Minutes for December 02, 2024

Provost Charles Isbell called the meeting to order at 3:30 p.m. with 165 voting members present (108 needed for quorum). Memorial resolutions were offered for Professor Rachel Feldhay Brenner (Faculty Document 3191), Professor Emeritus Frederick H. Buelow (Faculty Document 3192), Professor Emeritus Calvin O. Cramer (Faculty Document 3193), Professor Emeritus Leonard Robert Massie (Faculty Document 3194), and Professor Emerita Jo-Anne Lazarus (Faculty Document 3195).

Provost Charles Isbell shared that with the recent presidential election, the new administration will take office on January 20, 2025. University leadership will work closely with the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities and with the Association of American Universities on any policy developments affecting higher education.

UW–Madison placed sixth out of 920 public and private universities in the United States in university research expenditures, according to the National Science Foundation’s Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) annual rankings. For the first time, the university has topped $1.7 billion in research expenditures. The university saw a 13.7% increase in research expenditures over the previous fiscal year, an increase of more than $208 million for the period covering July 2022 through June 2023.  

Winter commencement will take place on Sunday, December 15, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. at the Kohl Center. Milwaukee Chef Dan Jacobs, Top Chef season 21 runner-up, will deliver the keynote address. The university will confer approximately 2,100 doctoral, law, medical professional, master’s, and bachelor’s degrees at the ceremony. 

Workday is a cloud-based software platform that will standardize finance, human resources and research administration processes at UW–Madison and across the Universities of Wisconsin. It will go live on July 1, 2025. Workday will replace some existing systems, such as the shared financial system and the human resources system, and will eliminate several ancillary systems. It is being implemented because existing administrative systems are outdated and inefficient and have created a number of information security risks, limiting access to reliable data and reducing the time faculty and staff can dedicate to mission-critical activities. Plans are being developed to communicate and engage with faculty more in the coming new year. Faculty will use Workday for a variety of tasks, such as submitting and managing time off, submitting and tracking expense reports, accessing job-related training and viewing financial information related to grants. 

The School of Medicine of Public Health dean and vice chancellor for medical affairs finalists recently visited campus and a new dean will be named soon. The College of Engineering dean finalists will visit campus in January 2025. The chief information officer and vice provost for information technology search is underway. Professor Kent Weigel was appointed the vice provost for faculty and staff affairs and will begin his position on December 30, 2024. Provost Charles Isbell thanked Beth Meyerand, outgoing vice provost for faculty and staff affairs, for her work.

Professor Li Chiao-Ping, University Committee chair, shared that the Universities of Wisconsin is proposing changes to the UW System Copyrightable Materials Ownership, Use and Control Policy. The University Committee has been asking questions to gain more clarity regarding the purpose and meaning of the revisions. Through email correspondence, Quinn Williams, general counsel for the Universities of Wisconsin, indicated that the changes in the policy are to provide clearer, more specific, and accurate guidance that conforms to current U.S. copyright law. The changes also expand ownership to teaching and research academic staff and student employees, who are currently not covered. Due to feedback the Universities of Wisconsin has already received, there have been some modifications to the original draft, including placing syllabi under “scholarly works,” meaning that copyright ownership of a syllabus originates with the university but is then transferred to the author. The University Committee requested the submission of comments or concerns, to consider in their response to the Universities of Wisconsin, by noon on December 9, 2024.

The University Committee appointed Professor David Pate, associate professor of Consumer Science, Human Development and Family Studies, to the Athletic Board.

A new ad hoc committee on teaching evaluations is being formed. A charge has been drafted and committee members are being recommended. If a faculty member has a passion and expertise in this area, and would like to serve on the committee, please contact the University Committee.

The University Committee suggested areas that faculty senators may want to discuss in their departments, to provide feedback to the University Committee:

• Accommodations for students in the classroom: how has this been impacting you and your colleagues?
• Expressive activities guidelines: how have the new guidelines affected your teaching or research?
• New budget approach: what are your concerns? What effects on student life and learning might you see?
• Shared governance: how is this enacted in your spaces? If there is any slippage or gaps, what can be handled locally? What needs to move up? It may be a good idea to refresh our commitment to it.

Vice Chancellor for Inclusive Excellence LaVar Charleston shared the university’s commitment to ensuring that everyone in the campus community feels and knows that they belong, that they add value as members of the community and that there is a place for them. The university’s strategic priorities in inclusive excellence are in four different areas: 1) building a culture of organizational learning that promotes the principles of inclusive excellence, the principles of pluralism and belonging alongside a commitment to free expression and civic engagement, 2) foster a culture of flourishing to enhance the recruitment and retention and sense of belonging for faculty, staff and students, including those from underrepresented and underutilized populations, 3) facilitating an effective model of distributed leadership for shared visioning and implementation, ensuring that we are all on the same page and speaking about our commitment to this work in the same way and 4) to utilize and maximize data to inform inclusive policies, practices and decision-making.

The Division of Diversity, Equity & Educational Achievement (DDEEA) serves as a central resource for the campus community by following the four Cs: convener, consultant, catalyst and community builder. As a convener, the DDEEA facilitates collaboration and strategic partnerships, coordinating a common language and vision and managing the institutional infrastructure needed to achieve inclusive excellence across the institution. As a catalyst, the DDEEA fosters a culture of innovation and inclusive excellence and belonging, identifying metrics to engage in a constant cycle of quality improvement and surfacing and raising awareness of promising practices that promote belonging and inclusive excellence across campus. As a consultant, the DDEEA supports technical assistance, serving as a central access point for inclusion and belonging resources, also supporting schools and colleges around analytics. As a community builder, the DDEEA creates spaces for additional learning around principles of inclusive excellence and develops spaces for campus and community gathering and facilitating the adoption of promising practices through engagement and communities of practice.

The university recently completed its third student campus climate survey, with a 33% response rate. The data will provide a window into the experiences of students from a variety of backgrounds.

The DDEAA will continue to house a set of programs while assuming a broader role of creating a climate of inclusive excellence and a community in which all students, faculty and staff, regardless of identify, background and perspective, can and will feel a sense of strong belonging. The new title of vice chancellor for inclusive excellence reflects the expanding scope and impacts of the DDEEA’s work, as well as the university’s shared responsibility around inclusive excellence as a critical goal and institutional value. Part of the recent legislative agreement was to rename several titles. Around 16 of the 22 titles changes have been updated, providing the opportunity to look more expansively for the best fit to describe the more expansive nature of the work.

The chancellor joined the College Presidents for Civic Preparedness, a consortium of 60 university leaders nationwide to enhance higher education’s role in preparing students to uphold free expression and advance civic engagement. The consortium is committed to three shared civic commitments: educating for democracy, preparing students for a vibrant, diverse, and contentious society and protecting and defending free inquiry. 

Mental health counseling services have been expanded to more campus locations, including a dedicated presence at the Red Gym, the Indigenous Student Center and the Disability Cultural Center. Peak wait times for services have dropped 40% in the last two years. The Wisconsin Tribal Education Promise Program began this fall. The McBurney Disability Resource Center created an instructor guide for student accommodations to provide information and resources on roles, responsibilities and support for students with disabilities. Badger Dialogues continue to provide an opportunity for connections with administrators and students from a variety of backgrounds. There is also student engagement through various advisory boards.

The ad hoc study group on the Black Community Experience, created by the chancellor, and co-chaired by Professor Angela Byars-Winston and the Rev. Dr. Alex Gee, with students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members, created a final report on the Black community experience including recommendations. Chancellor Mnookin asked Vice Chancellor for Inclusive Excellence LaVar Charleston to take the lead in reviewing the study group’s recommendations and with a small working group, look at both short-term and long-term actions. The working group will assess the report recommendations based on the initial goal and intent of each recommendation, work already underway that might have been unknown to the study group, feasibility and/or alignment of the recommendation with other campus strategies and timeline considerations. The working group will submit their report to the chancellor by the end of the fall semester.    

There were no questions during the question period.

The minutes of the November 4, 2024 meeting were approved by consent.

Provost Charles Isbell presented the Campus Planning Committee annual report for 2023-2024 (Faculty Document 3196) and the University Academic Planning Council annual report for 2023-2024 (Faculty Document 3197). Professor Elmo Rawling (Extension, district 117) presented the Budget Committee annual report for 2023-2024 (Faculty Document 3198). Professor Michael Bernard-Donals, University Committee member, presented the PROFS annual report for 2023-2024 (Faculty Document 3199). There were no questions on the reports.

Professor Michael Bernard-Donals, University Committee member, moved approval to amend Faculty Policies and Procedures 6.41 to update the Committee on Honorary Degrees functions and to clarify procedures to match current processes and timelines (Faculty Document 3190). The motion was approved.

Professor James Stein, University Committee member, presented a first reading of a proposal to amend Faculty Policies and Procedures 6.27 to update the Campus Diversity and Climate Committee functions to match current practice and to align functions with similar committees (Faculty Document 3200). Professor Lisa Forrest (Surgical Sciences, district 112) presented a first reading of a proposal to amend Faculty Policies and Procedures 6.31 to remove the Committee on Disability Access and Inclusion standing subcommittees, update office names and job titles in the membership and modernize language in the functions (Faculty Document 3201). Professor Karl Broman (Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, district 20) presented a first reading of a resolution urging implementation of a separate, paid bereavement leave category for UW–Madison employees (Faculty Document 3202). A vote on these items is anticipated at the February Faculty Senate meeting.

Professor Dietram Scheufele (Life Sciences Communication, district 3), Committee on Honorary Degrees chair, moved to convene in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c) and (f) to provide the confidential report of the Committee on Honorary Degrees. The motion was seconded and approved at 4:17 p.m. Professor Scheufele presented background information on the honorary degree nominees. Senators voted by paper and electronic ballot on the honorary degrees to be bestowed in May 2025. The nominees were approved with 156 votes cast. The name of the candidates remains confidential until an official announcement in the spring.

Professor Joe Salmons (Language Sciences Program, district 73) moved to reconvene in open session. The motion was seconded and approved at 4:28 p.m.

Provost Charles Isbell adjourned the meeting at 4:28 p.m.