University Committee Meeting Minutes 2021-12-20

Minutes for December 20, 2021
 

UC members present: Halverson, Papp, Sandgren (chair), Tejedo-Herrero, Thibeault

Others present besides those listed below: Greg Bump, Michelle Felber Lesley Fisher, Alex Peirce 

Chair Sandgren called the meeting to order at 1:01.

The minutes of the meeting of December 13, 2021, were approved by consent.

Rob Cramer, Interim Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration, shared that the Joint Committee on Employment Relations (JCOER) has scheduled a meeting for Tuesday to take action on the pay plan and pending trades contracts. The move back into the Chemistry building continues. They are getting ready for demolition and remodeling of the lower levels of the Daniels building. The real estate work continues with the joint committee providing an update to the Board of Regents this month and planning to bring one or more parcels back to them in February.

The Campus Planning Committee was consulted on the parcels and also discussing how to approach facilities planning differently. 60% of the buildings on campus are more than 25 years old. This increases to 80% by 2030. Lack of building maintenance is a threat to the mission of the institution. On the sustainability front, they are adding solar panels to bus shelters in the coming year and completing the second STARS survey for campus.

Lastly, they are planning to launch an administrative quality satisfaction survey next semester with a mix of quantitative and qualitative questions. There is currently no data in this area and the survey can serve as a baseline for the ATP project.

The University Committee discussed either adding “emerit” as an option in addition to “emeritus, emerita, but decided that the preference would be for “emerit” to replace emeritus/a. They will next reach out to the Wisconsin Alumni Association and Office of Human Resources to discuss this issue.

Bill Karpus, Dean of the Graduate School, discussed graduate student mentoring on campus and the need to improve it with the UC. The American Association of Medical Colleges put out a nice report on this topic.

Ian Robertson, Dean of the College of Engineering, presented his views on dual roles and professional development programs and allowing more flexibility in this area. The University Committee is planning to discuss this topic further in January.

Sandgren moved to convene in closed session; it was seconded and approved at 2:22.

Sandgren moved to reconvene in open session; it was seconded and approved at 2:47.

Chair Sandgren adjourned the meeting at 2:53.