University Committee

Minutes for November 2, 2020

Approved November 9, 2020

 

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

Also present, besides those mentioned below: Michael Bernard-Donals, Jenny Dahlberg, Michelle Felber, Lesley Fisher, Charles Hoslet, Kevin Jacobson, Yvonne Kim, John Lucas, Matt Mayrl, Stacy Miller, Allison Niles, Jack O’Meara, Jake Smith, Bill Tishler, Jonathan Wells

 

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

 

Sangren moved to convene in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c) and (f) to discuss waivers and grievance. Seconded. Passed at 1:01 pm. Two dual role waivers were approved.

 

Tracy moved to convene in open session which was seconded and passed at 1:18 pm.

 

Tracy moved approved of the minutes of October 26, 2020. Seconded. Approved.

 

A memo with guidance about post-tenure review (PTR) from the University Committee and Vice Provost for Faculty and Staff Affairs was shared for comments. UW System has announced that all campuses will be converting to a single payroll system with everyone being paid every two weeks starting in mid-January.

 

Patrick Sheehan and Nick Tincher from the Administrative Transformation Project presented information on the project. They have spent the past couple years in a pre-planning phase and received permission to move forward from the Board of Regents in October. They presented the option of payrolling 9-month employees over 12 months. This is an option they are exploring that would be possible under ATP. 

Steve Ackerman, Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education, reported that two of the centers within VCRGE are up for review this year: Institute for Molecular Virology and IceCube. All VCRGE grants are eligible for a year extension due to COVID. The extension needs to be requested. They are allowing travel funding to cover virtual conference registration fees. VCRGE is partnering with WISELI to cover life cycle grants for one year. Awards for these will be announced soon. They held a competition for Pandemic-Affected Research Continuation Initiative that will support projects where research funds had to be expended, but research activities were restricted leading to a shortage of funds to complete the project. They received 115 applications requesting more than $4 million.

Several new funding opportunities are being announced in the next several weeks. One call is for innovative research that contributes to a better understanding of the factors and processes that cause and/or contribute to inequalities in the US.

Scholz announced that a search for the director of the Division of the Arts will launch soon, with a committee chaired by Dean Soyeon Shim. It will be an internal search for a faculty member. There is no curriculum embedded within the division. The Division will no longer be home to the Wisconsin Film Festival or the Early Music Festival, instead the plan is for it to focus on collaboration within the arts and the university.

 

Tracy moved to convene in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c)(e) and (f) to discuss waivers. Seconded. Passed at 2:42 pm.

 

Sandgren moved to convene in open session which was seconded and passed at 3:11 pm.

 

Laurent Heller, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration, introduced the Revenue Innovation Study Group, which was made up of faculty, city officials, and others across campus. It explored how to increase revenue through means consistent with the values of the university. The group developed 10 guiding principles including “factoring in and respecting principles of shared governance, which give representation to academic staff, university staff, faculty and students, who all take part in making significant decisions concerning the operation of the University.” Three strategy categories are: corporate and industry partnerships; auxiliary and asset optimization; and real estate. A full report will be available soon.  

 

Masters moved to convene in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c) and (f) to discuss a grievance. Seconded. Passed at 3:45 pm.

 

Sandgren moved to convene in open session which was seconded and passed at 4:30 pm.

 

Adjourned at 2:59 pm.

 

Submitted by Heather Daniels, Secretary of the Faculty