University of Wisconsin Platteville

Engineering Mathematics & Science Alumni Chapter

Meeting Minutes

Saturday, April 7, 2001

10:00 AM

149 Ottensman Hall

Members Present: Members Not Present: Guests Attending:

John Belken Kim Houston Barb Daus, Director, Alumni Services

Laura Fenley Tim Marko Jay Jochman, Theta Tau

Lori Grady Kurt Moeller, Theta Tau

Mike Jansen Devri Schumacher, Theta Tau

Dan Kaul Rich Shultz, Dean, College of EMS

Dave Kaul

Tammy Salmon

Bob Schmitt

I. Call to Order

President Kaul called the meeting to order at 10:05 am.

II. Introductions

Members introduced themselves.

III. Approval of Minutes

Motion to approve the September 2000 meeting minutes was made by Director Kronser and seconded by Second Vice-President Grady. Motion passed.

IV. Report from Theta Tau on M Ball and Geode

Kurt Moeller, Devri Schumacher and Jay Jochman reported:

· The Geode will be coming out this spring. Waiting for a few more articles. The drop-dead deadline is April 18, 2001. Articles should be submitted to Kurt Moeller (MoellerK@uwplatt.edu). President Kaul will submitting an article for the board and Barb Daus will send an update on the supporting member program.

· M Ball is tonight. Last year was a large participation year because of the anniversary celebration. This year’s theme is “Remembering the 80’s.”

· Clarification was made on the financial support for M Ball and the Geode. The budget shows that $600 is allocated for M Ball and $500 for the production of the Geode. The printing and postage is estimated at $1500.

· Motion to approve the financial allocations as stated above made by Director Kronser, seconded by Past President Jansen. Motion approved.

V. Reports

Dean (Dr. Shultz):

· International initiatives are off to a good start. One for one exchanges with Darmstadt, Germany and Galway, Ireland. We currently have two students in Darmstadt and one in Galway. We are also looking to set up faculty exchanges in these locations. We will be visiting Sweden and Turkey during the summer to investigate exchanges there. We will have faculty member exchanges to Taiwan and China in fall 2001. John Deere Corporation may be helping to support exchanges with Turkey. All work allows students to have an engineering experience that will count toward their degree requirements.

· Fox Valley initiative involves offering UWP engineering degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering degrees in cooperation with UW-Fox Valley. A need assessment was completed, a budget formed, and the UW System and the Board of Regents have placed the initiative into the budget. However due to change in Wisconsin governor, the budget was reduced and may be a setback to the initiative. We are doing some intense lobbying with the governor and legislators. We are working very hard to get this back into the budget ($500,000/year). Once approved, we will hire four new faculty members, they will be rotated and will assist in delivering UWP engineering degrees to the area.

· The Master of Engineering program is growing. Currently, there are thirteen students taking courses and eighteen to twenty are in the process of enrolling for the degree. Students are a combination of alumni and non-alumni from Wisconsin and across the nation. Program will be completely developed one year from now.

· UWP is facing the largest freshman class in fall 2001, particularly within the College of EMS. The College of EMS has admitted about 800 students, which is an increase of 75 students from the previous two-year high. About 50% of entire freshman class will be in the College of EMS. We appreciate the growing enrollment, however, we will face challenges in allocating rooms, adding multiple sections and hiring adjuncts to teach these extra sections.

· President Kaul inquired with Dean Shultz about the use of expertise of the supporting members for the College of EMS. Classroom guest speakers at UWP have typically been done on a one-on-one basis. The College would be interested in having a list of supporting members who may be willing to participate in classroom activities. Supporting members can be used to help facilitate senior design projects. It would be useful to have a contact person at each company so that UWP may call them when looking for a project for senior design.

The best way to facilitate senior design projects is through personal contact. Sponsoring companies must be willing to mentor and be an active part of the educational process. Projects are typically not high priority projects, but useful and of interest to the sponsoring company. A discussion on the types of projects and the need ensued. There is going to be a large need for more projects for seniors. Shultz will ask department chairs to put together a list of past projects as an example to follow. President Kaul will include this topic in the Geode article from the board. Each department has a senior design coordinator however, companies may call the department chair to inquire about senior design projects. Firms working with UWP senior design classes should consider making both a junior and senior employee as the contact; this allows the junior member to be mentored during this process. This is just another opportunity to benefit from the experience.

· Director Kronser as about the possibility of having people from industry visit the classroom to teach courses. UWP has had some team teaching with people from industry, but never without a UWP instructor. These situations take place on a one-to-one basis.

· President Kaul passed out an article about what companies are expecting of graduates. There may be some trends that Dean Shultz and the college can use for future recruitment and marketing.

Alumni Office (Barb Daus):

· Outreach to Southwest Wisconsin communities continues. Last spring, we hosted a weeklong program in Darlington to connect with community. In fall 2000 we had a similar program in Lancaster and this spring (2001) with Monroe. Large displays are placed into the businesses and programs are held to remind people they are alumni and to attract people to the university.

· Programs in Dane County have also been done. Would like to know if the chapters at UWP would like to do more specific programming for EMS graduates in the Dane County Area. Also beginning a program in the Fox River Valley similar to the Dane county program.

· Homecoming planning is under way for October 5 and 6, 2001. September 14 and 15, 2001 is Alumni Reunion Weekend and State Fair activities are continuing.

· The new student and technology center construction is on schedule and is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year. The center is planned to be fully operational by January 2002.

· Will be breaking ground for a new green house – location behind the stadium.

· The Wisconsin Agricultural Stewardship Program has been receiving a lot of press. This is a three-part program with a cost of $8 million. The UW-System approved only two new full-time positions in the System and those two are at UW-Platteville for this initiative.

· Student Recruitment visits went well in the Fox Valley and Waukesha.

· Many new faculty have been hired in the college.

· Second Vice-President Grady inquired about the online programs at UW-Platteville. Currently, there are programs: Master of Engineering, Project Management, Business Administration and Criminal Justice. There is no real movement toward additional programs at this time. There are however two new programs at UWP, an administration component for licensure as a principal and a technology education degree.

Faculty Liaison (Bob Schmitt):

· ABET visit was successful. A final report from ABET will be submitted this summer.

Secretary Report (Tammy Salmon):

· Listing of board members has been updated. Updates and revisions were solicited.

VI. Committee Reports

Finance Committee (John Belken):

· No report. Material for Treasurer needs to be obtained from Past Treasurer Wandsnider.

Special Events Committee (Jeff Kronser):

· Feedback from the fish fry was good. Need to advertise as a dinner and not a fish fry. Governor Dodge is already booked for this fall. Barb Daus will look into getting a schedule of the 2002 Homecoming so that we can make the reservation ahead of time. Group discussed options for location: Timbers, Country Club, Beaux Arts Room, Arthur Haus. Preferred location is the Beaux Arts Room on campus. Faculty Liaison Schmitt will look into booking the Beaux Arts Room.

The alumni dinner invitations should have a request for alumni and students to develop a brief statement regarding their experiences at UWP, new things in the firm, etc. to share at the dinner.

We will work to obtain door prizes for the Alumni Dinner. Director Dan Kaul brought some samples to share with the board. The Alumni Board will spend about $50 on gifts from UWP (shirt from alumni, certificate from bookstore, etc.). May solicit from supporting members, would have to solicit on invitations.

· The Brat Bash at Homecoming is going well. Each year a different student group serves the food. The board sees no reason for changes. Cost last year was: $75 to student group, $108 to Dicks Supermarket and $107.40 to Weber’s.

· Is there anything that the alumni board can do at graduation to recruit students? If possible, an alumni board member may want to attend the Order of the Engineer (May 5 and December 15). Maybe solicit alumni to participate in getting inducted into the order of the engineer.

Nominating committee (Dan Kaul):

· Other people who have expressed an interest in being on the board are George Hillert, Mike Felker, and Rob Ehlers. Tim Marko’s term will expire this fall. Dan Kaul will contact him to see if Director Marko is interested in another term. Would like to expand membership. Currently, there are no ME or EE representatives.

Honors and Awards Committee (Laura Fenley):

· Discussion on choosing emeriti faculty for Photographs in Ottensman Hall took place. A lot of issues were discussed with the selection process and the purpose of the honor. Currently all of the eligible WIT teachers are represented on the “Wall of Fame” in Ottensman Hall. Director Kronser made a motion, seconded by First Vice-President Fenley to end the Hall of Fame honor with the last photograph (Norm Powers) completing the original intention of the program. Motion passed.

The Awards committee will meet to determine a new program to honor emeriti faculty. Report will be given at the next meeting. Additional topics to consider at committee meeting are Dean’s plaque, choosing a recipient of the EMS alumni award (presented at fish fry), and the development of a descriptive plaque for Hall of Fame.

It was noted that the other awards alumni are eligible for are the Outstanding Recent Alumnus (presented at the December graduation ceremony) and the Distinguished Alumnus Award (presented at May graduation ceremony), which are university wide awards.

Also noted was the procedure and number of EMS Alumni Board Scholarships. Two $400 scholarships are given to engineering students and are chosen by the EMS faculty scholarship committee. Three $100 Geode scholarship writing awards (chosen by Geode advisor) are also given out. All recipients are recognized at the Alumni Dinner every fall.

Membership Committee (Mike Jansen):

· Past-President Jansen has looked into purchasing items for graduating seniors as a gift from the alumni board. The board budgeted $500 for this purpose. Past-President Jansen proposed that 250 gifts per year would be needed. The cost per gift, given the budget, would be $2. Ideas for such a gift include, mouse pads, wrist pads, portfolio, clip board, etc.

· Motion made by Secretary Salmon and seconded by Treasurer Belken to approve $500-$750 for senior gift for Dec. 2001 and May 2002 graduates. Motion passed. The gift should be presented during fall alumni board events. Barb Daus and Past-President Jansen will work together to select gift. Distribution of gifts will be determined once the gift is determined. If members have ideas about the type of gift they should be given to Past-President Jansen and/or Barb Daus.

· Another idea to recognize students is a program recognizing student leadership in EMS. Board will discuss at future meetings.

Discussion from March 17^th working meeting (Dave Kaul):

Questions from the working meeting related to Supporting Member Program.

· Newsletter to supporting members as an update to alumni board? Sense is that a newsletter may not be as useful as other things

· Director Kronser developed a survey to be potentially used for supporting members. Board reviewed survey.

· Board discussed the idea of resume books of graduating students for supporting members. A number of issues have to be addressed politically in order to make this happen. Currently, Chi Epsilon, the Civil Engineering Honor Society is the only student organization doing this. Other student groups could use this as a fundraiser. Need to investigate how to expand this to other degree granting programs in EMS.

· Secretary Salmon suggested the following, 1). Speak with Chi Epsilon about what they do and how they do it. 2). Write a letter to officers and advisors to announce the idea. 3). Make personal contact with each group to see if there is any interest. 4). Provide a list of supporting members to the college for the faculty to tap. Past-President Jansen will call Dr. Nelson, advisor to Chi Epsilon, about the resume book that is currently being created. Barb Daus will ask Carol Beals, Program Assistant in the Dean’s Office, for list of student officers and advisors.

· Consider inviting supporting members for mock interviews.

· Survey to supporting members will be distributed. If anyone has corrections or additions, submit them to Director Kronser. It was suggested that a data sheet be attached for companies to fill out to provide a list of contacts at the companies for UWP. President Kaul will send and Internet link of an example data sheet to Director Kronser to determine if it can be adapted to our uses.

VII. EMS Alumni connection with Fox Valley Initiative graduates

Board discussed the possibility of having a display board of supporting members visible in a permanent location in the Fox Valley. Once a room/building is established for this initiative, the board will look into this idea. We should also consider a permanent display board at UWP as well.

VIII. Adjournment

Motion made by Secretary Salmon and seconded by Treasurer Belken to adjourn at 1:45 pm.