Minutes for September 9, 2019
approved September 16, 2019
 

UC members present: Campagnola, Halverson, Sandgren, Ventura, Warfield (chair), Wolf

Others present: Jack O’Meara, Michelle Felber, Amol Goyal, Jake Smith, and several members of the Teaching Assistants Association, including Jacqueline Goldstein and Robert Christi

Chair Terry Warfield called the meeting to order at 1:32.

The minutes of the meeting of August 26, 2019, were approved. PROFS lobbyist Jack O’Meara reported that there is an effort again to ban the use of aborted fetal tissue in research or any other purpose (“fetal tissue bill”) and they are watching a bill about the transferability of credit. The November PROFS steering committee meeting will have an update from the federal lobbyist.

Graduate School Dean Bill Karpus highlighted the program developments listed in the Graduate Faculty Executive Committee (GFEC) report for 2018-2019: there are many “131 programs” (revenue-generating). The 3-year check-ins for 131 programs reveal a lack of diversity in the students which GFEC is trying to address from the beginning  by promoting wide access to new programs. Karpus also had an update on the Biological Sciences working group to address structural issues in graduate level course: recruitment, size (are mergers possible?), emphasis areas, and strategic funding for students. This group will compare with peer groups; November is the target report date. The Social Sciences faculty is in the very early stages of planning a similar project.

Karpus gave an overview of being data collected by various agencies to understand the career preferences of Ph.D. students. This topic has a lot of traction nationally. See the Graduate School website for regular updates (https://grad.wisc.edu/career-pathways/).

Moving on to graduate student government, Karpus reiterated that it resides with ASM, with 7 seats out of 33 on the student council which some see as insufficient representation. The Graduate School proposes to form a group similar to Dean of Students Advisory Board with 8 members, made up of the many varied types of graduate students: fields and formats (e.g. online and in person). There was some discussion with the TAA representatives in the room.

Chancellor Rebecca Blank noted that the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education search and screen committee is meeting and active, and she touched on the US News college rankings in which UW-Madison moved from #49 to #46, though slightly misleading because the data is 2 years old and the perspective is limited to student academics. UW-Madison graduation rates have improved.

Sandgren moved to convene in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c) and (f) to discuss personnel matters. The motion was seconded and passed at 2:14 p.m.  The chancellor and UC discussed a Secretary of the Faculty search process, recommendations for appointments to the Dean of Extension Division search and screen, appointments to the University Research Council, and approved two role waivers.