Minutes for February 19, 2018          Approved March 5, 2018

UC members present: Amasino, Bowers, Litovsky, Ventura (left 3:43 p.m.), Wanner (chair), Warfield

Others present: S. Smith, J. Richard, M. Felber, J. O’Meara, J. Smith, H. Daniels, C. Springer, M. Mayrl, M. Bernard-Donals

Chair Anja Wanner called the meeting to order at 1:16 p.m. and directed attention to a Board of Regents executive meeting announcement that includes transferring additional parts of Extension to Madison. Terry Warfield provided additional context. The minutes of the meeting of February 12, 2018, were approved as amended. Jack O’Meara provided a legislative update from PROFS, including the fact that the “Mark Cook” bill passed the state assembly on a unanimous voice vote. Deputy Secretary of the Faculty Jane Richard presented and explained proposed changes to senate districts. Discussion ensued.

Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Laurent Heller, after noting the new art in the conference room, explained the origin of the cast on his arm. He also distributed the latest “Budget in Brief” (https://chancellor.wisc.edu/content/uploads/2018/02/Budget-in-Brief-2017-18-pdf.pdf) and quickly ran through it. Discussion about budget issues and then the CIO search followed.  Heller reported on issues discussed at the most recent BoR meeting, including need to address information security at both campus and System levels and work being done on internal controls stemming from recent fraud case. Following a brief discussion about the Library Master Plan, Heller circulated a mockup of his office’s strategic plan, which will go to press soon. Ample discussion.

Casey Nagy provided an update on UW System restructuring as it affects Madison. Now looks like BAMI will be included with Cooperative Extension, so Nagy has started meeting with Malcolm Brett and planning for an additional working group. This group may include shared governance representatives to address programming. Existing steering committee working groups (HR, IT, etc.) have reported out on issues and all now working on strategic plan. At this point, July 1 plan is to have plenary authority over all processes transitioned and key leadership transitioned to Madison employment. Discussion throughout. Specifically re shared governance, MEGIC will ask governance executive bodies to consider independently whether there are issues to negotiate with their cognate bodies without intervention of working groups or MEGIC at all. Working group on tenure expected by all to be first one. Warfield and Wanner will attend the upcoming MEGIC meeting as neither of the Madison faculty on the committee can.

Vice Chancellor for University Relations Charlie Hoslet segued into the communications and marketing aspects of the Extension merger with a handout [LINK] that was prepared for the Regents and also pointed to the transition website [LINK]. Hoslet also reported on Extension-related chancellor meetings with county administrators, interactions with the federal delegation, and work on logos, websites, social media, and signage transitions. He also provided an update on state and federal legislation and concluded with a demonstration of one of the components of a new “mythbuster campaign” [LINK to handout]. Discussion throughout.

Chancellor Rebecca Blank reported on upcoming events and explained Bucky’s Tuition Promise, which is a guarantee that we will make sure that tuition and fees are fully covered for low- and middle-income students. Messaging crucial on this to make sure word gets out to where it should. Ample discussion on this specific topic and throughout. Blank reported on developments relating to the mealplan, which she believes is a highly misunderstood topic, and the upcoming BoR vote on BAMI and the School for Workers. 

Following up on the previous week’s discussion about libraries, the UC and Director of Libraries Ed Van Gamert discussed planning at some length. After much back and forth, all agreed that governance and the campus community must vet any plans and that the ULC should have a substantial role in next steps. The consultant report will eventually go to the CPC for approval and the UC will circulate a statement to make sure it is clear that the ULC response to the consultant report must be part of the “master plan” that goes to the CPC.

The University Committee discussed the March Faculty Senate agenda, particularly a shared-governance resolution submitted by a senator. The writer of the resolution will be invited to UC to discuss possible modifications to the text of the resolution. Rest of agenda ok’ed to move forward. Wanner adjourned the meeting at 3:48 p.m.