During their last meeting of the academic year, Student Senate addressed the proposed changes to the grading system for repeated courses and heard a presentation from Peter Davis, director of facilities management, about a campus energy efficiency initiative.

Davis explained that the initiative is being undertaken by a partnership between UW-Platteville, Wisconsin and McKinstry, a national mechanical contracting company. The company was lauded by then-presidential candidate Barack Obama during an October 2008 televised interview with Joel Klein of TIME Magazine. Speaking of his visit to McKinstry headquarters in Seattle, Wash., Obama said, “They’re retrofitting schools and office buildings to make them energy efficient, creating jobs, saving their customers money, reducing carbon emissions and helping end our dependency on Middle Eastern oil.” Obama said that, as President, he would use McKinstry as a model for the nation.

The project would implement measures throughout campus, including Williams Fieldhouse, the Pioneer Student Center and all of the academic buildings. Planned measures include weather stripping, cycling vending machines on and off, automatic shutdown of idle computers and updated ventilation systems. The possibility of constructing photovoltaic solar panels or wind turbines on campus is also being explored.

Estimates are that the project will cost $3.5 million but provide $300,000 of savings on energy costs each year, meaning that savings will eclipse the cost after 11 years. A $150,000 grant has also been secured. According to Davis, costs will be financed through the Department of Administration, which will use a portion of the bonding authority granted by the state legislature and the governor to state agency projects to improve energy efficiency. Davis said that McKinstry is being paid a percentage on the projects to cover their costs, which is standard practice for this type of project.

Following the presentation from Davis, Senate went into closed session to approve senior political science major Eli Caywood for appointment to the legislative affairs position. Caywood was awarded the appointment, which leaves business manager as the only vacant position on Student Senate’s executive board. Sophomore political science major Angela Jones was named diversity director, junior communication technologies major Sarah Bitting was named gender issues director, senior political science major Brandon White was named secretary, and senior Spanish major Emily Niebuhr was named special projects manager.

The next item on the agenda was the proposed changes to the grading system for repeated courses. Discussion, however, stalled after Senators expressed worries that they did not have enough information on the proposal to take any action. The proposal that the Academic Standards Committee brought to Faculty Senate was tabled last week, pending possible changes to its language. Members of Faculty Senate are also drafting an alternative to ASC’s proposal.

Before Student Senate ended discussion, sociology professor and chair of ASC Michael Dalecki voiced his opinion. “[This measure] is about trying to strengthen the quality of degrees here … employers are our customers, students are our product, and we want them to be excellent.”

Phil Sealy, professor of electrical engineering and a member of ASC, expressed concerns about a lack of communication between Faculty and Student Senate. In an email, Sealy also explained the motivation behind the changes. “We are not trying to penalize people by lowering their GPAs with this proposal. Rather, we are trying to change the culture of the campus so that students understand that they must try their best the first time.”

Senators elected to create an ad hoc committee to investigate the proposed changes. Before the meeting came to a close, Senators bid farewell to Student Senate administrative liason Rich Egley, who will be succeeded by assistant Chancellor for Student Affairs Michael Viney
The Improvement for Learning Committee met on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the results of the distinguished lecturer poll. Bart Starr’s 208 votes led all candidates, followed by Leann Touhy, Sally Ride, Al Franken and Betty DeGeneres. Citing concerns that last four distinguished lecturers have been male, the committee elected to move Touhy, Ride and DeGeneres to the top of the list that will be given to the ILC as a guide in their search and contracting of next year’s distinguished lecturer.