University Committee Meeting Minutes 2025-10-13

Minutes for October 13, 2025

UC members present: Bernard-Donals, Chui, de Leon, Jones, Kendall

Others present: Greg Bump, Michelle Felber, Genevieve Lambert, Sabine Martin, Julie Scharm

Chair Jones called the meeting to order at 1:02 pm.

The minutes from the October 6, 2025, meeting were approved as distributed.

The University Committee agreed to send a heads up email regarding the upcoming draft instructional workload policy. Topics of interest for the town hall on Monday include the budget approach, Act 15 (general education requirements and instructional workload) and shared governance.

Lori Reesor, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, shared there has been work on a facilities framework project specially looking at student gathering spaces on campus including the Red Gym and 333 East Campus Mall. In the Red Gym, they are looking at how to facilitate programming and meeting spaces, while in 333 East Campus Mall, they are looking at how to build out space for more student organizations. Any changes would be 3-5 years from now. She indicated there is alcohol free space at Union South called “The Well.”

Bill Karpus, Dean of the Graduate School, indicated that Facilities Planning and Management is looking at additional solutions for space issues. He addressed the proposed 4 year limit on student visas and how it may be possible to arrange work so that research for a PhD is done during the last four years on campus. The Council of Graduate Schools is also revisiting whether April 15 is the appropriate deadline for the last date when schools could withdraw a financial offer for graduate school. With federal uncertainties, he did not indicate whether the Graduate School would again urge caution in graduate program admissions as was done last year.

Interim Provost John Zumbrunnen indicated that the Universities of Wisconsin was processing input from comments on the General Education Requirements draft policy. In addition to the Regent policy, a policy at the System level will need to be written. Janet Branchaw, Interim Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning, and Beth Warner, Interim Registrar, were serving on these two committees.

There will also need to be campus policy work to determine which requirements will fall into which buckets. There was discussion about what current governance groups should be involved in this process on campus. He also indicated that the instructional workload draft policy would be distributed shortly.

Kristen Bernard, David Kushner, Sam Butchet and Suzanne Eckes, current divisional committee chairs, joined in a discussion regarding supporting assistant professors. The divisional committees have been discussing this since spring. All committee have added language about federal uncertainties to the tenure guidelines and many have broadened the COVID impact statement to include impacts from federal changes. There was agreement to hold a Zoom meeting in the spring for all department chairs and mentoring committee faculty to discuss federal challenges including research topics that may be under direct threat. The divisional committees holding department chair trainings in the fall will also bring up this topic. Michelle Chui requested that divisions consider adding mentoring language that the biological sciences included in their tenure guidelines this year.

Chui motioned, and it was seconded and approved, to convene in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c) and (f) to discuss committee appointments at 3:31 pm.

Chui motioned, and it was seconded and approved, to reconvene in open session at 3:41 pm.

The University Committee discussed the appropriate governance pathway for the general education requirements that will need to be grouped under the categories created by the Universities of Wisconsin. They agreed upon a working group or combined committee drawing members from the University Curriculum Committee and the General Education Committee. This group would provide recommendations to the University Academic Planning Council, who would bring final recommendations to the University Committee for presentation to the Faculty Senate.

Jones adjourned the meeting at 4:21pm.

Minutes submitted by Heather Daniels, secretary of the faculty.