University Committee

Minutes for October 5, 2020

Approved October 12, 2020

 

UC members present: Halverson, Masters, Papp, Sandgren, Tracy, Wolf (chair)

Also present, besides those mentioned below: Michaela Aust, Greg Bump, Jenny Dahlberg, Michelle Felber, Lesley Fisher, Kevin Jacobson, Yvonne Kim, Matt Mayrl, Kelly Meyerhofer, Jack O’Meara, Noel Radomski, Jake Smith, Bill Tishler,

 

Chair Wolf called the meeting to order at 1:00 pm.

 

The minutes for September 28, 2020 were approved by automatic consent.

 

The University Committee agreed to send the first pulse survey about the modality of courses for both fall and spring. They also discussed the need for campus guidelines for faculty who wish to work remotely following the pandemic.

 

John Zumbrunnen, Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning, emphasized that diversity, equity, and inclusion are priorities for classroom climate, pedagogy, and building partnerships.

 

Beth Meyerand, Vice Provost for Faculty and Staff Issues, outlined the topics for this year’s chats and plans for continuing the TOP program for faculty hires who are under-represented in their field.

 

Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies, Steve Ackerman said that without any COVID-19 outbreaks in research labs, there seems no need to return to the March shutdown. Some research still can’t be done, such as anything involving international travel, some field research, and some face-to-face interactions. Research in general has slowed down during the pandemic as reflected in the 104 more requests for no cost extensions than in previous years. UW-Madison has received 50 new COVID-19-related grants for a total of $29 million. He announced that they were picking up funding for the life cycle grant program in conjunction with WISELI for one year.

 

Chancellor Blank shared the latest graduation rates: 6 years is 88.5% and 4 years is 71.2% (both records). The retention rate from freshman to sophomore is over 95% and under-represented minorities and Pell grant recipients have a higher retention rate than the general population. Results from the National Survey of Student Engagement given to seniors show that 91% rated the academic quality as good or excellent and 88% said they would attend UW-Madison again.

 

COVID-19 infections on campus have decreased over the last two weeks. The daily average daily is 13 tests, with a positive rate of 0.9%.

 

With all the budget pieces in hand, it’s clearly a bad year. Strategies to address are underway.

 

Chair Wolf adjourned the meeting at 2:52 pm.

 

Submitted by Heather Daniels, Secretary of the Faculty