Minutes for December 13, 2021 

UC members present: Halverson, Masters, Papp, Sandgren (chair), Tejedo-Herrero, Thibeault

Others present besides those listed below: Greg Bump, Lesley Fisher, Lindsey Stoddard Cameron 

Chair Sandgren called the meeting to order at 1:30.

The University Committee expressed appreciation for Kristyn Masters’ service on the committee. 

The minutes of the meeting of December 6, 2021, were approved by consent.

Jack O’Meara, Michelle Felber and Michael Bernard-Donals reported that PROFS sent a letter to the Joint Committee on Employment Relations (JCOER) encouraging them to pass the pay plan. PROFS also met with Representative David Murphy. PROFS has registered in favor of two bills before his committee for changes to Minnesota tuition reciprocity and allowing short-term investment of cash balances.

Lori Reesor, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs reported that the Fluno Center and Conference Centers (formerly with Extension) will move under the Wisconsin Union starting January 1. She has also resurrected a DEI Student Advisory Board that was created in partnership with Cheryl Gittens. UW-Madison joined the Culture of Respect, a two-year program offered through NASPA (National Associate of Student Personnel Administrators) aimed at ending sexual violence. University Health Services has also been working with Kate Walsh, a faculty member, who has secured a grant to hire a victim advocate.

Karl Scholz, Provost, announced that the campus would be fielding the WISELI survey this spring for faculty, as well as a similar survey on climate for academic staff and university staff. There is also an administrative satisfaction survey triggered by UW-Madison’s participation in a consortium of universities looking at expenditures on administration.

Following benchmarking with peers, he discussed possible changes to emeritus status including adding an additional qualification requiring the person to be a good member of the campus community, placing restrictions on use of the title like there are on use of the professor title for faculty, and constructing a process to ultimately remove emeritus status

LaVar Charleston, Chief Diversity Officer, discussed his four priorities which include: 1) building a culture of organization learning (for staff and faculty); 2) fostering a culture of belonging; 3) distributed strategic DEI leadership; 4) utilizing and maximizing data to inform decision making. In regards to baseline DEI training for faculty and staff, a bidding process will be implemented to hire a vendor. He announced some staffing changes including the departure of the Associate Vice Provost for Faculty and Staff Affairs (Cheryl Gittens), and the Director of External Relations and Director of Communications, and new positions for the Assistant Vice Provost for Student Engagement and Scholarship Programs and the Assistant Vice Provost for High Impact Practices. This position will oversee programs which are not scholarship related.

Sandgren moved to convene in closed session; it was seconded and approved at 2:51.

Halverson moved to reconvene in open session; it was seconded and approved at 3:52.

Chair Sandgren adjourned the meeting at 3:52.