Minutes for December 2, 2024

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

Others present: Greg Bump, Michelle Felber, Becky Jacobs, Julie Scharm, Dom Zappia

Chair Li called the meeting to order at 12:30 pm. 

Zweibel 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 12:30 pm. One tenure clock extension was approved.

Bernard-Donals motioned, and it was seconded and approved, to reconvene in open session at 12:45 pm. 

The minutes from November 25, 2024, meeting were approved by automatic consent.

An update was provided on plans to bring speakers to campus in the spring on the subjects of academic freedom, freedom of expression, and pluralism. Two events are in the process of being planned for the spring.

LaVar Charleston, Vice Chancellor for Inclusive Excellence, presented his annual state of diversity address. Strategic priorities include building a culture of organization learning that promotes the principles of inclusive excellence and pluralism and belonging alongside a commitment to free expression and civic engagement; foster a culture of flourishing to enhance the recruitment, retention and sense of belonging for faculty, staff and students; facilitate an effective model of distributed leadership for shared visioning and implementation; and utilize and maximize the use of data to inform inclusive policies, practices and decision making.

He indicated they were in the process of reimagining 22 DEI positions as required in the agreement with the legislature and had already addressed 16 titles and were expected to meet the requirement of 22 positions by the end of the two-year agreement.

Vice Chancellor Charleston shared that the chancellor has joined the College Presidents for Civic Preparedness, which will work to educate students to participate in our democracy, prepare them for a vibrant, diverse, and contentious society, and to protect and defend free inquiry. The Division of Diversity, Equity, and Education Achievement will be taking a leadership role in the project here on campus and nationally. 

He noted that the chancellor has charged him with reviewing the recommendations put forward in the report on the Black community experience. He has put together a small team to assess the recommendations based on initial goal and intent of the recommendation, work already underway that may have been unknown to the study group, feasibility and/or alignment of the recommendation with other campus strategies, and timeline considerations. They plan to submit their report to the chancellor by the end of the fall semester.

John Zumbrunnen, Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning, shared that there are currently 61 RISE related searches underway. A research computing workgroup has developed a set of proposals on research computing regarding both people and hardware. In regards to space, changes to laboratory space are continuing to have a long lead time so they are trying to gather requirements as early as possible.

He shared there was new and updated guidance for instructors on the free expression website. Student accommodations in the classroom continues to be difficult to the number of accommodations, which is a world-wide phenomenon. Lastly, the UC discussed with Senior Vice Provost Zumbrunnen how to center the student experience will evaluating the new budget approach.

The University Committee discussed whether to add the word “calendar” or “business” in front of deadlines within various chapters in FPP. Many of the deadlines are unlabeled, which has led to different interpretations over the years.   

Li adjourned the meeting at 2:57 pm.

Minutes submitted by Heather Daniels, secretary of the faculty