those cases, the policy items go to "Councils"
Faculty Council: address issues of curriculum and evaluation of faculty
Academic Staff Council: addresses issues related to a range of issues that are under the auspices of instructional and non-instructional academic staff
University Staff Council: addresses issues that are relevant to the positions in this classification such as nonacademic library services, administrative support, or facilities and grounds.
All of these groups can draft and vote on policies relevant to their council.

13. Bylaws Committees
Senate Bylaws specify the duties and responsibilities and membership criteria for several committees that are "extant" to but under the auspices of Senate; examples include:
Senate Assessment Committee
Senate Professional Development Committee
Senate Inclusive Excellence Committee
Senate Steering solicits nominations for these groups from the wider UWC community annually.

14. How Policies Are Changed: Introductions
Policy changes (or new policies) go through a three-stage process:
Introduction:
At a meeting of the Senate (or Council), which generally happens four times annually, an item is "Introduced." Senators ask any questions or get clarification on the policy implications so that they can knowledgeably answer queries from their campus collegium or other constituency.

15. How Policies Are Changed: Collegium and Constituency Feedback
Senators then bring the proposed policy change to their collegia for feedback. They do this in different ways:
circulating all documents in advance, discussing briefly with campus colleagues at Collegium
holding a special, separate listening session for especially significant items (large changes in policy or practice)
summarizing key policy changes at the meeting
Academic Staff Council gets feedback directly from academic staff through or electronic surveys without going through collegium and 800-level policies affecting academic staff are not voted on at collegium.

16. How Policies Are Changed: Adoption
At the subsequent face to face Senate meeting (or the appropriate Council, depending on the item), senators will hear a motion to adopt the new item, then discuss, then vote. Sometimes the item passes; sometimes it is rejected and sent back to committee for further work.
Though senators representing campuses and constituencies typically vote to reflect the will of their constituencies, sometimes discussion on the floor (or simply a strong different vote of conscience) changes a senator's vote. There is no policy on this, just practice.
Something to remember is that policies are ever-evolving documents: as they are implemented/applied, new items of clarification become apparent. This is why policies regularly come back to Collegia.

17. How Policies Are Changed: Chancellor Approval
The last stage of policy change is the approval by the Chancellor. After he or she approves the policy change, it is made official and posted on the Senate website:
Word version of the policies and forms for Curricular changes are available in the Sharepoint site:
aspx#/SitePages/Home.aspx

18. How Meeting Structures Work
F2F Senate Meetings usually go like this:
Early morning travel
Standing Committee meetings (2 hours)--policy work and discussions often take place here
Sometimes a presentation or discussion
Lunch
Full Senate (Reports from committee chairs, administrative representatives, and others who may be working on special projects or initiatives; policy adoptions and introductions; other business of Senate interest)
Council meetings (Faculty Council, Academic Staff Council, University Staff Council)

19. How Senate Interacts with Other Bodies
Academic Departments: Senate policy governs many processes such as tenure, promotion, curriculum review, student complaints, etc. The academic department chairs have a representative to Senate who serves on the Steering committee and attends full Senate meetings. That person is non-voting.
Campus leadership: The campuses are affected by Senate policies and also have a representative to Senate--until now, a campus dean--who serves on the Steering committee and attends full Senate meetings. That person is non-voting.
Academic Affairs or Central Office: representatives from the Central office in Madison, including the provost, Associate Vice Chancellors of Academic Affairs and Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, the Chief Financial Officer, and others will regularly attend Senate to provide updates on institutional matters.

20. Most Important Governing Documents to Consult
Constitution:
Senate Bylaws:
Senate Procedures: uploads/employees/senate/policies/after_April_2017/100_level/ ip121_senate_procedures_ pdf

21. How do I get involved?
Talk with a senator! You can find the membership list here:
Or ask an Academic Staff Liaison or a University Staff Council member.
Contact the Assistant to the Senate, Linda Baum for more info or the Senate Steering Chair, Holly Hassel

22. Other FAQs (TBD)