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Faculty to look at snow issues

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The University of Wisconsin Faculty Senate passed a resolution creating a committee to review snow removal procedures in response to the troubles experienced during this past winter’s record amount of snowfall.

The ad hoc committee will be made up of members from UW faculty, staff and students, and will report to the Faculty Senate in the fall with recommendations to avoid the “problematic” conditions previously experienced on campus.

The committee will follow the procedures used during the 10-year departmental reviews that each UW academic department is subject to, examining current policies and procedures for campus snow removal.

“One important factor in the inadequate campus snow removal of this past winter is that the physical plant is under-resourced with respect to both staff and equipment,” said UW computer sciences professor Robert Meyer, who introduced the resolution.

Meyer added the goals of the committee will be to advocate for the UW physical plant to receive sufficient resources to “provide for at least one safe route to each destination on campus” and to bring “fresh ideas” to the snow removal issue.

The Senate meeting grew a little heated when Athletic Board Chair Walter Dickey presented the board’s report. Some members questioned Dickey about the Athletic Department’s distribution of funds from media contracts and the procedure used to appoint Bret Bielema as the football coach after Barry Alvarez’s retirement.

Dickey said the distribution of funds from media contracts, like the one UW has with the Big Ten Network, is not decided by the Athletic Board.

“If you got a beef with the way it’s distributed, you should take it up with the chancellor,” Dickey said.

According to Dickey, he was not the chair of the Athletic Board when Bielema was hired and he could not respond to questions about the process defying UW’s hiring procedures. He added UW agricultural professor Bruce Jones was the chair at the time.

Jones addressed the Senate briefly, saying he was not consulted about Bielema’s hiring at all and only learned by phone two hours before the press conference to announce the hire.

The Senate passed a resolution to change the name of the Campus Diversity Plan Oversight Committee to Campus Diversity and Climate Committee. According to the committee’s proposal, this was important because the committee’s job is to strive “to create an environment where each individual feels respected, valued and supported.”

Faculty policies and procedures were clarified to make sure retired professors can only participate in the department executive committees in which they are tenured for at least 20 percent of a full academic year.