May 13, 2013

Present: Bernard-Donals, Cook, Fair, Petty, Scheufele

Absent: Lipton

1. Meeting began at 1:00pm

2. UC met with Mark Johnson on his thoughts involving the resolution for fossil fuel divestment. Johnson shared about the activity of Faculty Staff Climate Action Group and recommended potential names (those who signed the divestment resolution and those who have not) for the ad hoc committee.

3. The Petty proposal for administrative review was discussed extensively and some of the discussion was shared with the provost and chancellor. 

4. Vice Chancellor Bazzell shared the changes to the alcohol policy. The UC expressed concerns about the policy limiting interactions between graduate students and faculty as overreaching. Limits on activity size before notification of deans and police should be greater than a typical gathering of large departmental gatherings such as chemistry. Bazzell also discussed strategies for improving the compensation for teaching assistants. UC felt that exemption of segregated fees would be problematic and that salary increases, possibly through phases might be the best route. UC will try to find time to discuss this in more detail.

5. The Ad hoc Diversity Plan Committee is seeking LTE support for organizing meetings and handling emails and documents. They would like the UC’s help in scheduling a meeting with the new chancellor.

6. Steve Cramer updated the UC on the planned report on tuition policy. The final draft is expected to be complete by late July. The UC felt it might be useful to update the provost on the current direction for the document.

7. Lydia Zepeda and Lingran Kong updated the UC on activity involving the Labor Licensing Policy Committee. Information on the Palermo case was discussed and the committee agreed that there was value in increasing its communication through the UC/Senate and ASEC/Assembly. The UC requested more documents and information involving the Palermo case so that it could improve its understanding of the issues.

8. Michael Bernard-Donals leaves at 4:45.

9. Motion by Scheufele, second by Petty to convene in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c), and (f) to discuss personnel matters. Unanimous. 5:20pm

10. Reconvene in open session at 5:55pm.

11. UC cancelled the May 20th meeting and set the next meeting for May 29 1:30pm. Summer schedules were collected and the meeting times for June –August will continue weekly at 1pm each Monday of the week.

12. Motion by Scheufele, second by Fair to approve the minutes of the meetings May 6, 2013, 11/19/12, 11/17/12, 11/5/12, 10/29/12, 10/22/12, and 10/15/12.

13. Meeting adjourned at 6:20pm.

Minutes submitted by Mark Cook, University Committee Chair