Minutes for June 24, 2024

UC members present: Bernard-Donals, Jones, Kendall, Li, Stein, Zweibel

Others present: Michelle Felber, Lesley Fisher, Ashley Hagen, Jack O’Meara, Julie Scharm, Susan Thibeault, Dom Zappia

Chair Li called the meeting to order at 1:15 pm.

Stein motioned, and it was seconded and approved, to convene in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c) and (f) to discuss waivers and committee appointments at 1:16 pm. Two leaves of absence were approved.

Bernard-Donals motioned to reconvene in open session at 1:37 pm. It was seconded and approved.

The minutes from June 3, 2024 meeting were approved by automatic consent.

The committee made a list of topics they plan to track this year which includes the RISE rollout; parental leave policy rollout; administrative position cap; implementation of the budget approach; legislative study group; and leadership selections. They also finalized committee assignments for the current year.

University Committee members Jim Stein, Mike Bernard-Donals, and Li Chiao-Ping volunteered to form a subgroup of the University Committee to create and revise operating procedures for the University Committee and the Faculty Senate.

Provost Charles Isbell shared that the Vice Provost for Faculty and Staff Affairs position will be posted soon. Beth Meyerand has accepted an Associate Dean position in the Graduate School. The shadow year for the budget approach will begin in July with the first data available in September. There are also plans to provide data from the last five years using the approach.

The first RISE hire was made in the School of Human Ecology. The provost indicated they will have a better indication on how things are working in October. There are a couple of implementation groups that are working with Senior Vice Provost John Zumbrunnen, including one on operations.

Dean Paul Robbins, who chaired the Indirect Costs Task Force related to the budget approach, provided an overview of their findings. The task force assumed 40% of the overhead generated would be returned to the schools and colleges. The desired outcome would be the most research done including a lot of collaborative research and making sure there is a certain level of transaction efficiency.

The task force looked at four decision points: Do you return overhead for all research activity or only research activity that produces the indirects?; Do you have a share that comes off the top for the home of the research lead or PI prior to distribution of remaining indirects?; What happens to the remainder?; Do we need to change any policies to make this work?

The task force felt strongly that only research activity with indirects should be tracked. Setting aside some small percentage for the PI has more advantages than disadvantages. Distributing the remainder based on effort calculated by expenditures is the easiest to track. There will likely need to be policy changes to implement any changes to the current system.

Li adjourned the meeting at 3:38 pm.