The University of Wisconsin’s Faculty Senate heard annual reports from the Committee on Access and Accommodation in Instruction as well as the Information Technology Committee and reviewed an amendment on UW-Madison Faculty Policies and Procedures at a meeting Monday.

Accessibility Committee

Morton Gernsbacher, chair of the Committee on Access and Accommodation in Instruction and UW psychology professor, said the committee served as consultants to the UW McBurney Disability Resource Center as they revisited their flexibility-accommodation policy for students with unpredictable health conditions.

The committee worked with the Human Resource Redesign Team to ensure that the diversity provided by disability was attended to in the redesign, he said.

The committee also interfaced with the Accessibility and Usability Committee to ensure the accessibility of the UW’s libraries and also served as consultants for Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute to ensure three disability-related items for collecting data on faculty work-life balance, he said.

“Our largest project involved constructing and administering a campus-wide survey of students with disabilities, students without disabilities, instructional staff and faculty and administrative and non-instructional staff,” Gernsbacher said. “Prior to designing our campus-wide survey, we solicited information from more than 20 peer institutions to ascertain whether their campuses had ever collected such survey.”

Information Technology Committee

Katrina Forest, chair of the Information Technology Committee, also submitted the committee’s annual report for 2012-13. ITC, a shared governance committee which addresses all information technology issues, including those involved with research, teaching and administration, has focused “big efforts” on research computing, Forest said.

“Over the last year, some of the most important things we have done have been to encourage and strengthen the visibility of their overall committee and the strong relationship we have with the campus chief officer,” Forest said.

In the last year, ITC launched the Advanced Computing Infrastructure, a campus-wide computing resource, in addition to reviewing eText pilots, Forest said.

Amendment to UW Faculty Policies and Procedures

The meeting also heard the first reading of the amendment on UW Faculty Policies and Procedures. The Ad Hoc committee was tasked with reviewing course proposals across the four faculty divisions and recommending whether a standing University Curriculum Committee should be established, Jolanda Vanderwal Taylor, chair of the Ad Hoc Interdivisional Curriculum Committee said.

The Ad Hoc Interdivisional Curriculum Committee and all four divisional executive committees have voted to move the course approval process from the divisional executive committees to a new committee, the University Curriculum Committee, she said.