Tom Sharkey: Responsibility and loyalty to the university

As a top-flight scientist, botany professor Tom Sharkey knows how to conduct precise and detailed research.

But he’s also skilled at looking at the big picture, which will serve him well as the new chair of the University Committee, the top faculty governance position. He began his role June 1, taking over for physics professor Bernice Durand.

“I’m doing this out of a sense of responsibility and strong loyalty to the university as a whole,” says Sharkey. “I am surprised and pleased to be entrusted with the University Committee’s care for a year.”

Sharkey is serving as the point person for the university’s 2,100 faculty members for the 2000-01 academic year and leads the committee that sets the agenda for the Faculty Senate. He represents faculty interests and perspective within UW–Madison’s shared governance – which gives professors, academic staff and students a role in running the university – and beyond the campus.

Sharkey developed his big picture abilities as associate director of the Desert Research Institute’s Biological Sciences Center before he joined UW–Madison 13 years ago. He continues to use those skills as director of the Biotron, one of the few research centers in the world with the ability to simulate different climate conditions.

Beyond his Biotron duties, Sharkey has served on university committees that examined curriculum issues in the biological sciences. That committee work led to the quadrupling of introductory biology courses and the creation of a full-fledged biology major, which now has 350 students.

“You can be effective and get things done in shared governance,” Sharkey says. “But you have to treat it for what it is at this university.”

This leads Sharkey to one of his top priorities for the year: the relationship between faculty and academic staff. Many of the university’s 5,800 academic staff positions have become highly professionalized, with some staff teaching and researching full time.

“We haven’t addressed the changing face of academic staff,” Sharkey says. “It is time to do that.”

The University Committee developed a proposal to create modified professor titles for instructional and research academic staff, and the Academic Staff Executive Committee adopted its own proposal this summer. The Faculty Senate will discuss both measures this fall.

Another key issue for Sharkey is continuing the work of the university’s sweatshop advisory committee, now slated to be called the Labor Licensing Policy Committee. The shared governance committee, still being reconstituted, will provide guidance as the university seeks to end the use of sweatshop labor in the production of collegiate-licensed merchandise. Sharkey says the committee is poised for real progress. “We will be shifting from identifying the problem to addressing the problem,” he says.

Getting to know and working with Chancellor David Ward’s successor is another area of focus. In particular, should the new chancellor be hired from outside the campus, Sharkey and the University Committee will help that individual learn the subtleties of shared governance at UW–Madison.

Gaining legislative approval of the next phase of the Madison Initiative is Sharkey’s other top priority for the 2000-01 academic year.

“We have an important job ahead of us to talk with the members of the Legislature to point out how important the Madison Initiative is to the vitality and growth of UW–Madison and the state of Wisconsin,” Sharkey says.