University Committee Meeting Minutes 2019-02-25

Approved minutes for February 25, 2019          Approved March 11, 2019

UC members present: Amasino (chair), Bowers, Campagnola, Ventura, Warfield, Wolf

Others present (in addition to those below): S. Smith, M. Stein, J. Richard, M. Felber, J. Smith, H. Daniels, M. Aust

Rick Amasino called the meeting to order at 1:15 p.m. Secretary of the Faculty Steve Smith called attention to Faculty Senate materials for review. UC discussed why Q&A have not traditionally been included in finalist recordings and whether the UC should recommend their inclusion. (This will be added to a future UC agenda.) The minutes of the meeting of February 18, 2019, were approved. PROFS President Dorothy Farrar-Edwards discussed the PROFS annual report. Among other efforts, PROFS trying to connect with Regents in smaller fora. Farrar-Edwards and PROFS lobbyist Jack O’Meara also reported on upcoming events. 

Campus Transportation Committee chair Teresa Adams presented that committee’s annual report, highlighting the wide scope of issues dealt with by the committee, as well as current and future issues. Adams reported we have the 2nd-lowest per capita campus parking availability in the nation, which she believes points to excellent work by Transportation to avoid conflict/complaint. The state of campus transportation services she reports as good. Ample discussion was had, on a wide variety of topics including parking rates, new ramps, intercity buses, motorcycles, and more. 

Interim Vice Provost Casey Nagy updated the UC on UW System restructuring and the return of Extension. Work recently has focused on tenure home and related faculty issues. Nagy believes there is a need to accelerate conversation on unresolved issues. Ample discussion ensued. Nagy also reported on other merger-related details, indicating all is still on target for July 1 transfer. In response to a question about whether mission-related business was still going on during all of this transition, Nagy replied that, to the credit of the Extension and Public Media personnel, operations have been absolutely unaffected, relationships with counties have gone nothing but up, and everyone likes changes that have been made. 

Provost Sarah Mangelsdorf and the UC continued the discussion of governance in the Extension transition, primarily with respect to future PTRs and other dean-faculty interactions. This discussion continued for some time, concluding with Mangelsdorf’s view of how the leadership hiring steps will occur: Because there are so many details yet to be worked out, even after 7/1/19, the idea is to keep Nagy on as interim into first part of next academic year; new provost would then have chance to search for permanent vice provost, a position that might work with the VCUR; and that new permanent vice provost would ideally oversee the search for a permanent Dean of Extension. Some discussion about the need to continue the anomalous vice provost position after the transition. 

Terry Warfield moved to convene in closed session pursuant to Wis. Stats. 19.85(1)(c) and (f) to discuss personnel matters. The motion was seconded and passed at 2:31 p.m. The UC met with a department chair regarding a faculty grievance and, separately, a committee chair regarding an ongoing appeal, as well as structural and procedural steps that might be taken to avoid similar situations in the future. On the former, Amasino and Warfield will draft a response for the UC to consider. On the latter, Smith will work with the UC and other offices to explore the suggested changes. Many of these relate to the changes proposed in open session by Vice Provost Bernard-Donals the week before and will involve changes to FPP, development of best practices and other guideline documents, and perhaps even the creation of a way to formally document mentors. The UC unanimously approved two one-year tenure clock extensions. Warfield volunteered to be the UC rep to a new shared governance advisory group to the campus TTC process; a faculty member at large will be chosen at a future meeting. Steve Ventura moved to reconvene in open session. The motion was seconded and passed at 3:59 p.m., at which point Amasino adjourned the meeting.